The effect of 12 weeks Anethum graveolens (dill) on metabolic markers in patients with metabolic syndrome; A randomized double blind controlled trial

Background: The clustering of metabolic abnormalities defined as metabolic syndrome is now both a public health and a clinical problem .While interest in herbal medicine has greatly increased, lack of human evidence to support efficacies shown in animals does exist. This clinical trial study designed to investigate whether herbal medicine, Anethum graveolens (dill) extract, could improve metabolic components in patients with metabolic syndrome. Methods: A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial using a parallel design was conducted. 24 subjects who had metabolic syndrome diagnostic criteria (update of ATP III) were randomly assigned to either dill extract (n = 12) or placebo (n = 12) for 3 months. Results: Across lipid component of metabolic syndrome, no significant differences in triglyceride (TG) concentration and high density lipoprotein cholesterol were seen between the two groups. However TG improved significantly from baseline (257.0 vs. 201.5p = 0.01) with dill treatment but such a significant effect was not observed in placebo group. Moreover, no significant differences in waist circumference, blood pressure and fasting blood sugar were seen between two groups after 3 months follow up period. Conclusion: In this small clinical trial in patients with metabolic syndrome, 12 weeks of dill extract treatment had a beneficial effect in terms of reducing TG from baseline. However dill treatment was not associated with a significant improvement in metabolic syndrome related markers compared to control group. Larger studies might be required to prove the efficacy and safety of long-Term administration of dill to resolve metabolic syndrome components. © 2012 Mansouri et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Ironic remarks in Divan of Naser Khosrow and works of schlegel brothers

