Review Article
Mojtaba Zarei
Volume 1, Issue 1 , June 2004, Pages 6-25
Abstract
Clinical neurology has been traditionally considered as an academic speciality in which the specialist regurgitates his/her knowledge of neurology without being able to do much for the patient. This attitude is no longer acceptable. Surge of information and discoveries in neurosciences within the last ...
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Clinical neurology has been traditionally considered as an academic speciality in which the specialist regurgitates his/her knowledge of neurology without being able to do much for the patient. This attitude is no longer acceptable. Surge of information and discoveries in neurosciences within the last two decades translated into therapeutic interventions which is literally life saving in some occasions. Neuroimmunology, without a doubt, has been in the forefront of such discoveries. Just a few decades ago immunology of the nervous system was of little interest because brain was thought to be an immunologically “privileged” organ i.e. inaccessible to cellular and humeral immunity. Today, however, clinical neurologists deal with neurological problem with immunological basis on a daily basis. This article tries to review such diseases and their current therapeutic strategy proceeded by an introduction to CNS immunity. Multiple sclerosis, as one of the most common CNS disease with immunological basis, has been given more attention because of the growing number of affected people in Iran.
Original Article
Ali Akbar Amirzargar; Morteza Bagheri; Ardeshir Ghavamzadeh; Kamran Alimoghadam; Farideh Khosravi; Mohammad Hossein Nicknam; Mandana Moheydin; Bita Ansaripour; Batul Moradi; Behrouz Nikbin
Volume 1, Issue 1 , June 2004, Pages 26-33
Abstract
Background:It has been hypothesized that genetic factors other than histocompatibility disparity may play a role in predisposition to developing Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML). In this regard, Th1 and Th2 cytokines and their gene polymorphism seems to be important. Overall expression and secretion ...
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Background:It has been hypothesized that genetic factors other than histocompatibility disparity may play a role in predisposition to developing Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML). In this regard, Th1 and Th2 cytokines and their gene polymorphism seems to be important. Overall expression and secretion of cytokines is dependent, at least in part, on genetic polymorphism (nucleotide variations) within the promoter region or other regulatory sequences of cytokine genes. The majority of polymorphisms described are single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs). The objective of this study was to analyze the genetic profile of Th1 and Th2 cytokines in 30 Iranian patients with CML and 40 healthy subjects. Methods: In the patients and control subjects, the allelic and genotype frequencies were determined for the cytokine genes. All typing were performed by PCR-SSP assay. Allele and genotype frequencies were calculated and compared with those of normal controls. Results: The results showed that the most frequent alleles in our patients were TGF-b TG/TG, IL-4 T at position -1089, C at position -590, T at position -33 and IL-10 A at position -1082. Whereas the following alleles - TGF-b CG/CG and IL-10 C at position -592 – were seen in much lower frequencies. Conclusion: In conclusion, it could be suggested that the frequency of high producing TGF-b alleles and low producing IL-4 and IL-10 alleles in the CML patients is higher than the normal subjects.
Original Article
Nasser Gholijani; Ahmad Monabati; Zahra Amirghofran
Volume 1, Issue 1 , June 2004, Pages 34-40
Abstract
Background: Prostate cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in males. Tumor suppressor gene p53 plays an important role in causing cell cycle arrest and allowing apoptosis to proceed. Objective: To investigate the expression of p53 protein and its relation to apoptosis and prostate cancer ...
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Background: Prostate cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in males. Tumor suppressor gene p53 plays an important role in causing cell cycle arrest and allowing apoptosis to proceed. Objective: To investigate the expression of p53 protein and its relation to apoptosis and prostate cancer traditional prognostic indicators. Methods: In this study expression of p53 was examined in paraffin-embedded tissues from 50 cases of prostate carcinoma by immunohistochemistry and evaluated using an index of staining. Correlation between p53 expression and apoptosis was detected by TUNEL method. Pathological grade, Gleason score and stage of carcinoma were also determined. Results: P53 expression was observed in 48 of 50 cases (26-100% of tumor cells) with mean staining index of 141±65. A significant association between p53 expression and pathologic grade (r=0.37, p=0.004) and Gleason score (r= 0.4, p=0.009) of patients was observed. Apoptosis was detected in only 6 patients. p53 expression showed no correlation with apoptotic index. No correlation between p53 expression and stage or apoptosis and clinicopathological characteristics of patients was found. Conclusion: p53 expression showed a significant correlation with differentiation status of the prostate carcinoma and can be helpful as a prognostic marker. Decreased level of apoptosis observed in our cases was not correlated with p53 expression indicating the possible role of other regulatory molecules involved in the apoptosis.
