Increased Expression of Transforming Growth Factor-beta and Receptors in Primary Human Airway Fibroblasts from Chemical Inhalation Patients

The widespread use of sulfur mustard (SM) as a chemical warfare agent in the past century has proved its long-lasting toxic effects. Despite a lot of research over the past decades on Iranian veterans, there are still major gaps in the SM literature. Transforming growth factor (TGF-beta), a cytokine that affects many different cell processes, has an important role in the lungs of patients with some of chronic airway diseases, especially with respect to airway remodeling in mustard lung. Primary airway fibroblasts from epibronchial biopsies were cultured, and gene expression of TGF-beta 1, TGF-beta 2, TbR-I and TbR-II in fibroblasts of SM injured patients and controls were investigated. Expression of TGF-beta s and receptors was measured by RT-PCR. Protein level of TGF-beta 1 was surveyed by western blot. Our findings revealed that expression levels of TGF-beta 1, TGF-beta 2, TbR-I and TbR-II were upregulated in the airway fibroblasts of SM exposed patients in comparison with control samples. TGF-beta 1 expression was shown to be markedly increased in primary lung fibroblasts of chemically injured patients. Our novel data, suggested that over-expression of TGF-beta molecule and receptors in primary airway fibroblasts of mustard gas injured patients may be involved in progression of airway remodeling of these patients

The performance of deterministic and stochastic interest rate risk measures : Another Question of Dimensions?

The efficiency of traditional and stochastic interest rate risk measures is compared under one-, two-, and three-factor no-arbitrage Gauss-Markov term structure models, and for different immunization periods. The empirical analysis, run on the German Treasury bond market from January 2000 to December 2010, suggests that: i) Stochastic interest rate risk measures provide better portfolio immunization than the Fisher-Weil duration; and ii) The superiority of the stochastic risk measures is more evident for multi-factor models and for longer investment horizons. These findings are supported by a first-order stochastic dominance analysis, and are robust against yield curve estimation errors.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Investigation of biofilm formation ability, antimicrobial resistance and the staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec patterns of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis with different sequence types isolated from children

This study investigated the molecular characterizations of 80 methicillin resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis (MRSE) collected during 2012-2013 in Tehran Children's Medical Center, Iran. About 90 of MRSE isolates were multi-drug resistant (MDR) and the highest resistance was observed to cotrimoxazole and they were quite sensitive to quinupristin-dalfopristin and linezolid. Though vanA gene was not detected, the majority of isolates showed intermediate resistance to vancomycin (MIC90 16 mu g/ml). Resistance to mupirocin was observed in 18 isolates. Staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) types V, III, IV and II were detected in 23.75, 7.5, 6.25 and 5 of isolates respectively, in some of which the additional parts of mec or ccr complexes were observed. In 57.5 MRSE isolates SCCmec types were not classified. 41.2 of MRSE isolates were carrying intercellular adhesion (ica) operon and 40 had strong or intermediate biofilm. The types of arginine catabolic mobile element (ACME) were limited to type I and II. Nine sequence types (STs) were seen in mupirocin resistant MRSE isolates. The common STs were ST2, ST5 and ST22 with 27.7 (5/18), 22.2 (4/18) and 16.6 (3/18) frequencies, respectively. ST23, ST54 and ST179 plus three novels STs 580, 581,588 were also observed. The majority of STs, 83.3 (15/18) belonged to clonal complex 2 (CC2). The spread of antibiotic resistance and virulence factors among MRSE species is an alarming sign in Children's Hospitals. The combination of these two issues leads to increase the chance of successfully establishing of common STs in hospital environments, and promotes the device-related infections and bacteremia. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Nuclear factor kappa B1/RelA mediates the inflammation and/or survival of human airway exposed to sulfur mustard

Context: Sulfur mustard (SM) is known as an effective chemical agent and was used in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war against Iranians. At the present time, there are more than 40,000 people suffering from pulmonary lesions due to mustard gas in Iran. Though much is known about the gross pathology of SM damage, the molecular and cellular basis for this pathology is not well understood. Objective: One of the most important protein groups involved in inflammatory responses is nuclear factor.B protein (NF-kB1) family. They belong to the category of DNA-binding protein factors necessary for transcription of many proinflammatory molecules. In our research, we examined the role of NF-kB1/RelA in the pathophysiology of the lung. Materials and methods: We investigated 10 normal individuals and 20 SM induced patients. Expression of NF-kB1/RelA in controls and the SM exposed samples was measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction and localization of NF-kB1 protein was detected by immunohistochemistry staining. Results: Our results revealed that expression levels of NF-kB1 and RelA were upregulated 0.64-6.50 fold and 0.83-8.34 fold, respectively, in the SM exposed patients in comparison with control samples. Discussion and conclusion: As far as we know, this is the first finding of induction of NF-kB in patients exposed to SM. NF-kB1/RelA may play a major role in inflammation induced by mustard gas or even in cell survival in the bronchial wall of affected patients

