Archives of Advances in Biosciences
Volume:6 Issue: 4, Autumn 2015

High blood pressure has become increasingly commonbetween people and also it takes a major risk factor for many diseases. The present study is done toperformthe collaborative care model in patients with high blood pressure. Hypertension is defined as: Systolic blood pressure (SBP) ≥140 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) ≥90 mmHg. A collaborative care model is a native educating method based on patient's participation in the management of chronic disease. In this quasi-experimental study, 40 patients with high blood pressure (two equal groups of test and control) selected from two clinics in the city of Semnan in 2013, and they were evaluated using the targeted and simple random sampling.The checklists included demographic information (5 items), medical and smoking history (13 items), anthropometric parameters (3 items), laboratory measurements (6 items), diet (5 items), activities (7 items), dependent variables (5 items), cardiac complications (6 items), and frequency of doctor visits.The test group participated in intervention and participatory meetingsevery week. Collaborative care model, is comprised of4 stages; motivation, preparation, involvement, and evaluation over 3 months of intervention. Evaluation was based on the following criteria: Hypertensive patients(systolic blood pressure higher than 140 mmHg and diastolic blood pressureabove 90 mmHg, measured and approved in two different visits), to improvepatient health and knowledge, to decrease risk factors for disease,and to increase satisfaction and quality of health care services before and after intervention. Descriptive statistics, the independent t-test, and chi-square test were calculated at a significance level of 5%.Body mass index, triglyceride level, diastolic blood pressure, and salt intake declined in the test group after intermediation.Althoughthe consumption of bread and rice wasdecreased in the control group, but not in the test group.As previously described,performing the collaborative care model resulted in less catching high blood pressure, thus it can act as an efficient and cost-effective method for preventing and controlling high blood pressure.

Monte Carlo method is a very accurate method to optimize medical diagnostic radiology spectra and simulation of radiation transportation. Using MCNP code, radiology and mammography attenuated x-rayspectraweresimulated.The IPEM report number 78 was used as a reference to compare with the GEANT4 and MCNP simulations because of its popularity and wide availability. The results of GEANT4 in 40keV showed a good homogeneity with IPEM report in terms of intensity, whilst the MCNP code in tube voltage 150kVp showed a very good agreement. Whereas theGEANT4outputintensityinallcases was less than the IPEM report, MCNP code showed higher characteristic peak intensity. The MCNP results were obtained with a less error percentage in comparison with IPEM reportexceptatlowenergies. The comparison shows a good agreement between these two codes. MCNP shows a very goodagreement in high tube voltage whereas GEANT4 showsvery goodagreement in low tube voltage.

Endothelial dysfunction and carotid intima-media thickness are 2 indicators of subclinical cardiovascular disease. The aim of study was to analyze brachial flow mediated dilation(FMD)and carotid intima media thickness (CIMT)in patients with coronary artery disease, and investigate the relationship between endothelial function, CIMT and coronary artery disease risk factors.56 men and women aged between 25 to 75 years with coronary artery disease were recruited. FMD and CIMT was measured by B-mode ultrasonography. Data were presented as mean ± SE. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to evaluate associations and T-test and Chi-square tests were used for quantitative and qualitative variables. P-values < 0.05 were considered to indicate statistically significant differences. The mean age of subjects was 59.37±1.28 years. The frequencies of one, two and three-vessel coronary artery disease were 61%, 35.1% and 3.9%, respectively. The mean of CIMT in patients was 0.79±0.02 mm, and 65.5% of patients had CIMT more than 0.8 mm.The mean of FMD was 4.79±0.55% and 65.4% of patients had FMD lower than 5.3%. CIMT was correlated directly with number of diseased vessels, age andtotal cholesterol and was correlated inversely with HDL-C.Non-invasive measurement of FMD and CIMT are interrelated techniques that probably assess the same atherosclerotic process from functional and anatomic viewpoints.In these patients an increase in CIMT and decrease in FMD may warrant more aggressive risk factor control through the beginning of effective medical treatment.

The association between overt hypothyroidism and altered lipid profile is well known, whereas the significance of dyslipidemia in subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) is still a matter of debate. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the lipid profile in patients with SCH in comparison to controls. Serum lipid parameters of 34 patients with SCH and 34 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were evaluated in our study. TC (198.88 ± 42.90 vs 171.40 ± 26.24 mg/dl, P < 0.01) and LDL-C concentrations (129.04 ± 35.44 vs 106.71 ± 26.21 mg/dl, P < 0.01) as well as ratio of LDL-C/HDL-C (3.51 ± 1.46 vs 2.81 ± 0.80, P < 0.05) were significantly higher in the patients in comparison to the controls, whereas HDL-C and TC/HDL-C ratio remained unaltered. TG concentrations were higher in the patients but this difference did not reach statistical significance (0.063). Correlation analyses revealed a significant correlation of TSH with TC, LDL-C and LDL-C/HDL-C ratio (r=0.351, r=0.345, r=0.340, respectively, P < 0.01) and a borderline correlation with TG (p=0.051). Our findings showed that SCH is associated with some lipid abnormalities suggesting higher risk of cardiovascular disease in these patients which seems to weigh in favor of treatment of patients with SCH.

