Background and Objective: Nowadays, incidence of antibiotic-resistance among pathogenic bacteria has increased due to indiscriminate use of antimicrobial drugs for treatment of diseases, especially urinary tract infections. Medicinal plants are also of great importance as antibacterial agents. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the antibacterial effect of ethanolic extract of nettle (Urtica dioica L.) leaves using two methods of disk diffusion and well diffusion.Methods: Ethanolic extract of nettle leaves was prepared by the percolation method. Effect of different concentrations of the extract on Escherichia coli (PTCC1399), Staphylococcus aureus (PTCC 1431), Staphylococcus epidermidis (PTCC 1435) and Staphylococcus saprophyticus (PTCC1440) was evaluated using the disk diffusion and well diffusion methods by measuring diameter of growth inhibition zone. Gentamicin and propylene glycol were used as positive and negative control, respectively.Results: In both methods, especially in the well diffusion, the ethanolic extract of nettle leaves had favorable inhibitory effect on the growth of S. aureus, S. epidermidis and S. saprophyticus. In the well diffusion method, the highest rate of susceptibility to the extract (89%) was related to S. saprophyticus and S. epidermidis. Conclusion:The ethanolic extract of nettle leaf has good inhibitory effect on the growth of S. aureus (especially in the well diffusion method), which confirms the traditional use of this plant for the treatment of urinary tract infections.
Background Using a different source of stem cells to compensate for the lost beta cells is a promising way to cure diabetic patients. Besides, the best efficiency of insulin‐producing cells (IPCs) will appear when we culture them in an environment similar to inside the body. Hence, three‐dimensional (3D) culture ameliorates the differentiation of diverse kinds of stem cells into IPCs compared to those differentiated in two‐dimensional (2D) culture. In this study, we aim to create an ideal differentiation environment by using PCL/Fish gelatin nanofibrous scaffolds to differentiate Wharton's jelly‐derived mesenchymal cells (WJ‐MSCs) to IPCs and compare them with a 2D cultured group. Methods The evaluation of cellular, molecular, and functional properties of differentiated cells on the 3D and 2D cultures was investigated by several assays such as electron microscopy, quantitative PCR, immunochemistry, western blotting, and ELISA. Results The in vitro studies showed that WJ‐MSCs differentiated in the 3D culture have strong properties of IPCs such as islet‐like cells. The expression of pancreatic‐specific genes at both RNA and protein levels showed higher differentiation efficacy of 3D culture. Besides, the results of the ELISA tests demonstrate that in both groups the differentiated cells are functional and secreted C‐peptide and insulin in glucose stimulation, but the secretion of C‐peptide and insulin in the 3D culture group was higher than those cultured in 2D groups. Conclusion Our findings showed the use of PCL/Fish gelatin nanofibrous scaffolds with optimized differentiation protocols can promote the differentiation of IPCs from WJ‐MSCs compared to the 2D culture group.
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