Coronary angiogenesis during morphine and nicotine withdrawal in two-kidney one clip hypertensive (2K1C) rats

OBJECTIVE: This study was aimed to investigate the effects of addiction to nicotine and morphine and their withdrawal on coronary angiogenesis and serum NO concentrations in two-kidney one-clip hypertensive (2K1C) rats. METHODS: Male hypertensive rats were divided into the two below groups: Group (1): Rats received saline for 8 weeks (n = 8); Group (2): Rats received morphine and nicotine for 8 weeks (n = 32). At the end of 8 weeks, the groups (2) were divided into the four sub-groups, which three of them were treated with withdrawal drugs. Following treatments, blood pressure, heart rate, plasma renin activity (PRA), NO concentration and capillary density were measured. RESULTS: Results showed that blood pressure was signifi cantly reduced in the addicted group when compared to non-addicted (p <0.05). The withdrawal completely reversed blood pressure to the level observed pre-addiction (p <0.05). Coronary angiogenesis was signifi cantly lower in the addicted group in comparistion to normal (p <0.05) but withdrawal of addiction did not improve angiogenesis. CONCLUSION: On the basis of the present fi ndings, it may be indicative that the risk of cardiovascular complications in addiction is concurrent to chronic hypertension, which shows the importance of early diagnosis and treatment in clinical condition (Fig. 4, Ref. 59). Text in PDF www.elis.sk

Research paper: Dalteparin as a novel therapeutic agent to prevent diabetic encephalopathy by targeting oxidative stress and inflammation

Introduction: Hepcidin is the main modulator of systemic iron metabolism, and its role in the brain has been clarified recently. Studies have shown that hepcidin plays an important role in neuronal iron load and inflammation. This issue is of significance because neuronal iron load and inflammation are pathophysiological processes that are highly linked to neurodegeneration. Moreover, the activity of hepcidin has recently been manipulated to recover the neuronal impairment caused by brain inflammation in animal models. Methods: Streptozotocin (STZ) was used to induce type 1 diabetes. Male Wistar rats (n = 40) with a weight range of 200-250 g were divided into control, diabetic, diabetic + insulin, and diabetic + dalteparin groups. Dalteparin (100 mg/kg IP) and insulin (100 mg/kg SC) were administered for 8 weeks. At the end of the experiment, Y-maze and passive avoidance tasks were carried out. The animals were perfused randomly and their hippocampal tissue was isolated for the analysis of markers such as lipid peroxidation like Malondialdehyde (MDA), hepcidin expression, iron, and ferritin. Blood samples were taken for the measurement of serum inflammatory cytokine Interleukin (IL)-6. Results: The findings indicated that treatment with dalteparin reduced IL-6, MDA, ferritin, and hepcidin expression in diabetic rats compared to treatment with insulin (P<0.05). Moreover, treatment with dalteparin did not decrease the iron level or prevented its decline. Conclusion: Treatment with dalteparin improved the cognitive dysfunctions and symptoms of Alzheimer disease in STZ-induced diabetic rats by appropriately modulating and reducing oxidative stress and neuroinflammation. This may enhance the existing knowledge of therapeutics to reduce cognitive impairment in diabetes and is suggested to be a potential therapeutic agent in diabetes. © 2020 Iran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

Deferoxamine regulates neuroinflammation and oxidative stress in rats with diabetes-induced cognitive dysfunction

Diabetic encephalopathy, a major complication of diabetes, is characterized by cognitive impairment and structural and neurochemical abnormalities. Neuroinflammation following impairment of iron homeostasis is a remarkable feature of several neurological disorders. In the present study, we investigated the role of deferoxamine (DFO), as a clinical iron chelator, in improvement of type 1 diabetes-induced cognitive dysfunction. Streptozotocin was utilized to induce type 1 diabetic in rat model. Animals were categorized into four groups: control, diabetic, diabetic + Iron and diabetic + DFO. Hence, DFO was administered at a dose of 100 mg/kg S.C and iron was administered at a dose of 12 mg/kg P.O for 8 weeks. Finally, Y-maze and passive avoidance were performed. Measurement of IL-6, ferritin, and the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression was carried out using ELISA. Our results showed significant increased levels of ferritin (P < 0.001), IL-6 (P < 0.001), MDA (P < 0.01), as well as decreased levels of BDNF (P < 0.001) in the diabetic and iron groups compared to control. Post-treatment with DFO for 8 weeks after the induction of diabetes, markedly reduced levels of ferritin (P < 0.001), IL-6 (P < 0.01), and MDA (P < 0.001), as well as increased levels of BDNF (P < 0.01) compared to the diabetic and iron groups was observed. Collectively, these findings demonstrate the validity of DFO as a good candidate to attenuate cognitive dysfunction following diabetes by targeting oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and modulation of iron homeostasis. © 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG

