Comparison of the Effect of Three Types of Iron Drops on Surface Roughness of Deciduous Teeth in a Simulated Cariogenic Environment

Objective: Iron deficiency anemia is among the most common types of childhood anemia. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 5 billion people were suffering from iron deficiency anemia worldwide in 2001. Aside from causing anemia, iron deficiency can negatively affect the physical and mental development of children and adolescents. Several studies have discussed the consequences of inadequate iron intake among which we may name changes in deciduous teeth. Considering the importance of iron supplementation, the present in-vitro study aimed at assessing the surface roughness of deciduous teeth following exposure to three different iron drops.Methods: This in-vitro experimental study was conducted on 90 sound anterior deciduous teeth that were divided into 6 groups. After surface preparation, the teeth were placed in cariogenic environment. Different ferrous sulfate compounds were added to 4 media and the remaining two groups were  considered as positive and negative controls. Fourteen days later, the specimens were removed from the media, sectioned labiolingually, polished and enamel and dentin microhardness were evaluated. The  mean microhardness value for the 15 specimens in each group was recorded. ANOVA was applied for comparison of data and LSD test was used for multiple comparisons.Results: No statistically significant differences were found in enamel microhardness of the 6 understudy groups. The mean microhardness of dentin was significantly different in the three understudy depths. Dentin microhardness immediately below the DEJ, at 250 Mm distance from the DEJ and at 450 Mm distance from the DEJ was (kgf/m2) 68.72 (10.00), 67.75 (8.75) and 68.75 (11.86) in group 1, 69.22(12.46), 73.06 (9.36) and 69.29 (8.01) in group 2, 68.533 (12.27), 64.63 (10.64) and 69.64 (10.15) ingroup 3, 83.033 (11.22), 71.68 (16.01) and 70.88 (17.60) in group 4, 60.080 (9.83), 63.52 (14.46) and65.49 (11.20) in group 5 and 91.91 (43.76), 88.62 (20.47) and 85.04 (26.56) in group 6 (p=0.001 for all three), respectively. Pair-wise comparison of groups revealed that the mentioned difference is due to the statistically significant differences between group 6 and other groups and the remaining groups were not significantly different.Conclusion: This study showed that iron supplementation had no effect on demineralization of tooth structure

Comparison of antimicrobial effects of titanium tetrafluoride, chlorhexidine, xylitol and sodium fluoride on streptococcus mutans: An in-vitro study

No studies have yet documented the bactericidal effects of TiF4, and its role in the treatment of dental caries, and no definite protocol has been introduced to regulate its use. The aim of this study was to determine the antimicrobial/bactericidal effects of TiF4 on Streptococcus Mutans (S. Mutans) and to compare it with chlorhexidine (Chx), sodium fluoride (NaF) and xylitol. Methods: This study was conducted at the Shiraz University of Medical Sciences microbiology laboratory during March 2015 to September 2015. In this in-vitro study, first a bacterial suspension was prepared and adjusted to a 0.5 McFarland standard (equivalent to 1×108 CFU/ml). The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimal bactericidal concentrations (MBC) of TiF4, Chx, NaF and xylitol were assessed using broth microdilution assay and disk diffusion methods. In order to neutralize the acidic nature of TiF4, we used a sodium hydroxide preparation to obtain a pH of 7.2 and repeated all of the previous tests with the neutralized TiF4 solution. We reported the final results as percentages where appropriate. Results: The MIC of TiF4, NaF and Chx for S. Mutans were 12.5%, 12.5% and 6.25%, respectively. At a concentration of 12.5% the inhibition zone diameters were 9 mm, 15mm and 14mm for TiF4, NaF and Chx, respectively. The MBC was 25%, 12.5% and 12.5% for TiF4, NaF and Chx, respectively. Xylitol failed to show any bactericidal or growth inhibitory effect in all of its concentrations. When we repeated the tests with an adjusted pH, identical results were obtained. Conclusion: TiF4 solutions have anti-growth and bactericidal effects on S. Mutans at a concentration of 12.5% which is comparable with chlorhexidine and NaF, indicating the possible use of this solution in dental practice as an anti-cariogenic agent, furthermore the antimicrobial activity is unaffected by pH of the environment

Study of educational needs, level of education, and training courses of employees in herbal stores of Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari Province, Iran

Background and aims: Over 70 of Iranians treat their diseases by using medicinal plants and about 67 of these plants are prepared and distributed by herbal stores. Many people working in the herbal stores do not have specialized or academic education related to medicinal plants. Due to the importance of medicinal plants in human health, this study was conducted to determine the level of education and training courses of employees in herbal stores in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, Iran. Methods: In this descriptive study, 48 people participated and the method of sampling was convenience.The data collection tool was a questionnaire that was filled out through interviews. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: 62.5 of people did not have specialized education related to herbalism. 54.2 of the participants had attended related training courses and 45.8 had not. 70.8 of people had participated in private training courses and 29.2 had participated in university courses. The most important educational need of the participants was related to the amount of consumption, followed by side effects and interaction of medicinal plants with chemical drugs. 73.8 of people tended to attend courses offered by universities. Conclusion: Half of the preparation and distribution of medicinal plants is done by inexperienced people with low education. This is an unprofessional behavior and illegal medical intervention that causes many problems and complications in patients. These interventions require correction. Authorized organizations should improve the scientific level of employees using educational interventions and programs and prevent the activities of unauthorized people

Genome-wide screening of mouse knockouts reveals novel genes required for normal integumentary and oculocutaneous structure and function.

