Testicular expression of TDRD1, TDRD5, TDRD9 and TDRD12 in azoospermia.

BACKGROUND: Tudor domain-containing proteins (TDRDs) play a critical role in piRNA biogenesis and germ cell development. piRNAs, small regulatory RNAs, act by silencing of transposons during germline development and it has recently been shown in animal model studies that defects in TDRD genes can lead to sterility in males. METHODS: Here we evaluate gene and protein expression levels of four key TDRDs (TDRD1, TDRD5, TDRD9 and TDRD12) in testicular biopsy samples obtained from men with obstructive azoospermia (OA, n = 29), as controls, and various types of non-obstructive azoospermia containing hypospermatogenesis (HP, 28), maturation arrest (MA, n = 30), and Sertoli cell-only syndrome (SCOS, n = 32) as cases. One-way ANOVA test followed by Dunnett's multiple comparison post-test was used to determine inter-group differences in TDRD gene expression among cases and controls. RESULTS: The results showed very low expression of TDRD genes in SCOS specimens. Also, the expression of TDRD1 and TDRD9 genes were lower in MA samples compared to OA samples. The expression of TDRD5 significantly reduced in SCOS, MA and HP specimens than the OA specimens. Indeed, TDRD12 exhibited a very low expression in HP specimens in comparison to OA specimens. All these results were confirmed by Western blot technique. CONCLUSION: TDRDs could be very important in male infertility, which should be express in certain stages of spermatogenesis

Comparison of Interleukin-6 (IL-6) Serum Levels in Neonates Born via ‎Vaginal Delivery and Caesarean Section

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Anxiety is a major symptom of menopause caused by loss of ovarian activity. Anxiety increases the intensity of vasomotor symptoms in menopausal women. This study aimed to compare the effects of exercise and estrogen on anxiety level of ovariectomized mice.&nbsp; METHODS: This empirical study was conducted on 28 mice (weight: 25-35 grams) divided into four groups of seven, including ovariectomy, ovariectomy and exercise, ovariectomy and estrogen (40 mg/kg of estradiol valerate), and ovariectomy combined with exercise and estrogen. Animals were initially ovariectomized and one week later, they were placed on treadmills to run at medium intensity for 30 minutes per day. Intervention continued for five days per week, and after four weeks, anxiety was evaluated using elevated plus-maze. FINDINGS: In this study, estrogen significantly increased the percentage of open arm entry (OAE) compared to ovariectomy group (22.13&plusmn;4.72 vs. 4.91&plusmn;3.18, respectively) (p<0.05). In addition, combination of estrogen and exercise significantly increased open arm time (OAT) compared to ovariectomy group (46.19&plusmn;6.82 vs. 4.91&plusmn;3.18, respectively) (p<0.001). However, no significant difference was observed between exercise and estrogen groups. Also, exercise alone increased OAE compared to ovariectomy group (24.54&plusmn;3.18 vs. 13.79&plusmn; 3.23, respectively) (p<0.05). Percentage of OAE in groups of estrogen, exercise and combined exercise and estrogen was 30.61&plusmn;1.25, 24.54&plusmn;3.18 and 46.08&plusmn;1.04, respectively, which was indicative of no significant difference. However, estrogen and combined estrogen and exercise significantly increased OAE compared to ovariectomy group (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: According to the results of this study, similar to estrogen, exercise could reduce the anxiety induced by ovariectomy in mice.&nbsp

Stable Integration of Power Electronics-Based DG Links to the Utility Grid with Interfacing Impedance Uncertainties

Part 16: Energy: Power Conversion IIInternational audienceFor the integration of distributed generation (DG) units to the utility grid, voltage source converter (VSC) is the key technology. In order to realize high quality power injection, different control techniques have been adopted. However, the converter-based DG interface is subject to inevitable uncertainties, which adversely influence the performance of the controller. The interfacing impedance seen by the VSC may considerably vary in real distribution networks. It can be observed that the stability of the DG interface is highly sensitive to the impacts of interfacing impedance changes so that the controller cannot inject appropriate currents. To deal with the instability problem, this paper proposes an enhanced fractional order active sliding mode control scheme for integration of DG units to the utility grid, which is much less sensitive to interfacing impedance variations. A fractional sliding surface which demonstrates the desired dynamics of the system is developed and then the controller is designed in two phases: sliding phase and reaching phase to keep the control loop stable. The proposed controller takes a role to provide high quality power injection and ensures precise current tracking and fast response despite uncertainties. Theoretical analyses and simulation results are verified to study the performance and feasibility of the proposed control scheme