mohammad jafar sharifi

Platelet-leukocyte aggregates have been implicated in various infectious and inflammatory diseases. The Interferon-induced transmembrane protein 3 (IFITM3) protein plays a role in eliminating viral infections, but its role in the severity of COVID-19 is not well understood.

We aimed to investigate the correlation between IFITM3 mRNA expression and platelet-monocyte complex levels with the severity of COVID-19, as well as various inflammatory and coagulation markers.

We conducted a cross-sectional study on 54 COVID-19 patients, classified into severe and mild/moderate subgroups. Demographics and laboratory findings were extracted from patients' medical records. We measured IFITM3 mRNA expression in patients' buffy coats using q-RT-PCR and used flow cytometry with CD61 and CD14 markers to measure platelet-monocyte aggregates.

No significant difference was found in IFITM3 mRNA expression levels or platelet-monocyte complexes between severe and mild/moderate groups (P = 0.067 and P = 0.056). Lymphocyte counts were significantly higher in the mild/moderate subgroup (21.7 ± 8.9 vs 16.3 ± 10.9, P = 0.02), while neutrophil counts were significantly higher in severe patients (78.3 ± 12.2 vs 72.3 ± 9.9, P = 0.01). Additionally, levels of CRP and LDH were significantly higher in severe COVID-19 patients (P = 0.01 and P = 0.001, respectively). A strong positive correlation was observed between the hospitalization period and CRP, CRP with neutrophils and LDH, as well as between O2 saturation and lymphocytes (P < 0.001, P = 0.0003, P = 0.002, and P = 0.005, respectively).

Our findings suggest that IFITM3 gene expression and platelet-monocyte aggregate levels do not correlate with disease outcomes in COVID-19. However, further investigations with larger sample sizes are needed to better understand the mechanisms involved. Monitoring inflammatory and coagulation markers remains important for managing COVID-19 patients.

Hematological abnormalities in COVID-19 infection included quantitative and qualitative changes and should be further characterized. Evaluation for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) is usually prompted by abnormal hematologic findings and the presence of dysplastic morphologies. Viral infections are considered to be the cause of dysplastic morphologies and should be considered by morphologists. There are few reports of dysplastic abnormal morphologies in patients with COVID-19 infection. However, such correlations still have to be clarified.

In the present study, we examined the granulocyte lineage morphological abnormalities in symptomatic RT-PCR-confirmed COVID patients. Peripheral blood samples were collected from 82 patients with symptomatic COVID-19. Blood smears were prepared according to the standard Wright-Giemsa staining procedure. The morphological examination was carried out by two laboratory experts.

Blood smear examination revealed common myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) type abnormalities including but not limited to pseudo-pelger nuclear lobulation (4.8%), hypogranulation (7.3%), Howell-Jolly-like bodies or detached nuclear segments (6.0%) and elongated and thin nuclear filaments (6.0%). One case of abnormal immature granulocyte and ring form nucleus is also evident.

Our results accounted for the possibility of active COVID-19 infection in all subjects with granulocyte dysplasia. These results are of practical importance for patients suspected of having myelodysplastic syndromes or disease processes associated with myeloid malignancies.

In this article, by the regression analysis, suitable patterns for the hardness and the microstructure of the cylinder-head aluminum alloy have been presented. Objective functions were the hardness, the phase size and the spherical degree and variables were selected as the temperature and the time for the solution and ageing, in experiments. Results showed that the highest hardness (164 VHN) obtained when the sample was heated at 510°C for 300 minutes; then, aged for 360 minutes at 175°C. The optimal heat treatment was determined to achieve the smallest value of the phase area, as well as a higher amount of spherical phases. Results of the regression analysis demonstrated that the ageing time was more effective than the temperature in hardness variations, and the solution temperature was more important than the ageing temperature.

Burns are one the most common skin damages which require medical intervention to be fully-recovered. In this light, tissue engineering field presents a vide verity of strategies including both scaffold-based and cell-based approaches to recover the damaged site.

