ali rashidy

Peripheral neuropathy (PN) is resulted from damage to the peripheral nervous system (PNS) and usually causes weakness, numbness, and neuropathic pain, which is a type of chronic pain. Despite the variety of treatment options, treating neuropathic pain faces challenges and the existing treatments are not yet satisfactory. Nervous steroids show important physiological regulators of PNS function. Progesterone is a neurosteroid that has both analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties. Also, GABA-A receptors play an important role in mediating the effect of progesterone. This study was designed to determine whether progesterone can prevent electrophysiological deterioration of the sciatic nerve in the chronic constriction injury (CCI) model of neuropathic pain in rats and that do this effect through GABA-A receptors.

In this study, 140 male Wistar rats in 14 groups (n=10) were used. Neuropathic pain was created by the CCI method in the relevant groups. After CCI induction, progesterone and bicuculline or their vehicles were administered daily until day 13 post-CCI. After that, nerve conduction velocity (NCV) tests were performed according to Julu methods on days 14 and 27 after CCI.

According to the findings of this study, daily injections of progesterone for 12 days before complete neuropathic pain evolution in CCI rats could prevent significantly the reduction of sensory and motor nerve conduction velocities compared to the CCI group on days 14 and 27 after CCI. Furthermore, this effect of progesterone was blocked by bicuculline administration

The findings of this study showed that before complete neuropathic pain evolution, chronic progesterone administration may prevent electrophysiological disorders of the sciatic nerve (at least to some extent through GABA-A receptors) in CCI-induced peripheral neuropathy and these effects continue in the accepted range time of the CCI mode.

Neuropathic pain intensifies the response to painful and non-painful stimuli. Curcumin is one of the substances that have analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties. Also, exercise as a behavioral and non-pharmacological method has beneficial effects on general health under many neuropathic diseases. Also, the combined effect of these two factors on peripheral nerve conduction velocity of the sciatic nerve in patients and animals has been less studied. So, we suggested the study of the preventive effects of combined curcumin and exercise on electrophysiological parameters of the sciatic nerve in the neuropathic pain model of chronic sciatic nerve compression in rats.

80 Male Wistar rats were randomly allocated to 8 groups (n=10). First, neuropathic pain was induced by the chronic constriction injury (CCI) method in the respective groups. To prevent neuropathic pain, two weeks before surgery, forced exercise was started in the exercise group, and after a 5-day recovery period, was performed again for one week until the 14th day of the experiment. After CCI surgery, 60mg/kg curcumin or its vehicle injection was performed in the curcumin and vehicle groups until day 14, and electrophysiological tests of the sural and tibial nerve were performed on day 15.

The results showed that before stabilizing neuropathic pain on day 14 of the experiment, co-administration of curcumin and forced exercise could prevent sural and tibial nerve conduction velocity (SNCV and MNCV) loss compared to the CCI group.

The findings of this study suggest that co-administration of curcumin and forced exercise may prevent electrophysiological disorders of the sciatic nerve, before the complete stabilizing of peripheral neuropathy.

Memory deficit is one of the clinical problems of Alzheimer’s disease that progressively leads to cognitive impairment and dementia. In the present study, the effect of Spirulina plathensis microalgae on the scopolamine-induced memory impairment was evaluated. Young female Wistar rats (30 days old) were used. Animals randomly were divided into 9 groups (Saline + Saline, Saline + Scopolamine 1mg/kg, Saline + Scopolamine 2 mg/kg, Spirulina 100 mg/kg + Scopolamine 2 mg/kg, Spirulina 200 mg/kg + Scopolamine 2 mg/kg, Spirulina 400 mg/kg + Scopolamine 2 mg/kg, Spirulina 100 mg/kg + Saline, Spirulina 200 mg/kg + Saline, Spirulina 400 mg/kg + Saline). To measure inhibitory avoidance (IA) task, animals were given an electrical footshock (0.5 mA, 3 s) and then was intraperitoneally treated by scopolamine and 24 latter memory retention tests (time delay to re-entrance to dark compartment) was recorded. Spirulina plathensis was dissolved in physiologic saline and the suspension was gavaged at doses of 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg for fourteen days prior to training. Biochemical experiments were included determination of Malondialdehyde (MDA) and total antioxidant capacity of serum using thiobarbituric acid and Ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP), respectively Our results showed that scopolamine (2 mg/kg) significantly (P<0.001) impaired memory retention respect to control and Spirulina plathensis significantly (P<0.05) improved memory impairment induced by scopolamine. Further, Spirulina significantly (P<0.01) increased FRAP level compared to the control. Spirulina plathensis improves scopolamine induced-memory deficit, probably through enhancing total antioxidant capacity of serum probably.

