Nasrollah Erfani; Mahboobeh Hamedi-Shahraki; Somayeh Rezaeifard; Mohammadreza Haghshenas; Manoochehr Rasouli; Alamtaj Samsami Dehaghani
Volume 11, Issue 2 , June 2014, , Pages 105-112
Abstract
Background: Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of death from malignancy in women. CD4 +CD25+FoxP3+ regulatory T (Treg) cells are a subset of T lymphocytes with great inhibitory impact on immune response. Objectives: To investigate the percentage of CD4 +CD25+FoxP3+ regulatory T cells in the peripheral ...
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Background: Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of death from malignancy in women. CD4 +CD25+FoxP3+ regulatory T (Treg) cells are a subset of T lymphocytes with great inhibitory impact on immune response. Objectives: To investigate the percentage of CD4 +CD25+FoxP3+ regulatory T cells in the peripheral blood of the Iranian patients with epithelial ovarian cancer compared to healthy women and to evaluate the correlation of the Treg cell percentage with clinicopathological characteristics including cancer stage and CA-125 serum level. Methods: Seventeen women with epithelial ovarian cancer and 20 healthy subjects were enrolled in the study. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were stained at the surface, for CD4 and CD25 molecules, followed by fixation, permeabilization and intracellular staining for FoxP3 molecule. After processing and flowcytometry analysis, prevalence of Treg cells was determined as the percentages of CD25 +FoxP3+ cells among CD4+ lymphocytes. Results: Despite no difference in the percentage of total CD4+ lymphocytes, analysis indicated that Treg cell percentage was significantly higher in ovarian cancer patients than controls (5.7 ± 3.1% versus 2.8 ± 1.4%, p=0.002). A trend toward higher Treg cells was observed in higher stages of ovarian cancer (III+IV) in comparison to lower stages (I+II) (6.5 ± 3.2% vs. 4.44 ± 2.7%, p=0.2). Higher percentage of Treg cells was also observed in the patients with high CA125 (CA-125 >100 U/mL) in comparison to those with low CA-125 serum level (CA-125 ≤100 U/mL) although the difference was not significant (6.44 versus 4.18%, p=0.19). Conclusion: Increased frequency of Tregs in ovarian cancer might participate in immune suppression in these patients. The findings collectively suggest the likely impact of Treg cell–targeted immunotherapy in ovarian cancer.
Behrouz Gharesi-Fard; Jaleh Zolghadri; Leila Foroughinia; Fahimeh Tavazoo; Alamtaj Samsami Dehaghani
Volume 4, Issue 3 , December 2007, , Pages 173-178
Abstract
Background: Recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) is defined as three or more se-quential abortions before the twentieth week of gestation. There are evidences to sup-port an allo-immunologic mechanism for RSA. One of the methods for treatment of RSA is leukocyte therapy; however there is still controversy ...
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Background: Recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) is defined as three or more se-quential abortions before the twentieth week of gestation. There are evidences to sup-port an allo-immunologic mechanism for RSA. One of the methods for treatment of RSA is leukocyte therapy; however there is still controversy about effectiveness of this method. Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of leukocyte therapy for treatment of RSA. Methods: Ninety two non-pregnant women with at least three sequential abor-tions (60 primary & 32 secondary aborters) recognized as RSA were referred to our Laboratory for immunotherapy. All the cases were immunized by isolated lymphocytes from their husbands. Fifty to 100 million washed and resuspended mononuclear cells were injected by I.V., S.C., and I.D. route. The result of each injection was checked by WBC cross matching between couples after four weeks of injections. Immunization was repeated in fifth week to a maximum of 3 times if needed. Eighty one age-matched non-pregnant RSA women (52 primary and 29 secondary aborters) with at least three se-quential abortions were also included in this study as controls. The control group was not immunized. Results: 67 out of 92 (72.8%) immunized cases and 44 out of 81 con-trols (54.3%) showed a successful outcome of pregnancy (p<0.02). Comparison of pri-mary and secondary aborters indicated a significantly better outcome only in primary (75% vs. 42.3%. p<0.001) but not in secondary aborters (68.8% vs. 75.9%, p = 0.7). Conclusion: The present investigation showed the effectiveness of leukocyte therapy in primary but not in secondary RSA patients. Despite the current controversy and limita-tion of leukocyte therapy in RSA, the results of our investigation provide evidence sup-porting the use of allo-immunization in improving the outcome of pregnancy in primary RSA patients.
Mehrnoosh Doroudchi; Abdolrasoul Talei; Helmout Modjtahedi; Alamtaj Samsami Dehaghani; Abdol Mohammad Pezeshki; Hilary Thomas; Abbas Ghaderi
Volume 2, Issue 4 , December 2005, , Pages 191-200
Abstract
Background: A soluble form of HER-2/neu extracellular domain (sHER-2) is reported to be released in the sera of metastatic breast cancer patients. Objective: To measure the level of sHER-2 in sera of 115 breast cancer patients. Methods: Serial samples of 27 patients with metastasis, 18 non-metastatic ...
