Tehran University Medical Journal

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To determine circumcision prevalence and complications in under 5 year old boys. We assessed 181 boys in a cross sectional study at a rutal area in Tehran suburbs, in Jan 1997. Data were collected by an interview about age, circumcision age and method, type of complications, nationality and parent literacy. 126 boys (69%) were circumcised, (mean 12 months). Only 27 of them (21.4%) were circumcised in neonatal period. 62 boys (49.2%) were circumcised with ring methods (plastibell or clamp), 54 boys (42.9%) with surgical methods and the others (7.9%) with nonmendical methods (traditional). Complications were 9.5% (16) and the higher circumcision age was related significantly with higher complications (P<0.04). In our study was no complication in the boys who circumcised under six months. Complications prevalence were high (9.5%). In neonatal period 34% (9) and in postneonatal period 53% (52) of boys were circumcised with inappropriate methods with age. The most common complications were local infection (43%)

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Background: Stereologic methods are used to obtain quantitative information about three dimensional structures from histologic sections. The aim of present study was using new and unbiased stereological techniques to investigated changes in volume and number of glomeruli after chronic lead acetate intoxication. Lead is one of the heavy metals that have adverse effects on renal function. Its effects can involve both renal tubules as well as glomeruli. So many studies based on observation and qualitative reports. Some of which report changes in volume and number of glomeruli.

Materials and Methods: Male Wistar rats were randomly divided to four groups (n=9). During a period of 8 weeks, the treatment groups were given 0.5 percent and 1 percent lead acetate in drinking water and the control and sham control were given distilled water and 0.4 percent acetic acid solution respectively. Stereological analysis based on Cavalierie's principle was performed to determine the reference volume (VRefrence), the fraction volume of glomeruli (VVGlom) and total glomerular volume (VTGlom). Furthermore, for estimating the numerical density (NVGlom) and total number of glomeruli (NTGlom), the physical dissector was utilized.

Results: Results showed that the number of glomeruli in treatment group which received 1 percent lead acetate in drinking water decreased significantly (P<0.05), but no changes occurred in 0.5 percent group (P>0.05). On the other hand glomerular total volume in both 0.5 percent and 1 percent groups increased significantly in comparison to control and sham control groups (P=0.000).

Conclusion: This experiment is in agreement with other qualitative reports by using unbiased method of stereological methods and showed changes in volume and number of glomeruli following lead acetate intoxication.

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Background: Cephalometry is one of the important branches of anthropometry that has wide uses in identification, forensic medicine, plastic surgery, orthodontics, archeology and determining the origins of races. This research was investigated to determine the head and face phenotypes among one-day newborn boys in two aborigines of Sistani and Baluchi who were resident in Zahedan.

Materials and Methods: The investigation is based on cross-sectional analytical descriptions of 420 newborn aborigine boys (216 Sistani & 204 Baluchi), who were clinically healthy, in Quds hospital in summer 1381, in Zahedan. In this study cephalic and prosopic indices were determined by classical cephalometric.

Results: The mean and the standard deviations of cephalic index were 83.67±4.80 and 83.64±4.77 and prosopic index 86.79±5.87 and 86.53±6.76 for Sistani and Baluchi subjects respectively. Based on the cephalic index, the dominant head types in sistani group were hyperbrachycephalic (37%) and brachycephalic (37%). In Blachui group, the hyperbrachycephalic (37.3%) and brachycephalic (35.3%) type were the dominant one. Furthermore, according to the prosopic index. The dominant face type among sistanis was euryprosopic type (42.6%). In Baluchi group, the dominant face type was also euryprosopic (39.2%).

Conclusion: This research showed no statistically significant differences in terms of head and face type indices between two aborigines of Zahedan. Based on this cross-sectional study, it seems that there is similarities between the aforementioned groups

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Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide and in Iran. Conventional therapies are surgery and chemotherapy. Current studies are evaluating natural compounds in inhibiting growth of cancer cell. In this study isolated peptide melittin with 26 amino acids from bee venom and its impact on the viability and proliferation of gastric cancer cells was investigated.
Methods: At first melittin was purified from honeybee venom using a reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP- HPLC) and C18 column. In order to investigate whether melittin, a 26 amino acids peptide which is the main components of honeybee venom, inhibits proliferation of human gastric adenocarcinoma cell line (AGS cells), MTT ((3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5- diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay was performed. Hemolytic assay carried out in order to confirm the biologic activity of the isolated melittin. AGS cells were plated in a 96-well plate and treated with serially diluted concentrations of melittin for 6 and 12 hours. The mortality of the cells was measured via MTT assay at 540 nm.
Results: The obtained chromatogram from RP-HPLC showed that melittin comprises 50% of the studied bee venom. SDS-PAGE analysis of melittin fraction confirmed purity of isolated melittin. Hemolytic activity assay indicates that isolated melittin shows a strong hemolytic activity (HD50=0.5). MTT assay showed that melittin strongly inhibits proliferation of gastric cancer cells at concentrations more than 2µg/ml. This inhibitory effect is dependent to melittin concentration and incubation time.
Conclusion: This study provides evidence that melittin inhibits proliferation of the gastric cancer cells. Results showed that isolated melittin from honey bee venom have cytotoxic effect on AGS cell line with a trend of increasing cytotoxicity with increasing concentration and incubation time.