Skeletal muscle is a highly differentiated tissue with very specific functions which has low potential of regeneration. Skeletal muscle injuries especially in athletes almost have lead to muscular dysfunctions and healing may be prolonged for several years. Therefore, working on skeletal muscle differentiation remained an importance in biomedical researches. Adipose derived stem cells (ADSCs) are novel source of mesenchymal stem cells which are an excellent alternative for satellite cells in in-vitro skeletal muscle differentiation. Differentiation potential of ADSCs on both tissue culture plate (TCP) and also on Poly l-lactide acid (PLLA) electrospun fibrous nano-scaffold which now is widely used at tissue engineering investigations has studied in this research. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Tensile test were performed for evaluating scaffold properties. Hydrocortisone has considered a critical factors for skeletal muscle differentiation while, the recommended concentrations of it for inducing myogenesis in stem cells is yet discussing. Statistical analysis of our results from colorimetric MTT assay for various concentrations of hydrocortisone showed that the concentration of 10-7 mol/L is the optimum dose for myogenic differentiation of murine ADSCs which was used on both TCP and PLLA scaffolds and skeletal myosin fiber formations was confirmed with immunocytochemistry. DAPI staining proved myocytes nuclei and syncytium formations. Our results also showed that ADSCs and PLLA nano-scaffolds are the suitable biomaterials for engineering skeletal muscle tissue.

Ulcerative Colitis (UC) is one type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Herpes viruses have been suggested as possible etiological agents of UC and Crohn’s disease (CD). The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of Herpes Simplex virus (HSV), Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in patients with UC in comparison with healthy subjects by using PCR technique. In this analytical case-control study, five patients with UC and thirty healthy patients as controls were selected. Sampling was performed by endoscopic biopsy operation. Biopsy specimens were frozen under sterile conditions at -20˚C until analysis. After DNA extraction, analysis of PCR to detect HSV, CMV and EBV DNA in tissue samples was performed. Statistical analysis was performed with the χ2 test. We observed HSV DNA in 80% of UC samples (4 of 5) and 10% from the normal control group (3 of 30). CMV DNA was found in 80% of UC samples (4 of 5) and 30% from the normal control group (9 of 30). Also, EBV DNA was found in 60% of UC samples (3 of 5) and 36.7% from the normal control group (11 of 30). Statistical analysis showed a significant association between the prevalence of HSV and CMV and the incidence of UC compared with the control group. The results of the present study has shown UC patients have a predisposition to HSV and CMV infections as compared to healthy individuals. Also, the results demonstrate a lack of direct molecular evidence to support an association between HSV and CMV with UC.

Glutamate decarboxylase enzyme produces γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in a non-reversible decarboxylation reaction of glutamate. GABA is a major inhibitory neurotransmitter of the brain and it is also present at high concentration in other organs such as pancreatic islets. GABA has effects on blood pressure, diabetes, inflammation, sleeplessness and depression. Some bacteria such as Lactobacillus strains are capable of GABA production. Identification of these bacteria is important both for researchers and industry. The aim of this study was molecular gene cloning and sequencing of glutamate decarboxylase (gad) from Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus ATCC 11842 and Lactobacillus reuteri ATCC 23272. These strains were cultured in MRS medium at 37○C for 24 hours. For cloning gad gene from these strains, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed using specific primers designed by Oligo7 software. PCR production was extracted from agarose gel and was inserted into PGEM-T vector using T4 DNA ligase enzyme and then it was transformed to E. coli XL1Blue. In the final step, white colonies were selected and after plasmid extraction, the existence of gad gene in recombinants was confirmed by PCR. Gad gene was cloned from Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus ATCC 11842 and Lactobacillus reuteri ATCC 23272. It is for the first time that the gad gene sequences from these bacteria were registered on NCBI with accession numbers KF751355 and KF751352 respectively. The result of this research indicates that the two aforementioned bacteria contain glutamate decarboxylase gene and therefore they possibly can be used for industrial γ-aminobutyric acid production.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an important agent causing chronic liver infection, which often leads to liver cirrhosis and lethal hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). At present, there is no effective HCV vaccine for prevention of hepatic disease and the standard treatment is neither economical nor fully effective in all the patients. However, vaccination based on structural and nonstructural proteins of HCV has attracted a special interest. Different heterologous systems have been used to generate the recombinant HCV core, E1, and E2 proteins including Escherichia coli, yeast, insects and mammalian cells. Further studies showed that the amounts of HCV recombinant proteins in E. coli are more suitable and un-expensive compared to other systems. It should be considered that this system is not efficient for generation of the glycosylated proteins. Thus, the structure of proteins is an important agent of selection for expression systems. The selection of expression systems will be critical for the use of recombinant proteins as an immunogen. In this mini-review, we briefly describe different expression systems for generation of the HCV recombinant structural proteins applied in vaccine design.