Recent Approaches to Enhance Osteogenesis of Dental Pulp Stem Cells on Electrospun Scaffolds.

Critical-sized bone defects are a challenging issue during bone regeneration. Bone tissue engineering is aimed to repair such defects using biomimicking scaffolds and stem cells. Electrospinning allows the fabrication of biocompatible, biodegradable, and strengthened scaffolds for bone regeneration. Natural and synthetic polymers, alone or in combination, have been employed to fabricate scaffolds with appropriate properties for the osteogenic differentiation of stem cells. Dental pulps are rich in stem cells, and dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) have a high capacity for proliferation, differentiation, immunomodulation, and trophic factor expression. Researchers have tried to enhance osteogenesis through scaffold modification approaches, including incorporation or coating with mineral, inorganic materials, and herbal extract components. Among them, the incorporation of nanofibers with hyaluronic acid (HA) has been widely used to promote osteogenesis. In this review, the electrospun scaffolds and their modifications used in combination with DPSCs for bone regeneration are discussed.

The effect of curcumin on anthropometric indices, blood pressure, lipid profiles, fasting blood glucose, liver enzymes, fibrosis, and steatosis in non-alcoholic fatty livers.

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common form of liver disease. Curcumin is a natural polyphenol that may be effective against liver steatosis and steatohepatitis. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of phytosomal curcumin on lipid profile, fasting blood sugar, anthropometric indices, liver enzymes, fibrosis, and steatosis in non-alcoholic fatty liver patients. Methods: The participants were randomized to the curcumin-phosphatidylserine phytosomal receiving group and the placebo receiving group and were followed up for 12 weeks. Data on anthropometric indices, lipid profile, blood glucose, blood pressure, liver enzymes, hepatic steatosis, and fibrosis were collected at the beginning and the end of the clinical trial. Results: Supplementation for 12 weeks with phytosomal curcumin significantly reduced fibrosis and steatosis in the phytosomal curcumin receiving group compared with the placebo group (p < 0.05). Phytosomal curcumin also significantly reduced waist circumference and blood pressure compared with the placebo group (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference between the phytosomal curcumin and the placebo groups regarding changes in weight, body mass index, fasting blood glucose, liver enzymes, and lipid profile. Conclusion: Curcumin, at a dose of 250 mg per day, might be effective in treating patients with NAFLD. Further studies are necessary to confirm these findings and to discover the underlying mechanisms. Clinical trial registration: https://www.irct.ir/trial/43730, identifier: IRCT20121216011763N39.

Estrogen adsorption from an aqueous solution on the chitosan nanoparticles.

In this research, chitosan nanoparticles as an efficient and reusable adsorbent with adsorption capacity of 5.79 mg/g, surface area of 62 m2/g and pHpzc of 8.07 were applied to remove the ethinylestradiol (as a sample of estrogen) from an aqueous wastewater. The chitosan nanoparticles were characterized by SEM, XRD and FT-IR analyses. Four independent variables involving contact time, adsorbent dosage, pH, and initial concentration of estrogen were applied to design the experiments by Design Expert software (CCD under RSM). In fact, number of experiments was minimized and the operating conditions were optimized for the maximum estrogen removal. The results indicated that three independent variables (contact time, adsorbent dosage, and pH) increment increased the estrogen removal while the estrogen initial concentration enhancement decreased the removal due to the concentration polarization phenomenon. The optimum conditions for the estrogen removal (92.50 %) on the chitosan nanoparticles were found at contact time of 220 min, adsorbent dosage of 1.45 g/l, pH of 7.3 and estrogen initial concentration of 5.7 mg/l. Moreover, the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second order models could properly legitimize estrogen adsorption process on the chitosan nanoparticles.

Modeling and investigating the effect of parasol installation on solar radiant temperature reduction using COMSOL Multiphysics.

Objectives. Occupational activities in open spaces can experience excessive heat exposure caused by sunlight and other artificial sources in these professional environments can be one of the current and future challenges of occupational safety and health due to increasing global warming. Use of lightweight portable parasols is the first available control measure to reduce the radiation emitted by the sun in outdoor workplaces, which has been used for a long time. Methods. Due to the lack of study and results on the effect of using parasols in scientific literature, this modeling study was conducted to investigate the effect of sunshade installation on radiant temperature reduction of the sun in outdoor work using COMSOL Multiphysics version 5.5. Results. In general, six different shapes of portable parasols in different positions were modeled and the average radiant temperature reduction effectiveness (TRE) was about 30% in the presence of different parasols. The designed conical, simple and pyramidal sunshades showed the most effectiveness, respectively. Conclusions. The results show that changing variables such as the axis, installation height and shape is more effective for improving parasol efficiency to reduce the radiant temperature below it.

