Journal of Pathobiology Reaearch
Volume:9 Issue: 2, 2006

Antibiotics are widely used as bacteriostatic and bactericidal drugs in bacterial infections. Besides the respective interactions between the antibiotics and bacteria and between the immune system and bacteria, antibiotics also interact directly with the immune system and have various immunomodulatory effects on phagocytosis, chemotaxis, cytokine production and endotoxine release. In this study, monocytes and neutrophils were separated from the blood samples of the patients with urinary tract infection before and after the therapy with 500 mg ciprofloxacin tablets. The cells were cultured in the presence of ciprofloxacin and activators including IFN-γ and LPS or PMA (for in vitro evaluation) or only the activators (for ex vivo evaluation). Supernatants of the cells were collected and then production of NO and H2O2 was measured. The effect of ciprofloxacin on NO and H2O2 production by monocytes and neutrophils in the patients with urinary tract infection caused by E. coli (E.Coli) was evaluated.The results were compared to an age- and sex-matched normal population. Peripheral blood samples from 45 patients with uUTI were collected at the time of diagnosis and at the end of the treatment. The results showed that NO and H2O2 production was significantly increased in the patients comparison to the control group, before and after the treatment (P<0.05). NO level in the post treatment group was also significantly raised compared to the pre-treatment group (P<0.05), but H2O2 level was not significantly altered (P>0.05).The results showed that the results of in vitro study was different from ex vivo. and alteration was not different between pre-treatment and post treatment groups significantly (P>0.05).

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Understanding of the tumor behavior, in a much closer look, at the molecular level, results in a more effective treatment and accurate prognosis of the disease. From among various genes altered in colorectal cancer K-ras is assumed to be of diagnostic and prognostic significance. K-ras mutations are believed to be a critical event in colorectal oncogenesis. Previous studies have demonstrated that 40% (20-50%) of CRCs harbor a mutant allele of K-ras oncogene. The mutations are limited to codons 12, 13, and 61 of the gene, with a great incidence at codon 12. The localization of mutations has given mutated K-ras an advantage of sensitive and simple detection over APC or p53 in which mutations are spread in their whole DNA sequence. To determine the incidence of K-ras mutations in CRC in Iran, compared with other countries, DNA was isolated from a random collection of 55 colorectal carcinoma samples, and codon 12 K-ras mutations were detected by RFLP. K-ras mutations in sporadic colorectal cancer in Iran are relatively frequent, with an incidence of 65%. This may be attributed to variation in methodology and to characteristics of the population studied such as differences in genetic background and variability in environmental factors and epidemiologic parameters such as diet, social lifestyle status, and other parameters that could be specific to the Iranian population. Correlation between the presence of codon 12 mutation and various clincopathological parameters was also investigated. A significant correlation was found with poor tumor differentiation of tumor samples. This places much emphasis on the role of promotion of differentiation as the most prominent effect of Ras.