Gastric cancer (GC) is considered as one of the most serious cancers, and in Iran, due to environmental factors in different regions, it has a high frequency. Apart from environmental factors, genetic and epigenetic ones also play a key role in the development of carcinogenesis of GC. In this regard, the study of functioning of the molecular mechanisms involved in the carcinogenesis and also tumorigenesis of this malignancy in different molecular pathways   to identify applied biomarkers in early diagnosis is of great importance. Thus, molecular pathways like sonic hedgehog  (SHH) may interfere with this type of cancer. In this review, it has attempted to investigate the performance of the fluctuations of these important genes in SHH pathway.

The long-term adverse effects of transient thyroid function abnormalities at birth on intellectual development are proven. The effect of exercise increases in the presence of sex hormones. The current study aimed at investigating the possibility that a combination of sex hormones and exercise has synergistic effects on neural plasticity in Transient Congenital Hypothyroidism (TCH) rats.  To induce hypothyroidism in the mothers, Propylthiouracil (PTU) was added to drinking water (100 mg/L) on the 6th day of gestation and continued until the 21st Postnatal Day. From Postnatal Day (PND) 28 to 47, the female and male pups received 17β-estradiol and testosterone, respectively. The mild treadmill exercise began 30 minutes after the sex hormones or vehicle administration. On PND 48, electrophysiological experiments were performed on brain slices.  Increase of Long-Term Potentiation (LTP) was observed in sedentary-non-hormone female rats of TCH group, compared with that of the control. The exercise enhanced LTP in control rats, but the hormones showed no significant effect. The effect of exercise and sex hormone was not significant in the TCH group. The combination of exercise and testosterone enhanced LTP in TCH male rats, while the combination of exercise and estradiol or each of them individually did not produce such an effect on LTP in TCH female rats.  The study findings showed an increase in excitatory transmission despite the returning of thyroid hormone levels to normal range in TCH female rats. Also a combination treatment including exercise and testosterone enhanced LTP in male rats of TCH group, which was a gender-specific event.

Neuropathic pain is a chronic pain that results from damage to the central nervous system and also environment. Neuropathic pain is important for general health and approximately 6% of the adult population is affected worldwide. Despite the therapeutic choices, treatment for neuropathic pain is facing challenges. An experimental model that is very close to human neuropathic model is the chronic constriction injury (CCI) model. Progesterone (PROG) is one of the most potent anti-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory neurostimulants, and GABA-A receptor palys an important role in mediating the biological effects of PROG. In this study, the effects of PROG on behavioral responses of pain in the neuropathic pain model of CCI, and the possible role of GABA-A receptor in its effect were investigated in rats. 70 male Wistar rats were used in 7 groups (n = 10). First, neuropathic pain was induced by the CCI method in the respective groups. Following CCI, PROG (6 mg/kg) and or the GABA-A receptor antagonist bicuculin (0.5 or 2 mg/kg) or vehicle were administered daily until day 13 post-CCI. On days 14 and 27, the behavioural tests including mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia were done. Daily injections of PROG PROG for 12 days prevented the mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia following CCI and this effect was blocked the bicuculin pretreatment. The findings of this study showed that treatment with progesterone may prevent the development of peripheral neuropathy, at least in part, via GABA-A receptors.