1.Introduction Iran and Germany are two countries with fruitful history and traditions in literature and philosophy, but there are not enough works in the field of comparative study between the works of their thinkers and poets. In this study, some works of Naser Khosrow (394-481 A.H) and the Schlegel brothers Friedrich Schlegel (1772-1829 A.D) and A.W Schlegel (1767-1845 A.D) as some representatives of these two countries are studied in an especial field: Irony. This research intends to show how they use this figure of speech in their works and also compare their uses. Irony is a satirical figure of speech which Naser Khosrow and The Schlegel brothers liked and used. There is a variety of definitions for irony. This figure of speech shows the paradoxical aspects of the things: Paradoxes between the world of matter and the world of mind, between the world of word and the world of act or etc. A thinker may build an ideal world in his mind therefore he would see some defects in the real world, so he can use the ironic expression to show those defects. The comparative study of the works of Naser Khosrow and The Schlegel brothers shows why and how they use irony, and how their worldviews affect their use of irony.    2.Methodology This research is descriptive, analytic and comparative and the data were collected thorough a library study by taking notes. First, various definitions of irony were collected thorough the creditable sources. Second, the ironic remarks of Naser Khosrow and the Schlegel brothers were extracted from these books: Fragmets of Friedrich Schlegel, A course of lectures on dramatic art and literature of A.w Schlegel, Divane Ash'ar and Vaj'he deen of Naser khosrow. Third the extracted data were classified and analyzed based on the laws of comparative study of literature.   3.Discussion What is Irony? Irony which is a humorous and indirect expression is used by an author attempting to show up two or more aspects of an object or a thought. Friedrich Schlegel said our world is paradoxical and only irony can show its paradox. This figure of speech should introduce a mixture of pain and laugh. In fact an ironist hides his or her grief behind a happy word and when the readers or audiences recognize that the author's goal was opposite of what he or she said, experiences a disdainful defeat. By using irony we say something and mean something else which is opposite of it. It seems that Naser Khosrow is a serious and starchy poet, often disdaining his opposites who love the material world. But there is also a kind of paradox in his poem. He beautifully describes the beauties of the nature and suddenly says that is not important to love the nature, and everybody who loves these things is a donkey! But why? Because according to his belief, paying attention to the material world can get the man away from the spiritual world. Human is human but lives as a donkey because he sees the World like an animal, and it is an ironic situation! Naser Khosrow criticizes the manner of some clergymen. He says they are men of religion but sometimes, some of them give the orders against the religion. One can get some orders from one clergyman and some from another one and up to these, there is no especial religious order, and this is an irony. He as a follower of religion of Esma'eeli, says that we should interpret the orders of our religion because they have meanings which we must know. And we must also know the soul of them. He believes that there is a distance and then a difference between the word and the meaning, such a paradox can be a basis to see the World ironic.       Romanticism was born in eighteenth century and the romanticists said that Determinism could not explain and interpret the World. Romanticism was against the Determinism because it saw the World as a mechanical system based on mathematical laws. The romanticist said that the World has a soul and they wanted to know and express it by art, wit and irony. Friedrich Schlegel as a member of new movement used irony so much. A.W Schlegel sees the irony as a balance between the reality and the fantasy in Drama.  The philosophical irony is a common point of view in the poems of Naser Khosrow and the fragments of Friedrich Schlegel, because they use irony to a confession: disability of the understanding the truth! This introduces a painful laugh, so they don't use this figure of speech to say banal things. Friedrich Schlegel once said Philosophy is the real place of irony. Our world is paradoxical but how can we go out of this paradoxical situation? Friedrich Schlegel says that irony shows the essential paradoxes in the nature of the World. We cannot explain the truth but we must do this! We should simultaneously be aware of the impossibility and the necessity of the expressing the truth: the World has an unlimited anarchy and the way which we should go to get out of this situation is the awareness. But the way of Naser Khosrow is different. He believes in his religion and says only animals don't believe in the religion. He wants to stay away from the essential anarchy of the nature of the World by accepting the unlimited power of God which is represented in religion. Poetry is an appropriate atmosphere for irony, because it is not necessary for poet to be rational. Poem is based on imagination and fantasy, and it means that poetry does not need the laws like mathematics, so paradoxes can be putting in the same place. Poet can mix wit, thought and feeling. Naser Khosrow could do this mixture well. He brought in a poem the philosophical ideas with the literary beauties. Through this, he could use feeling and thought without leaving any of them. Thus he could introduce his ironies in the poetic texture. Friedrich Schlegel admitted that the irony can be the base of a new aesthetic by which we can mix the philosophy and the poem. Nevertheless he used the Fragment, because he wanted to use the facilities of both of them: poem and prose. Socratic irony is a kind of irony based on the question. In Fragments we see many Socratic ironies because the Schlegel brothers like the style of Socrates in philosophical irony. Naser Khosrow also used this method to represent the paradoxes in the thought of his opponents. A point that we must emphasize it, is that these thinkers had an ideal world in their minds and compared the things of the real world with it, so they saw some paradoxes, and chose ironic expression to show the paradoxes which they saw.   4.Conclusion Man wants to know the secrets of the existence but he cannot do it, because of the limitation of the human's mind: so a point of view based on the doubt and protestation is introduced. This is the basis of irony, when this point of view is mixed with a satirical expression, irony is born. Irony can be used to show the paradoxes between the word and the practice or between what really exists and what is acclaimed exist. This figure of speech can be also used as an arm against the opponents, as Naser Khosrow and The Schlegel brothers do so. They show the paradoxical aspects of the thinks of their opponents and say that the think of their opponents is paradoxical and so is satirical and ironic. In this ground the ideas of Naser Khosrow and the Schlegel brothers about irony are similar but there is an important difference between them. Naser Khosrow is a follower of Esma'eeli religion and the Schlegel brothers are two founders of the Romanticism. The think of Naser Khosrow is in the circle of religion so his worldview is religious therefore his ironies are in this field. The Schlegel brothers are romanticists and see the World through the window of art, criticism and philosophy so their ironies are in the field of art, criticism and Philosophy.   Keywords :Divan of Naser Khosrow, Schlegel brothers, Comparative research, Irony, satirical

Bond Strength of Fiber Posts to Composite Core: Effect of Surface Treatment With Er,Cr:YSGG Laser and Thermocycling

Introduction: This study aimed to determine the bond strength of fiber post to composite core following surface treatment with Er,Cr:YSGG laser at different powers and sandblasting with and without thermocycling.Methods: In this experimental study, 30 fiber posts (Glassix, Nordin, Switzerland) were randomly divided into 5 groups of sandblasting, no treatment and laser irradiation at 1, 1.5 and 2 W powers. Following composite filling and mounting, 1-mm thick sections were made for push-out bond strength testing. Half of the samples in each group were subjected to thermocycling (n=15). Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the bond strength values. Pairwise comparisons were made using Tukey test (P < 0.05).Results: Effect of treatment method on push-out bond strength of fiber post to composite core was significant (P = 0.017), while thermocycling had no significant effect on bond strength (P = 0.964). Pairwise comparison of surface treatment methods revealed no significant difference in groups with and without thermocycling (P > 0.05), but Er,Cr:YSGG laser irradiation with 1 W power yielded significantly higher bond strength than the control group (P =0.01).Conclusion: Irradiation of Er,Cr:YSGG laser at 1 W power increased the bond strength of fiber post to composite core. Thermocycling slightly decreased the bond strength at the fiber post-core interface

A study of the oxidation-induced conformational and functional changes in neuroserpin

