Archives of Medical Laboratory Sciences

Background: Job stress threatens teachers’ well-being and health. Identifying physiological factors that underline job stress is crucial for teachers’ health and students’ learning. This cross sectional study examined the cycle of stress biomarkers (salivary cortisol and alpha amylase) over the course of teaching among Iranian English teachers.

Materials and Method: 59 English teachers from two foreign language institutes in Bushehr province, southern Iran volunteered to participate in this study. The participants’ saliva samples were collected three times over the course of a usual teaching day (before class, during class, and after class). Salivary alpha amylase and cortisol levels were analyzed in the biomarker Sina Lab in Bushehr using commercially available and research-based kinetic reaction (sAA) (Pars Test) and immunoassay (cortisol) kits (IBL).

Results: A significant pattern was found for alpha amylase while cortisol did not show any significant change over the course of teaching.

Conclusion: The findings highlighted the usefulness and importance of measuring physiological biomarkers in studying teachers’ stress.   

Background: Hearing Loss (HL) is the most common sensory disorder in human with an incidence of about one in 650 alive neonates. It is estimated that at least 50% of pre-lingual HL has a genetic basis. Almost 70% of genetic HL are non-syndromic (NSHL) and of NSHL cases, the autosomal recessive form (ARNSHL) comprises about 80%. Iranian population especially the Kurdish ethnicity with high consanguinity rate offers suitable opportunity for the study of ARNSHL. The aim of this study was to clarify the role of DFNB1 (GJB6) and DFNB4 (SLC26A4) loci in ARNSHL in Kermanshah, Iran.

Methods: DFNB1 (GJB6) and DFNB4 (SLC26A4) loci were analysed in a cohort study on 28 ARNSHL families (GJB2- negative) from Kermanshah province in Iran. Genetic linkage analysis was applied on 140 samples from 140 individuals by polymerase chain reaction – polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PCR-PAGE) technique. Silver staining was used for visualizing the bands. At least, two informative screening markers were analyzed for each locus. Haplotypes were analyzed to determine linkage.

Results: None of the families studied showed linkage to DFNB1 and DFNB4 loci.

Conclusions: Our experiment, similar to previous studies, imply the absence of GJB6 mutations in Iran. None of the families showed linkage to DFNB4 locus. As it normally ranks second after DFNB1 in Iran and other parts of the world, more studies are warranted on more families to elucidate the role of this locus as well as other loci in etiogy of ARNSHL.

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of different dietary levels of Pennyroyal (Mentha Pulegium L.) essential oil (PEO), probiotic (Bioplus 2B) and antibiotic (Flavophospholipol) on performance, carcass characteristics and nutrients digestibility in broiler chickens in a completely randomize design (CRD).

Material and methods: The treatments included: A corn-wheat-soybean meal basal diet without any additives as control group and adding three levels of Flavophospholipol (0.015, 0.03 and 0.05 % of diet), three levels of BioPlus-B2 (0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 % of diet) and three levels of Mentha pulegium essential oil (0.03, 0.05 and 0.07 % of diet) to the basal diet. 5 replicates of 12 chicks were allocated to each experimental treatment.

Results: The results showed that the treatments significantly affected body weight gain (WG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) in the all experimental periods (P<0.05); but, they had no significant effect on feed intake (P>0.05). PEO at the level of 0.07% significantly decreased WG during 11-25 d (P<0.05) but observed no effect  during 11-25 and 11-42 d in compared to control group (P>0.05). Breast and abdominal fat percentage were not significantly affected by treatments (P>0.05). Lowest crude protein (CP) digestibility was observed in 0.015% antibiotic treatment that was significantly lower than 0.1% probiotic treatment (P<0.05).

Conclusion: More significantly, dietary supplements represented desirable performance in compared to antibiotics and control group. Hence, the possible usage of these components as antibiotics alternatives in poultry feeds should be outlined in future

Introduction: We aimed to determine the effect of lavandula angustifolia essential oil (LEO) on IL-23 and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene expressions in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of relapse-remitting MS (RRMS) patients.

