Iranian Journal of

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Background: Household food insecurity is defined as limited or uncertain access to nutritionally adequate and safe food or limited ability to obtain foods in socially acceptable ways. The association between food security and obesity had been investigated before but so far, its association with body composition has not been investigated. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between Food security with anthropometric measurements, body composition and blood pressure in women attending the sport clubs of municipality in west of Tehran.
Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted in 397 randomly selected healthy women from 14 sport clubs dependent to mayoralty in North West, South West and West of Tehran. To determine the food security, USDA food insecurity (18-item scale) was used. Weight, height, waist circumference (WC), systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP) were measured according to standard protocols Body composition was measured using body impedance analyzer (BIA). Socio-demographic and socioeconomic status were recorded. Data analysis included chi-square test, ANOVA test and multivariate analyses of variance.
Results: The prevalence of food insecurity in subjects was 54.4% that 45.3% were food insecure without hunger, and 9.1% were food insecure with moderate and severe hunger. Compared to food secure households, people with food insecurity significantly had more general obesity (Body Mass Index > 30kg/m2) and central obesity (Waist > 80 cm) (P-value < 0.0001).Also, most people with high blood pressure were in food insecure group and the association between blood pressure and food security was significant (P-value < 0.0001). Body composition and systolic and diastolic blood pressure of women were significantly greater in the group with food insecurity than food security group (P-value < 0.0001).
Conclusion: The results of this study showed that food insecurity was significantly associated with obesity, fat mass, visceral fat mass and blood pressure.

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Background: Diabetes is the most common endocrine disorder that affects many people every year. Diabetic nephropathy is main complication of diabetes type 2. Renoprotective effects of vitamin “D” in chronic kidney disease have been reported that including diabetic nephropathy. The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between polymorphism (rs731236 (Taq1)) at gene receptor vitamin D (VDR), and the risk of diabetic nephropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Methods In this case-control study, 104 patients with type 2 diabetes and nephropathy, 100 patients with type 2 diabetes and no nephropathy, and 98 people without diabetes and nephropathy who referred to the Diabetes Clinic of Tehran University of Medical Sciences were included .  Clinical data were obtained and biochemical parameters were measured. The DNA samples were extracted from blood samples by phenol chloroform method. TheTaqI polymorphism (rs731236) was studied by TaqMan specific genotypes.
Results: Urea, creatinine and urine albumin values were significantly higher and glomerular filtration rate was lower in nephropathy group. Although frequency of TT genotype and also T allele was higher in nephropathy group, the difference was not significant.
Conclusion: There was no association between Taq1 polymorphism and diabetic nephropathy in the studied population
 

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Background: Diabetic Nephropathy is one of the main microvascular complications of diabetic mellitus. Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (MTHFR) is one of the candidate genes of diabetic nephropathy. MTHFR (C677T) polymorphism reduces catalytic activity of MTHFR and leads to increase level of plasma homocysteine. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of C677T polymorphism with diabetic nephropathy.
Methods: In this case control study, 300 individuals, including type 2 diabetes mellitus with diabetic nephropathy (N=104), diabetes mellitus patients without diabetic nephropathy (N=100) and controls (N=96) participated. The MTHFR genotype was determined using PCR-RFLP technique and biochemical parameters were measured.
Results: Genotype frequencies were significantly different between patients with diabetic nephropathy and diabetes mellitus without nephropathy (TT+CT vs CC; P=0.02,OR:0.5,CI:0.3-0.9).The allele frequency was also significantly different between diabetic nephropathy and diabetics mellitus without nephropathy(P=0.013,OR:1.754,CI:1.123-2.740).
Conclusion: These findings suggest that there is an association between C677T polymorphism and nephropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes. Allele C increase the risk of nephropathy, and T allele has a protective role in susceptibility to disease.