Background: Neuroserpin, a member of the Serine Proteinase Inhibitor (Serpin) superfamily, is known to be a neuroprotective factor in the focal ischemic stroke followed by reducing the microglial activation. Neuroserpin is a protein rich of methionine residues that can scavenge the free radical species which may increase its neuroprotective effect. On the other hand, the oxidative modifications of the amino acid residues in neuroserpin may lead to changes in its conformation and function. In this study, it was investigated the changes in the conformation and the function of the oxidized neuroserpin. Methods: Neuroserpin expressed in E. coli, BL21 or M15 harboring plasmid pQE81L containing neuroserpin cDNA. Expressed neuroserpin was purified by resin sulfopropyl A50 precharged with 0.1 M NiSO4 under denaturing condition. Neuroserpin was oxidized under oxidative stress condition in the presence of different concentration of hydrogen peroxide. The oxidation of neuroserpin was conveniently detected by a carbonyl content assay using 2, 4 dinitrophenylhydrazine. Changes in tertiary structure of neuroserpin were monitored by spectrofluorimeter to study the alteration of intrinsic fluorescence and also fluorescence of 8-anilinonaphthalin-1 sulfonic acid (ANS) in native and oxidized form of neuroserpin. Results: Total expressed neuroserpin was estimated 4-5 mg/lit in 2XYT culture media. SDS-PAGE analysis of purified neuroserpin showed a single band which reflects the efficiency of the resin SP A50 for purification of the proteins containing 6xHis tag. Carbonyl content of oxidized and native neuroserpin was estimated 12.3 ± 0.3 and 0.45 ± 0.05, respectively. The inhibitory activity of oxidized neuroserpin decreased up to 40-60 as compared with native form of neuroserpin. Intrinsic fluorescence and also the emission of ANS bind to the hydrophobic region of the protein altered from 380 to 85 and in the case of ANS from 105 to 150 in oxidized and native form of neuroserpin, respectively. Conclusion: The decreased intrinsic fluorescence intensity, an enhancement in the fluorescence of ANS, and loss of the inhibitory activity up to 40-60 in neuroserpin, all suggested a conformational modification in the protein under the oxidative stress condition. Remaining the inhibitory activity of neuroserpin reflects that the protein tolerates the oxidative stress condition effectively

Boesenbergia pandurata Attenuates Diet-Induced Obesity by Activating AMP-Activated Protein Kinase and Regulating Lipid Metabolism

Obesity, a chronic metabolic disorder, is characterized by enlarged fat mass and dysregulation of lipid metabolism. The medicinal plant, Boesenbergia pandurata (Roxb.) Schltr., has been reported to possess anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties; however, its anti-obesity activity is unexplored. The present study was conducted to determine whether B. pandurata extract (BPE), prepared from its rhizome parts, attenuated high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity in C57BL/6J mice. The molecular mechanism was investigated in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and HepG2 human hepatoma cells. BPE treatment decreased triglyceride accumulation in both 3T3-L1 adipocytes and HepG2 hepatocytes by activating AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling and regulating the expression of lipid metabolism-related proteins. In the animal model, oral administration of BPE (200 mg/kg/day for 8 weeks) significantly reduced HFD-induced body weight gain without altering the amount of food intake. In addition, elevated serum levels of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides were suppressed by BPE administration. Fat pad masses were reduced in BPE-treated mice, as evidenced by reduced adipocyte size. Furthermore, BPE protected against the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver by decreasing hepatic triglyceride accumulation. BPE also activated AMPK signaling and altered the expression of lipid metabolism-related proteins in white adipose tissue and liver. Taken together, these findings indicate that BPE attenuates HFD-induced obesity by activating AMPK and regulating lipid metabolism, suggesting a potent anti-obesity agent

Replication of TCF7L2 rs7903146 association with type 2 diabetes in an Iranian population

The transcription factor 7-like 2 gene (TCF7L2) rs7903146 T allele is constantly associated with Type 2 diabetes in various populations and ethnic groups. Nevertheless, this has not been observed in two studies involving Arab populations. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between TCF7L2 rs7903146 in an Iranian population. Type 2 diabetes patients (N = 258) and normal healthy control subjects (N = 168) from the same area, were examined. The ARMS- PCR (Amplification Refractory Mutation System) technique, subsequently validated by direct sequencing, was used for genotyping. Allele and genotype frequencies were significantly different between patients and controls TT vs. CT + CC [p 0.0081 OR 3.4 95%CI (1.27-11.9)] and T vs. C allele [p 0.02 OR 1.4 95%CI (1.03-1.9)]. Our data thus confirm the association between the rs7903146 T allele and T2D in an Iranian population, contrary to previous reports in Arab populations. This can possibly be attributed to differences in ethnic background or the effects of environmental factors