12014 research outputs found
Sort by
Supplementation with vitamin D and insulin homeostasis in healthy overweight and obese adults: A randomized clinical trial
No full textIntroduction: Hypovitaminosis D which is a frequent problem in overweight and obese individuals, seems to interfere with cells responsible for control of glycemic status. Therefore, the current research intended to study the impact of supplementation with vitamin D on insulin homeostasis among healthy obese and overweight individuals. Methods: The current study was conducted among obese or overweight individuals who had hypovitaminosis D. After separation of participants into two groups, one group received vitamin D pearls (50,000 IU/weekly) for eight weeks, whereas another group received a placebo over the same period. Next, the level of vitamin D, fasting blood sugar (FBS), fasting insulin, Homeostasis Model Assessment 2 for Insulin Resistance (HOMA2-IR), Function of β-cell (HOMA2-β), and Insulin Sensitivity (HOMA2-S) and lipid profile of participants were evaluated. Results: Overall, 67.2 of the participants were female. No considerable difference was observed concerning biochemical parameters among the study groups at baseline. After eight weeks, the mean (SD) level of vitamin D was significantly lower in the placebo group than those in the vitamin D group. (38.6 ± 8.1 vs. 14.9 ± 6.4; P < 0.001). The patients who received vitamin D had significant lower levels of FBS (P < 0.001), fasting insulin (P < 0.001), HOMA2-IR (P < 0.001), and HOMA2-β (P = 0.03), than the placebo group. The HOMA2-S was significantly enhanced in vitamin D group, while it reduced in another group (P < 0.001). However, no considerable decrease was found in triglyceride, cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein or low-density lipoprotein. Conclusion: Supplementation with vitamin D improved sensitivity to insulin and pancreatic function of β cells of healthy overweight and obese adults. © 2021 Asia Oceania Association for the Study of Obesit
Orthostatic Intolerance after Bariatric Surgery: a Systematic Review
No full textPredisposing factors of new-onset orthostatic intolerance (OI) after bariatric surgery (BS) are unknown. The purpose of this study is to summarize current existing data on new-onset OI after BS. Materials and methods were considered for a search of articles that were published by the 30th of July 2020. A systematic review in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and in line with the protocol agreed by all authors was conducted. Of the 604 initially identified articles, four studies were found to match the established criteria and were extracted for eligibility. 83.3 were female. Hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome were the most frequently reported comorbidities. Surgical intervention such as revision, conversion, or reversal was not documented in these studies. Awareness of this issue must be raised due to the possibility of reduced quality of life and the risk of syncope. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC part of Springer Nature
Exploring health and nutrition stakeholders' expectations and perception toward establishment of the Food and Nutrition Surveillance in Iran
No full textBackground: Food and Nutrition Surveillance (FNS) is an essential and practical tool for providing timely information at specified times for policy making. This study aimed to explore policymakers' expectations and perception on establishment of the FNS in Iran before its establishment. Materials and methods: Data in this qualitative study were gathered through documents review (23 relevant documents) and seventeen semi-structured interviews with key informants in the field of food and nutrition at the national and provincial level selected through purposive and snowball sampling. Data were content analysed using MAXQDA (2010). Findings: Most of the participants defined the FNS as a continuous monitoring system. They expected the FNS to identify and recognize food and nutrition problems; to create a common language and provide an inter-disciplinary cooperation. From the participants' point of view the most important barriers to establishing of the FNS included lack of cooperation and resistance at different levels, lack of support and partnership among the stakeholders, lack of justification and awareness of the stakeholders, mismanagement and misuse of data, inattention to infrastructure. Conclusions: Most of the stakeholders believed that the FNS was supposed to monitor food and nutrition status continuously to provide timely and accurate information for policy making. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Immune and metabolic checkpoints blockade: Dual wielding against tumors