Oculocutaneous syndromes are often due to mutations in single genes. In some cases, mouse models for these diseases exist in spontaneously occurring mutations, or in mice resulting from forward mutatagenesis screens. Here we present novel genes that may be causative for oculocutaneous disease in humans, discovered as part of a genome-wide screen of knockout-mice in a targeted single-gene deletion project. The International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC) database (data release 10.0) was interrogated for all mouse strains with integument abnormalities, which were then cross-referenced individually to identify knockouts with concomitant ocular abnormalities attributed to the same targeted gene deletion. The search yielded 307 knockout strains from unique genes with integument abnormalities, 226 of which have not been previously associated with oculocutaneous conditions. Of the 307 knockout strains with integument abnormalities, 52 were determined to have ocular changes attributed to the targeted deletion, 35 of which represent novel oculocutaneous genes. Some examples of various integument abnormalities are shown, as well as two examples of knockout strains with oculocutaneous phenotypes. Each of the novel genes provided here are potentially relevant to the pathophysiology of human integumentary, or oculocutaneous conditions, such as albinism, phakomatoses, or other multi-system syndromes. The novel genes reported here may implicate molecular pathways relevant to these human diseases and may contribute to the discovery of novel therapeutic targets

A large scale hearing loss screen reveals an extensive unexplored genetic landscape for auditory dysfunction

The developmental and physiological complexity of the auditory system is likely reflected in the underlying set of genes involved in auditory function. In humans, over 150 non-syndromic loci have been identified, and there are more than 400 human genetic syndromes with a hearing loss component. Over 100 non-syndromic hearing loss genes have been identified in mouse and human, but we remain ignorant of the full extent of the genetic landscape involved in auditory dysfunction. As part of the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium, we undertook a hearing loss screen in a cohort of 3006 mouse knockout strains. In total, we identify 67 candidate hearing loss genes. We detect known hearing loss genes, but the vast majority, 52, of the candidate genes were novel. Our analysis reveals a large and unexplored genetic landscape involved with auditory function

Study of controlled pulsed illumination (CPI) efficiency in the homogeneous UV-LED/S2O82− process for the removal of organic dye from contaminated water

The present investigation aims to shed light on the efficiency of the irradiation-based advanced oxidation processes using controlled pulsed illumination (CPI) in a homogeneous process. A more in-depth emphasis has been applied considering the ultraviolet-light emitting diodes/persulfate (LED/S2O82−) system. Irradiation-driven processes can present unexpected behaviour under a pulsed irradiation compered to continuous irradiation. This behaviour can be explained by Parrando's paradox concept. The removal efficiency of organic dyes under a continuous illumination source was compared to the CPI system employing a pulsed UV-LED/S2O82− photoreactor to explore CPI performance. The efficiency of the pulsed UV-LED/PS method was investigated using three organic dyes as model pollutants and duty cycle and pulse period as parameters of the pulsed irradiation source. The duty cycle and pulse period have a crucial impact on the pulsed system efficiencies, which were studied in the values of 10 %, 25 %, 50 %, 75 %, 90 %, and 99 % for pulse periods from 1 ms (ms) to a few hundred ms in the current study. For all experiments, the electrical energy consumption (EEO) values were calculated, and the CPI values were compared to the continuous illumination values. According to the results, duty cycles and pulse periods of (10 %, 800 ms), (10 %, 1 ms), and (10 %, 800 ms), with the EEO amounts of 58.29, 120.65, and 29.62 kWh per order showed the best performance for the removal of organic dyes, respect to continuous irradiation and other CPI experiments in terms of saving energy. Besides, the game theory and the collision hypothesis were scrutinized to justify the achieved results

The standard dose versus double dose of N-acetylcysteine to prevent contrast-induced nephropathy; a randomized controlled clinical trial