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) results from autoimmune destruction of insulin-producing beta cells in pancreatic islets of Langerhans. To develop efficient treatments for T1D, it is required to identify suitable therapeutic markers. Systems biology offers approaches to better understanding of functional elements in the disease. Our aim was to investigate larger number of candidate markers in T1D by topological analysis of constructed PPI based on gene expression.
In this study, gene expression profile of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from newly diagnosed type 1 diabetic children was prepared from Gene Expression Omnibus and analyzed to get differentially expressed genes. Then, these genes were mapped to PPIs data to construct related subnetwork. Five topological features were calculated by Cytoscape software. Finally, degree, betweenness and closeness centrality features were utilized to identify candidate markers.
2467 differentially expression genes were obtained by statistical analyzing of gene expression profile in which 1024 were upregulated and 1443 were downregulated. After mapping these genes on PPI network, there was constructed subnetwork with 949 nodes and 1776 edges. By topological analysis of the subnetwork, we determined high degree nodes (hub) and high betweenness nodes (bottleneck). Then, 9 hub-bottleneck proteins that were more central (high closeness centrality) in the subnetwork were identified and introduced as candidate markers.
The obtained markers from network via systemic view can be considered as new diagnostic markers and potential therapeutic targets for T1D

Due to the prevalence and pervasiveness of stress in modern life and exposure to both chronic and acute stresses, it is not clear whether prior exposure to chronic stress can influence the impairing effects of acute stress on memory retrieval. This issue was tested in this study.
Adult male Wistar rats were randomly assigned to the following groups: control, acute, chronic, and chronic acute stress groups. The rats were trained with six trials per day for 6 consecutive days in the water maze. Following training, the rats were either kept in control conditions or exposed to chronic stress in a restrainer 6 hr/day for 21 days. On day 22, a probe test was done to measure memory retention. Time spent in target and opposite areas, platform location latency, and proximity were used as indices of memory retention. To induce acute stress, 30 min before the probe test, animals received a mild footshock.
Stressed animals spent significantly less time in the target quadrant and more time in the opposite quadrant than control animals. Moreover, the stressed animals showed significantly increased platform location latency and proximity as compared with control animals. No significant differences were found in these measures among stress exposure groups. Finally, both chronic and acute stress significantly increased corticosterone levels.
Our results indicate that both chronic and acute stress impair memory retrieval similarly. Additionally, the impairing effects of chronic stress on memory retrieval were not influenced by acute stress.

This study was designed to investigate the therapeutic effects of saffron (Crocus Sativus L) and its main constituent crocin on neuropathic pain behavioral responses induced by chronic constriction injury (CCI) in rats. Adult male Wistar rats (200 to 250 g) were randomly assigned into 5 groups: Sham saline, CCI saline, CCI saffron (30 mg/kg), CCI 犺ᲊ (15 mg/kg) and CCI crocin (30 mg/kg). CCI was induced by applying 4 loose ligatures around the sciatic nerve. Two weeks after nerve lesion, injections of saline, saffron or crocin were started and continued until 26th day post-surgery. Pain behavioral responses including mechanical allodynia (von Frey filament testing) and thermal hyperalgesia were measured in 14, 17, 20, 23, 26, and 40th days after CCI. CCI significantly increased pain behavioral responses. Saffron and crocin (30 mg/kg) decreased thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia on day 26, and this effect continued until the day 40. Crocin at lower dose (15 mg/kg) was ineffective. These findings indicate that treatment of saffron and crocin after CCI may have a therapeutic effect against neuropathic pain, suggesting that these substances may offer new strategies for the treatment of this highly debilitating condition.

Chronic morphine leads to cognitive function impairment in human and experimental animals. While physical activity helps to improve the cognitive impairment in morphine dependent male rats, these effects were not examined in females. In this study, we investigated the effects of different intensities levels of forced exercise (light, moderate, and severe) on learning and memory and prefrontal cortex (PFC) BDNF in the morphine-dependent rats.
Adult virgin female rats were injected with bi-daily doses (10 mg/kg, at 12 h intervals) of morphine over a period of 10 days. Following injections, rats were trained under three different loads (mild, moderate, and severe), each for 30 minutes per session, five days per week and for four weeks. After exercise training, object recognition memory and alternation behaviour in a T-maze were examined, followed by BDNF measurements in PFC.
Chronic morphine intake impaired the recognition memory in morphine dependent rats and this deficit was corrected by moderate and severe treadmill exercise. Chronic morphine did not impair the alternation behaviour, but moderate exercise improved this behaviour in both morphine dependent and control rats. Chronic morphine reduced BDNF levels in PFC which did not reversed by mild exercise. Moreover, both moderate and severe exercises reduced BDNF levels in PFC in both morphine and control animals.
Our findings indicate that the effects of exercise on cognitive functions and BDNF levels in PFC depend on the type of cognitive behavior and intensity of exercise. On the other hand, the correlation between changes in brain BDNF and cognitive functions, especially in the morphine–treated animals seemed to be complex and warrant further investigation.