No full textRecent advances in cancer immunotherapy have raised hopes for treating cancers that are resistant to conventional therapies. Among the various immunotherapy methods, the immune checkpoint (IC) blockers were more promising and have paved their way to the clinic. Tumor cells induce the expression of ICs on the immune cells and derive them to a hyporesponsive exhausted phenotype. IC blockers could hinder immune exhaustion in the tumor microenvironment and reinvigorate immune cells for an efficient antitumor response. Despite the primary success of IC blockers in the clinic, the growing numbers of refractory cases require an in-depth study of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying IC expression and function. Immunometabolism is recently found to be a key factor in the regulation of immune responses. Activated or exhausted immune cells exploit different metabolic pathways. Tumor cells can suppress antitumor responses via immunometabolism alteration. Therefore, it is expected that concurrent targeting of ICs and immunometabolism pathways can cause immune cells to restore their antitumor activity. In this review, we dissected the reciprocal interactions of immune cell metabolism with expression and signaling of ICs in the tumor microenvironment. Recent findings on dual targeting of ICs and metabolic checkpoints have also been discussed. © 2021 Elsevier B.V
Regional vitamin C in Bier block reduces the incidence of CRPS-1 following distal radius fracture surgery
No full textBackground: Systemic vitamin C supplementation after wrist fracture has been suggested to reduce the incidence of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). This study aimed to evaluate the effect of regional vitamin C in Bier block in the early phase of fracture on CRPS occurrence following surgery for distal radius fractures. Methods: Seventy-four patients with isolated extra-articular distal radius fracture with the plan of fixation under Bier block were enrolled. Patients were assigned randomly into two groups: receiving either 500 mg vitamin C or sterile water as a Bier block adjuvant. Both groups received 500 mg of oral vitamin C for six weeks. The patients were evaluated for CRPS signs and symptoms at 2, 4, 6, and 12 weeks post-surgery. Results: The overall incidence of CRPS 12 weeks after surgery in the vitamin C group was significantly less than the controls (22.9 vs 45.5, p = 0.04). Logistic regression analysis showed that the only significant contribution in predicting the incidence of CRPS came from the intervention variable (OR 0.26, CI95 0.08�0.85; P = 0.027). Conclusions: The findings suggest that adding vitamin C 500 mg to the local anesthetic in Bier block significantly reduces the incidence of CRPS following distal radius fractures. © 2020, Springer-Verlag France SAS, part of Springer Nature
The effect of microglial ablation and mesenchymal stem cell transplantation on a cuprizone-induced demyelination model
No full textMultiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating autoimmune disease of the central nervous system with symptoms such as neuroinflammation, astrocytosis, microgliosis, and axonal degeneration. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) with their immunomodulation, differentiation, and neuroprotection abilities can influence the remyelination process. The goal of this study is to investigate the impact of microglial ablation and MSCs transplantation on remyelination processes in the corpus callosum (CC) of the cuprizone demyelination model. For the induction of a chronic demyelination model, C57BL6 mice were fed with chow containing 0.2 cuprizone (wt/wt) for 12 weeks. For the depletion of microglia, PLX3397 was used as a colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor inhibitor for 21 days. MSCs were injected to the right lateral ventricle and after 2 weeks, the mice were killed. We assessed glial cells using specific markers such as APC, Iba-1, and GFAP using the immunohistochemistry method. Remyelination was evaluated by Luxol fast blue (LFB) staining and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The specific genes of microglia and MSCs were evaluated by a quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. According to the results of the study, 21 days of PLX3397 treatment significantly reduced microglial cells, and MSCs transplantation decreased the number of astrocytes, whereas the oligodendrocytes population increased significantly in PLX + MSC group in comparison with the cuprizone mice. Furthermore, PLX and MSC treatment elevated levels of remyelination compared with the cuprizone group, as confirmed by LFB staining and TEM analysis. The molecular results showed that MSC transplantation significantly decreased the number of microglia through the CX3CL1/CX3CR1 axis. These results revealed that PLX3397 treatment and MSCs injection reduced microgliosis and astrocytosis. It also increased the oligodendrocytes population by enhancing remyelination in the CC of the cuprizone model of MS. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LL
Control of cellular adhesiveness in hyaluronic acid-based hydrogel through varying degrees of phenol moiety cross-linking
No full textCurrent hyaluronic acid-based hydrogels often cause cytotoxicity to encapsulated cells and lack the adhesive property required for effective biomedical and tissue engineering applications. Provision of the cell-adhesive surface is an important requirement to improve its biocompatibility. An aqueous solution of hyaluronic acid possessing phenolic hydroxyl (HA-Ph) moieties is gellable via a horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-catalyzed oxidative cross-linking reaction. This study evaluates the effect of different degrees of cross-linked Ph moieties on cellular adhesiveness and proliferation on the resultant enzymatically cross-linked HA-Ph hydrogels. Mechanical characterization demonstrated that the compression force of engineered hydrogels could be tuned in the range of 0.05�35 N by changing conjugated Ph moieties in the precursor formulation. The water contact angle and water content show hydrophobicity of hydrogels increased with increasing content of cross-linked Ph groups. The seeded mouse embryo fibroblast-like cell line and human cervical cancer cell line, on the HA-Ph hydrogel, proved cell attachment and spreading with a high content of cross-linked Ph groups. The HA-Ph with a higher degree of Ph moieties shows the maximum degree of cell adhesion, spreading, and proliferation which presents this hydrogel as a suitable biomaterial for biomedical and tissue engineering applications. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC
