Tehran University Medical Journal

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The Turkmans are one of the Iranian ethnic population. HLA typing (class I and II) was performed in this population. The data obtained from this study was compared with different populations of the world. We observed that the Turkman population is most similar to the Northern chinese and Uigur population. The distributions of HLA antigens in Turkmans are somewhat between Iranian population, Northern chinese and Uigur population. Natural selection and gene alteration select the people who could better adopt themselves with new conditions. Investigation of Turkman's HLA in comparison with Iranian's HLA reveals more details in genetics of Behcet's disease. Behcet's disease is very rare in Turkmans (index 0.5) whereas its frequency is high in other Iranians and Northern chinese. Distribution of susceptible antigens like B5 is the same in Turkmans and Northern chinese (19.5%) but much higher in other Iranians, whereas B35 have almost the same distribution in Turkmans and Iranians (37% and 33% respectively). DQW1 and CW4 antigens which were suspected to have a negative association with Behcet's disease are the most frequent antigens in Turkmans.

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Background: Hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation has brought the possibility of the use of high dose chemotherapy in the treatment of malignant hematopoietic diseases. Short-term HSC preservation at 4˚C is the most common method for autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT).

Materials and Methods: Thirty-seven mobilized PBSC samples from thirteen hematological patients (4 AML, 4 MM and 5 Lymphoma cases) who were selected for autologous PBSCT and 24 normal candidates for allogenic PBSCT were preserved in five separate sterile 2 ml tubes in 4˚C. Each sample was evaluated for total nucleated cell (TNC) count, dye exclusion cell viability and Granulocyte-Macrophage colony forming unit (GM-CFU in semisolid medium after 16 days) in days 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8. The results were converted to percentages of day 0 measures. The data were analyzed by SPSS 10.0 using Paired Samples T test, Independent Samples T test and Regression.

Results: The mean percentages (and standard deviations) of TNC count, cell viability and GM-CFU for days 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 are shown below: No significant correlation was found between age, sex, weight and the kind of donor with TNC, viability and GM-CFU.

Conclusion: In this study, we have found that during storage of mobilized PBSC in 4˚C, TNC count and cell viability still remains higher than 70% after eight days, while GM-CFU decreases more rapidly and falls to less than 50% after day 4.Therefore, TNC count and cell viability do not decrease as fast as GM-CFU.

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Background: We are in new era of knowledge and treatment of women with PCOS. We should find management modalities that can improve their life quality. Due to high prevalence of PCOS, and zinc deficiency in Iran, importance of antioxidants such as zinc on treatment and improvement of PCOS complications, and due to the disadvantages of the current treatment for the disease (i.e. OCPs), finding an efficient alternative therapy with no or less side effects seems to be as important as some methods for changing the life style of these women. This study was performed to assess zinc levels in PCOS versus non PCOS patients to determine if zinc can be helpful in PCOS management.
Methods: This is a case-control study which was performed from January 2012-2013 in 100 infertile women aged 20-45 years who were referred to Vali-e-Asr infertility clinic. Fifty patients had PCOS according to Rotterdam Criteria (case group) and 50 were infer-tile women without PCOS (control group). In both group, serum Zinc levels were deter-mined and the data was gathered using the SPSS software and analyzed by descriptive (percent, mean, standard deviation) and analytical 2, ANOVA, Mann-Whitney and Correlation).
Results: Results did not show a significant difference between case group and control group in respect to serum Zinc levels (P>0/05).
Conclusion: Due to no difference between case group and the control one in zinc levels, it seems that zinc supplementation in PCOS patients is not necessarily useful or of clinical importance. Obviously studies with larger sample size can probably define the role of zinc in these patients.