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Background: A soluble form of HER-2/neu extracellular domain (sHER-2) is reported to be released in the sera of metastatic breast cancer patients. Objective: To measure the level of sHER-2 in sera of 115 breast cancer patients. Methods: Serial samples of 27 patients with metastasis, 18 non-metastatic patients, 15 patients in stage 0/I and 14 patients with accompanying benign breast disease were also included in this study. Results: No significant difference was observed between sHER- 2 level in the pre-operative sera of breast cancer patients and that of healthy individuals. Only 8 out of 27 patients whom later developed metastasis showed elevated levels of sHER-2 in their first serum sample. However, a trend of increase in the level of sHER-2 was observed in 14 (51.8%) of 27 metastatic sera before clinical diagnosis of the metastasis. A significant association between sHER-2 positive status and vascular invasion of the tumor was observed (P = 0.02). In addition, significant correlation of sHER-2 level with CEA (highest r = 0.74) and CA 15.3 (highest r = 0.74) tumor marker levels in the serial sera were observed. The mean time from sHER-2 positivity to tumor metastasis was calculated to be 98 days (range = 29-174). Conclusion: Our results indicate that a relatively high percentage of Iranian patients with breast cancer show an elevated level of sHER-2 in their sera before clinical diagnosis of the tumor metastasis. Therefore, measuring the level of this oncoprotein, not only helps physicians in monitoring the patients during HERCEPTINTM therapy, but also can be helpful in choosing more aggressive treatments at the early satges of tumor metastasis.
Maryam Ayatollahi; Alamtaj Samsami Dehaghani; Ziaedin Tabei
Volume 2, Issue 1 , March 2005, , Pages 50-55
Abstract
Background: Successful pregnancy in allopregnant women depends upon the control of graft rejection mechanisms. It has been suggested that some immunosuppressive cytokines contribute to successful pregnancy and transplantation. Transforming growth factor beta (TGF- β) exhibits potent immunoregulatory ...
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Background: Successful pregnancy in allopregnant women depends upon the control of graft rejection mechanisms. It has been suggested that some immunosuppressive cytokines contribute to successful pregnancy and transplantation. Transforming growth factor beta (TGF- β) exhibits potent immunoregulatory and anti-inflammatory properties which might prolong graft survival. Recent studies suggest a role for TGF- β in the generation of T-regulatory lymphocytes which preserves the tolerance to peripheral self antigens and may control the response to allogenic tissues and thereby promote the transplantation tolerance. Also, the function of TGF- β in trophoblast differentiation and hypertension is reported. Objective: To evaluate the maternal serum TGF- β1 level in normal allopregnant women and in pregnancies complicated by preeclampcia (PE). Methods: Sixty one pregnant preeclamptic women (32 cases with severe and 29 with mild PE), 22 normotensive healthy pregnant, and 20 non-pregnant controls constituted the studied groups. The active form of TGF- β1 in serum from all cases was investigated by indirect ELISA technique. Results: The results showed that TGF- β1 level was higher in all three pregnant groups as compared with the nonpregnant controls. No significant changes in serum levels of TGF- β1 were found in PE as compared with the normal pregnancy. Conclusion: TGF-β1 may function as a regulatory factor in fetal allograft survival during pregnancy, and TGF- β1 does not have a pathophysiological role in PE.
Mehrnoosh Doroudchi; Hamidreza Dehshiri; Alamtaj Samsami Dehaghani
Volume 1, Issue 3 , December 2004, , Pages 183-188
Abstract
Background: Respiratory Syncytical virus infection is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and viral pneumonia in infancy. Objective: To investigate the placental transfer of RSV-specific IgG in Iranian mothers. Methods: The antibodies were measured in sera of 146 mother/newborn pairs using a commercially ...
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Background: Respiratory Syncytical virus infection is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and viral pneumonia in infancy. Objective: To investigate the placental transfer of RSV-specific IgG in Iranian mothers. Methods: The antibodies were measured in sera of 146 mother/newborn pairs using a commercially available indirect Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). The studied subjects were among healthy pregnant women who attended to the Zeinabieh Hospital of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in a one year period. Results: A highly significant correlation was observed between RSV-specific IgG in newborns and mothers (r = 0.88). However, mean RSV-specific IgG antibodies in neonates was significantly higher than that of their mothers (P = 0.019). In addition, the mean cord/maternal ratio of RSV-specific IgG was detected to be 1.27 ± 0.60. Maternal blood group, age, parity, previous abortions and neonatal gestational age had no correlation with placental transfer of RSV-specific IgG antibodies. Conclusion: Our finding demonstrates that placental transfer of RSV-specific IgG antibodies is an active process and the main factor that influences this transfer is maternal concentration of these immunoglobulins.
