Research in Molecular Medicine
Volume:3 Issue: 4, Nov 2015

ABO blood type antigens are polymorphic, inherited structures presented on the surface of red blood cells. Although ABO blood group antigens is the most important antigens in transfusion medicine, its main role is not clearly clarified. Correlation between ABO blood group and susceptibility to certain infectious and non-infectious diseases is a controversial issue. Since, lack of blood type antigens has not been related to significant diseases or health risks. There are many research studies that suffice to prove that blood antigens are biologically active, carbohydrate structures involving to the “cell physiology and human pathology”. This review summarizes the available data concerning the blood group antigens correlation with different aspects of health. We therefore investigated that certain blood type antigens can affect susceptibility to diseases or make a phenotype resistant.

Breast cancer is the first leading cause of cancer-related death in women. Pesticides which are excessively used in northern Iran are one of the most important risk factors for breast cancer incidence. The cytochrome P450 1A1 (cyp1A1) is a key enzyme in xenobiotics metabolism and SNPs of its coding gene has been verified to be important in cancer susceptibility. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of cyp1A1 M1 polymorphism with the risk of breast cancer in Mazandaran province. Ninety six breast cancer patients with known clinopathological characters and 110 healthy women as control were genotyped for cyp1A1 M1 polymorphisms by PCR-RFLP technique using Msp1 restriction enzymes. Logistic regression model was applied for statistical analysis. The frequency of TT and TC genotypes of M1 polymorphism was calculated 86, 14% for cases and 79 and 21% for control group, respectively. Surprisingly, the mutant CC genotype was not found in any subjects. Statistical analysis showed no significant correlation between allelic variants and breast cancer risk (p value= 0.42, OR=0.66, CI= 0.24-1.81). No significant correlation was also found between genotypic frequency and clinopathological characters. Only TT and TC genotypes were found in the studied subjects. The M1 allelic variants were significantly associated neither with breast cancer risk nor with clinopathological characteristics.

The role of attenuation in antioxidant capacity or expansion of pro-oxidant/oxidant is well known for the development of stress oxidative. The aim of this study was to evaluate the plasma antioxidant capacity along with uric acid in patients with diabetic nephropathy (DN+) and without diabetic nephropathy (DN-). The research population included 88 patients with DN, 66 patients without DN and 54 healthy people who were matched for age, gender, and body mass index (BMI). In all groups, total antioxidant capacity of plasma by the ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay and serum uric acid by commercial kit, respectively. The mean age of patients in DN+, DN- and control groups were 59.3± 9.4, 60 ±11.2, and 54.6±6.9 years, respectively. Plasma antioxidant capacity was higher in patients with DN+, (1589±330μ mol/l Fe2+) and DN- (1344± 347 μ mol/l Fe2+) than that in healthy controls (1187±271 μ mol/l Fe2+) (P<0.001). The mean plasma uric acid in patients with DN+ was significantly higher (8.7±1.3 mg/dl) compared with DN- (7.3±1.2 mg/dl) (P<0.01), and significantly lower in control group (4.1±1.4 mg/dl) (P<0.001). According to our results, despite innate antioxidant activity of uric acid and increase of total antioxidant capacity and concentration of uric acid in diabetic patients with or without nephropathy, it cannot compensates the severity of oxidative stress. Further studies are required to determine the value of other antioxidant factors in increasing the power of total antioxidant capacity.

Deltamethrin (DM) is a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide that can elicit neurotoxicity, and lead to apoptosis. There is accumulating evidence that oleuropein (OE) has anti-apoptotic effect. This study aimed at determining the DM toxicity and anti-apoptotic effect of OE pretreatment in cerebellar Purkinje neurons. Rats were randomly divided into four groups as follow: DM treated group (12.5 mg/kg; single dose), OE treated group (20 mg/kg per day), DM plus OE treated group, and vehicle group. Sections of cerebellum were taken 24 hours after deltamethrin injection and studied for histopathological and immunohistochemistry assessments. Further characteristics of degeneration in Purkinje neurons were observed in DM group compared with DM plus OE group. Compared with DM group (9.56±1.69), the positive staining for Bax in Purkinje neurones decreased in DM plus OE group (2.99±0.50) but upper than OE (0.72±0.15) and vehicle (0.57±0.03) groups. Compared with DM group (0.50±0.05), the positive staining for Bcl-2 in Purkinje neurons increased in DM plus OE group (3.29±0.18) but lower than OE (4.38±0.80) and vehicle (5.87±1.93) groups. Our results suggest that DM induces apoptosis in Purkinje cells which is subsided by oleuropein.

