International Journal of Molecular and Cellular Medicine
Volume:1 Issue: 3, Summer 2012

Heart failure is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. End stage disease often requires heart transplantation, which is hampered by donor organ shortage. Tissue engineering represents a promising alternative approach for cardiac repair. For the generation of artificial heart muscle tissue several cell types, scaffold materials and bioreactor designs are under investigation. In this review, the use of mesenchymal stem cells derived from human umbilical cord tissue (UCMSC) for cardiac tissue engineering will be discussed.

Cell based therapeutics is one of the most rapidly advancing medical fields, bringing together a range of fields including transplantation, tissue engineering and regeneration, biomaterials and stem cell biology. However, traditional cell-based therapeutics have many limitations, one of which is their harmful effects exhibited on healthy body cells due to their lack of specificity. Nanomedicine is providing an alternative treatment strategy that is more targeted and specific to a range of diseases. Varying from polymers conjugated with drugs or tissue targeting molecules, to proteins encapsulated within a polymer shell, nanomedicine will without a doubt play a major role in designing effective cell-based therapeutics that can overcome certain classical problems. These may include from addressing the problem of non-specificity of contemporary treatments to overcoming mechanical barriers, such as crossing cell membranes. This review summarises the recent work on nano-based cell therapy as a regenerative agent and as a therapeutic for cancer and neurological diseases.

It has been hypothesized that elevated plasma Homocysteine (Hcy) plays a role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and age-related cognitive decline. The mechanism of Hcy neurotoxicity in the brain is controversial as well Hcy is a ligand of NMDA receptor. Memantine, an uncompetitive antagonist of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors approved for the treatment of moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease. Hcy was injected 0.5 μmol/μl in the hippocampus of the rat brain and Memantine hydrochloride was injected 10mg/kg intraperitoneally 1 hour prior to Hcy injection. After five days, rats were killed and whole brain were taken out, fixed, and embedded in paraffin. The slices of the rat brain were prepared and immunohistochemical analysis was done to reveal the protein expression of Bax, Bcl-2, and the activation of Caspase 3 in the rat hippocampus layers. Results showed significant increase of Bax and Caspase-3 immunoreactivity in hippocampus of rat brain in Hcy group. Also an increase in Bax/Bcl-2 ratio in rat hippocampus cells. Memantine pretreatment could not change the levels of Bax, Bcl-2, Caspase-3 significantly in rat’s hippocampus cells. These findings suggest that Memantine could not antagonize Hcy – induced Apoptosis. Hcy may induce apoptosis via the other oxidative stress mechanism in the rat brain. potential. It may therefore be interesting that he barberry fruit extracts has the unique capacity to quench free radicals.

Cryptosporidium species are one of the most common causes of gastrointestinal infection in humans around the world. This study has aimed to investigate the hyper variable region of the 18S rRNA gene in Cryptosporidium for exact parasite identification. DNA was extracted from 26 fecal samples from which initially Cryptosporidium oocysts were identified by Ziehl-Neelsen acid-fast, Auramine phenol and ELISA techniques. Nested PCR, targeting the most polymorphic region of the 18S rRNA gene and genotyping was performed by restriction endonuclease digestion of the PCR product followed by nucleotide sequencing and phylogenic analysis. Among 26 isolates analyzed, three species of Cryptosporidium were identified; 38.5% of the isolates were C. hominis while 53.8% of the isolates were C. parvum and 7.7% of the isolates were C. meleagridis, which the last two species have the potentially zoonotic transmission. The only 11T subtype of C. hominis was demonstrated. These strains clustered distinctly into either human or animal origin regardless of the geographical origin, age, or immunity status of the patients. In summary, this work is the first report of C. meleagridis infecting human in Iran. Moreover, it suggested that multi-locus study of Cryptosporidium species in developing countries would be necessary to determine the extent of transmission of cryptosporidiosis in the populations.