Original Article
Ali Derakhshan; Masoumeh Mohkam; Abbas Ghaderi; Ghamar Hosseini Alhashemi; Mohammad Hossein Fallahzadeh
Volume 1, Issue 1 , June 2004, Pages 41-47
Abstract
Objective: To evaluate the effect of dialysis and kidney transplantation on serum levels of several tumor markers such as PSA, AFP, CA125, CA19- 9, CA15-3, CEA and to compare with normal age matched controls. Methods: Between September of 2000 and July of 2001, the following tumor markers: PSA, AFP, ...
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Objective: To evaluate the effect of dialysis and kidney transplantation on serum levels of several tumor markers such as PSA, AFP, CA125, CA19- 9, CA15-3, CEA and to compare with normal age matched controls. Methods: Between September of 2000 and July of 2001, the following tumor markers: PSA, AFP, CA125, CA19-9, CA15-3 and CEA were measured by ELISA Method in 29 hemodialyzed patients (group A), in 30 successfully transplanted patients (group B) and in 30 normal volunteers who did not present any clinical symptoms or signs of neoplasia. Results: The serum level of CEA was above the cutoff limit in 6.7% of hemodialyzed patients (group A) but was in the normal range in transplanted and control groups. The level of CEA were significantly higher in hemodialyzed patients in comparison to other groups (p<0.003). Serum levels of AFP and PSA were not significantly different between the three groups (p=0.595 and p=0.545, respectively). Although serum level of CA 19-9 was elevated in 3.3% of hemodialyzed and control group the differences between the three groups were not significant (p=0.507). Serum level of CA 125 was elevated in 13.3% of group A, 13.8% of group B and 6.7% of control group (p=0.347). Serum level of CA15-3 was elevated in 13.3%, 6.9% of group A, B and control group, respectively and the differences were not significant (p=0.156). Conclusion: Hemodialyzed and transplanted patients show a high false positive rate of CEA, CA125 and CA15-3 and may be unreliable for monitoring of malignancies in these patients while other markers evaluated (AFP, PSA and CA 19.9) appear to maintain their specificity in these situations.
Original Article
Fatemeh Vahedi Darmian; Soheila Joubeh; Mehrnoosh Doroudchi; Behnam Abdollahi; Abbas Ghaderi
Volume 1, Issue 1 , June 2004, Pages 48-55
Abstract
Background: Vitiligo is a dermatological disorder of unknown etiology with a common incidence in southern Iran. Presence of autoantibodies to melanocyte antigens suggested an autoimmune basis of the disease. Objective: In this study, the presence of rheumatoid factor (RF) in sera and skin biopsies of ...
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Background: Vitiligo is a dermatological disorder of unknown etiology with a common incidence in southern Iran. Presence of autoantibodies to melanocyte antigens suggested an autoimmune basis of the disease. Objective: In this study, the presence of rheumatoid factor (RF) in sera and skin biopsies of vitiligo patients was investigated. Methods: The presence of RF in sera of 35 vitiligo and 32 normal individuals was assessed by an indirect ELISA assay. In addition, the presence of IgM, IgG, and IgA immunoglobulins in the biopsy lesions of patients was also investigated by Immunoperoxidase test. Results: IgM-RF and IgA-RF were detected in sera of 50% and 20% of patients, respectively. Five out of 35 (15%) revealed to produce both IgM and IgA rheumatoid factors. The rheumatoid factor activity of the deposited immunoglobulins at the site of lesion was confirmed by direct immunoperoxidase test. Conclusion: The presence of rheumatoid factors as non organ-specific autoantibodies in vitiligo provides further evidence for the autoimmune etiology of the disease and its pathological importance remains to be elucidated.
Original Article
Seyed Mahmoud Sadjjadi; Sadreddin Mohseni Ardehali; Reza Adibmanesh; Ezzatollah Basiri; Rahmatollah Salmanpour
Volume 1, Issue 1 , June 2004, Pages 56-62
Abstract
Background: Monoclonal antibodies have been employed extensively for the identification of Leishmania species, development of diagnostic tests and in the characterization of defined leishmanial antigens. Objectives: Identification and characterization of Leishmania spp. directly from cutaneous ...