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Background: Diabetic nephropathy is a chronic kidney disease and of more common complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus. The current diagnostic markers of diabetic nephropathy, albumin and creatinine, are only able to catch the disease in the stage of renal damage. The aim of this study is evaluation of targeted metabolomics of serum amino acids to identify the association of the changes of serum amino acid profile with diabetes and diabetic nephropathy.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2015-2016 on thirty patients with type 2 diabetes subsequent diabetic nephropathy and thirty type 2 diabetic patients without nephropathy attending diabetes clinic of endocrinology and metabolism institute and thirty non diabetic persons. Blood hemoglobin, HbA1c and BUN and also, serum albumin, uric acid and the albumin/creatinine ratio from a random urine specimen were measured by standard methods and serum amino acids level were identified using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Statistical analysis ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis, and nominal regression were used for the comparison of the investigated groups.  
Results: significant differences were seen in serum levels of 8 essential, branched-chains, aromatic and 8 non-essential amino acids alanine, aspartic acid, serine, glutamine, arginine, glycine, tyrosine and ornithine between three groups. Serum levels of arginine and isoleucine were higher in the diabetic group than non-diabetics. However, Levels of amino acids serine, glutamine, glycine, threonine, tyrosine, tryptophan, methionine, valine, ornithine, and lysine in 2 groups of diabetic nephropathy and diabetes were higher than non-diabetic patients.
For every standard deviation decrease in serum levels of amino acids serine, alanine and isoleucine, in comparison to diabetic patients, the risk of diabetic nephropathy were increased 3.257 (95%CI: 0.10- 0.94, P=0.039), 2.207 (95%CI: 0.18- 0.81, P=0.039) and 2.652 (0.21- 0.96, P=0.012), respectively.
Conclusion: Since this study was conducted in patients in the early stages of the disease, reduced serum levels of the amino acids serine, leucine and alanine may be associated with development and progression of diabetic nephropathy. and in the future with more studies in this field can be used in metabolic control and improvement of the prognosis of patients with diabetic nephropathy.

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Background: Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common endocrine diseases. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the leading causes of death in patients with type 2 diabetes. The aim of this study was to investigate the metabolic profile of plasma amino acids in diabetic patients with cardiovascular disease.
Methods: The present study is a descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study on 140 patients including 35 patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD.DM), 35 patients with type 2 diabetes and non-cardiovascular disease (DM). 35 non-diabetic patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD.nDM) and 35 non-diabetic patients with non-cardiovascular disease (HS) were referred to Diabetes Clinic No. 1 of Tehran University of Medical Sciences.
Results: 76 (54.3%) were male and 64 (45.7%) were female. The highest concentrations of glutamine and isoleucine were observed in DM.CVD, asparagine, serine, arginine, threonine, alanine, tyrosine, valine in DM.nCVD and methionine in CVD.nDM. The lowest concentrations of tyrosine and tryptophan in DM.CVD has been detected , and  methionine has been detected in DM.nCVD. The amino acids alanine, glutamine, tyrosine, valine, methionine, leucine, lysine and arginine significantly increased the chances of developing DM.nCVD. For each increase in Z-score per plasma concentration of isoleucine, the chances of developing cardiovascular disease without diabetes were significantly increased.
Conclusion: The amino acids alanine, glutamine, tyrosine, valine, methionine, leucine, lysine and arginine are involved in predicting the risk of DM.nCVD and isoleucine and methionine are involved in predicting the risk of CVD.nDM.

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Background: A novel nanocomposite-modified electrode based on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) decorated with crown-ether and gold nanoparticles (GNPs) on the surface of a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was fabricated to investigate 5-HT determination.
Methods: The morphology of nanocomposite was characterized by scaning electron microscopy (SEM). Diabetic zebrafish was obtained by overfeeding via glucose. 5-HT was successfully determined in the presence of dopamine (DA), ascorbic acid (AA), urea, glucose, and L-tryptophan (L-Trp) by using electrochemical methods.
Results: The nanocomposite exhibited satisfactory electrochemical catalytic activity for 5-HT determination using square-wave voltammetry (SWV). The electrochemical behavior of 5-HT at the nanocomposite/GCE displayed reasonable oxidation current and potential. The limit of detection (LOD) of 5-HT obtained from the real samples, containing the control and diabetic group by using the proposed system and HPLC method, was calculated to be about 0.3 and 0.1 µg/L, respectively. The prposed system also demonstrated high selectivity, reasonable sensitivity, and good stability and reproducibility for 5-HT sensing. The nanocomposite was applied for the determination of the biomarker 5-HT in the diabetic and control groups of zebrafish and displayed excellent recoveries about 93 and low relative error about 3% while compared with standard method.
Conclusions: It seems that the 5-HT level can be used for earlier diagnosis of diabetes.

