Archives of Medical Laboratory Sciences

Background: Obesity with a rapid grow in developed and developing countries has a close association with higher disposition to related diseases such as hypertension. Intracellular functions of sodium, potassium, calcium, phosphate, and iron have been an interested subject in obese patients since their dysregulations are linked to a higher risk of hypertension and other metabolic disorders.

Materials and Methods: In this study, the circulating levels of sodium, potassium, calcium, phosphate, and iron were determined in the serum of obese patients compared to normal-weight people. Moreover, we examined the correlation of such electrolytes with the well-known indices of obesity such as body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), hip, triglycerides (TG), cholesterol and other characterizations.

Results: The mean levels of sodium, potassium, calcium, phosphate, and iron were significantly different (p < 0.05) in obese patients compared to normal-weight subjects. We observed a positive partial correlation between the levels of these electrolytes and obesity indices such as BMI, WC, hip, and cholesterol.

Conclusion: Collectively, the present study suggests the positive correlation between obesity and the indices of metabolic disorders such as hypertension and renal failure according to the observed imbalances in the concentration of electrolytes. Moreover, efforts for diet modification may be helpful in the programs aimed at decreasing the burden of obesity and related disorders.

Background: Elevated serum level of adiponectin and insulin and decreased serum resistin can improve glucose metabolism. Biochanin A (BCA) is a flavonoid of Soybean that shows antioxidant properties. This study was aimed to examine the effect of BCA on FBS, oxidative stress and serum levels of adiponectin, resistin and insulin in rats with type 1 diabetes.

Material and method: The rats were randomly divided into five groups (n=6). BCA was administered orally in doses of 10 and 15 mg/kg of body weight. Insulin, resistin and adiponectin were measured using ELISA kits. The activity of Gamma-Glutamyltransferase (GGT), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and the levels of Glutathione (GSH) were examined.

Results: The results showed that BCA treatment significantly reduced the FBS level in diabetic rats (p<0.05). Serum insulin was significantly increased in the BCA treated diabetic rats (p<0.05). Moreover, GGT activity and GSH was significantly increased in treated rats (p<0.05). Our findings revealed that the administration of BCA significantly increased the serum adiponectin (p<0.05). Additionally, serum resistin levels were remarkably decreased in treated rats (p<0.05).

Conclusion: Taken together, BCA represents a natural phytoestrogen that has an important role in improvement of glucose metabolism by regulating of adipokines secretion; also our findings revealed the beneficial effects of BCA against oxidative stress in diabetes

Background: Formation of amyloid fibrils has been associated with different protein aggregation diseases. Many studies indicate that many proteins can be converted in vitro into amyloid structures. Isolated ҡ-casein (ҡ-CN) spontaneously forms amyloid fibrils under physiological conditions, so it is a convenient model for researching generic aspect of fibril formation.

Materials and Methods: In this study the effect of aqueous extract of S. rosmarinus on the amyloid formation of ҡ-CN in the presence and absence of crowding agent, dextran, have been examined using Thioflavin T binding (ThT) assay, fluorescence spectroscopy, and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy.

Results: ThT binding assay showed that dextran increased the rate of amyloid fibril formation and S. rosmarinus extract retarded the amyloid fibril formation in κ-CN. In the presence of dextran however, the effect of   S. rosmarinus extract on the amyloid formation of ҡ-CN was less than in its absence.

Fluorescence spectroscopy results also demonstrated that dextran led to unfolding and increased the exposure hydrophobic area in ҡ-CN. S. rosmarinus extract efficiency decreased the exposure of hydrophobic regions in κ-CN, whereas in the presence of dextran this effect of extract was reduced.

CD spectroscopy results exhibited that incubation of κ-CN with S. rosmarinus extract prevented a structural transition to a β-sheet. CD spectroscopy results also indicated that by adding dextran to reduced κ-CN β-sheet structures observed, which indicates structural change. S. rosmarinus extract however, prevented transition to β-sheet structural.

Background: Widespread usage of contraceptive pills and Medroxyprogesterone acetate (Depo-Provera) as an injectable contraceptive can affect various biochemical and physiological factors, such as lipid profiles, fasting blood sugar (FBS) and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the use of oral contraceptives, medroxyprogesterone acetate and natural birth control methods with biochemical and physiological markers.

Materials and Methods: In this study, the serum samples of all subjects (200 women taking depo-Provera, 200 taking contraceptive pills and 200 women who had natural birth control) were collected. Then fast blood sugar, lipid profiles, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and BMI were measured and recorded.

Results: There was no significant difference between the mean and standard deviation of FBS and HDL between the three examined groups, but there were significant differences in lipid profiles biomarkers, blood pressure and BMI among three groups. Indeed, mean TG, LDL, cholesterol, BMI and systolic and diastolic blood pressure showed significant higher levels in contraceptive pills users compared to other groups. Also, in the users of depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate, the mean of TG, LDL, cholesterol, BMI and systolic blood pressure was significantly higher than the natural birth control users. There was a significant difference between the three groups in terms of the duration of the contraceptive method usage, which indicated that the depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate was utilized for a long period of time in compared to other methods. In addition, contraceptive pills users were more likely to suffer from headache and nausea, and depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate users experienced changes in their menstrual cycle, such as spotting.

Conclusion: It seems that oral contraceptive has no significant relationship with serum HDL level, and cholesterol is more affected by contraceptive drugs.

Background: The present study is on the development of a data mining algorithm for finding the influential factors on the hospitalization of patients subject to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive analytical study conducted cross sectionally in 2017 on a research community of 150 people with disease symptoms referred to clinics and hospitals across Tehran (Iran). The people were surveyed by a self-designed questionnaire, including queries on life style and family information. The sampling was simple intuitive from previously published studies. The modeling of the data was based on the CRISP method. The C5 decision tree algorithm was used and the data was analyzed by RapidMiner software.

Results: The common symptoms of the patients were found to be shortness of breath, cough, chest pain, sputum, continuous cold, and cyanogens. Besides, the family history, smoking, and exposure to allergic agents were other influential factors on the disease. After accomplishment of this study, the results were consulted with the experts of the field.

Conclution: It is concluded that data mining can be applied for excavation of knowledge from the gathered data and for determination of the effective factors on patient conditions. Accordingly, this model can successfully predict the disease status of any patient from its symptoms.

The respiratory system is exposed to the potentially harmful environment agents. More importantly, respiratory system infection is an important risk factor for inflammation and some pathogens can be main responsible of asthma. Phagocytosis is a main mechanism to eliminate of microbial infection. Phagocytic clearance may control asthma pathogenesis. In asthma, cytokines balance may be changed, therefore we investigated possible change in phagocytes in the present study.14 male Balb/c mice were divided into two control and asthmatic group. Asthma model in mice was produced by ovalbumin. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were separated and reduction nitro blue tetrazolium and latex bead florescence phagocytosis tests were done.

There was no significant difference in phagocytosis and NBT reduction test between asthmatic and control groups (P≤0.05).Airway inflammation and unbalancing of cytokines in asthma might modulate phagocytosis function. Therefore, asthmatic patient might be more susceptible to airway infection but there was not any notable changes in phagocytosis.