مجله دانشکده پزشکی اصفهان
پیاپی 628 (هفته چهارم امرداد 1400)

Cerebral palsy is one of the common causes of complaints in obstetrics field. It is assumed that after the announcement and implementation of ministerial circular promoting vaginal childbirth in 2014, complaints related to neonatal brain damage and cerebral palsy due to hypoxic ischemic injuries during labor and delivery have increased. So in this study, this claim was investigated by comparing the complaints before and after this time.

This was a cross-sectional study on 117 complaints on cerebral palsy selected by census in the Tehran Medical Commission, Iran, from 2011 to 2017. Data were extracted from the files using a data registry form, and analyzed using SPSS software.

Out of 117 complaints related to cerebral palsy, 64 cases (54.7%) were born before announcement of circular and 53 (45.3%) after it. Out of 64 cases born before it, 33 cases complained before and the rest (31 cases) after its announcement; so all the complaints after its announcement reached to 84 while number of cases born in this period were just 53. There was statistically significant difference between the time of birth and the time of complaints (P < 0.001).

Despite the increase in the number of complaints on cerebral palsy in recent years, the majority of these cases are related to those born in the years before the announcement. So announcement of this circular has not caused excess in complaints on cerebral palsy during this period of time

The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of intense continuous and interval training on the levels of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) and Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha (TNF-α) in hippocampus of old rats.

30 old male Wistar rats (18 weeks old) were divided into 3 groups of interval training, continuous training, and control. Continuous training was performed for 8 weeks with 65% to 70% VO2max and interval training was performed 8 weeks with 5-8 repetitions of 2 minutes of working with 80%-100% VO2max and 2 minutes active rest with 50% of VO2max. Hippocampal samples were extracted 48 hours after the last training session to measure protein levels of BDNF and TNF-α. One-way ANOVA and Tukey post hoc tests were used for data analysis.

Hippocampus BDNF levels in continuous (P = 0.002) and interval training (P = 0.003) groups were significantly higher than the control group. But no significant differences were found in BDNF levels between continuous and interval training groups (P = 0.361). TNF-α levels in continuous and interval training groups were significantly higher than the control group (P = 0.001 for both). But no significant differences were found in TNF-α levels between continuous and interval training groups (P = 0.639).

Intense continuous and interval training increase BDNF levels in the hippocampus of the elderly rats through increasing TNF-α levels; thus, intense continuous and interval training can prevent aging of the nervous system by improving BDNF levels.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of liver cancer and the third cause of cancer-related death worldwide based on a recent update of Globocan in 2020. The induction of programmed cell death (apoptosis) in tumor cells is one of the main targets of conventional therapies in cancer. One of the key mechanisms that impacts tumor cells apoptotic response is autophagy. Autophagy is a conserved lysosomedependent degradation process that aids in the maintenance of cell homeostasis and metabolic compatibility. Apoptosis and autophagy are two main processes in controlling cell death and survival. Enhanced autophagy at various stages of HCC is related to increased tumor cells survival and malignancy development, allowing cancer cells to evade apoptosis. Various studies that investigated the effect of autophagy inhibition on apoptosis induction in HCC cells indicated that apoptosis inducers have a stronger therapeutic impact after autophagy inhibition. In this study, the crosstalk between autophagy and apoptosis in cells survival, as well as targeted alterations in the balance between these processes in HCC therapy are investigated.