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Background: Monoclonal antibodies have been employed extensively for the identification of Leishmania species, development of diagnostic tests and in the characterization of defined leishmanial antigens. Objectives: Identification and characterization of Leishmania spp. directly from cutaneous lesions of infected individuals. Methods: An immunoperoxidase test (Avidin-Biotin technique) using monoclonal antibodies was used for this purpose. One hundred and fifty individuals referring to Dermatology Clinic or Parasitology and Mycology Department of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences were chosen of whom a total of 28 individuals whose smears showed a large number of amastigotes after staining with Giemsa were included in this study. Five monoclonal antibodies designated: D2 (against L. donovani), A11 and T10 (against L. tropica), T1 (against L. major) and T7 (against L. tropica and L. major) were used. Amastigotes were identified by Labeled Avidin Biotin (LAB) method. Results: LAB method for identification of amastigotes in impression smears of patient lesions showed that 20 out of 28 cases (71%) were positive. Among these 12 (60%) and 7(35%) were identified as L. tropica and L. major respectively. Conclusion: The results showed that immunoperoxidase is suitable for in situ identification and characterization of Leishmania spp. at the species level.
Original Article
Habibollah Saadat; Parviz Pakzad; Mandana Sattari; Negar Seyed
Volume 1, Issue 1 , June 2004, Pages 63-70
Abstract
Background: Streptokinase, which is injected intravenously with a standard dose of 1.5 MIU, is the most widely used thrombolytic agent around the world. What is so important about this bioproduct is the level of antistreptokinase (anti-sk) antibody in the population, which is directly correlated to the ...
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Background: Streptokinase, which is injected intravenously with a standard dose of 1.5 MIU, is the most widely used thrombolytic agent around the world. What is so important about this bioproduct is the level of antistreptokinase (anti-sk) antibody in the population, which is directly correlated to the incidence of streptococcal infections in that population. Objective: Since Iran is an endemic area for streptococcal infections, this study was conducted to assess the anti-sk level in an Iranian population. Materials and Methods: 97 males and 47 females referred to Modarress Hospital of Tehran for coronary angiography and cardiac catheterization were included. 10 ml of venous blood was taken before angiographies from each patient. According to the angiography reports, the patients were divided into three groups: Coronary Artery Diseases (CAD, n=95), Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD, n=19) and normal coronaries (n=30). The anti-sk antibody level was assessed in the serum samples of all patients using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbant Assay. Results: In 23.2% of patients with CAD, 40% of normal coronaries and 73.7% of patients with RHD, the serum samples contained more than 2 arbitrary units (AU) of anti-SK antibody which regarded as high levels. There was no significant difference between the anti-sk level of patients with CAD and normal coronaries (2.03 ± 3.02 AUs vs. 2.52 ± 2.23 AU), but the level of antibody in RHD group (8.16 ± 10.1 AU) was significantly higher than other groups (p<0.05). No significant correlation was observed between antibody levels and the age or gender of patients. Conclusion: We concluded that the level of anti-sk antibody is high in Iranian population as compared to other endemic areas for streptococcal infections. Also we found no relation between the level of antibody and sex and age of patients. This study accentuated the necessity of assessment of drug efficacy in endemic areas for streptococcal infections especially in those patients with valvular heart disease.
Original Article
Reza Farid; Farahzad Jabbari Azad; Javad Gaffari; Alireza Rangbar; Zahra Nikjoy
Volume 1, Issue 1 , June 2004, Pages 71-75
Abstract
Background: Allergic diseases have increased during the past decade worldwide. Th2 type lymphocyte response is known to play an important role in the process of allergic inflammation. IL-4, a mediator of type II cytokine response increases IgE synthesis and Interferon gamma, a cytokine of type I response ...
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Background: Allergic diseases have increased during the past decade worldwide. Th2 type lymphocyte response is known to play an important role in the process of allergic inflammation. IL-4, a mediator of type II cytokine response increases IgE synthesis and Interferon gamma, a cytokine of type I response interferes with IL-4 and inhibits IgE production. Selenium is an essential component of glutathione peroxides and changes in its plasma level has been proposed to be associated with allergic diseases. Materials and Methods: This study comprised of 21 cases of allergic asthma (AA), 33 cases of allergic rhinitis (AR) whose age and sex were matched with 28 healthy controls. IL-4, IL-10, IFN-g levels were tested by ELISA assay, and serum selenium was measured by atomic absorption spectorphotometery method. Results: Mean serum selenium level of AA and AR groups were lower than controls. Mean serum IL-4 level of AA was higher than the AR group. Mean serum IL-4 level of AA and AR group were higher than controls. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that low selenium level may have a role in the pathogenesis of allergic diseases.