Microbiological Pattern and Antibiotic Susceptibility of Isolates from Bronchiectasis

Bronchiectasis is one of the complicated diseases of lower Respiratory Tract. Present study was done to analyze the pattern and antibiotic resistance of bacterial isolates in BE cases. BAL samples were collected from 150 patients, and identified by standard methods. Antibiotic susceptibility of isolates was done by Kirby-Bauer method, from 56 (37.3) out of 150 BE cases PPMs were isolated. The most frequent isolates were S.aureus (21 cases; 37.5) and Klebsiella spp. (16 cases; 28.5), Three (37.5) out of 8 Acinetobacter isolates were resistant to imipenem. All of the citrobacter isolates were sensitive to imipenem, Cefepiem, gentamicin, ceftriaxon and ciprofloxacin, and Klebsiella isolates were sensitive to all mentioned antibiotics except than ceftriaxone. In gram positive isolates 8(38) and 3(14) out of 21 S.aureus isolates were resistant against methicillin and vancomycin respectively. The most high sensitivity in S.aureus isolates was seen against vancomycin(86) and then ceftriaxon (71.46) and tetracycline(71.46). Results of present study clearly indicates that majority of isolates from BE cases have resistance against commonly used and in some cases, choice antibiotics. These findings alarming the health and hospital officials, and emphasizing that screening and surveillance programs should be implemented in necessary conditions

The Role of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor in Cancer and their Application for New Targeted Cancer Therapy

Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) has central role in cancer therapy because it causes tumour progression in many cases. The EGFR has seven ligands. Each factor that can block this binding, inhibits the intracellular signal transduction and prevents progression of the tumours. Immune system response is the most important factor for suppressing the initial stage of tumour growth and destroying some initial malignant cells, daily. On the other hand, tumours have different mechanisms to hide their antigens and escape from immune system responses. In contrary, tumours use some mechanisms to escape from immune system such as: 1) use of TGF-beta to initiate angiogenesis and immune suppression; 2) Induces Treg cell activation to modulate other immune cells; 3) secretion of the prostaglandin E2 to convert T cell into Treg. So, if a superantigen fused to one of the EGFR-ligands, causes the induction of immune system responses against the tumour cells. One of the new methods is based on the use of the fused super antigen with a ligand of the EGFR to inhibit ligand attaching to the EGFR and inducing immune system responses. To achieve this goal, we can block binding of EGFR to their ligands in the extracellular domain by fusing ligands with bacterial superantigens, toxins or cytokines of the viruses and plants that can induce immune system responses and kill malignant cells. So, the fused ligand can both block signal transduction and induce immune system response against malignant cells. In addition, with combining traditional drugs, high efficacy of the tumour treatment can be achieved. The aim of this review is to assess the mentioned strategy for targeting tumours

DISTRIBUTION OF BACTERIAL CONTAMINATION IN A TEACHING HOSPITAL IN TEHRAN - A SPECIAL FOCUS ON STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS

There are documents that confirm the cycle of bacterial transmission between patients, staff, and the inanimate environment. The environment may have more effect on intensive care units (ICUs), because the patients who require intensive care have unstable clinical conditions and are more sensitive to infections. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of bacteria in air and inanimate surface in the ICUs and to compare the microbial levels to standard levels. Air and inanimate surface in the four ICUs of a teaching hospital underwent weekly surveillance by means of air sampler and swabs for a period of six-month. Total bacterial counts were evaluated onto trypticase soy agar and mannitol salt agar (MSA). A total of 725 samples air (168) and inanimate surfaces (557) were collected. The total mean +/- SD CFU/m(3) of airborne bacteria in all of the ICUs were 115.93 +/- 48.04. The most common bacteria in air of the ICUs were Gram-positive cocci (84.2%). The total mean +/- SD airborne of Staphylococcus aureus was 12.10+/-8.11 CFU/m(3). The highest levels of S. aureus contamination were found in ventilators and bed ledges. More suitable disinfection of hospital environments and monthly rotation in utilization of the various disinfectant agents are needed for the prevention of airborne and inanimate transmission of S. aureus