The increasing pattern of Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) bacteria has limited therapeutic options especially for nosocomial isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae. Therefore, the aim of this study was the molecular detection of 16S rRNA methylase and blaCTX-M-15 among K. pneumoniae strains isolated from hospitalized patients in Mofid, Imam Hossein and Taleghani hospitals.This study was done with 110 K.pneumoniae isolated of hospitals in Tehran, Iran. Antibiotic susceptibility tests were carried out by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion and broth microdilution methods according to CLSI guidelines. ESBL, AmpC and KPC enzymes were detected by CDDT and MHT methods and the armA, rmtB, rmtC, rmtD and blaCTX-M-15 genes were detected by PCR and sequencing techniques. Typing of antibiotic resistance isolates was carried out by PFGE technique. In this study, Fosfomycin, colistin and tigecycline were more active than other antibiotics. Among the 110 K. pneumoniae strains, 60(54.5%), 33(30%) and 5(4.5%) were ESBL, Amp-C and KPC positive, respectively. The existence of blaCTX-M-15, armA and rmtC was detected in 40(36.3%), 15 (13.6%) and 2 (1.8%) respectively. Of 15 representative armA-producing K. pneumoniae isolates analyzed by PFGE, 9 different pulsotypes (PF1–9) were identified with Dice coefficients of ≥90% similarity. High-level aminoglycoside resistance in human pathogens result of 16S rRNA methylases is one of the serious concerns in Iran.

Recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) is one of the most common mucosal ulcerative of oral cavity. Role of immune system, especially cytokines in immunopathogenesis of aphthous stomatitis was not highly considered. The aim of this study was to evaluate the levels of salivary cytokines, including VEGF-R3, TGF-β1, TNF-α, and IL-17A/F in patients with RAS in two clinical stages, ulcerative and healing period. In this case –control study, 18 patients with RAS (case group) and 18 healthy individuals (control groups) who were matched for age and sex, were selected. In both ulcerative and healing stages, unstimulated saliva of patients with RAS and healthy controls were collected. Levels of salivary cytokines, including VEGF-R3, TGF-β, TNF-α, and IL-17A/F at each stage was determined by ELISA procedure and result were compared with the control group. The levels of salivary VEGF-R3 in the ulcerative (5.92 1.87ng/ml) and healing (7.14 ±3.1 ng/ml) stages significantly decreased comparing with control group (9.71±2.24 ng/ml). Moreover, the level of salivary TGF-β1 in ulcerative (142.21±18.7 pg/ml) and healing (167.02±28.1 pg/ml) stages significantly reduced comparing with control group (178.35±55.67 pg/ml). In addition, our finding showed that both inflammatory cytokines including TNF-α and IL-17 A/F significantly increased comparing to control group. The level of salivary TNF-α in ulcerative (34.9±11.35pg/ml) and healing (28.09±9.07pg/ml) stages significantly increased comparing with control group (10.76±1.83 pg/ml). Also, the IL-17 A/F level in the ulcerative (96.44±25.74 pg/ml) and healing (79.17±24.96 pg/ml) stages significantly increased comparing to the control group (53.47±13 pg/ml). Our finding in this study showed that the reduction of VEGF-R3 and TGF-β1 cytokines and increasing of inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α and IL-17 A/F are effective in the pathogenesis of minor aphthous particularly in ulcerative stage.

Calcium (Ca+2) plays an important role in many biophysiological mechanisms. The present study was carried out to assess alterations in total serum calcium level before and after operations in consider to the type of anesthesia. This descriptive study was conducted on 74 women who candidate for gynecological abdominal operations during one year at Al-zahra maternity Hospital in Rasht, Iran. The patients underwent General Anesthesia (GA) (N=37) or Spinal Anesthesia (SA) (N=37) randomly. Blood samples (2 cc), were obtained an hour before the anesthesia and two hours after that. The blood samples had been sent to the laboratory for analyzing. Total serum calcium level, magnesium (Mg) and albumin level were measured by photometric methods. Inferential statistic was analyzed with the Vilkson non-parametric and Pearson's correlation test. P-values less than 0.05 have been considered as significant different. There was a significant trend to decrease in calcium levels after all gynecological abdominal operations, but there was a significant correlation between General anesthesia (GA) and reduction of serum calcium level (p=0.026). Therefore, General Anesthesia (GA) is accompanied by more calcium reduction than Spinal Anesthesia (SA). Serum Calcium levels tend to decrease after all gynecological abdominal surgeries, but General Anesthesia (GA) is accompanied by more calcium reduction than Spinal one. It needs to further specific studies, to illustrate association between different methods of anesthesia and Ca+2 changes.