Tehran University Medical Journal

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Obstructive cholestasis is associated with overproduction of endogenous opioids (EOP), nitric oxide (NO), and cytokins in the blood streams. Therefore we investigated the relationship between obstructive cholestasis and function of germ cells in adult male rats.
Material and Methods: To study this, we used three groups of animals: No-surgery, Sham-surgery, and surgical ligation of the bile duct. After 3 weeks all animal were killed by ether, serum concentrations of FSH, LH and testosterone were determined by Radioimmunoassay, apoptosis was evaluated by DNA fragmentation detected by in situ terminal deoxynucloetidyl Transfrase-mediated dUTP nike end labeling (TUNEL).
Results: The mean of FSH level in cholestatic, control and sham groups were 13.22+ 1.038, 18.14+ 1.276, and 16.92+ 1.072 ng/ml, respectively. The mean of LH level in cholestatic, control and sham groups were 0.83 + 0.21, 2.058 ± 0.26, and 1.84 + 0.17 ng/ml, respectively. In addition, the mean of testosterone level in cholestatic, control and sham groups were 1.52 ± 0.16, 2.41 ± 0.18, and 2.31 + 0.14 ng/ml, respectively. The results of this study were indicated that serum FSH, LH and testosterone were significantly lower in cholestatic than control and sham groups (p=0.0195, P= 0.0029, and P=0.0023, respectively). However there was no significant difference in apoptotic index between all of groups (P=0.195). The apoptotic index in cholestatic, control and sham rats were 9.897± 1.374, 7.086 + 0.91, and 7.729 + 1.101, respectively.
Conclusion: These findings have been shown which as obstructive cholestasis was decreased the levels of serum gonadotropins and testosterone but it has no significant effector testicular germinal cells apoptosis.

 

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Background: Cephalometry is one of the important branches of anthropometry that has wide uses in identification, forensic medicine, plastic surgery, orthodontics, archeology and determining the origins of races. This research was investigated to determine the head and face phenotypes among one-day newborn boys in two aborigines of Sistani and Baluchi who were resident in Zahedan.

Materials and Methods: The investigation is based on cross-sectional analytical descriptions of 420 newborn aborigine boys (216 Sistani & 204 Baluchi), who were clinically healthy, in Quds hospital in summer 1381, in Zahedan. In this study cephalic and prosopic indices were determined by classical cephalometric.

Results: The mean and the standard deviations of cephalic index were 83.67±4.80 and 83.64±4.77 and prosopic index 86.79±5.87 and 86.53±6.76 for Sistani and Baluchi subjects respectively. Based on the cephalic index, the dominant head types in sistani group were hyperbrachycephalic (37%) and brachycephalic (37%). In Blachui group, the hyperbrachycephalic (37.3%) and brachycephalic (35.3%) type were the dominant one. Furthermore, according to the prosopic index. The dominant face type among sistanis was euryprosopic type (42.6%). In Baluchi group, the dominant face type was also euryprosopic (39.2%).

Conclusion: This research showed no statistically significant differences in terms of head and face type indices between two aborigines of Zahedan. Based on this cross-sectional study, it seems that there is similarities between the aforementioned groups

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Background: Inguinal hernia accounts for about 80% of all hernias and are the most common surgical procedure done in infants. There are different methods for repairing of inguinal hernia such as tissue repair rate of recurrence by this method is 1-3%. The purpose of this study was to introduce new method for this surgery and assessing recurrence and complications.
Methods: This was a semi clinical trial. 174 patients were considered after five years. (During 1998-2002). In this method after removing of hernia's sac, the floor of inguinal canal was torn in two layers continuously. One of them was torn from cooper ligament to fascia transversalis and the other one was torn from inguinal ligament to conjoint tendon and finally the fascia of external muscle was torn on spermatic cord. The patients were assessed by a questionnaire composed of two sections one about the site of inguinal hernia and age of patients and the other was composed of questions about complication and recurrence of surgery. Data was compared to other conventional tissue repair using Z test.
Results: The mean age of patients were 28-48 years, 164(94%) were males and 10(5/7%) were females, 59(34%) of patients had left inguinal hernia (56 male and 3 female), 92(52%) had right inguinal hernia (88 male and 4 female) and 23(13%) had bilateral inguinal hernia (20 male and 3 female). Two patients (1/1%) had recurrence two years after surgery and no complication were seen after 5 years.
 Conclusions: There were no significant difference between methods of surgery (1/1% recurrence) and other conventional tissue repair methods (1-3% recurrence). More long evaluation is required to recommend this fast and simple method for routine repair of inguinal hernias.

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Background: Nitric oxide (NO) is produced in different body organs in mammals and numerous physiological and pathological properties are attributed to this small molecule. The precursor of this substance in the body, L-arginine, is synthesized by the enzyme nitric oxide synthase (NOS), and it is catalyzed, and is inhibited by a substance called L-NG-nitroarginine methyl ester (L-NAME). In this study we investigated the qualitative and quantitative effects of nitric oxide on cerebellar histopathology in vivo environment via increasing and decreasing its production.
Methods: Forty Wister rats, weighing 200- 250 gr with a mean age of 8 weeks, were divided into 5 groups after making sure the rats were pregnant. Except the control group, the other pregnant groups, respectively received: 2 ml/kg normal saline, 200 mg/kg L-arginine, 20 mg/kg L-NAME and a mixture of the same doses of L-arginine and L-NAME on the third, fourth and fifth days of pregnancy. On day 18 of pregnancy, we anesthetized the rats, excised the cerebellum after craniotomy and fixed the organs in 10% formalin. We later prepared 5 to 6-micron in thickness tissue sections and dyed them by the routine Hematoxylin and eosin (HE) and Masson's Trichrom staining methods before studying them by light microscopy.
Results: There was a significant difference between the rats receiving L-arginine and the rats in other groups (P<0.01).
Conclusion: This study showed that L-NAME is capable of significantly decreasing the injury caused by nitric oxides in rat cerebellum.