Methods: LEO was prepared using the hydrodistilation method on the plants aerial parts.    8 female RRMS patients and 8 healthy sex and age matched controls were entered into this study. PBMC cells were separated using Ficoll method and were treated with a concentration of 225 µg/ml LEO which and then the mRNAs were used for determining the effects of LEO on IL-23 and BDNF gene expressions using Quantitative Real Time PCR technique. Moreover in order to determine the anti-inflammatory effects of LEO, we measured the gene expression of IL-6 and IL-23 in stimulated healthy PBMC cells treated with LEO.

Results: Results showed that there is no significant difference between PBMC of patients compared to healthy controls in case of IL-23 gene expression. Moreover, LEO has no significant effect on gene expression of IL-23 in PBMC of neither patients nor control. Also the results showed that BDNF gene expression is reduced to 41% compared to healthy controls and LEO can increase the BDNF gene expression by 81% in patients PBMCs. Moreover we observed that LEO can significantly reduce the LPS stimulated IL-6 gene expression in healthy PBMCs but had no significant effect on IL-23 gene expression.

Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that L.angustifolia essential oil may have a protective effect against neuron damage via increasing the gene expression of BDNF in PBMCs from RRMS patients. However, further studies are necessary to confirm our results.

Background and Objectives: Mycoplasma is a genus of bacteria often found in the normal flora of the mouth, respiratory system and urogenital tract; but potentially pathogenic species also exist which can cause serious respiratory and genital diseases in human including postpartum fever, pelvic inflammatory infections, and pyelonephritis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of Mycoplasma genitalium and Mycoplasma hominis in women who referred to the health centers in Karaj and investigate the susceptibility of M. genitalium strains against Fluoroquinolone antibiotics.

Materials & Methods: Endocervical swabs were taken from 200 women with cervicitis. Nucleic Acid Amplification Tests (NAATs) were performed for detecting Mgpa gene in M. genitalium and RNH gene in M. hominis. Mutations in parC and gyrA genes, as well as antibiotic resistance, were studied in positive samples of M. genitalium.

Results: 9 M. genitalium and 11 M. hominis positive samples were found among samples obtained from women with cervicitis. Positive samples of M.genitalium were examined for isolating the parC and gyrA genes. Six sequences of these genes were analyzed by MEGA5 software. Mutation in parC gene was observed in one sequence which %16 shows resistance.

Conclusion: M. hominis and M. genitalium were detected in 5.5% and 4.5% of samples, respectively. Our findings showed a relatively medium prevalence of M. hominis and M. genitalium in women with cervicitis in Alborz province. The sequencing results of gyrA and parC genes in this study represent the occurrence of mutations which drive fluoroquinolones resistance. Therefore, further studies are necessary in this area and to overcome this problem irregular prescribing limited and antibiotic sensitivity patterns in treatment to be considered.

Background: Worldwide, hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a serious public health disease unlike hepatitis A and B, there is currently no vaccine against HCV available. Thus, extensive studies are under way to design new and effective treatments against HCV. Core protein is a component of HCV particle which is the first antigen recognized by the immune system.beside protective properties of core protein, anti –core antibodies can be used to monitor the disease progress. The purpose of the present study was to isolate and clone the core (C) gene from HCV genotype 1a in an attempt to construct a recombinant vector and subsequently evaluate its expression in a cell culture system.

Methods:RNA genome of HCV genotype 1a was extracted from the blood of an infected patient. Complementary DNA (cDNA) was synthesized. HCV 1a core gene was amplified by PCR using specific primers and it was cloned into a eukaryotic expression vector. Huh7.5 cells were transfected by the designed recombinant vector and the cellular expression of the core gene was confirmed by RT-PCR.

Results: Recombinant pcDNA3.1 (+) vector containing the HCV core gene with approximate size of 576bp was successfully designed. RT-PCR was used to confirm the expression of core antigen in an Huh7.5 cell line.

Conclusion: The results showed that the core gene was successfully isolated from HCV genotype 1a and was cloned into the eukaryotic expression vector. This recombinant vector effectively replicated in Huh7.5 cell line. and its protective and therapeutic effects can be examined in further investigations.