Hyperglycemia decreased medial amygdala projections to medial Preoptic area in experimental model of diabetes mellitus

In Wistar rats, reproductive behavior is controlled in a neural circuit of ventral forebrain including the medial amygdala (Me), bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) and medial preoptic area (MPOA) via perception of social odors. Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a widespread metabolic disease that affects many organs in a variety of levels. DM can cause central neuropathies such as neuronal apoptosis, dendritic atrophy, neurochemical alterations and also causes reproductive dysfunctions. So we hypothesized damage to the nuclei of this circuit can cause reproductive dysfunctions. Therefore in this project we assessed diabetic effect on these nuclei. For this purpose neuron tracing technique and TUNEL assay were used. We injected HRP in the MPOA and counted labeled cells in the Me and BNST to evaluate the reduction of neurons in diabetic animals. Also, coronal sections were analyzed with the TMB histochemistry method. Animals in this study were adult male Wistar rats (230 ± 8g) divided to control and 10-week streptozotocin-induced diabetic groups. After data analysis by SPSS 16 software, a significant reduction of HRP-labeled neurons was shown in both Me and BNST nuclei in the diabetic group. Moreover, apoptotic cells were significantly observed in diabetic animals in contrast to control the group. In conclusion, these alterations of the circuit as a result of diabetes might be one of the reasons for reproductive dysfunctions. © 2015 Tehran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

Distribution of Antibiotic Resistance Genes among the Phylogroups of Escherichia coli in Diarrheic Calves and Chickens Affected by Colibacillosis in Tehran, Iran

Antibiotic resistance occurs in the endogenous flora of exposed population in addition to pathogenic bacteria. This study was conducted to evaluate the distribution of antibiotic resistance genes among 63 isolates of Escherichia coli of Escherichia coli (E. coli) in diarrheic calves and poultry. According to the results, B1 and B2 were the most prevalent phylogroups of E. coli in calves and poultry carcasses, respectively. Antimicrobial resistance was observed in 76% of the isolates, and 62% of the strains were multi-drug resistant. Antibiotic resistance in E. coli strains obtained from calves strains was significantly higher than those obtained from poultries. Additionally, the strains of B1 and D phylogroups had the highest and lowest antimicrobial resistance, respectively. At least one encoding gene for integrone was detected in 23 strains (36.5%) and Class I integron had the highest prevalence. Accordingly, this study gave baseline information on the magnitude of the resistance problem and its genetic background in E. coli from domesticated animals of the Tehran, Iran. Moreover, the power of oligonucleotide array technology in the discrimination of different genotypes during a short time was confirmed in this study

Prevalence and genetic characteristics of Salmonella strains in wild Mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) in Semnan suburb, Iran.

Wild birds serve as major reservoirs for transmission of Salmonella to domestic animals and humans. Given the zoonotic potential of salmonellosis, the main goal of this research was to investigate the prevalence and molecular epidemiology of S. enterica infections in wild Mallard ducks. Faecal sam-ples (n=247) from wild Mallard ducks were tested for the prevalence of Salmonella spp., and geno-types of strains were then differentiated by multiplex PCR. From the 247 faecal samples, 18 (7.29%) were positive for Salmonella spp. Biochemically the most predominant serovars were S. Typhi-murium and S. Enteritidis (10 and 6 cases each, respectively), whereas only 2 serovars belonged to S. Infantis. Among the 10 S. Typhimurium serovars, nine strains were positive for rfbJ, fljB, invA, and fliC genes based on multiplex PCR assay and one strain contained only the invA gene. In S. Enteriti-dis serovars, PCR generated amplification products for spv and sefA genes, and a random sequence in all samples. The two S. Infantis contained the random sequence specific for Salmonella genus. With respect to the circulation of virulent Salmonella in wild ducks of Semnan suburbs, more work to as-sess the correlation of strains from wild life with human and livestock strains is needed