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Background: Breast cancer is one of the most important causes of death in women. One of the various gene expression involved in breast cancer is human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2/neu) gene expression increases. Factors of dietary affect on regulation of hormone secretion and the rate of breast cancer. One of these factors is amount and type of fats in diet. Gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) and Docosah-exaenoic acid (DHA) are members of poly unsaturated fatty acids. In this study, effects of dietary GLA and DHA alone or together with paclitaxel on treatment of mice mammary carcinoma has been evaluated.
Methods: Thirty female balb/c mice were divided in six groups randomly. Carcinoma-tous mass induced by tumor implantation method. Spontaneous breast adenocarcinoma of mice were used as tumor stock. The tumors of these mice were removed aseptically, dissected into 0.5 cm3 pieces. These pieces were transplanted subcutaneously into their right flank. GLA and DHA added to the mice diet two week prior to tumor implanta-tion. At the end of intervention, tumors were removed and HER2 gene expression was measured. The weight of animal and tumor volume measured weekly.
Results: It was not significant change in the weight of animals that consumed DHA and DHA with taxol. Tumor volume in those groups that received corn oil with taxol (P<0.01), DHA (P<0.05) and DHA with taxol (P<0.001) showed significant decrease in comparison with control group. HER2 gene expression in DHA with taxol decreased significantly in comparison with control group (P<0.05).
Conclusion: Consumption of DHA oil with taxol causes decrease the volume of carcin-oma mass. The future studies with large number of sample is needed to support this finding.

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Background: Varicocele is a dilated vein of the pampiniform plexus that cause to det-rimental time-dependent effects so this study describes the effect of varicocele on the level of IL-6 and interferon gamma in serum and testis tissue, number of sertoli and spermatogonia cells, seminiferous tubules diameter and sperm activity in immature rats. Methods: Thirty six immature rats, 5-6 weeks aged were investigated in this study. The sham groups underwent sham operation and varicocele groups underwent partial liga-tion of the renal vein. Serum, testis and sperm samples were collected at 9, 11, and 13 weeks after induction of varicocele or sham operation to evaluate histological parame-ters (seminiferous tubules diameter, number of sertoli and spermatogonia cells), per-centage of sperm motility and viability and levels of cytokines. Testicular morphology was evaluated. Results: Varicocele significantly caused an increase in serum and testis IL-6 and inter-feron gamma, compared to related sham groups and previous varicocele groups (P<0.05). Varicocele significantly caused decreases in sertoli cells and spermatogonia cells number with increasing varicocele time, compared to related sham groups and previous varicocele groups (P<0.05). In the evaluation of seminiferous tubules diameter external, internal and epithelium diameter were decreased compared to sham related groups and previous varicocele groups. In all varicocele groups, all kind of sperm motility and viability decreased compared to the related sham-operated groups (P<0.05). Varicocele had deteriorating effects on testis tissue because our observations in varicocele groups demonstrated that the external, internal and germinal epithelium height was reduced by the time and in the evaluation of testicular cells, sertoli and spermatogonia cells number were decreased by the time compared to sham related groups and previous varicocele groups. Conclusion: This study suggests varicocele had a detrimental time-dependent effect on cytokines levels and decrease in sertoli and spermatogonia cells number, seminiferous tubules diameter and sperm indices.

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Background: Considering nitric oxide (NO) has an important role in many biologic processes of cells and tissues such as in the digestive system and in this system act as a second messenger in pathological and physiological events in gastrointestinal region, in this study we investigated the effects of L-NG-Nitro arginine Methyl Ester (L-NAME) as the NO formation inhibitor on parietal cells of stomach in pregnant rats. Methods: Twenty four female rats were prepared and with eight weeks old and 200-250 g weight were used in this study. After matting of the female rats with the male rats, time of observing vaginal plaque considered as the zero day of pregnancy. Then the animals were divided into three groups of studying. Each group was containing eight rats. In this study, except the control group, the saline group received 2 ml/kg normal saline and experimental group received 20 ml/kg L-NAME interaperitoneally (IP), respectively on third, fourth, and fifth days of pregnancy for evaluation of its effects. On the 18th day of pregnancy, after anesthesia with ether, the animals were killed and dissected and the laparotomy was performed to separate the mother’s stomach. Then, the stomach was fixed in 10% formalin and after tissue passage, the sections were stained with Hematoxylin-Eosin (H&E). Then the changes of count and diameter in parietal cells were observed via light microscopy and Image Tools III. Results: Results of this study after analysis showed the significant changes in parietal cells count (mean 61.3±4.32) and its diameters (mean 16.12±1.18 µm) in L-NAME group in comparison to control and the sham groups in pregnant rats (P≤0.05). Conclusion: Results of this study showed L-NAME with effects on NO synthesis can reduce the count of parietal cells and increase its diameter in pregnant rats and has destructive effects on structure of stomach parietal cells in pregnancy rats.