The salivary exosomal microRNA as a potential biomarker in patients with periodontitis and oral cancers.

Periodontitis and oral cancers are the most common oral diseases in the human population. The early diagnosis of oral diseases allows the efficient therapy of the patient. During oral diseases, resident cells in the affected tissue secrete exosomal microRNAs (miRNAs) into saliva. As these miRNAs have a crucial role in the pathogenesis of oral diseases, they have been suggested as non-invasive and validated biomarkers in predicting periodontitis severity and cancer progression. Several attempts have been performed to evaluate the expression of salivary exosomal miRNAs in patients with periodontitis and oral cancers. Some miRNAs are differentially expressed in the saliva of the affected patients when compared to healthy individuals. These miRNAs are reviewed in this narrative review. Collectively, it seems that salivary exosomal microRNAs could be used as a diagnostic biomarker in oral diseases. However, further studies are required to validate them.

Cell homing strategy as a promising approach to the vitality of pulp-dentin complexes in endodontic therapy: focus on potential biomaterials.

INTRODUCTION: Over the last two decades, an increasing body of research suggests that well-designed biomaterials can attract resident stem cells to injured areas and control their behaviors and activities to encourage tissue regeneration. Fabricated biomaterials can enhance cell recruitment, multiplication, and transformation while also acting as a delivery system for targeted cells. These capabilities might play a role in their ability to promote tooth regeneration. AREAS COVERED: This review aims to introduce the various materials used in endodontics. The potential of biomaterial-based approaches involved in cell homing for endodontics is also discussed. EXPERT OPINION: Applying the cell homing technique in restorative dentistry can affect various aspects of healthcare, industry, economy, and science. Biomaterial scaffolds can be used to encapsulate cells or for structural replacements. Also, both cell transplantation and cell homing are legitimate scientific procedures in endodontic therapy. Although the suggested biomaterials and procedures may hold promise for future dental pulp tissue regeneration, tooth structure's complexity and multicellular interconnections lead to significant problems that need to be overcome before any clinical trial.

Assessment of Inferior Alveolar Nerve Position at the Region of First and Second Mandibular Molars in Dentate and Edentulous Sites Using Cone Beam Computed Tomography: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Determining the position of the Inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) is an important factor prior to any surgical procedure in the mandible such as dental implant insertion and surgical tooth extraction. The aim of this study was to compare the position of IAN in partially edentulous patients in the lower first and second molars in both missing and dentate sides. A total of 200 CBCT scans were chosen randomly and examined. On cross-sectional views, the distance between lower border of IAN canal and upper border of inferior cortex of mandible (IC) were measured at the site of dentate and edentulous mandibular first and second molar. Paired-sample t-test was used to analyze and compare measurements on right and left sides. A total of 100 males and 100 females with mean age of 46.05 ± 12.33 years were included. The IC distance measured in four pairs were as follows: Pair one: 80 cases with right missing 6 (mean ± SD = 3.73 ± 1.29 mm) and left present 6 (mean ± SD = 3.42 ± 1.20 mm), Pair two: 20 cases with right present 6 (mean = 3.20 ± 1.48 mm) and left missing 6 (mean ± SD = 3.96 ± 1.62 mm), Pair three: 54 cases of right missing 7 (mean ± SD = 3.83 ± 1.74 mm) and left present 7 (mean ± SD = 3.62 ± 1.74 mm), and Pair four: 46 case of right present 7 (mean ± SD = 3.49 ± 1.56 mm) and left missing 7 (mean ± SD = 3.84 ± 1.42). The IAN was statistically more distant from inferior cortex of mandible in the edentulous parts compared with the non-edentulous part (P < 0.05). The IAN was positioned farther from the inferior cortex of mandible in edentulous sites compared with dentate parts. Cautious consideration is essential in any surgical procedure and dental implant operations to prevent IAN injury.

Health impact assessment and evaluation of economic costs attributed to PM2.5 air pollution using BenMAP-CE.

Air pollution is considered the most prominent public health. Economically, air pollution imposes additional costs on governments. This study aimed to quantify health effects and associated economic values of reducing PM2.5 air pollution using BenMAP-CE in Qom in 2019. The air quality data were acquired from Qom Province Environmental Protection Agency, and the population data were collected from Qom Province Management and Planning Organization website. The number of deaths due to Stroke, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Lung Cancer, and Ischemic Heart Disease attributable to PM2.5 were estimated using BenMAP-CE based on two control scenarios, 2.4 and 10 µg/m3, known as scenarios I and II, respectively. The associated economic effect of premature deaths was assessed by value of a statistical life (VSL) approach. The annual average of PM2.5 concentration was found to be 16.32 µg/m3 (SD: 9.93). A total of 4694.5 and 2475.94 premature deaths in scenarios I and II were found to be attributable to PM2.5 in overall, respectively. The total associated cost was calculated to be 855.91 and 451.40 million USD in scenarios I and II, respectively. The total years of life lost due to PM2.5 exposure in 2019 was 158,657.06 and 78,351.51 in scenarios I and II, respectively. The results of both health and economic assessment indicate the importance of solving the air pollution problem in Qom, as well as other big cities in Iran. The elimination of limitations, such as insufficient local data, should be regarded in future studies.

The Effect of Curcumin Supplemsentation on Anthropometric Indices in Overweight and Obese Individuals: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.

BACKGROUND: Curcumin is an active molecule present in turmeric and is the main therapeutic compound. There is growing evidence that curcumin could affect various anthropometric indices. We performed a systematic review to evaluate the efficacy of curcumin supplementation on anthropometric indices in obese and overweight individuals. METHODS: A comprehensive search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar from inception up to February 2020 to identify randomized controlled trials investigating the effect of curcumin supplementation on anthropometric indices including body weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), arm circumference (AC), waist-hip ratio (WHR), total body fat (TBF), and visceral fat (VF) in obese and overweight individuals. The Jadad scale was used to assess the quality of the included studies. RESULT: Twenty-eight randomized controlled trials, comprising 2168 participants, were included in the systematic review. The results of 16 papers indicated that curcumin reduced at least one of the anthropometric indices among individuals with a BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2. Nevertheless, 12 articles showed that curcumin supplementation was not effective in any of the measured anthropometric factors. The included trials exhibited substantial heterogeneity in terms of the treatment protocol, follow-up duration, curcumin dosage, and background diseases of the participants. CONCLUSION: Clinical trials that have independently examined the effects of curcumin in obese or overweight individuals are limited. However, available studies indicate that curcumin has beneficial impacts on various anthropometric indices. Further trials with longer duration of interventions are needed to confirm these findings.

Awareness and Performance towards Proper Use of Disinfectants to Prevent COVID-19: The Case of Iran.

This study aimed to assess the awareness and performance of Qom citizens towards using disinfectants and compared its relationship with geographical distribution of COVID-19 outbreak in Qom, Iran. The study was conducted by a researcher-made questionnaire during April and May, 2020. COVID-19 incidence data for each district of city was obtained from health department of Qom province. Data were analyzed using Excel, SPSS and ArcView (GIS) softwares. It was found that the highest level of citizens' awareness (52%) was in the weak range while their performance (56%) was in the good range. According to Spearman's correlation analysis, there was a strong correlation (rho 0.95) between the total mean of awareness and performance (p < 0.01). The highest incidence rate of COVID-19 was in district 7 which had the lowest mean score in both awareness and performance. In addition, the results of ANOVA (LSD-least significant difference) showed that there was a significant difference (p < 0.05) between district 7-with lower mean scores in awareness and performance-and other districts. Overall, it is concluded that citizens' awareness level was lower than that of their performance. This conclusion not only calls for more training programs to be implemented in public places, schools, universities and governmental offices, but it also necessitates maintaining a proper and timely training about using disinfectants.

Efficacy of resveratrol supplementation in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials.

BACKGROUND: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease and refers to the accumulation of triglycerides in hepatocytes. Recent studies have showed that resveratrol (antioxidant of grape) can be effective in the treatment of NAFLD through its inhibitory effect on lipid accumulation. METHOD: We systematically searched databases including: ISI web of science, Scopus, PubMed and Embase by using related keywords. Then, by considering inclusion and exclusion criteria, appropriate articles were selected. All the analyses were conducted in Review Manager (RevMan) Version 5.3. RESULTS: Finally, 6 RCTs were included in meta-analysis and systematic review. Our results showed that resveratrol supplementation significantly reduced levels of TNF-alpha (SMD = -0.46; 95% CI (-0.78, 0.14); P = 0.005) and hs-CRP (SMD = -0.53; 95% CI (-1.01, -0.05); P = 0.030), but for other markers (BW, BMI, WC, HC, WHR, SBP, DBP, ALT, AST, GGT, ALP, bilirubin, TC, TG, HDL, LDL, LDL to HDL ratio, apo-A1, apo-B, insulin, HOMA-IR, glucose, creatinine and IL-6), no significant change was observed. CONCLUSION: Overall, the results of the present study show that resveratrol supplementation does not affect the management of NAFLD although it can improve some inflammatory markers.

