Gene, Cell and Tissue
Volume:6 Issue: 2, Apr 2019

Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) has an essential role in embryo implantation and placentation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of rs929271 SNP on LIF gene with recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL), placental location, and fetal gender in Iranian Azeri women. A total of 300 Azeri women (150 women with at least two recurrent miscarriages and 150 women with at least two healthy deliveries, as the control group) were genotyped for the 3’UTR region T>G SNP on LIF gene (rs929271) by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. Placental location and fetal gender were determined by two-dimensional sonography. The analysis showed that female embryos were more likely to abort than males (OR = 1.806, CI = 1.275 to 2.557, P value = 0.00083). The highest odds percentage ratio (OPR) of abortion were in women with fundal (OPR = 1.817) and anterior locations (OPR = 1.483); and the lowest in lower-lying placental locations (OPR = 0.448) (P = 0.0284). In this study, the frequency of T and G alleles were 0.99 and 0.01, respectively, and only two TT and TG genotypes were identified. Women with TG genotype had significantly more recurrent pregnancy loss than TT genotypes (P = 0.0133). The women with TG genotype compared with the TT genotypes were more likely to have low lying (OPR = 2.614) and anterior (OPR = 1.641) placental position. Also, the lowest OPR (0.231) for placental position of TG versus the TT genotype was posterior location (P = 0.0464). The allele G caused more (about 1.9 folds) female embryos than T allele, yet the difference was not significant (P = 0.34). In general, there are indications that the effect of this polymorphism on RPL is repeated due to its effect on the placental location and fetal gender. However, to confirm these results, there is a need to repeat this study in populations with more frequent G allele as well as other polymorphisms on the LIF gene.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third prevalent adenocarcinoma type with a high mortality rate worldwide. The JS-2 is a novel gene, which first was described in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). To date, several studies have investigated the role of JS-2 in the pathogenesis of CRC. The purpose of our survey was to assess the JS-2 gene expression level in subjects with CRC in the Iranian population. The current case-control study was conducted on one hundred fresh tissues, consisting of 50 cancerous colorectal adenocarcinomas and 50 adjacent non-cancerous tissues. The relative JS-2 gene expression level was assessed using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qReal-Time PCR) method. Our findings showed that the JS-2 gene was significantly over-expressed in cancerous tissues compared with the adjacent non-cancerous tissues (P = 0.037). In addition, overexpression of JS-2 was significantly related to the tumor differentiation (P = 0.047) and tumor stage (P = 0.036). The results suggested that the JS-2 gene played an important role in the progression of CRC and may be applied as a novel prognostic biomarker in patients with CRC.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative movement-related disturbance characterized by the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons with uncertain underlying mechanisms, which can be modeled by the rotenone (ROT). Neuroinflammation and oxidative stress (OS) are the most possible hypotheses to create this condition. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of celecoxib (CLX) on ROT-induced rat model of PD. To this aim, the suppression of neuroinflammation and oxidative stress-mediated apoptosis was surveyed. In this experimental study, thirty-two male Sprague-Dawley rats randomly classified into 4 groups (n = 8 rats/group) in the following order: control, sham, PD (2.5 mg/kg/48 hours ROT subcutaneously), CLX + PD (20 mg/kg/24 daily orally CLX + 2.5 mg/kg/48 hours ROT). After 28 days of the experiment, the rats were sacrificed and their brain was removed. Then histological (Nissl staining) and biochemical assessments (total antioxidant capacity (TAC) were carried out and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were measured. The data were analyzed by ANOVA test. The biochemical assessments showed TAC was significantly increased in CLX + PD group compared with PD group, whereas MDA was decreased in CLX + PD group compared with PD group (P < 0.01). We found a significant decrease in the number of dopaminergic cells in substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) in PD group (P < 0.001), and treatment with CLX markedly increased dopaminergic neurons in CLX + PD compare to PD group (P < 0.01). The findings of this study revealed that CLX treatment can effectively improve the antioxidant defense system and attenuates striatum insults on ROT-induced rat model of PD. These findings suggest that CLX plays a neuroprotective role in the inhibition of oxidative stress and neuroinflammation

MicroRNAs (miRNA) are considered to be the regulators of the gene expression. They play an essential role in cell proliferation, apoptosis, and development. Change in their expression is associated with various pathologic disorders. Moreover, preeclampsia (PE) is a complex pregnancy-related disorder. The purpose of this study was to determine the rate of three miRNA expressions in the placenta and plasma of healthy individuals and pregnant women with preeclamptic. Plasma and placenta samples were collected from 10 women with preeclampsia during the first trimester and third trimester of the pregnancy, and 10 healthy pregnant women who referred to Medical Genetics Center, Shiraz, Iran. The miRNA expression was investigated in the samples by real-time reverse-transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis. The expression profile of three miRNAs from the 14MC cluster was performed on 10 placenta and 40 plasma samples. Expression of miR-411 in normal and PE placenta was low; only significant differences were observed at 5% level between PE plasma and normal placenta. In addition, the expression of miR-377 was low in all samples. A high expression of miR-154 was observed in normal and PE placentas. A significant difference was detected between the placenta and PE plasma samples. Considering many factors affecting the amount and type of the expression of miRNAs, and based on the results of the present study, it seems miR-411, miR-377, and miR-154 are possibly appropriate candidates as novel biomarkers; however, further investigation is needed to confirm their suitability in the future studies.

Drug addiction is a serious neurological disorder that is significantly associated with mortality and morbidity. It is accompanied by social, economic, and health problems for both the individual and the whole society. Genes playing a role in the catabolism of dopamine (DA), such as catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), seem to be plausible candidate genes for drug dependence. This study aimed to investigate the effect of rs4680 (Val158Met) polymorphism of the COMT gene on opioid addiction (OA) in the whole samples and male/female subsamples of an Iranian population. The current case-control study was conducted with 96 cases (87 men and nine women with OA) and 142 controls (117 men and 25 women). Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was used to genotype the samples. Our results showed no significant association between the COMT rs4680 gene polymorphism and OA in the total population. In addition, we found no notable correlation between rs4880 and OA in male and female subsamples. In conclusion, there was no correlation between the rs4680 polymorphism of the COMT gene and opioid addiction. The conflicting results in studies with different ethnicities and sample sizes suggest that additional studies are needed to investigate the Val158Met polymorphism correlation with other variants of the COMT gene in larger populations and in both genders with opioid and other addictions