Journal of

Background and Aim : Lactoferrin is one of the milk components with the main role in iron absorption and transfer. As a result of this action the pathogens that need iron for their life cannot grow, so the infection will be controled, indirectly. Moreover, because the lactoferrin production is stopped in the women with breast cancer, evaluation of this protein in milk may be the first step in detection of breast cancer tumors, and making decision about the appropriate treatment methods. Therefore, with due attention to the important role of lactoferrin in health and disease, determination of its normal dose in milk is very essential for the differences that may occur comparing with the normal situation. Also since the normal amount of lactoferrin in the milk of Iranian women was not evaluated in this study the amount of protein in more than 100 sample was measured.

Materias and Methods: The lactoferrin amount was measured by SRID method in 104 human milk samples of mothers that were referred to two public health centers in Tehran for vaccination of their children, and also in women that were hospitalized after childbirth in 2 health centers of Qom city. The data such as age, time of childbirth, etc were obtained by asking them and filling pre-designed questionnaire. All laboratory experiments were conducted in the Immunology unit of pathobiology department of School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

Results: The mean concentration of lactoferrin was 4.39 g/L, in the early milk (6-10 days after childbirth) was 3.79 g/L and in the mature milk (11-60 days after childbirth) measured as 2.45 g/L.

Discussion and Conclusion: The mean concentration of Lactoferrin in milk (g/L) has a significant difference with the day after childbirth (P<0.05) and was highest in Colostrums and then in primary milk. After that this amount is reduced extremely. This indicates the important role of lactoferrin in the primary days of infants, because of the protective role that it has against infections. Also the results of this study showed no significant correlation between human milk and factors such as age and childbirth time.

Background and Aim: MicroRNAs (miRNA) are small noncoding RNA molecules that transcribed by RNA polymerase II. After biogenesis, these molecules act by incorporation into the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). MiRNAs are involved in multiple physiological and pathological processes such as proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis and cancer.
Recently several studies reported down regulation of mir-150 during erythropoesis. Since hemoglobin expression is valuable indicator of erythroid differentiation we evaluated the mir-150 downregulation effect on alpha chain expression by Quantitative RT-PCR.

Materials and Methods: K562cells were grown in RPMI1640 in standard condition. K562 cells were transfected by microRNA 150 Inhibitor using transfection kit .Mir-150 downregulation was confirmed by miRNA Real time PCR, followed by Q-RT-PCR to investigate the alpha chain expression changes.

Results: By relative QRT-PCR the alpha chain expression was increased 10 folds in comparison to untransfected and scramble cells. Furthermore, the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05)

Conclusion: Elevation of alpha chain expression in our study showed that mir-150 downregulation has a crucial role in erythroid differentiation and can introduce as a novel marker in alpha thalassemia. Further researches to find out the detail mechanism and miRNAs genes target could improve our knowledge about miRNAs potential in management of diseases and their applications in gene therapy and regenerative medicine.

Background and Aim: Self-citation, as one of the limitations of citation analysis, unusually affects the ranking of journals. This study aims to evaluate the degree of relationship between self-citation and immediacy index correlation of Iranian medical journals indexed in Scopus Citation Index between 2005 and 2009.

Materials and Methods: The method of the study is survey-descriptive in which citation analysis is used. The study included all Iran-based English medical journals indexed in Scopus database up to May 2009. The control list was prepared and its validity was confirmed. Data were collected by referring to Scopus website and publication review resources, and analyzed by statistical software and appropriate methods.

Results: The findings showed that self-citation rate of journals was 29.64 percent, which comprised 14.43 percent of the total number of citations. There was a significant relationship (at the level of 0.01) between self-citation rate and immediacy index of journals (p = 0.591). Besides, Pearson correlation coefficient showed a significant relationship between the number of journals' articles and the journals' immediacy indexes excluding self-citation during the years of study.

Conclusion: Self-citation has a direct effect on journals' immediacy index that is, an increase in the rate of self-citation causes an artificial increase in the journals' immediacy index. On the other hand, immediacy index is affected by the number of journal articles. Therefore, the reduction or elimination of self-citation seems to be necessary for the journals and can put them in their right place.

Background and Aim: Patents are used as indicators to assess the growth of science and technology in a given country or area. They are examined to determine the research potentials of research centers, universities, and inventors. This study aims to map the past and current trends in patenting activities with a view to understanding better and tracking the changing nature of science and technology in Iran.

Materials and Methods: The patenting activity in Iran was investigated based on USPTO, WIPO, and Esp@cenet for the period 1976-2011. The researchers analyzed the affiliation of inventors, and collected patents having at least one Iranian inventor. The collected data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel.

Results: results showed that between 1976 and 2011, 212 patents were registered by Iranian inventors in the above-mentioned three databases. The average number of Iranian patents registered per year increased significantly from 25 in 1976-1980 to 119 in 2006-2011. It should be noted that the highest number of registered patents (27%) were in" chemistry, metallurgy" area of International Patent Classification, followed by "human necessities"(18%), and "performing operations transporting"(15%).