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Background: Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute (EMRI) is one of the largest research institutes in Iran, which has been established to develop research strategies and manage endocrine and metabolic diseases such as diabetes. The purpose of this report is to review and summarize research activities related to diabetes over a quarter of a century at EMRI.
Methods: A comprehensive search of PubMed, Scopus and EMBASE was conducted to find diabetes-related studies in EMRI. After extracting the data, the articles were classified according to the type of article, the level of evidence, the types of diabetes and their subject.
Results: After eliminating duplicates and screening, finally 228 articles were classified. Most diabetes research conducted at the Diabetes Research Center (DRC) was on type 2 diabetes (37%). By article type, most of the articles were original. In addition, clinical studies provided the most evidence in the obtained documents. By topic, most of the articles were related to the basic sciences and factors related to diabetes, followed by studies on the management and prevention of diabetes.
Conclusion: Most of the research conducted in the Diabetes Research Center in the past quarter of a century is of original studies in the field of basic sciences in the field of type 2 diabetes and most of the evidence produced is related to observational studies.

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Background: Thymus species have significant amounts of phenolic and flavonoid compounds and demonstrate strong antioxidant activities. Paraoxonase1 act as antioxidant enzyme and protect the low-density lipoprotein against oxidation. In our study we aimed to evaluate the antioxidant capacity of Thymus Kotschyanus Hydroalcoholic extract and its effect on serum paraoxonase 1 activity in healthy and diabetic person.
Methods: The antioxidant activity, and functional groups of the constituents in T. Kotschyanus Hydroalcoholic extract were determined using DPPH free radical scavenging assay, and The FTIR spectroscopy, respectively. Paraoxonase-1 activity was determined in 40 healthy and diabetic persons by measuring the rate of paraoxon hydrolysis substrate to p-nitrophenol, which absorbance was monitored at 405 nm. The data Statistically were analyzed by Duncan's and independent t-test.
Results: The IC50 values (the concentration with scavenging activity of 50%) was found to be 477.5 μg/ml. FTIR spectrum analysis showed biomolecules containing a hydroxyl group and aromatic ring in T. Kotschyanus hydroalcoholic extract. Serum paraoxonase activity in healthy and diabetic humans exposed to the extract at concentration of 1 mg/mL increased by 49.95 ± 3.57% and 51.05 ± 3.25%, respectively. Although there was a significant difference between serum enzyme activity in healthy and diabetic subjects in the presence and absence of the extract but the amount of enzyme activation affected by the extract in two healthy and patient did not show significant difference.
Conclusion: This plant extract increased enzyme activity due to the antioxidant properties and the presence of phenolic compounds in the plant extract.

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Background: Unc-51 Like Autophagy Activating Kinase-1 (ULK1) and FAK Family Kinase-Interacting Protein of 200 kDa (FIP200) play an essential role in controlling autophagy and muscle volume. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of endurance training on the intracellular content of ULK1 and FIP200 proteins in the left ventricular of rats with type 1 diabetes.
Methods: In this experimental study, 18 rats 2-month-old male Sprague-Dawley rats with a mean weight of 300±20g were selected. 12 rats became diabetic by intraperitoneal injection of Streptozotocin solutions. These rats were randomly divided into 2 groups: diabetic training and diabetic control (6 heads per group); A healthy control group (6 heads)was also considered. The training group practiced endurance training 4 days a week for 6 weeks. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 23 and one-way ANOVA and Tukey post hoc tests.
Results: The content of ULK1 (increase) and FIP200 (decrease) after endurance training showed a significant change among the research groups in the left ventricular (P=0.0001). Tukey's post hoc test showed that this change is significant between the pair of diabetic training groups to diabetic control, diabetic training to healthy groups, and also diabetic control to healthy groups (P≤0.05).
Conclusion: Endurance training showed that it can have a dual nature to control autophagy in diabetic subjects by increasing ULK1 and decreasing FIP200. There is a need for more investigations in the field of exercise physiology on the proteins responsible for autophagy, especially in type 1 diabetes subjects.