The evidence indicates that physical activity increases memory and ability to learn in human and animal. That is to say, the brain remarkably responds to exercise. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of anaerobic and aerobic exercises on memory.
In this study, ninety male participant students were randomly divided into 3groups of 30. The task for the first group was 3 aerobic exercises (treadmill with intensity of %60-%70 HR max ) for 60 minutes per week for 8 weeks. The second group was trained for anaerobic exercise (treadmill with intensity of %75-%85 HR max), whereas the third was the control group, who performed no exercises and no intervention/interferences. After trainings, all ninety students were participated in a memory test at the IQ TEST lab. This test was conducted both at the beginning and the end of program to evaluate their memory function in the terms of Wechsler Test/ on the basis of Wechsler Test.
Wechsler fragment tests/subtests before and after aerobic and anaerobic exercises showed the effects of aerobic training (15.50 ± 5.41), anaerobic training (17.00 ±4.89) and the control group (2.13 ±1.96) on the change in memory function. The variation of memory scores between each of aerobic and anaerobic trained subjects with control group was significant (P In general, the findings of this research showed that the 8 weeks aerobic and anaerobic exercises had high positive impact on the memory function in the students undergoing the experiments. We conclude that aerobic and anaerobic exercise can serve as a mean to improve the memory function and is recommended for benefiting memory and learning processes.

The aim of this study was to examine anxiolytic effects of acute morphine and the role of BDNF receptor on that effect in adult rats.
In this experiment, 48 adult male Wistar rats (200–250 g) were randomly assigned to six groups. Rats were given an acute dose of morphine (10 mg/kg, s.c.) and after 2hours, single dose of ANA12 (BDNF receptor antagonist) was injected (0.25, 0.5 mg/kg, i.p). After 4h, rats were examined in the EPM to assess the level of their anxiety. Control rats similarly received saline.
An increase was observed in the percentage of time spent in the open arm in the saline rats receiving ANA12 injection. However, the number of open or closed arm entries was less and more, respectively, in the morphine rats receiving ANA12 injection.
Our findings showed a modulatory role of BDNF/TrkB receptor in the anxiolytic effects of acute morphine.

Previous study indicated that the lack of thyroid hormones during brain development can be associated with structural and biochemical changes in the brain that can cause psychological disorders. Physical exercise affects brain neurochemistry and may be amilorate behavioral deficit in hypothyroidism. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of moderate forced exercise on the effects of maternal hypothyroidism on anxiety-like behaviors in adulthood rats.
For the induction of hypothyroidism , 6-propyl-2-thiourycil (PTU) was added to the drinking water (50 and 200 mg/L) of mothers, from the 6th prenatal day to the 21th postnatal day. Maternal hypothyroid adult offspring were exercised on treadmill with moderat intensity for 2 weeks. For measuring the anxiety, animal were tested in an elevated plus maze (EPM) and light and dark box (L/D).
Induction of hypothyroidism during the rat fetal and early postnatal period increased anxiety-like behavior in both EPM and L/D box tasks. Treadmill exercise with moderate intensity, during the postnatal period did not affect the levels of anxiety significantly. Also forced exercise alone increased anxiety behavior significantly.
These findings indicated that maternal hypothyroidism increase anxiety-like behaviors and treadmill exercise with moderate intensity did not amilroate this behavior. Moreover, physical activity in moderate intensity had anxiogenic effects.

