Introduction:Heart as a high metabolic and aerobic tissue is consuming lipid as a fuel for its energy provision at rest during light and moderate exercise, except when lactate level is higher in blood circulation. It has been shown that any type of regular exercise and crataegus species would improve cardiovascular function and minimizes several risk factors via stimulating lipid metabolism by acting on enzymes and genes expression such as ABCA1 and PPAR α which are involving in this process.Materials and Methods:Twenty Wistar male rats (4-6 weeks old, 140-173 g weight) were used. Animals were randomly classified into training (n = 10) and control (n = 10) groups and then divided into saline-control (SC), saline-training (ST), Crataegus-Pentaegyna -control (CPC), and Crataegus-Pentaegyna -training (CPT) groups. Training groups have performed a high-intensity running program (at 34 m/min (0% grade), 60 min/day, 5 days/week) on a motor-driven treadmill for eight weeks. Animals were orally fed with Crataegus-Pentaegyna extraction (500mg/kg) and saline solution for six weeks. Seventy- two hours after the last training session, rats were sacrificed, hearts were excised, cleaned and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80 °C until RNA extraction. Plasma also was collected for plasma variable measurements. Statistical analysis was performed using a two way analysis of variance, and significance was accepted at P < 0.05.Results:A non-significant (P < 0.4, P < 0.79, respectively) increase in ABCA1 and PPAR α genes expression was accompanied by a significant (P < 0.01, P < 0.04, P < 0.04, respectively) reduction in TC, TG, and VLDL-C levels in Crataegus-Pentaegyna groups.Conclusions:Our findings show that a high intensity treadmill running was able to express ABCA1 and PPAR α in rat heart. Data also possibly indicate that the Crataeguse-Pentaegyna supplementation solely could mimic training effect on the mentioned genes and lipid profiles via different mechanism(s).

Background & objectives:Staphylococcus aureus is one of the major causes of nosocomial infections. Recently, increase in its various drug-resistant strains, has increased health problems. Incidence of VRSA (vancomycin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) strains has created many concerns about the treatment of these bacterial infections. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of Staphylococcus aureus with reduced susceptibility against vancomycinin clinical samples of patientsadmitted to the Ghaem and Imam Reza academic hospitals in Mashhad in 2014. Material and methods:In this cross-sectional study within 7 months, 176 S.aureus isolates obtained from clinical samples and were identified using the biochemical methods. To determine the resistance, the disk diffusion method according to CLSI (Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute) guidelines was used. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was evaluated by the agar dilution method and approved by E.test. Results:Of 176 S.aureus isolates,68 strains (64/38%) were methicillin resistant.The results of the agar dilution method represented 55cases of VISA (vancomycin intermediate Staphylococcus aureus) and 6 cases VRSA. But, these results confirm the correct with E.Test standard tapes. Conclusion: Emergence of VISA and VRSA isolates has been limited treatment of infections. Therefore, clinicians must be aware of management of patients who are colonized or infected with VISA and VRSA

Background: KRAS and BRAF genes are the biomarkers in Colorectal Cancer (CRC) which play prognostic and predictive roles in CRC treatment. Nowadays, the selection of rapid and available methods for studying KRAS and BRAF mutations in anti-EGFR therapy of patients suffering from CRC plays a significant role. In this study, the mutations of these two oncogenes were evaluated by different methods. Methods: This study was performed on 50 Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded (FFPE) tissue blocks of patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer. After DNA extraction, KRAS and BRAF gene mutations were evaluated using reverse dot blot, and results were compared with PCR-RFLP and allele-specific PCR for KRAS and BRAF mutations, respectively. Results: KRAS gene mutations were detected in 42% of patients, of which 30% were in codon 12 region, and 12% in codon 13. The most frequent mutations of KRAS were related to G12D  and 10% of patients had BRAF mutated genes. The type of KRAS gene mutations could be evaluated by reverse dot blot method. In general, the results of PCR-RFLP and allele-specific PCR were similar to the findings by reverse dot blot method.  Conclusion: These findings suggest that PCR-RFLP and allele-specific PCR methods are suitable for screening the presence of the mutations in KRAS and BRAF oncogenes. In fact, another method with more sensitivity is needed for a more accurate assessment to determine the type of mutations. Due to higher speed of detection, reduced Turnaround Time (TAT), and possible role of some KRAS point mutations in overall survival, reverse dot blot analysis seems to be an optimal method.