Conclusion: Overall, the proportion of Iranian inventors' patents registered in databases is small. However, the figure shows a growth for the years under study. Iran's patents registered in databases have considerable subject concentration. Scientific areas are growing together, and there is more potential of research work and innovation in areas of "chemistry, metallurgy", "Electricity" and "human needs".

Background and Aim: FRBR is one of the models considered in cataloging and work-to-work relationships are introduced as types of bibliographic relationships present in this model.

This study examines the distribution of dispersion relationships in medical subject areas based on FRBR model in Persian medical sources published from 2006 to 2010.

Materials and Methods: This study is a descriptive survey . Data were obtained from Iranian OPAC ( online public access catalog) . To determine the areas of medical sciences, both LC (Library of Congress) and Dewey Classifications were applied. For data analysis, Excel 2007 was used. Using descriptive statistics, the researcher presented the results in the form of tables and graphs.

Results: According to Dewey Classification, ‘diseases’ was the subject area having the highest number of bibliographic relationships and the lowest frequency belonged to ‘experimental medicine’. The analysis based on LC Classification, however, showed that ‘internal medicine’ had the highest number of bibliographic relationships Botanic, Thomsonian, Eclectic Medicine, Chiropractic and Alternative medicine subject matters had the lowest bibliographic relationships.

Conclusion : Distribution of work-to-work bibliographic relationships in Persian medical sources based on Dewey and LC Classifications is heterogeneous. Despite the obtained apparently heterogeneous results, such a difference cannot be due to differences in the frequency of bibliographic relationships of medical topics because the classification criteria of medical sciences are different in these two systems.

 Background and Aim: Understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in the increased levels of HbF inducing drugs should be advised for effective induction. The aim of this study was to investigate the molecular effects of the drugs thalidomide and sodium butyrate considered as HbF inducer agents.

 Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, CD133+ cord blood stem cells carrying mutations of heterozygous β-thalassemia were isolated and differentiated into erythroid lineage. In order to evaluate the expression of the erythroid markers, CD71 and CD235a, was analysed. For this purpose, the RNA extracted from erythroid precursors at days 6 and 12 of erythroid differentiation and cDNA synthesized, and then the expression of these genes was performed by quantitative Real-time PCR technique.

 Results: The results of this study showed the significant effect of thalidomide on erythroid proliferation as compared to sodium butyrate and control group (P<0.05). Also, thalidomide significantly increased CD71expression and decreased CD235a expression as compared to sodium butyrate and control groups (P<0.05).

 Conclusion : Thalidomide may play its role on HbF induction by increasing the proliferation of early erythroid precursors.

Background and Aim: Different regulation processes have an effect on osteoblastic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), and among them Wnt signaling pathway is particularly desirable. In Wnt signaling pathway, Adenomatous Polyposis Coli (APC) bind to β-catenin and induce its degradation, thereby acting as a negative regulator of canonical Wnt pathway. In this study, gene expression and DNA methylation of APC gene during osteoblastic differentiation were determined.

Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, after the isolation of MSCs, the induction of osteoblastic differentiation was done. To confirm osteoblastic differentiation, alizarin red staining together with the expression of Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) and osteocalcin as specific osteoblastic markers was performed. APC gene methylation status by MSP (Methylation Specific PCR) and gene expression status of APC gene using Real-Time PCR technique during different times were evaluated.

Results: The results of alizarin red staining and the expression of ALP and osteocalcin confirmed osteoblastic differentiation. In addition, the results showed a significant decrease in the expression of APC gene on the 7^th day of osteoblastic differentiation (P<0.05). Also, the results revealed hypermethylation status of APC gene promoter during osteoblastic differentiation.

Conclusion: It seems that the decreased expression APC gene will play an important role in Wnt signaling pathway regulation in different stages during osteoblastic differentiation of bone marrow-derived MSC. Also, according to the results, APC gene promoter methylation will play an important role in controlling gene expression.

Background and Aim: Inclusive implementation of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) is more serious because of physicians’ perception. This study was carried out to identify the effects of organizational contextual factors on physicians’ perception regarding EMR’s adoption in 2013 (The merger of Tehran University and Iran). 
Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive, analytical and cross- sectional study in which a sample of 270 physicians working in hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences was selected. Physicians’ perception toward adoption of EMR has been assessed by Technology Acceptance Model or TAM questionnaire and organizational context variables. Collected data were analyzed by SPSS. The study model was tested by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and represented by AMOS. 
Results: The findings showed that perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), management support, physicians’ involvement, physicians’ autonomy, and physician- patient relationship have direct and significant effect on physicians’ attitudes toward EMR adoption. However, training has no significant effect on TAM variables. Moreover, the results showed authorizing proposed conceptual path model explained about 56 percent of the variance of EMR adoption.
Conclusion: The present study revealed that organizational context factors had significant effect on physicians’ attitude toward EMRs’ adoption. The study clearly identified six relevant factors that affected physicians’ perception regarding EMR adoption. These factors should be considered when comprehensive implementation is pursued.