Comparison of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases Induced by Wood Smoke and Tobacco Smoke.

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive airflow limitation and decline in lung function. Although tobacco smoke is the leading risk factor for COPD, air contamination by wood-burning smoke is also of great concern. About half of the world's populations, especially in developing countries such as Iran, exploit this energy source for cooking and heating. It is remained unknown if COPD induced by wood smoke from baking bread (COPD-B) and COPD induced by tobacco smoke (COPD-S) have different symptoms and clinical presentations. To fill this gap, the present study was to describe such differences. Materials and Methods: This retrospective cohort study was performed in Afshar COPD clinics affiliated with the Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. The clinical records of 231 patients with the COPD diagnosis were reviewed. After considering inclusion and exclusion criteria, 91 patients (46 with COPD -B and 45 with COPD-S) underwent physical examination and para-clinical assessments (i.e., respiratory function tests, Chest X-ray, and quality of life test). Results: The COPD-B patients were mainly women at older age and had higher FEV 1 /FVC and FEF-75; however, they had fewer post-bronchodilator positive responses to FEV 1 (suggesting a restriction pattern) and sputum production, compared to the COPD-S patients. Regarding the other parameters, there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups. Conclusion: This was the first study evaluating and revealing some differences in the clinical and paraclinical characteristics of the COPD-B patients (with prolonged exposure to wood smoke from bread baking; >100 hours per year, for at least 10 years) and COPD-S patients (>10 packs per year of exposure to tobacco smoke).

Singlet fission relevant energetics from optimally tuned range-separated hybrids.

As a promising idea to design high-efficiency organic photovoltaics, singlet fission (SF) mechanism, i.e., generating two triplet excitons out of a single photon absorption, has recently come into the spotlight. Even though much effort has been devoted to this arena, accurately accounting for the SF process from the theoretical perspective has proven to be challenging. Herein, the SF energetics have thoroughly been investigated with the help of optimally tuned range-separated hybrid functionals (OT-RSHs) in both gas and solvent phases. Taking a series of experimentally known SF chromophores as working models, we have proposed and validated several variants of OT-RSH approximations for the reliable prediction of the energy levels which match the crucial criteria for the SF process, namely, the negative singlet-triplet and triplet-triplet energy gaps. We scrutinize the role of the OT-RSH ingredients, i.e., the underlying density functional approximations, short- and long-range exact-like exchange, as well as the range-separation parameter, for our purpose. The newly designed OT-RSHs outperform the standard RSHs and other related schemes such as screened-exchange approximations as well as other density functionals from different rungs for describing the SF energetics. More importantly, it is unveiled that although the OT-RSH coupled with the polarizable continuum model, OT-RSH-PCM, as well as the screened versions, OT-SRSHs, which account for the screening effect by the electron correlation through the scalar dielectric constant have some advantages over gas-phase computations using OT-RSHs, the energetics criteria of the SF process may not necessarily be satisfied. This in turn corroborates the idea of performing both the optimal tuning procedure and subsequent computations of the SF relevant energetics using OT-RSHs as a more reliable and affordable framework, at least for the present purpose. The applicability of the proposed models is also put into broader perspective, where they are used for the computational design of several chromophores as promising candidates prone to utilization in the SF-based materials. Hopefully, our recommended OT-RSHs can function as efficient models for both the theoretical modeling of SF chromophores and confirming the experimental observations in the field.

Removal of Cefixime from Water Using Rice Starch by Response Surface Methodology.

BACKGROUND: Remaining pharmaceutical compounds cause environmental pollution. Therefore, refining these compounds has become a major challenge. In this study, the function of eliminating Cefixime (CFX) using rice starch was evaluated under controlled conditions. METHODS: Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to design, analyze, and optimize experiments, and the interaction between four variables including pH (3-9), rice starch dose (0-300 mg/L), CFX initial concentration (0-16 mg/L) and time (20-120 min) was investigated on CFX removal. RESULTS: The optimum pH, starch dose, initial concentration and time were 4.5, 225 mg/L, 7.9 mg/L and 95 min, respectively. The maximum efficiency of CFX removal was 70.22%. According to RSM, this study follows a quadratic model (R2=0.954). CONCLUSION: Rice starch has been successful in removing CFX from the aqueous solution. Therefore, it is recommended to utilize this process to remove CFX from aqueous solutions.

