فهرست مطالب fatemeh rezaei-tazangi

Periodontitis is a type of prevalent chronicinflammatory disorder resulting in a failure in the function oftissues supporting the tooth, like gingiva, alveolar bone, andperiodontal ligament. Although antibiotic therapy is a commontherapy for periodontitis cases, this approach can cause someadverse effects in these patients. Thus, finding an effectivecurative option with low side effects is still a puzzle.

This narrative review was conducted onthe effects of herbal and nano-based herbal medicine againstperiodontitis by searching different databases such as GoogleScholar, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, andScientific Information Databases.

According to published studies, some popular herbalformulations, such as Aloe vera, curcumin, Melaleuca alternifolia,and Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, can be effective in periodontitistreatment. However, these herbal products may be accompaniedby some pharmacological limitations, such as poor bioavailability,instability, and weak water solubility. On the other hand,harnessing nano-based herbal formulations can elevate thebioavailability, diminish toxicity, and omit repeated administrationof drugs.

Herbal and nano-based herbal products can create agood chance to treat periodontitis efficiently.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a major threat to world health and safety, making it the primary concern of global community that requires immediate preventive measures. Several organs are affected by this disease simultaneously with possible long-lasting sequelae. Disease pathogenesis is influenced by, the type of virus and its mutation, the number of viruses, individual’s immune system and their age, gender, nutritional status, homeostasis between the immune, nervous and endocrine systems, and also physical condition. All of these factors play a role in the onset, duration, severity, and recurrence of the disease. Since the exact mechanism of infection with this virus is not fully understood, in this study we aimed to investigate its effects on the reproductive system in male and female as well as pregnancy outcome.

Some failures in ovary function, like folliculogenesis and oogenesis, can give rise to various infertility-associated problems, including polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and premature ovarian insufficiency (POI). PCOS influences 8 to 20% of women; while POI occurs in at least 1% of all women. Regrettably, the current therapies for these diseaseshave not sufficiently been effective, and finding a suitable strategy is still a puzzle. One of the helpful strategies for managing and treating these disorders is understanding the contributing pathogenesis and mechanisms. Recently, it has been declared that abnormal expression of microRNAs (miRNAs), as a subset of non-coding RNAs, is involved in thepathogenesis of reproductive diseases. Among the miRNAs, the roles of miRNA-21 in the pathogenesis of PCOS and POI have been highlighted in some documents; hence, the purpose of this mini-review was to summarize the evidence in conjunction with the functions of this miRNA and other effective microRNAs in the normal or abnormal functions of the ovary (i.e., PCOS and POI) with a mechanistic insight.

This study aimed to evaluate the predicting factors affecting sperm retrieval. We prospectively assessedthe relationship between sonographic and microdissection testicular sperm extraction (mTESE) findings in Klinefeltersyndrome (KS).

In this prospective study, 44 azoospermic men with 47, XXY karyotypes participated in thisstudy. In order to evaluate the amount of blood supply in different parts of testicular tissue, a doppler ultra-sonographicwas performed. Also, for the detection of sperm in this group mTESE technique was performed.

The age average of positive mTESE and negative mTESE groups was 29.4 and 33.6 years, respectively. Bycomparing the testicle volume (based on the data obtained from the clinical examinations conducted by the urologist)it was determined that there is no significant difference between mTESE positive and negative groups. Folliclestimulatinghormone (FSH) levels in men with negative mTESE (P=0.03) and testosterone levels in men with positivemTESE significantly increased (P=0.017). The overall rate of testis vascularity was significantly higher in the positivemTESE group than in the negative mTESE group. The clinical pregnancy rate in positive mTESE men was 9% percycle, 16.6% per embryos were transferred (ET), and 12.5% per cycle.

Totally, our observation indicated that there is not a significant relationship between sonographic and mTESEresults in KS patients. However, more investigations with bigger sample Size can be useful to validate our results.

 Brachial plexus variations have been observed in some people. The median nerve is one of the branches of this plexus, formed by the union of the medial and lateral cords. The median nerve usually does not have a branch in the arm region and innervates the forearm and hand muscles.

 During the dissection of the right axillary cavity of a 74-year-old male donor for medical students, the variation in the innervation of arm muscles was observed. Unexpectedly, the biceps brachii and brachialis muscles were innervated by the branches of the median nerve. The median nerve normally does not have a branch in the arm region and innervates the forearm and hand muscles. The musculocutaneous nerve (C5-7) is a terminal branch of the lateral cord and innervates the three muscles of the anterior compartment of the arm, namely coracobrachialis, biceps brachii, and brachialis muscles.

