[Health related quality of life in patients with of type two diabetes in Iran]

Objective [s]: Studies have shown that environment has a meaningful effect on quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes. One of the important environmental factors is place of living. This study conducted to estimates health related quality of life of diabetic patients based on their place of living

Methods: This study was a secondary data analysis. We used data from a national cross sectional study conducted in 2006 using random cluster sampling. Data were collected by face to face interviews using a structured questionnaire. We analyzed s data on health related quality of life [HRQoL] by gender and patient's residency. Mean values of HRQoL were calculated for each province and then compared with other provinces by statistical tests including ANOVA and distance based classifying methods

Results: Comparison of mean values showed that HRQoL were highest in the Qom, Semnan and Gilan, and were lowest in Kerman, Yazd and Ardabil, respectively. HRQoL was significantly differed between provinces at 0.05 levels

Conclusion: The findings confirm the meaningful differences in HRQoL among diabetic patients living in different provinces. It remains to investigate about such observations. This might help to implement a better care for this population living in different places

Co-culture of spermatogonial stem cells with sertoli cells in the presence of testosterone and FSH improved differentiation via up-regulation of post meiotic genes

Spermatogonial stem cells [SSCs] maintain spermatogenesis throughout life in the male. Maintenance of SSCs and induction of spermiogenesis in vitro may provide a therapeutic strategy to treat male infertility. This study investigated in vitro differentiation of mouse SSCs in presence or absence of Sertoli cells, hormones and vitamins. Spermatogonial populations were enriched from testes of 4-6 week old males by magnetic activated cell sorting and anti-Thy-1 antibody. Sertoli cells isolated from 6-8 week old testes were enriched using lectin-DSA-coated plates. Isolated SSCs were cultured in the presence of Leukemia inhibitory factor [LIF] for 7 days in gelatin-coated dishes, then dissociated and cultured for 7 days in media lacking LIF in the presence or absence of Sertoli cells, with or without FSH, testosterone and vitamins. After one week, the effects of Sertoli cells +/- supplementary media on SSC differentiation was evaluated by microscopy and expression of meiotic and postmeiotic transcripts using RT-PCR. SSC colonies had limited development after LIF removal alone, exhibiting low expression of meiotic [Scp3, Th2b] but not postmeiotic transcript, and loss of Stra8 and Dazl expression. SSCs co-cultured with Sertoli cells, hormones and vitamins developed spermatid-like cells expressing postmeiotic markers [TP1, TP2, Prm1] at levels over 2-fold higher than Sertoli cells or hormone/vitamins alone. Our present SSC-Sertoli co-culture provides conditions that may allow efficient in vitro differentiation of SSCs for the treatment of male infertility

Differential expression of human homeodomain TGIFLX in brain tumor cell lines

Glioblastoma is the most common and the most lethal primary brain cancer. This malignancy is highly locally invasive, rarely metastatic and resistant to current therapies. Little is known about the distinct molecular biology of glioblastoma multiforme [GBM] in terms of initiation and progression. So far, several molecular mechanisms have been suggested to implicate in GBM development. Homeodomain [HD] transcription factors play central roles in the expression of genomic information in all known eukaryotes. The TGIFX homeobox gene was originally discovered in human adult testes. Our previous study showed implications of TGIFLX in prostate cancer and azoospermia, although the molecular mechanism by which TGIFLX acts is unknown. Moreover, studies reported that HD proteins are involved in normal and abnormal brain developments. We examined the expression pattern of TGIFLX in different human brain tumor cell lines including U87MG, A172, Daoy and 1321N1. Interestingly, real time RT-PCR and western blot analysis revealed a high level of TGIFLX expression in A172 cells but not in the other cell lines. We subsequently cloned the entire coding sequence of TGIFLX gene into the pEGFP-N1 vector, eukaryotic expressionvector encoding eGFP, and transfected into the U-87 MG cell line. The TGIFLX-GFP expression was confirmed by real time RT-PCR and UV-microscopic analysis. Upon transfection into U87 cells, fusion protein TGIFLX-GFP was found to locate mainly in the nucleus. This is the first report to determine the nuclear localization of TGIFLX and evaluation of its expression level between different brain tumor cell lines. Our data also suggest that TGIFLX gene dysregulation could be involved in the pathogenesis of some human brain tumors

effects of cumulus cells on in vitro maturation of mouse germinal vesicle stage oocytes

In vitro maturation [IVM] of oocytes is a promising technique to reduce the costs and avert the side-effects of gonadotropin stimulation for in vitro fertilization [IVF]. The pregnancy rates from oocytes matured in vitro are much lower than those of in vivo stimulation cycles, indicating that optimization of IVM remains a challenge. In this study, we investigated the effect of cumulus cells on maturation and fertilization rate of immature oocytes [Germinal vesicle]. Germinal vesicle [GV] oocytes were recovered from 6-8 weeks old Balb C female mice 48hr after injection of 10 IU pregnant mare serum gonadotropin [PMSG]. Collected oocytes were divided into two groups. Group A: GV oocytes without cumulus [denuded oocyte]. Group B: GV oocytes with cumulus cells [cumulus-oocyte complex]. The oocytes in both groups were cultured in TCM-199 medium in a humidified atmosphere of 5% CO2 in air at 37?C. The maturation, fertilization and developmental rates were recorded after 24hr. Maturation, fertilization and developmental rates in denuded oocytes [DO] were 65.1%, 68.02%, 78.63% respectively, and in cumulus-oocyte complex [COC] were 78.20%, 85.57% and 85.05%, respectively. The maturation, fertilization and developmental rates of COC were significantly higher than those of DO [p<0.05]. The results show that cumulus cells have beneficial effects on maturation, fertilization and cleavage rates of mice oocytes

[Prevalence of diabetes mellitus in Iran in 2000]

Diabetes mellitus is one of the chronic metabolic diseases with several organ damages that dearese life span. Prevalence of known diabetes appears to be increasing in most countries, presumably due to increasing the prevalence of risk factors such as obesity, lower physical activity and improved diagnosis. WHO expect the number of adults [20 years and older] with diabetes rises up to 300 millions in 2025. In view of the worldwide geographic differences in diabetes and lack of documented informations about prevalence of diabetes in Iran, we assigned this study. The base of our study for assessment of prevalence of diabetes in Iran was results of ?Health and Disease Study in Iran, 1999?. We used epidemiologic model [DisMod] for estimating the incidence of diabetes in Iran. The prevalence of diabetes in over 20 years of Iranian population in 2000, was 1.6 million or 4.67%. Also it is estimated up to 100000 persons have been affected by type II diabetes. The true limitation of our study was limitations of documents about estimated of proportion of true prevalence to prevalence of known diabetes