The effect of barberry (Berberis vulgaris L.) on glycemic indices: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

OBJECTIVE: We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy of barberry (Berberis vulgaris L.) supplementation on glycemic indices in adults. METHODS: A comprehensive search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and ISI Web of Science from inception up to January 2020, to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the effect of barberry supplementation on glycemic markers including fasting blood sugar (FBS) concentrations, insulin levels, homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) percentage. The results of this meta-analysis were reported, based on the random effects model. RESULTS: In total, 7 studies, comprising 452 participants, were included in the systematic review. The meta-analysis revealed that barberry significantly reduces insulin levels (Hedges's: -0.67; 95% CI: -1.31 to -0.03, P = 0.04, I2 = 73.3%). However, no considerable changes was observed for FBS levels (WMD: -8.06 mg/dL; 95% CI: -20.46 to 4.33, P = 0.23, I2 = 96.1%), HbA1c percentage (WMD: -0.83 %; 95% CI: -2.33 to 0.67, P = 0.27, I2 = 88.3%), and HOMA-IR index (WMD: -0.55; 95% CI: -1.60 to 0.50, P = 0.30, I2 = 99.4%). CONCLUSION: The present study suggests that although barberry supplementation significantly improves insulin levels; however, other glycemic indices might not be affected. However, more high-quality RCTs with longer duration are needed to further clarify the effects of barberry on blood glucose control, especially among patients with diabetes.

Murine Genetic Background Overcomes Gut Microbiota Changes to Explain Metabolic Response to High-Fat Diet.

Interactions of diet, gut microbiota, and host genetics play essential roles in the development of metabolic diseases. A/J and C57BL/6J (C57) are two mouse strains known to display different susceptibilities to metabolic disorders. In this context, we analyzed gut microbiota composition in A/J and C57 mice, and assessed its responses to high-fat diet (HFD) and antibiotic (AB) treatment. We also exchanged the gut microbiota between the two strains following AB treatment to evaluate its impact on the metabolism. We showed that A/J and C57 mice have different microbiome structure and composition at baseline. Moreover, A/J and C57 microbiomes responded differently to HFD and AB treatments. Exchange of the gut microbiota between the two strains was successful as recipients' microbiota resembled donor-strain microbiota. Seven weeks after inoculation, the differences between recipients persisted and were still closer from the donor-strain microbiota. Despite effective microbiota transplants, the response to HFD was not markedly modified in C57 and A/J mice. Particularly, body weight gain and glucose intolerance in response to HFD remained different in the two mouse strains whatever the changes in microbiome composition. This indicated that genetic background has a much stronger impact on metabolic responses to HFD than gut microbiome composition.

Steatosis and gut microbiota dysbiosis induced by high-fat diet are reversed by 1-week chow diet administration.

Many studies have recently shown that diet and its impact on gut microbiota are closely related to obesity and metabolic diseases including nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Gut microbiota may be an important intermediate link, causing gastrointestinal and metabolic diseases under the influence of changes in diet and genetic predisposition. The aim of this study was to assess the reversibility of liver phenotype in parallel with exploring the resilience of the mice gut microbiota by switching high-fat diet (HFD) to chow diet (CD). Mice were fed an HF for 8 weeks. A part of the mice was euthanized, whereas the rest were then fed a CD. These mice were euthanized after 3 and 7 days of feeding with CD, respectively. Gut microbiota composition, serum parameters, and liver morphology were assessed. Eight weeks of HFD treatment induced marked liver steatosis in mice with a perturbed microbiome. Interestingly, only 7 days of CD was enough to recover the liver to a normal status, whereas the microbiome was accordingly reshaped to a close to initial pattern. The abundance of some of the bacteria including Prevotella, Parabacteroides, Lactobacillus, and Allobaculum was reversible upon diet change from HFD to CD. This suggests that microbiome modifications contribute to the metabolic effects of HFD feeding and that restoration of a normal microbiota may lead to improvement of the liver phenotype. In conclusion, we found that steatosis and gut microbiota dysbiosis induced by 8 weeks of high-fat diet can be reversed by 1 week of chow diet administration, and we identified gut bacteria associated with the metabolic phenotype.

Toward photophysical characteristics of triplet-triplet annihilation photon upconversion: a promising protocol from the perspective of optimally tuned range-separated hybrids.