In this study, the effects of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) administration on mobilization of the bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into defect area and treatment of the skin burn wound was examined in vivo. The G-CSF was injected intravenously into rats subjected to third degree burn wound. At days 3, 5, 7, 15 and 30 post-injections, the defect site was removed and investigated by H&E and Malory’s trichrome staining. The number of MSCs in blood samples was also determined by flow cytometry assay.

According to the results, intravenously administration of G-CSF significantly increased collagenesis and number of fibroblast cells infiltrated into the burned site, while decreased the severity of acute inflammatory response and amount of inflammatory cells comparing to control. The number of MSCs in bloodstream, representing the rate of MSCs migration, showed a 4-fold increase in the experimental group compared to control.

The current study suggests the potential of intravenously administration of G-CSF as an effective strategy for treatment of severe burn injuries.

Recurrent pregnancy loss(RPL) is known as two or three pregnancy losses before 20th week of pregnancy. RPL accounts for 5% of abortions in women and has a devastating effect on the marital status of families. One of the reasons for RPL is hemostatic complications; thus, we studied the correlation between factor XI polymorphism and RPL in patients who referred to Helal Infertility Center(Rouyesh).
In this case-control study, 144 patients with a history of miscarriages(at least two) and 150 healthy female with a minimum of one successful birth and no abortion were enrolled. DNA extraction was taken from leukocytes of whole blood. To investigate the polymorphisms, polymerase chain reaction was run, and the presence of polymorphism was analyzed using RFLP method.
Regarding FXI polymorphism, TT, CT, and CC genotype frequencies were 59.7%, 36.1%, and 4.2%, respectively. In healthy control group, the TT, CT, and CC frequencies were 45.3%, 49.4%, and 5.3%, respectively.
TT homozygote genotype could be an RPL risk factor(p<0.05); however, in its CT heterozygote form, C allele could have a protective role against RPL.
Keywords: Recurrent Pregnancy Loss, Thrombophilia, Factor XI Polymorphism

Myeloid cell leukemia-1 (Mcl-1) plays a pivotal role in the survival of hematologic and solid tumors, and is known as a substantial oncogene. Studies have demonstrated the altered expression of Mcl-1
has been linked to malignancy development and poor prognosis. In this research, we have studied the expression of Mcl-1 mRNA in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) patients and determined association with clinico-pathological factors, MDS subgroups as well as international prognostic scoring system. The relative level of Mcl-1 was determined by real time quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and gene expression normalized to Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. Results indicated amplification of mRNA encoding Mcl-1 in 100% of the cases. The higher level of Mcl-1 existed in MDS patients compared with the healthy controls but there was no statistically difference of Mcl-1 expression between these groups. Fold change in gene expression was higher in advanced stage MDS, high risk MDS, cases with >5% blast and LDH >400 to their corresponding groups. In addition, the correlation between gene expression and cytogenetic prognostic subgroups was statistically significant (p=0.043). In the present study, we showed that Mcl-1 is expressed in MDS independent of the World Health Organization subgroup and international prognostic scoring system. Therefore, Mcl-1 may be up-regulated already in early stages of leukemogenesis.

Among the lesions induced by chemotherapeutic drugs, DNA double-strand breaks (DSB) are considered the most serious ones that can result in cell death, if it is not properly repaired. Homologous recombination (HR) pathway is the main system for DSB repair and XRCC3 has a key role in this pathway. Protein activity can be affected by the XRCC3 polymorphism. Thus, in this study, the association between XRCC3 Thr241Met polymorphism and therapeutic outcomes was investigated.The study population consisted of 67 adult patients with de novo AML(range: 15-65 years). XRCC3 Thr241Met polymorphism was determined by PCR-RFLP technique. Clinical data were collected from patients’ medical records. There were no significant association between XRCC3 genotype and therapeutic outcome (P=0.764). We found no considerable correlation between XRCC3 genotype and age (P=0.255), gender (P=0.239), AML-subtype (P=0.961) as well asWBC count (P=0.629).There are only a few studies conducted on the relationship between therapeutic outcomes and XRCC3 Thr241Met polymorphism in AML patients and the reported findings are controversial. Accordingly, further studies will be required to clarify the effect of XRCC3 Thr241Met polymorphism on therapeutic outcome.