Assessment of the role of non-coding RNAs in the pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease
No full textParkinson's disease (PD) is the second main neurodegenerative disease causing motor abnormalities in the middle-aged and old individuals. In some cases, cognitive dysfunction also occurs. The clinical signs of PD are bradykinesia, rigidity and resting tremor. As these signs might be detected in other neurological conditions such as multiple systems atrophy and corticobasal degeneration, it is necessary to find specific and sensitive markers for this disorder. Non-coding RNAs are implicated in the different PD-associated features such as α-synuclein expression and Lewy body construction, mitochondrial dysfunction, apoptosis, neuroinflammation and defects in glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor. Several researches have confirmed dysregulation of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) in brain tissues, plasma exosomes and leukocytes of affected individuals or animal models of PD. A number of these transcripts directly regulate the neurodegenerative process in PD. In the current study, we review the current data about dysregulation of ncRNAs and the role of their genomic variants in the pathogenesis of PD. © 2021 Elsevier B.V
Designing two synthetic constructs for real time pcr detection of francisella tularensis and ebola virus
Get PDFBackground: Generally, timely diagnosis of micro-organisms is very important to prevent many diseases. Many methods can detect micro-organisms like culture-based methods and molecular methods. The molecular methods are usually preferred be-cause they provide fast and reliable results. In some cases, microbial strains are not ac-cessible, and there is no safety to work with them; therefore, synthetic constructs which are designed according to the available sequences in databases can be used as a positive control for detection of them. Methods: In this study, a synthetic construct was designed for molecular detection of Francisella tularensis (F. tularensis) and the Ebola virus by multiplex real-time PCR reaction. For this, sequences were taken from databases and then multiple alignments were done by software. Also, conventional PCR and two models of real-time PCR (SYBR green and TaqMan) were applied. Finally, multiplex real-time PCR was performed. Results: The synthetic construct was designed and used for conventional PCR and multiplex PCR. The results of common PCR showed a single band at 148 bp and 167 bp in 1.5 agarose gel stained by ethidium bromide for F. tularensis and Ebola virus, respectively. Also, a dual-band at 148 and 167 bp was observed in multiplex PCR. Results of real-time PCR showed a limit of detection about 0.1 pg of plasmid/µl. Conclusion: In conclusion, the designed construct can be used as a positive control for an accurate diagnosis of these micro-organisms without any biological danger for laboratory staff. So, this method is useful for diagnosis of these agents in food, water, and blood samples. © 2021, Avicenna Journal of Medical Biotechnology. All rights reserved
Comparing two inferior oblique weakening procedures: Disinsertion versus myectomy
Get PDFPurpose: To compare two methods for treating inferior oblique overaction (IOOA): Disinsertion versus myectomy of the muscle. Methods: In this prospective interventional case series, patients were randomly assigned to undergo either IO myectomy or disinsertion. The changes in vertical and horizontal deviations following these two surgical procedures were evaluated. The postoperative IO function of grade 0 or +1 and the fundus extorsion of grade 0 or +1 was considered as the successful outcome. Results: Thirty-six patients (50 eyes) with a mean age of 12.67 ± 4.05 years were included. In the myectomy group, the mean preoperative hyperdeviation in adduction was 29.5 ± 9.32 prism diopter (PD), which decreased to 9.15 ± 7.86 PD after surgery (P = 0.001). In the disinsertion group, these measurements were 32.73 ± 12.42 and 12.65 ± 9.34 PD before and after the surgery, respectively (P = 0.001). The success rate of surgery based on the IOOA grading was 87.4 and 92.3 in the myectomy and disinsertion groups, respectively (P = 0.780). The successful correction rate of abnormal fundus torsion was 91.6 in the myectomy and 88.4 in the disinsertion group (P = 0.821). In comparison, 48 of the cases in the myectomy group and 50 in the disinsertion group were within the normal range of torsional position postoperatively (P = 0.786). There was no statistically significant difference in terms of changes in the horizontal or vertical deviations, V-pattern, and dissociated vertical deviation between the two groups. Conclusion: Both surgical techniques seem to be effective for treatment of inferior oblique muscle overaction © 2021 JOURNAL OF OPHTHALMIC AND VISION RESEARCH | PUBLISHED BY PUBLISHED BY KNOWLEDGE E