مهناز سیفی

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of beetroot supplementation on oxidative stress and delayed onset muscle soreness after an exhaustive eccentric exercise in competitive soccer players.

20 male competitive football players of Mashhad, aged between 17 and 19 years, were randomly assigned to placebo and beetroot groups. On the pre-test day, both groups participated in an exhaustive eccentric exercise. Then, for 2 weeks, the supplement group received beetroot extract and the placebo group received flour powder (200 mg daily dose with identical capsules). After two weeks, both groups again participated in the same physical activity as the pre-test (post-test). Before and 24 hours after both activities, blood samples were taken and muscle pain was measured. CK, LDH, GPX, SOD and MDA levels were measured for each blood sample.

The results showed that muscle pain and levels of CK, LDH, GPX and MDA increased significantly after eccentric exercise, but their increase in the beetroot group was significantly lower than the placebo group (P<0.05).

Probably, the short-term supplementation of beet reduces the rate of delayed onset muscle soreness following a bout of eccentric resistance activity due to its antioxidant substances.

Urinary tract infection is the most common nosocomial infection worldwide. Microorganisms causing urinary tract infections are resistant to most of the antibiotics. Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) is one of the major causes of nosocomial infections and its antibiotic resistance leads to medical implications associated with urinary tract infections. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of P. aeruginosa strains to identify their in-vitro susceptibility to antimicrobial agents and to determine genetic diversity of them.

Urine samples were obtained from catheterized patients in Shohada and Labafi Nejad hospitals, Tehran, Iran, and cultured by standard loop method. The cultures with more than 105 CFU/ml were assumed as positive. After identification of bacterial species by biochemical tests, susceptibility of each isolate was assessed by disk diffusion method according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines. In order to analyze bacterial genotypic diversity, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) was performed.

116 out of 163 urine samples were positive for bacterial isolates. Pseudomonas species were placed in third step of the most frequent isolates. Antibiotic sensitivity was observed against most of antimicrobial agents. Some of strains were genetically similar.

This study revealed that isolated strains were sensitive to wide range of antibiotic agents. In addition, common type strains were responsible of causing inter- and intra-hospital urinary tract infections in catheterized patients.

Enterococci are normal microflora of the humans. They are identified as opportunistic pathogens and they are among the three major factors of hospital infections. Enterococci are able to form biofilms on the biotic and abiotic surfaces and this ability is one of the important factors to pathogenesis. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate biofilm formation and evaluation of antibiotic resistance among Enterococcus faecalis (E. f) isolates from clinical and environmental isolates in Tehran hospitals.

In total, 90 isolates of Enterococcus faecalis including 58 clinical and 32 environmental isolates of (E.F) were collected from 2 hospitals in Tehran. All enterococcal species isolates were identified by species-specific PCR. Antibiotic resistance pattern of 90 isolates of (E. f) isolates was determined by disk diffusion method according to the CLSI guidelines. Biofilm formation of (E. f) isolates was evaluated by microtiter plates method.

The highest resistant percents of clinical (E. f) isolates against tetracycline, erythromycin, co-trimoxazole, ciprofloxacin and gentamicin were 86%, 62%, 69%, 69% and 64%, respectively. Among environmental isolates the resistant percents were 75%, 44%, 25%, 22% and 25%, respectively. According to biofilm formation assay, 72% and 84.5% of clinical and environmental (E. f) isolates were positive, respectively. Samples that were able to form biofilms showed more antibiotic resistance than those that are not able to form biofilms.

The results of this study indicate high prevalence of antibiotic resistance and the ability of biofilm formation among Enterococcus faecalis. Considering the role of biofilms in increased antibiotic resistance and virulence, it is needed to carry out necessary measure to eliminate suitable conditions for biofilm formation which act as a shield against various conditions, including the host immune system and antibiotics.

Transmition of tuberculosis between man and livestock is quite common. In the world tuberculosis is describedto be present in 20 million people. and every year 5 million people is added to this fgure. People living in poorerareas are more in danger of the tuberculosis. Tuberculosis has been diagnosed in cows with dilapidated tuberclesin various organs. In addition to the cow, man, goats and pigs are sensitive to bovine tuberculosis, sheep and horsesshow a kind of natural resistance.Three types of Mycobacterium tubercule bacilli have been recognized among warm blooded animals , whichhuman tuberculosis species (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) and bovine species (Mycobacterium bovis) are verysimilar to each other but a kind of chicken species is different.Identifcation of different mycobacterial species with biochemical and phenotypic methods is time-consumingand diffcult, and using these diagnostic methods created some problems to identify some of these species. Todayrapid molecular diagnostic methods for mycobacterial species which infected human communities have importantposition in epidemiology and control of tuberculosis. Therefore, the recognition of the strain types in every regionreveals the usefull information about the disease for every society. This issue in identifying all cases infected withthe mycobacterial strains (Atypical and TB) is very important.Recently some techniques such as Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) and the use of specifcprobes in the diagnosis of mycobacterial strains have much effciency. By using these methods one can easily takesamples from suspicious humans or animals and in one mycobacterial infection and species identifcation can beperformed. It is obvious that quick diagnosis of mycobacterial infections can help to reduce the disease in thecountry.

Enterococci are members of the normal gut flora of animals and humans and are released into the environment directly or via sewage outlets. The aim of the study was to detect and analyze the biochemical diversity and antibiotic resistance of the enterococci strains in Tehran sewage. A total of 316 isolates of enterococci were selected on mEnterococcus agar medium and identified at the species level by the common biochemical tests. Antibiotic susceptibility test of isolates with six antibiotics and the MIC was also done using broth macro dilution assay. The results showed that 161, 94, 37, 12, 7, 3, 2 and 1 isolates were E. faecium, E. hirae, E. faecalis, E. gallinarum, E. mundtii, E. raffinosus, E. casseliflavus and E. avium respectively. The antibiotic resistance to the isolates were as follow: 5, 5, 6, 17, 21 and 35% of the isolates were resistant to vancomycin, gentamicin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, ciprofloxacin and erythromycin respectively. MIC test showed that 15 of the isolates were highly resistant to vancomycin. Although Enterococcal species was considered to have a high distribution in Tehran sewage, but the presence of VRE was limited to E. faecium. Resistance to vancomycin and gentamicin was less than other antibiotics, and resistance to erythromycin and ciprofloxacin was higher.