Acquiring knowledge by university students and increasing their participation in research activities can provide a safe pathway for promotion of creative talents in productivity in science and at higher levels, the development of the country. This study was conducted with the aim of determining the preventive factors toward student’s interest in research in the field of medical sciences at the Medical Sciences University of Semnan in 2014. In this cross - sectional study, 293 students who were at their second year or above, were randomly chosen. The research tools were a questionnaire with the topic of demography and a researcher-made 4-choices test containing 25 questions comparable with 5-choices scale test of Likret to determine the confining factors affecting the students’ interest and enthusiasm in medical research. Each question had 5 options arranged from a “weakly agreeable” to “highly agreeable” scale. They were scored from 1 to 5 with the order of: very low, low, medium, high and very high. The items were classified in four areas of: personal factors (5 questions), motivational (7 questions), research facilities (8 questions) and structural factors and utilities (5 questions). The student’s point of view were significantly different in the severity of barriers within the four areas (P=0.033), So that the personal obstacles seemed to be more important. The most important barrier factor affecting student research activities in the personal area was" lack of enough knowledge about the research topics "; in the area of motivational factors was" not being encouraged to do the research by the university "and" emphasizing on the pivotal training instead of research-based studies"; in the area of research facilities was," not quite enough access to the scientific journals and references and also research specialists at the University", also " lack of appropriate research methodology workshops for students " and finally in the administrative area was the “long process of student research project approval process ".There was not any significant differences in response to questions in any of the areas, between male or female, member and non-members at the research committee and also between students with different score averages in the two last semesters (P >0.05). But within the area of research facilities, students’ point of view were significantly different (p<0.001). This area was specifically considered to be more of an obstacle for medical students than the others. In order to make medical sciences students more interested in the research area it is important to motivate them by giving them a role in the research projects, teaching them research methodology and to shorten the project approval process for student research projects. This way may lead to flourishing their creative talents in science and promote the proper scientific research in the country.

The most important characteristics of PTSD, as an anxiety disorder, are memory disorders and hippocampus is one of the essential structures which plays a critical role in PTSD memory disorders. Traumatic events cause apoptosis and alter the expression of neurotrophic factors in hippocampus. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of β-Estradiol on behavioral responses in PTSD and to study its biochemical and histological mechanisms.We used single prolonged stress (SPS) to develop PTSD in rats. The day after, the rats received electrical foot shock within shock chamber. One week later, in order to test the conditioned fear responses, the freezing behavior of rats were examined for 5 continuous days, as they were placed back in the chamber without any shock. Animals received multiple injections of β-estradiol or sesame oil, immediately after shock and also on a daily basis through the seven days prior to the test. Hippocampal cell count was implemented after cresyl violet staining. We measured BDNF protein levels by ELISA kit.Main findings of this study confirmed that exaggerated fear response is observed in PTSD group as compared with control group and β-estradiol administration reduced these exaggerated behavioral responses. We found out that SPS decreases the density of cells in hippocampus and this effect is partly corrected by β-estradiol; β-estradiol increased BDNF protein level in hippocampus as compared with PTSD group; BDNF protein level was negatively correlated with freezing response in both SPS+β-estradiol and SPS+sesame group.The results of this study is consistent with the hypothesis that decreased expression of BDNF contributes to memory impairment in PTSD and up regulation of BDNF by β-estradiol plays a role in memory treatment.