The photon upconversion (UC) process assisted by the triplet-triplet annihilation (TTA) mechanism has recently come into the spotlight. Given the rich collection of efforts in this area, theoretical explorations regarding TTA-UC are relatively limited and have proven to be challenging for its control in devices. In this contribution, the photophysical properties crucial for TTA-UC, such as triplet excited state energies and triplet-triplet energy transfer gaps of the essential ingredients involved in the process, namely sensitizers, annihilators and their pairs, have theoretically been investigated using optimally tuned range-separated hybrid functionals (OT-RSHs) and their screened exchange counterparts, OT-SRSHs. Taking a series of experimentally proven-to-work sensitizer/annihilator pairs as working models, we have constructed and validated several variants of OT-RSHs using both full time-dependent and Tamm-Dancoff formalisms for a reliable description of the TTA-UC photophysics. Given the bimolecular biphotonic nature of the TTA-UC process under study, particular attention is paid to the influence of the factors like the underlying density functional approximations and the tunable parameters such as short- and long-range exact-like exchanges as well as the range-separation parameter for both the sensitizers and annihilators separately. Dissecting all the aspects and relying on the appropriate choices from the tested models, we propose an OT-RSH with the correct asymptotic behavior as a cost-effective yet useful tool for this purpose. Not only against the standard RSHs but also in comparison to the conventional hybrids, the newly developed OT-RSH yields a more reliable description for the TTA-UC energetics in the gas phase and dielectric medium. Accountability of the proposed model has further been confirmed for several theoretically designed sensitizer/annihilator pairs prone to be used in the TTA-UC process. Summing up, in light of this study additional pieces of convincing evidence on the quality of OT-(S)RSHs for computational modeling and experimental verifications of the photophysics of the photon UC based on TTA and other possible technologies are showcased.

The links between the gut microbiome and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

NAFLD is currently the main cause of chronic liver disease in developed countries, and the number of NAFLD patients is growing worldwide. NAFLD often has similar symptoms to other metabolic disorders, including type 2 diabetes and obesity. Recently, the role of the gut microbiota in the pathophysiology of many diseases has been revealed. Regarding NAFLD, experiments using gut microbiota transplants to germ-free animal models showed that fatty liver disease development is determined by gut bacteria. Moreover, the perturbation of the composition of the gut microbiota has been observed in patients suffering from NAFLD. Numerous mechanisms relating the gut microbiome to NAFLD have been proposed, including the dysbiosis-induced dysregulation of gut endothelial barrier function that allows for the translocation of bacterial components and leads to hepatic inflammation. In addition, the various metabolites produced by the gut microbiota may impact the liver and thus modulate NAFLD susceptibility. Therefore, the manipulation of the gut microbiome by probiotics, prebiotics or synbiotics was shown to improve liver phenotype in NAFLD patients as well as in rodent models. Hence, further knowledge about the interactions among dysbiosis, environmental factors, and diet and their impacts on the gut-liver axis can improve the treatment of this life-threatening liver disease and its related disorders.

Chromosomal aberrations, sister chromatid exchanges, and micronuclei in lymphocytes of oncology department personnel handling anti-neoplastic drugs.

OBJECTIVE: Concern exists regarding the possible hazards to the personnel handling anti-neoplastic drugs. The purpose of the present study was to assess the genotoxicity induced by anti-neoplastic agents in oncology department personnel. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To do this, the frequency of chromosomal aberrations (CAs) induced in peripheral blood lymphocytes was assessed at G0 phase of the cell cycle using metaphase analysis, cytokinesis block-micronucleus (MN) assay and sister chromatid exchange (SCE) assay. These cytogenetic end points were measured among 71 nurses in oncology department and 10 drugstore personnel handling and preparing anti-neoplastic drugs. The results were compared to those of 74 matched nurses for age and sex not exposed to any anti-neoplastic agents. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between the age of study subjects and control group (p > 0.05). The results showed that the mean frequency of cytogenetic damages in terms of CAs [chromatid breaks (p = 0.01), chromosome breaks (p = 0.005), total CAs (p = 0.001)], MN formation (p = 0.001), and SCE (p = 0.004) in lymphocytes of personnel handling anti-neoplastic drugs were significantly higher than those in control unexposed group. CONCLUSION: Results of the present study demonstrate the cytogenetic damage in peripheral blood lymphocytes of oncology department personnel. Suitable training and proper knowledge when handling anti-neoplastic drugs are emphasized to avoid potential health hazards caused by cytostatic agents.