 The innervation of the arm's anterior compartment muscles by the median nerve is a rare variation that has never been seen in this country. Awareness of such anatomical variations is necessary for physicians and clinicians. These variations should be taken into consideration during axillary region surgeries.

 Men’s sexual health is one of the main aspects of their lives. Male sexual dysfunction (SD) includes a wide range of sexual impairments and is not limited to premature ejaculation (PE) and erectile dysfunction (ED). ED can be a life-changing issue that might be mixed up with male sexual impotence characterized by PE and ED.

 The objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence of sexual dysfunction and its associated factors among the Iranian male population.

 This is a cross-sectional study for which data was collected from a nationwide reproductive morbidities project among males in Iran. To do so, 2296 men aged 25 - 60 years were selected from four provinces by cluster sampling. Statistical analysis was done in SPSS (18.0.0)

 The prevalence of severe/medium SD and severe SD were 66.9% and 18.1%, respectively. The prevalence of low sexual satisfaction, low sexual desire, and dissatisfaction with the length of intercourse before orgasm were 9.5%, 9%, and 12%.

 Sexual dysfunction is highly likely prevalent among less educated, unemployed men with a history of chronic diseases. Various educational programs to raise awareness are thoroughly recommended.

 Recent studies have demonstrated that adipose mesenchymal stem cells (AMSCs)-derived secretome (AMSC-Se) has anticancer impacts.

 This study investigated the cytotoxic impacts of AMSC-Se on a colon carcinoma cell (HT-29) line.

 The colon cancer cells were exposed to 50 or 100 µg/mL ASMC-Se for 24 hours. MTT test had used to examine the impacts of ASMC-Se on the survival rates of the cells. Caspase activity, mRNA, and protein expression of Bax and Bcl-2 had evaluated to determine apoptosis.

 ASMC-Se could diminish the survival of the cells concentration-dependently. The mRNA and protein expression of Bax was concentration-dependently elevated, while Bcl-2 expression decreased in the ASMC-Se group compared to the control concentration-dependently (P < 0.05). The caspase-3 and caspase-9 activities were concentration-dependently enhanced (P < 0.05), while the caspase-8 activity did not change with the AMSC-Se.

 These findings indicate that AMSC-Se effectively prevents cell growth and induces apoptosis by stimulating the intrinsic apoptotic pathway in these cells.

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), especially in men, can lead to multiple morbidities and facilitate the transmission of serious pathogens, such as the human immunodeficiency virus. The present study used the data from a nationwide survey on male morbidities to estimate the prevalence of STDs among men in Iran.

This cross-sectional study used the data from a nationwide project on male reproductive morbidities in 2007. A total of 2296 men within the age range of 25 - 60 years were recruited by systematic cluster sampling from four provinces (i.e., Golestan, Hormozgan, Kermanshah, and Isfahan, Iran). The data on the symptoms of STDs, including genital secretion, pushing out, itching or genital ulcers, and lymphadenopathy of the inguinal area after sexual contact, were collected by trained urologists. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS software (version18.0, Chicago, IL, USA). The independent samples t-test and chi-square test were used for data analysis.

A total of 2296 men with a mean age value of 39.95 ± 10.3 years were interviewed in this study. Two-thirds of all the subjects (75%) were aware of using condoms in suspected sexual relationships; however, only 69% of the aforementioned subjects used condoms in those circumstances. Overall, 14 subjects (0.6%) had one type of STDs at the study time. Moreover, 110 subjects (4.7%) answered “yes” to the question of whether they were referred to a physician for sexual problems.

The prevalence of STDs is still low among the male population in Iran. Careful and well-designed surveillance systems to monitor the incidence of STDs and proper preventive measures to restrict the spread of sexually transmitted pathogens are among the proposed recommendations.

Destruction of pancreatic beta-cells induces an insulin deficiency and causes type 1 diabetes. The role of autophagy in inducing insulin-secreting cells (ISCs) from adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AMSCs) was investigated in the current study.

In this experimental study, the isolated AMSCs were characterization and exposed to a cocktail differentiation medium (CDM) in the absence or presence of 3-methyladenine (3MA), an autophagy inhibitor. The differentiation of ISCs was confirmed by the evaluation of the expression of beta-cell-specific genes including pancreatic and duodenal homeobox 1 (PDX1), musculoaponeurotic fibrosarcoma oncogene homolog A (MAF-A), Nk class of homeodomain-encoding genes 6.1 and 2.2 (NKX6-1 and NKX2.2), Glucose transporter 2 (GLUT-2) and INSLIN. Using Newport Green (NG), insulin-positive cells were identified. Insulin secretion in response to various glucose concentrations was measured. Autophagy was evaluated by Acridine orange (AO) staining. Also, expression of autophagy-associated genes, including autophagy-related gene 5 (ATG-5), autophagy-related gene 7 (ATG-7), BECLIN-1, and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), was evaluated by Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method.