Metabolic syndrome includes a cluster of risk factors for cardiovascular disease that affects about a third of the general population. Studies have been conducted on the relationship between depression and metabolic syndrome that have had conflicting results. The purpose of this study was a meta-analysis of studies that have examined the relationship between these two variables. In this study, all full text papers published from 2000 to 2014 on the relationship between metabolic syndrome and depression were considered. 17 papers were obtained from SID, Magiran, Scopus, PubMed, Science Direct and Google Scholar. Data from selected studies using meta-analysis, random effects models were analyzed. Heterogeneity between studies was assessed using I2. Data were analyzed using STATA software package version 11.2. Analysis by the type of studies show that the relationship between two variables in the Cross-sectional studies (OR=1.51, CI 95%=1.36-1.68) and Cohort studies (OR=1.6, CI 95%=1.23-2.08) is significant. In general, Heterogeneity test among the studies was not significant (P for Heterogeneity = 0.08, I2 = 39.8%). There is a relationship between metabolic syndrome and depression. In medical evaluation of patients with depression considering the metabolic syndrome and its components appear to be necessary, and vice versa.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most common types of dementia. Studying the early stages of AD in human is not possible and thus, most studies are limited to post-mortem brain tissues. Therefore, studying the animal model of AD in order to understand the underlying mechanism and evaluate the molecular processes involved in human form of the disease is inevitable. In this study, with the help of proteomics and bioinformatics, we have studied the proteome of rat hippocampus after injection of Aβ(1-42) and analyzed the data with clustering method. Proteins were extracted from the normal (N) and AD (A) subjects, whom have been injected with Aβ(1-42). Proteins were separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis. Gels were stained with Coomassie Brilliant Blue to visualize the protein spots. Proteins in two group samples were analyzed with bioinformatics software's and identified with mass Spectrometry. Bioinformatic analysis of two-dimensional electrophoretic gels indicated on the presence of 111 specific proteins belong to group N and 67 newly expressed proteins induced by Aβ(1-42) injection. Changes at the molecular level were statistically analyzed by several variables analysis method, such as clustering and groups of proteins with altered expression were categorized in metabolic and regulatory clusters. identified proteins in rat hippocampus with AD were similar to human form of the disease. Despite the differences between the human and rat ADs, the study of AD can be established as a rat model of the disease. Injection of Aβ(1-42) had also reflected changes at the level of proteins, associated with changes in protein conformation occurring in the disease with some alteration in cellular mechanism.

Recent studies indicated that serotonergic receptor can modulate of acute stres's and corticosterone effects on behavior processes especially learning and memory. The aim of this study determines the role of serotonergic receptors (5HT6) on effects of acute stress and corticosterone on fear-based memory retrieval and extinction in passive avoidance task. Male adult mice were trained and tested in an inhibitory avoidance task (footshock, 1mA 3s). For retrieval assessment, 30 min before corticosterone injection or application acute stress and one hour before retention test (48 hr after training) the animals received SC203575 as a 5HT6 receptor agonist or SB271046 as an antagonist of 5HT6 receptors. For assessment memory extinction, one hour before memory reactivation (48 hr after training) animal received the above drugs and then received corticosterone or acute stress. Memory retention test was done 2, 5, 7 and 9 days after memory reactivation. The results show that injection of corticosterone or application of acute stress before memory riactivation impaired memory retrieval and facilitated extinction of memory in subsequent tests. Pre-treatment with serotonergic receptors (5HT6) agonist and antagonist inhibited the effects of corticosterone or acute stress on memory retrieval and extinction, respectively. These findings indicate that the effects of glucocorticoids or acute stress on memory retrieval and extinction modulated at least, in part, by 5HT6 receptors.

Reactivation of a stabilized memory induces a second wave of consolidation process which is now called as reconsolidation. Recently, a late consolidation process was proposed, suggesting that memory after learning within a delayed time window was labile. This late memory consolidation needs protein synthesis in the hippocampus. The aim of this study was to test whether the re-stabilized memory after reactivation also requires a late-phase protein synthesis in the hippocampus. We also investigated whether memories become increasingly resistant to disruption with age. Male Wistar rats were trained in a one trial passive avoidance task (1mA, 3s). In the first experiment, cycloheximide (CYC, 2.8 mg/kg, i.p.) administrated 15 minutes before the memory reactivation and also 3, 6, 12 and 24 hours after the memory reactivation. In the second experiment, the same dose of CYC administrated to rats with memory age of 7, 14, 28 or 56 days. In the third experiment, CYC administrated (4 µg or 8µg/µl) into hippocampus. In the last experiment, CYC administrated (8µg/µl) into hippocampus of rats with memory age of 7, 14, 28 or 56 days. In all experiments, memory test was done 2 and 7 days after memory reactivation. Results indicated that systemic administration of CYC only 12h after memory reactivation significantly impaired memory retention. With increasing the age of memory, no effect of CYC was found. This impairing effect also was found when CYC was injected into hippocampus. This impairing effect also was found on memory age with 7 days. Our findings indicate that protein synthesis, particularly in the hippocampus, plays an important role in the late memory reconsolidation and with increasing the age of memories, they become resistant to disruption.