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effect of a high-intensity treadmill running (8 weeks) with or without aqueous extraction of black Crataegus-Pentaegyna (Siyah-Valik) on liver ABCA1 mRNA expression and plasma HDL-C, total, and direct bilirubin concentration in male rats. Twenty Wistar male rats (4-6 weeks old, 140-170 g weight) were used. Animals were randomly assigned into training (n =10) and control (n =10) groups and further divided into saline-control (SC, n=5), salinetraining (ST, n=5), black Crataegus-Pentaegyna (Siyah-Valik) Control (SVC, n=5), and black Crataegus-Pentaegyna (Siyah-Valik)-training (SVT, n=5) groups. Training groups have performed a high-intensity running program (34 m/min on 0% grade, 60 min/day and 5 days/week) on a motor-driven treadmill for 8 weeks. Animals were orally fed with black Crataegus-Pentaegyna (Siyah-Valik) extraction (500 mg/kg body weight) and saline solution for last six weeks. A significant differences have found in liver ABCA1 gene expression between SVC and SVT (P<0.003) and between SVC with SC groups (P< 0.038). HDL-C levels were significantly (P<0.036) between groups. A higher HDL level was found in SV treated groups and between SVC and SC groups. The levels of bilirubin total and bilirubin direct remained unchanged. The current results show that high-intensity treadmill running affected liver ABCA1 mRNA expression in different directions in saline (increase) and SV (decrease) treated animals. Findings also indicate an opposite pattern of change in saline and SV treated animals at rest. It seems the existence of opposite effect of exercise with supplementation of SV might be attributed to the suppression of lignds which is provided by SV supplementation at rest. This in turn might be also taking in account in lower liver ABCA1 mRNA expression and its related nuclear receptors such as LXR in SVT not ST groups.

Background: The role of immune system in natural course of viral hepatitis has been drawn some attention. One of the main diagnostic markers of the immune system function in different diseases might be the ratio of CD4 + to CD8 + T lymphocytes (CD4 + /CD8 + ratio). Objectives: This research aimed to measure and compare CD4 + /CD8 + ratio in the patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and control group. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, thirty-three CHB patients and thirty age and sex-matched healthy controls were included. Immunophenotyping of isolated T cells was performed using specific anti-CD4 and anti-CD8 antibodies by flow cytometry. Consequently, CD4 + , CD8 + and the ratio of CD4 + /CD8 + were counted and compared between the two groups. Results: CD4 + counts (%) were considerably reduced in patients with CHB compared to the healthy controls (51.22 ± 10.5 vs. 63.14 ± 9.9, P = 0.00), whereas CD8 + counts (%) were higher in the patients with CHB than healthy controls (48.8 ± 10.5 vs. 36.85 ± 9.86, P = 0.00). Moreover, CD4 + /CD8 + ratio remarkably decreased in the patients with CHB (1.15 ± 0.5) than healthy controls (1.93 ± 0.9) (P = 0.00). Area under curve (AUC) of 0.79 (SE = 0.06, CI = 0.68-0.90, P value = 0.05) was reported for CD4 + /CD8 + ratio with a sensitivity of 72.73% and specificity of 73.33% in 1.35 cutoff (likelihood ratio = 2.72). Conclusions: The research indicated an impaired balance between T cell subsets associated with a higher proportion of CD8 + T cells and a lower proportion of CD4 + T cells and CD4 + /CD8 + ratio in patients with CHB.