Background: Contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) is one of the possible complications in angiography, which its prevention is important. N-acetylcysteine is one of the compounds that has recently been more investigated regarding its effect on CI-AKI. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of standard dose and twice-thestandard of N-acetyl cysteine on prevention of contrast-induced nephropathy. Patients and Methods: In a clinical trial, 154 individuals who were referred for angiography and had glomerular filtration rate (GFR) ≤60 mL/min, enrolled in and randomly divided into two groups. Group A received the usual dose of N-acetyl cysteine and group B received twice the standard. Blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine, and GFR values were measured and recorded at intervals before, 24, 48 and 72 hours after angiography. Other required laboratory parameters were also measured and recorded. Results: The results of this study indicated that the effect of double dose in males and females is not different. It also has a reverse effect on renal function in older patients. Its effect did not differ in diabetic patients compared to non-diabetic patients. N-acetyl cysteine in dose of twice the standard has not any effect on renal function in patients with hyperlipidemia, hypertension, myocardial infarction, pulmonary edema as well as smoker patients. In patients with congestive heart failure (CHF), N-acetyl cysteine in dose of twice the standard had a positive effect on renal function compared with those who did not have CHF. An interesting point in our study was the negative effect of N-acetyl cysteine in dose of twice-the-standard on renal function in patients with lower hemoglobin and hematocrit levels. Conclusions: Our study showed that an increase in the dose of N-acetyl cysteine is not effective in preventing contrast-induced nephropathy and improving renal function. Of course, in some groups, such as those with CHF, a positive effect was detected. Additionally, in some groups including patients with lower hematocrit and hemoglobin, an increase in dose is associated with a negative effect on renal function

Evaluation of expression variations in virulence-related genes of Leishmania major after several culture passages compared with Phlebotomus papatasi isolated promastigotes

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a prevalent infectious disease with considerable morbidity annually. Here, we aimed to investigate the likely variations in gene expression of glycoprotein63 (gp63), heat shock protein 70 (HSP70), histone, arginase, cysteine protease B (CPB), Leishmania homologue of receptors for activated C kinase (LACK), small hydrophilic endoplasmic reticulum-associated protein (SHERP) in metacyclic promastigotes of L. major isolated from Phlebotomus papatasi sand flies and promastigotes excessively cultured in culture medium. The parasites were collected from suspected CL cases in Pasteur Institute of Iran, cultured and inoculated into the female BALB/c mice (2×106 promastigotes). Sand flies were trapped in Qom province, fed with the blood of euthanized infected mice and subsequently dissected in order to isolate the midgut including stomodeal valve. The metacyclic promastigotes were isolated from Ph. papatasi (Pro-Ppap) using peanut agglutinin test (PNA), then continuously cultured in RPMI-1640 medium enriched with fetal bovine serum, penicillin (100 U/ml) and streptomycin (100 mg/ml) to reach stationary phase (Pro-Stat). The gene expression was evaluated in both parasitic stages (Pro-Ppap and Pro-Stat) using qRT-PCR. Out results showed a significant increased gene expression at Pro-Ppap stage for gp63 (P = 0.002), SHERP (P = 0.001) and histone (P = 0.026) genes, in comparison with Pro-Stat stage. Noticeably, significant changes were, also, demonstrated in 10th to 15th passages [gp63 (P = 0.041), arginase (P = 0.016), LACK (P = 0.025)] and in 5th to 20th passage (SHERP) (P = 0.029). In conclusion, the findings of the present study seem to be essential in designing Leishmania studies, in particular regarding host-parasite interaction, immunization and infectivity studies

Identification of genotypes of Giardia duodenalis human isolates in Isfahan, Iran, using polymerase chain reaction - Restriction Fragment Length polymorphism

Background : Giardia duodenalis is one of the most prevalent intestinal parasites of human. It also infects a wide range of mammals.Two genotype of G.duodenalis (A and B) were commonly reported among humans with different frequency of distribution in different geographical locations. This work was conducted to discriminate genotypes of Giardia duodenalis human isolates in Isfahan city using PCR- RFLP. This is the first molecular study on human isolates of G.duodenalis in the area. Methods: Samples were collected from different health centers of Isfahan city during June 2011 and February 2012. From 175 Giardia positive stool samples 67 specimens were selected randomly. Cysts of Giardia positive samples were concentrated by flotation sucrose. Extraction of genomic DNA from trophozoite and cysts was performed using QIAamp Stool Mini kit with a modified protocol. PCR- RFLP method was used to amplify a fragment of 458bp at the glutamate dehydrogenase locus, and restriction enzymes BspLI and RsaI differentiated human genotypes A and B and their subgroups. Results: PCR - RFLP assay of 67 isolates showed 40(59.7%) isolates as Genotype A group II, 23(34.32%) samples as Genotype B Group III and two (2.98%) sample as Genotype B group IV. Mixed genotype of (AII and B) was detected only in two isolates (2.98%). Conclusions: PCR - RFLP assay targeting gdh locus is a sensitive tool and discriminates genotypes, sub genotypes and mixed type of G.duodenalis. Results of our study suggest both anthroponotic and zoonotic origins for the infections respectively

The primers used for the amplification of seven virulence genes in <i>L</i>. <i>major</i> and GAPDH gene (RT- PCR).

The primers used for the amplification of seven virulence genes in L. major and GAPDH gene (RT- PCR).</p