Chronic stress has been reported to induce oxidative damage of the brain. A few studies have shown that Crocus Sativus L., commonly known as saffron and its active constituent crocin may have a protective effect against oxidative stress. The present work was designed to study the protective effects of saffron extract and crocin on chronic – stress induced oxidative stress damage of the brain, liver and kidneys. Rats were injected with a daily dose of saffron extract (30 mg/kg, IP) or crocin (30 mg/kg, IP) during a period of 21 days following chronic restraint stress (6 h/day). In order to determine the changes of the oxidative stress parameters following chronic stress, the levels of the lipid peroxidation product, malondialdehyde (MDA), the total antioxidant reactivity (TAR), as well as antioxidant enzyme activities glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase (GR) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were measured in the brain, liver and kidneys tissues after the end of chronic stress. In the stressed animals that receiving of saline, levels of MDA, and the activities of GPx, GR, and SOD were significantly higher (P<0.0001) and the TAR capacity were significantly lower than those of the non-stressed animals (P<0.0001). Both saffron extract and crocin were able to reverse these changes in the stressed animals as compared with the control groups (P<0.05). These observations indicate that saffron and its active constituent crocin can prevent chronic stress–induced oxidative stress damage of the brain, liver and kidneys and suggest that these substances may be useful against oxidative stress.

Academic achievement has been one of the efficiency indexes of every educational system that is influenced by many factors. This study has been conducted with the aim of surveying the views of Lecturers’ and students at Rehabilitation College of Semnan University of Medical Sciences on the factors influencing students’ academic achievement.

In the current study, which is a cross-sectional descriptive-analytic one, a census method was employed and it was conducted in the academic years of 2012 and 2013. The participants of the study were 130 sophomore and higher level university students majoring in physiotherapy, occupational therapy speech therapy at Bsc level and as many as 40 Lecturers at the Rehabilitation College of Semnan University. For the purpose of data collection, a 25-item self-developed questionnaire on Likert scale was developed and its reliability and validity was confirmed.

Among the five areas surveyed in the study based on the perspective of Lecturers and students, factors related to student (4.43±0.49) and (4.17±0.52) received the highest scores. Meanwhile, the lecturers assigned the lowest score to family factors (3.53± 0.53) and students scored facilities of the educational environment the lowest (3.84±0.90). A comparison of the views revealed that there is a significant difference between the lecturers and students’ perspectives on student (p=0.007), family (p=0/017) and socioeconomic factors (p=0.001). Like lecturers, the students perceived future job opportunity of the field, interest in the field and self-confidence as effective factors on academic achievement.

Considering learners and factors closely related to them as well as preparing grounds for increasing learners’ motivation, confidence and interest in the field have appreciable influence on learners’ academic achievement.

Glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) of basolateral amygdala (BLA) play an important role in emotional learning and memory. The aim of present study was to determine the role of GRs of BLA in extinction of fear memory in inhibitory avoidance learning (PAL) in rats. Rats with surgically implanted bilaterally cannulae aimed at the BLA were trained and tested in an inhibitory avoidance task. Animals received bilateral microinjections of corticosterone (CORT, 0.3 or 3ng/0.5µl per side), RU38486 (0.3 or 3 ng/10.5µl per side /side) or combinenation of both drugs into BLA 30 min before the first retrieval test which was done 2 days after training. Memory retention again tested 2, 9, 12, 14 and 16 days after the first retention test, during which the latency to re-enter dark compartment of the apparatus was recorded. Results indicated that microinjections of both CORT and RU38486 and also their combination into BLA facilitated the extinction of fear memory. It seems that GRs located in the BLA nucleus play a critical role in fear memory extinction.