A comparison of supervised, unsupervised and synthetic land use classification methods in the north of Iran

Land use classification is often the first step in land use studies and thus forms the basis for many earth science studies. In this paper, we focus on low-cost techniques for combining Landsat images with geographic information system approaches to create a land use map. In the Golestan region of Iran, we show that traditional supervised and unsupervised methods do not result in sufficiently accurate land use maps. Therefore, we evaluated a synthetic approach combining supervised and unsupervised methods with decision rules based on easily accessible ancillary data. For accuracy assessment, confusion matrices and kappa coefficients were calculated for the maps created with the supervised, unsupervised and synthetic approaches. Overall accuracy of the synthetic approach was 98.2 %, which is over the 85 % level that is considered satisfactory for planning and management purposes. This shows that integration of remote sensing data, ancillary data and decision rules provides better classification accuracy than traditional methods, without significant additional use of resource

Hepcidin Peptide Inhibitor as Cardioprotection by Targeting Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Type 1 Diabetic

Hepcidin peptide is the dominant regulator of systemic iron metabolism. Studies suggest a dual role of hepcidin in neuronal iron load and inflammation. This is vital since iron load and inflammation are pathophysiological processes, which are frequently associated with diabetic cardiomyopathy. Furthermore, manipulation of hepcidin activity has recently been used to recover heart damage due to inflammation in type 1 diabetic animal models. In order to induce type 1 diabetic model, streptozotocin (STZ) was used. Animals were divided into groups of control (C), diabetic (D), diabetic + iron (ID), and diabetic + dalteparin (DD). Then, 100 mg/kg of dalteparin (anti-hepcidin) was administered intraperitoneally, and 12 mg/kg of iron administration P.O in rats once a day after diabetes for 8 weeks. At the end of the experiment, animals were perfused and their heart tissue was prepared to measure serum iron level, ferritin, inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6, serum C-reactive protein (CRP), oxidative stress markers such as membrane lipid peroxidation (MDA), and hepcidin peptide gene expression. After inhibiting hepcidin by dalteparin treatment, serum levels of IL-6, CRP, glucose levels, iron and tissue levels of MDA and ferritin were remarkably reduced (p < 0.05). Likewise, inhibiting hepcidin peptide improved cardiac complications 8 weeks after induced type 1 diabetic (p < 0.05). Manipulation of hepcidin peptide by dalteparin could ameliorate diabetic cardiomyopathy (DM) in streptozotocin-diabetic rats through appropriate modulation and mitigation of oxidative stress and inflammation and this may expand the existing library of therapeutics to lower the complications of diabetes. © 2019, Springer Nature B.V

Research paper: Ibuprofen protection against restrained chronic stress-induced depression in male rats

Introduction: Stress predisposes organisms to depression and cognitive impairments, and seems to interact with metabolic homeostasis. The inflammatory response and the upregulation of proinflammatory cytokines are some of the consequences related to chronic stress. In this study, we investigated the preventive effect of chronic administration of ibuprofen, as an inhibitor of cyclooxygenases, on the cognitive and behavioral alterations and the weight gain reduction induced by simultaneous chronic restraint stress in rats. Materials and Methods: Male Wistar rats were subjected to chronic restraint stress and injected daily with the variable doses of ibuprofen or vehicle, for 21 consecutive days. Then, all animals were tested with the forced swim test and passive avoidance conditioning. Also, the weight of the animals was recorded before and after the interventions. Ultimately, plasma interleukin 6 (IL-6) levels were measured. Results: Chronic stress increased depressive-like behaviors, impaired learning, and disrupted the normal weight gain. However, the animals that received the highest dose of ibuprofen showed less depressive-like behaviors, a better avoidance memory, and a higher weight gain. However, the level of plasma IL-6 did not differ significantly between the study groups. Conclusion: The administration of ibuprofen prevents the cognitive and behavioral consequences of chronic stress. During the recovery, the plasma levels of IL-6 were not elevated by stress, and the IL-6 levels did not predict the behavioral performance of the stressed animals. The exact mechanisms of the protective effects of ibuprofen against chronic stress need to be further investigated. © 2020 Iran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved