Endocarditis with Aeromonas salmonicida.

Aeromonas salmonicida (A. salmonicida) is a facultative Gram-negative bacillus, inhabiting in water. It is a common source of furunculosis and septicemia in fish. Report on the human infection with this organism is rare. A male farmer referred with weakness and intermittent fever. He had cardiac valves' regurgitation due to fever with rheumatic heart disease. He had a history of swimming in well water. Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) revealed a mobile mass of 1.3 × 0.9 cm attached to the mitral valve chordae, suggestive of a vegetation. Aeromonas salmonicida was isolated from the blood. After cardiac surgery and taking ceftriaxone for 4 weeks, he was discharged in good general condition. Five previous case reports of human infection with this organism were found. The patient was the sixth human case, and the first endocarditis, reported with this organism. A. salmonicida is a rare agent for human infection. Contact with water is a risk factor for this type of infection. It seems that the use of modern diagnostic methods has been effective in identifying the microorganism.

Effect of Withania somnifera Dunal Root Extract on Behavioral Despair Model in Mice: a Possible Role for Nitric Oxide.

Withania somnifera (WS) possess anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. WS preparations have a potential therapeutic role in the central nervous system (CNS) related disorders in animal models. In this study, the possible protective effect of acute aqueous WS root extract on behavioral despair was explored and compared with fluoxetine, an antidepressant with selective serotonin (5-HT) reuptake inhibitor activity (SSRI). Further, the probable involvement of nitric oxide (NO) determined to measure immobility time in forced swimming test (FST) and tail suspension test (TST) in male mice. Immediately after assessment of locomotor activity, the immobility time was evaluated. WS was administered intraperitoneally (200, 400 mg/kg; i.p.) 60 min before the behavioral tests. To assess the involvement of NO in the possible protective effect of WS, a non-specific NO synthase inhibitor, NG-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME, 10 mg/kg, i.p.) was administered 30 min before the extract administration (400 mg/kg, i.p.), 90 min before the tests. Acute WS extract (200, 400 mg/kg, i.p.) dose-dependently decreased the immobility time in FST, P<0.05, P<0.001, respectively and 400 mg/kg proved the most effective dose and this dose was comparable to fluoxetine (20 mg/kg, i.p. WS (400 mg/kg, i.p.) also lowered the immobility measure in TST (P<0.05). However, these effects were not related to change in locomotor activity. Moreover, L-NAME (10 mg/kg, i.p.) did not influence the effect of the extract on the behavioral tests. As a consequence, the immobility time was virtually constant between the group received the extract (400 mg/kg) alone, and the group received L-NAME (10 mg/kg) before the extract. It is probable that NO does not mediate this beneficial effect, and WS may affect other neurochemical systems and pathways.

Down-regulated MicroRNA 148b expression as predictive biomarker and its prognostic significance associated with clinicopathological features in non-small-cell lung cancer patients.

BACKGROUND: Lung cancer is most common and is the leading cause of cancer-related death in both men and women worldwide. Understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) development and progression are important. In the present study, we investigated the potential role of miR-148b expression analysis as potential lung cancer biomarker with the correlation of circulating miR-148b to clinicopathological features. METHODS: A total of 104 NSCLC patients were diagnosed and cancer tissues together with adjacent normal tissues were evaluated. Quantitative Real-time PCR method was utilized to evaluate the expression levels of miR-148b. In addition, we investigated to clarify the relationship of miR-148b with clinicopathological features and survival in patients with NSCLC. RESULTS: Our findings showed that miR-148b was downregulated in tumor tissues when compared with corresponding adjacent normal lung tissues (0.34 ± 0.13 vs. 1.00 ± 0.57, P < 0.05). Moreover decreased expression of miR-148b was significantly related to TNM stage (P = 0.001) and lymph node-metastasis (P = 0.023). This findings suggested that miR-148b was down-regulated in NSCLC patients and may play a key role as a tumor suppressor gene in NSCLC. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and log-rank test suggested that low-expression group of patients had significantly shorter overall survival than high-expression group (log-rank test: P = 0.031). Multivariate Cox proportional hazards model analysis indicated that low miR-148b expression was independently linked to poor survival of patients with NSCLC (HR = 3.215, 95 % CI: 1.543-10.621, P = 0.021) and other factors were not significant independent predictor of survival in patients with NSCLC. CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrated that miR-148b may play a role as independent prognostic factor for patients with NSCLC.

Effect of platelet-rich plasma on the healing of cutaneous defects exposed to acute to chronic wounds: a clinico-histopathologic study in rabbits.

BACKGROUND: Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) contains numerous growth factors to promote wound healing and angiogenesis. The aim of this study was to gain further information about the benefits of platelet-rich-plasma for healing cutaneous acute to chronic wounds. METHODS: A total of 30 New Zealand albino rabbits (n = 15/group) were randomly assigned to two experimental groups: control group, and PRP group. Bilateral resection defects measuring 3 cm were surgically created on the dorsolateral of the cutaneous in animals and the defects were randomly divided into two mentioned groups. Wound area, neovascularization, size and epithelialization were compared on days 7, 14 and 21 post-wounding. Histopathological analyses were conducted on 15 specimens from each group after sacrifice by the cellular aspects of the regeneration of the tissue. RESULTS: Our results were indicated that the wound area of PRP was smaller than that in the non-treated group on days 7, 14 and 21. Furthermore, a significant decrease of the wound size was observed in PRP groups that were significantly greater than that in the control group. A significant increase of the mean vascular density was noted in the PRP treated groups compared to the control groups at day 14 and especially day 21. This results indicated that PRP treated group' enhanced angiogenesis at the wound beds as compared to no treatment group. CONCLUSION: These results could be useful for researchers in the growing fields of tissue repair and experimental wound healing. Further studies will be essential to determine the role of PRP in clinical practice.