We observed a significant increase of beta-cell specific genes expression in the CDM-treated cells (P<0.01 or P<0.001), whereas the expression of these genes was down-regulated in 3MA-exposed cells. Expression of INSULIN and GLUT-2 genes (P<0.01 and P<0.05, respectively), insulin secretion in response to glucose (P<0.01), and percentage of NG-positive cells (P<0.05) in the 3MA-exposed cells were considerably lower than the cells treated with CDM. The percentage of AO-positive cells (P<0.01) and the expression of autophagy-related genes (P<0.001) was significantly enhanced in the CDM group. These events were significantly prevented by the 3MA.

Our data showed that autophagy is necessary for beta-cell differentiation, and preventing autophagy by 3MA causes the reduction of beta-cell differentiation and insulin secretion.

In the process of human reproduction, spermatogenesis is one of the most important stages,which is controled by special genes on Y chromosome. Previous studies show that some infertile men havemicrodeletions on Y chromosome, which cause the reduction of sperm count. Three prominent spermatogene-sis loci have been identified on the Y chromosome and entitled “azoospermia factors” (AZFa, b, and c). Hereby,this review article aimed to investigate the content of the Y chromosome microdeletions and their importancein male fertility.

Data and information were collected on English-language articles from PubMedand MEDLINE databases. For Persian articles, Persian-language databases, including SID Scientific Database,IranMedex Medical Articles Database, IranDoc (Iran Scientific Information and Documents Research Institute),Magiran Publication Information, and MedLib were investigated. More than 50 articles on Y chromosome mi-crodeletions and infertility published during 2000-2020 were studied.

Previous studies implicated thatY chromosome microdeletions in AZFa, AZFb, and AZFc regions are accompanied by defect in spermatogenesis,leading to oligo / azoospermia. Patients with AZFa and AZFb microdeletions present secretory azoospermia anddo not have sperm in their seminiferous tubules. Complete AZFc deletion involves region b2/b4, which con-tains a total of 12 genes. Incomplete deletion of AZFc includes b1/b3, b2/b3 and gr/gr. The most common ofwhich are gr/gr. In men with gr/gr deletion, sperm count and motility were lower than control group.Conclu-sion:Y chromosomal microdeletions emerged as the most frequent structural chromosome anomaly associatedwith the quantitative reduction of sperm. The development of assisted reproductive techniques (ART) like intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and testicular sperm extraction (TESE) helps to bypass the natural barriersof fertilization.

The ability of stem cells to differentiate into different cell types makes them a key component of healing damage in regenerative medicine. As human umbilical cord Wharton’s jelly (HUCWJ) is available non-invasively, HUCWJ does not raise any ethical issues with higher differentiation potential compared to adult stem cells. With the ability to express embryonic stem cell markers, HUCWJ can be considered as a good candidate in regenerative medicine applications. The objective of this study was to find if these cells form cell aggregates with the same features as that formed by embryonic stem cells (embryoid body) and could form three germ layers. Eighteen umbilical cords were of healthy infants with parent permission. The umbilical cords were cut into small pieces and the explants were cultured. At the third passage, 1000, 5000 and 10000 cells/ 20 µL were cultured in hanging drops for 3 days. Then, they were incubated for additional 3 days in non-adhesive dishes. As the center of cell aggregates formed from 5000 and 10000 cells were darker than those formed from 1000 cells, this study focused on the aggregates formed by 1000 cells for further assessments. The immunocytochemistry and flowcytometry were performed using 3 color antibodies to detect the markers for three germ cell lineages. The immunohistochemistry data showed that the embryoid-body-like aggregates expressed a low amount of ectodermal and endodermal markers and most of the cells expressed mesodermal markers. The flowcytometry percentage of the cells in each aggregate that expressed ectodermal marker Otx2 was17.1% and endodermal marker, Sox 17 was 5.49%. The frequency of cells expressing mesodermal marker Brachyury was high (75.0%). Flowcytometry also showed the percentages by mathematical evaluation and we did this three times for our result accuracy. These aggregates mainly kept their mesenchymal state and showed a poor differentiation potential toward ectoderm and endoderm identity.