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Background: Diabetes can cause serious cardiovascular complications by disrupting the autophagy pathway. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on the intracellular levels of autophagy proteins in the left ventricular tissue of rats with type 1 diabetes.
Methods: In this experimental study, 18 2-month-old male Sprague-Dawley rats with an average weight of 300±20 grams were selected. Twelve rats had type 1 diabetes after intraperitoneal injection of STZ (with a dose of 50 mg/kg of body weight) solution. Rats were randomly divided into two groups: diabetic training and diabetic control (each group, six heads). A healthy control group (six heads) was also considered. The training group underwent HIIT four days a week for six weeks. GraphPad Prism version 9.5 software and one-way ANOVA, and Tukey's post hoc tests were used to analyze the data. The significance level was considered P≤ 0.05.
Results: ULK1 and FIP200 levels showed a significant increase in the left ventricle after 6 weeks of HIIT training compared to the healthy control group and the diabetic control group (P= 0.0001).
Conclusion: Considering the increase in ULK1 and FIP200 proteins, it can be concluded that HIIT training can activate the autophagy pathway; Therefore, in prescribing this type of exercise for diabetic subjects, the intensity and duration of the exercise should be considered.

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Background: Diabetes is one of the most common disorders of the endocrine glands, the main characteristic of which is an increase in the concentration of glucose in the serum of patients. Herbal medicines are widely accepted by people due to less side effects. The purpose of this study is to investigate the protective effect of the silybum marianum, melissa officinalis, vaccinium arctostaphylos, trigonella foenum, urtica dioica and citrullus colocynthis extracts mixtures in the PC12 cell model in a high glucose environment.
Methods: After 24, 48, and 72 hours of adding different concentrations of plant extracts (silybum marianum, melissa officinalis, vaccinium arctostaphylos, trigonella foenum, urtica dioica and citrullus colocynthis) in the normal culture medium of PC12 cells and the medium with high glucose (25 mg/ml, 13/5), cell viability was measured by MTT method.
Results: The results showed that the viability of PC12 cells did not change in 24, 48 and 72 hours after treatment with a mixture of plant extracts. The survival rate of cells in the high dose glucose group was significantly reduced compared to the control group, and the mixture of plant extracts in high doses significantly reduced cell death in these conditions.
Conclusion: Based on the available findings, glucose with a concentration of 25, 13.5 mg/ml caused the death of PC12 cells and the mixture of plant extracts was able to reduce the cell death caused by high glucose after exposure with nerve cells.
 

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Background: Blood fat is a global problem and one of the major threats to society's health. Hyperlipidemia is considered a multigenic disease, most of the genes related to it remain unknown. rs1205 is one of the polymorphisms of the C-Reactive Protein (CRP) gene that causes the change of the nucleotide C to T and is one of the risk factors for increasing low-density lipoprotein (LDL) level. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of rs1205 polymorphism in CRP gene and its relationship with LDL level in Iranian population.
Methods: The total number of samples was 137, including 79 controls and 58 patients (LDL above 130 mg/dL). Then the samples were analyzed using the amplification refractory mutation system-polymerase chain reaction (ARMS-PCR) method for the presence or absence of rs1205 polymorphism in the CRP gene. The PCR product was transferred on agarose gel. After observing the bands and checking their correctness, different alleles were examined.
Results: 56.2% of the samples had a body mass index (BMI) lower than 25 and 43.8% had a BMI higher than 25. The frequency percentage of genotypes showed that CT genotype is equal to 47.4%, CC genotype is equal to 36.5% and TT genotype is equal to 16.1%. 57.7% of the samples had LDL below 130 and 42.3% had LDL above 130.
Conclusion: A significant relationship wasn't observed between the rs1205 polymorphism and the serum LDL level of the studied population. Also, the difference in age and gender of the samples had no effect on this relationship. It is possible that the lack of difference in ethnicity is one of the possible reasons for the non-significance of the results of this study.