Metabolic syndrome is a collection of metabolic disorders that increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and diabetes. Metabolic syndrome is characterized by abdominal obesity, hypertriglyceridemia, low HDL level, hyperglycemia and HTN. With regard to the development of CVD disease in recent years, the present study was completed to determine the degree of metabolic syndrome prevalence in the adult population of Semnan province.

This epidemiological cross-sectional study was carried out in the province of Semnan (Iran) on 3799 individuals between 30 and 70 years of age. In the study, multi-stage individuals were randomly selected from urban and rural environments and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome was determined according to ATPIII and IDF criteria.

The prevalence of metabolic syndrome according to ATPIII and IDF was 28.5% and 35.8% respectively, and increased with age in both sexes. The highest degree of prevalence was seen in the above-60-years age group. The Prevalence of metabolic syndrome was significantly higher in women on basis of both definitions; it was higher among non-smokers on basis of the IDF definition (P<0.05). Decrease in the prevalence of the syndrome had significant relation to literacy. There was no significant difference of metabolic syndrome prevalence between urban and rural settings. Among the risk factors of metabolic syndrome according to ATPIII and IDF, high triglycerides (40.8%) and abdominal obesity (70.8%) had the highest prevalence respectively.

The findings show the high prevalence of metabolic syndrome in the 30 to 70 year-old population. Therefore, the identification of the risk factors should be attempted to prevent syndrome acquisition.

One important factor of fatigue occurrence among athletes, following heavy sport activities, especially sports activities with short time and the maximum speed and intensity, is the accumulation of lactic acid in blood. The need for athletes to achieve natural conditions and to prepare for the next activities, methods of disposal lactic acid are very important. The purpose of this study was to study the effects of passive and active recovery with a severity of 55, 60 and 65 percent of maximum heart rate, on levels of blood lactic acid.

This semi-experimental study was carried by 60 male athlete's students who were divided randomly to four groups. The first group included 15 subjects of group programs for passive recovery and the second, third and fourth groups off the state quarter program for active recovery with highly active 55, 60 and 65 percent of maximum heart rate, respectively. Groups acting Cunningham test began to test blood lactic acid in four stages (before the activity, immediately after the activity, 5 and 20 minute period recovery). The measurement was done by a hand lacto – meter.

The mean amount of blood lactic acid during resting time in four groups and also immediately after the activity was not significant, but 5 minutes after recovery as well as 20 minutes after recovery difference between groups was significant (P<0.001). Mean blood lactic acid 20 minutes after recovery of passive group was significantly higher and that of group with 60 percent maximum heart rate was significantly lower (P<0.001) than other groups. Also the rate of the decrease in lactic acid level within 5 to 20 minutes after recovery in group with 60% maximum heart rate was significantly more than group 55%. The rate of decrease with group 65% maximum heart rate was shown to be significantly more than group 55% with maximum heart rate (p <0.001).

Our findings showed that active recovery from supramaximal exercise had a better effect than passive mode in reducing blood lactate levels in male athletes. Moreover, active recovery with a rate of 60 percent of maximum heart rate had a better effect than those of 55 or 65% maximum heart rat.

Over the last decade, exposure to electromagnetic waves due to base station antennas has increased. This study was planned to evaluate the effects of different electrical field strengths with 950 MHz waves of the GSM mobile phone system on the excitatory postsynaptic potentiation (EPSP) slope of the dentate gyrus long-term potentiation (LTP).

Twenty four naive male Wistar rats (3 months old, weighing 220 + 15 g) were randomly divided into three groups (sham–exposed, GSM with 50.4 V/m and GSM with 60 V/m electrical field strength). The exposure program was carried out for 10 sessions during 3 days. The animals were exposed to the electromagnetic field for 45 minutes in a plastic chamber. Immediately after the exposure, anesthesia was induced for LTP induction and the field potentials were recorded for 60 minutes, then the EPSP slope and maintenance were analyzed.

Our data showed that whole-body exposure to 950 MHz waves of the GSM mobile phone system with 60 V/m electrical field strength could change the EPSP slope in rat brain hippocampus.Discussion and

Increasing the electrical field strength could change synaptic plasticity and LTP characteristics in rat brain hippocampus.