Alpha thalassemia (α-thal) is relatively common worldwide. Most carriers are defective in either one or two alpha globin genes out of four functional ones, with deletions being more common than point mutations. The hematologic features are very important for the selection of the appropriate molecular tests while determining the genotype. The aim of this study was to compare hematologic features of patients with various types of α globin mutations. Hematological indices including red blood cells (RBC), hemoglobin concentration (Hb), mean cell volume (MCV), mean cell hemoglobin (MCH), Mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and percentage of Hemoglobin (HBA1, HBA2 and HBF) of seven-hundred and twenty two patients presenting ten different α-thal genotypes were considered. All patients showed reduced MCV and/or MCH values. Moreover, MCV and MCH were lower in patients with two functional alpha globin genes in comparison to patients with one mutated alpha globin gene (P value<0.001). In conclusion, MCV and MCH values can be helpful for the selection of the appropriate molecular tests to determine the genotype of alpha thalassemia carriers.

A vast majority of the studies addressing the free radicals including hydroxyl radical is a damage compound of biochemical molecules such as DNA, proteins and lipids. When free radicals specially hydroxyl radical are not adequately removed from the body, it may damage biological macromolecules, leading to a variety of disease occurs. Therefore, the body should be protected by an enzymatic or non-enzymatic antioxidant defense system against free radicals. In order to explore the hypothesis that antioxidant plants can serve as therapeutic agents for diseases, the effect of Barberry fruit extracts was studied in an in vitro model. By evaluating their scavenging potential. Barberry fruits were collected from Babol, Iran and certified by the local scientist Mazandaran Province, Iran. The Barberry fruits were cleaned and dried at room temperature while keeping away from direct sunlight and then powdered. Suitable amounts of dried plant were coarsely grounded and used for extraction. The dry plant samples were extracted with water and/or ethanol. 10 g of Barberry fruits extracts powder was percolated by water for 24 hours. The extract was filtered and concentrated. Hydroxyl radical was produced as described previously. Then, Barberry fruits hydroxyl radical scavenging capacity was determined using deoxyribose degradation system, followed spectrophotometrically at 532 nm. As expected, our data indicate that the level of hydroxyl radical generation in with aqueous and /or ethanol extracts of barberry fruit was decreased in comparison without barberry fruit extract in vitro system [(6.11±0.83, 5.28 ±1.44, mmol/ml) vs. (9.32±0.38, mmol/ml)], p<0.05, respectively. Indeed, our results revealed that the extracts of the Barberry fruit scavenge hydroxyl radical in vitro sample as compared to the controls. The barberry fruit extracts proved to be an effective for hydroxyl radical scavenging. The present data revealed that beneficial effect of Barberry fruit aqueous and ethanol extracts may be due to its free radical scavenging potential. It may therefore be interesting that he barberry fruit extracts has the unique capacity to quench free radicals.

In the rare hereditary bone disorder of osteopetrosis, reduced bone resorption function leads to both the development of densely sclerotic fragile bones and progressive obliteration of the marrow spaces and cranial foramina. Marrow obliteration, typically associated with extramedullary hemopoiesis and hepatosplenomegaly, results in anemia and thrombocytopenia; and nerve entrapment accounts for progressive blindness and hearing loss. Severe infantile or malignant osteopetrosis is the worst type of the disease which has poor prognosis. In this study we report two cases of severe infantile or malignant type of the disease in an Iranian family. Our two patients were children of a family where the wife is a grandchild of the husband’s aunt. The first patient had episodes of seizure and spastic in extremities 2 weeks after birth. Gradually, the patient showed upper and lower respiratory problems and horizontal nystagmus. X-Ray of hand and foot showed widening and increased bone density and physical examination showed hepatosplenomegallay and petechiae in extremities. The patient expired due to cardiopulmonary arrest. The second patient had also episodes of seizure 2 weeks after birth. Gradually, dissymmetry in eyes appeared and blindness was confirmed by ophthalmologist. Finally the patient expired because of severe pneumonia. Autosomal recessive osteopetrosis has been reported in most ethnic groups although it is more frequently seen in ethnic groups where consanguinity is common. We report for the first time two cases of severe infantile or malignant type of the disease in an Iranian family.