Human follicular fluid and mesenchymal stem cell conditioned medium improves in vitro development of vitrified-warmed mouse oocytes

BACKGROUND

In vitro maturation (IVM) and oocyte cryopreservation are therapeutic options in assisted reproductive technology which is used to preserve fertility in patients with different causes of infertility.

OBJECTIVE

To analyze in vitro development of vitrified-warmed oocytes in the presence of human follicular fluid (FF) and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell-conditioned medium (BMSC-CM) as a rescue strategy in fertility preservation.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

BMSC-CM and FF media were used as two natural media. Not only osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation but also flow cytometry was carried out to confirm the nature of mesenchymal stem cells. A total of 327 vitrified-warmed oocytes were randomly assigned to three groups with different maturation media. After 24 h the maturation rate was evaluated. In vitro fertilization and also embryo development were also assessed.

RESULTS

Oocytes matured in the BMSC-CM and FF groups showed a significant increase compared to the control group (76.6+/-2.9, 53.2±1.0 , and 40.8+/-6.1, respectively) (P % 0.05). Embryo cleavage rates in the BMSC-CM were dramatically higher than FF and control groups (85.6+/-2.2, 70.5+/-2.2, and 60.7+/-1.5, respectively). Blastocyst formation rates in the BMSC-CM group were statically different compared to FF and control groups (73.6+/-1.0, 58.5+/-1.0, and 45.8+/-4.2, respectively).

CONCLUSION

BMSC-CM and FF media not only improve the maturation rate of vitrified warmed oocytes but also significantly increase embryo cleavage and blastocyst rates. DOI: 10.54680/fr23210110512.

Clinical outcomes of Schatzker type II tibial plateau fractures using joint depression morphology: A cross-sectional study

Tibial plateau fracture is a common intra-articular fracture caused by axial compression and Varus or Valgus force. This study aimed at the relationship between Luo classification morphology of tibial plateau fractures with clinical outcomes and surgical complications. The cross-sectional study was conducted on patients with Schatzker type II tibial plateau fracture who underwent surgery between May 2018 and January 2021. Clinical outcomes were measured by the AKSS, VAS, Lysholm score, alignment, and ROM. A total of 65 patients with a mean age of 36.38 years were enrolled. There was a significant difference in AKSS (p=0.001), VAS score (p=0.011), and mechanical axis alignment (p=0.037) between the groups by pre-operative joint depression depth below and above 10 millimeters. The higher pre-operative or post- operative size of joint depression depth in patients with Schatzker type II tibial plateau fractures was associated with poor outcomes, more pain, and malalignment. A higher surface area of joint depression was associated with a lower clinical outcome score and more pain.

Follicular fluid supplemented with copper and zinc increase the maturation rate of mouse vitrified-warmed oocytes

BACKGROUND

Immature oocyte cryopreservation is a therapeutic option in assisted reproductive technology.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the effects of supplementing oocyte maturation medium with human follicular fluid (hFF), zinc and copper.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Four different maturation media supplemented with 10% follicular fluid, 4 μg/mL copper and 1 μg/mL zinc were used for vitrified-warmed oocytes of mouse.

RESULTS

Maturation rate was the highest (63.3%) in the presence of zinc. Cleavage and blastocyst rates in groups with copper and zinc were significantly higher than the control group (39.9% and 46.4% vs. 28.8%), without any significant difference between Zn and Cu.

CONCLUSION

Our findings indicate the high importance of using hFF as a natural medium, and also zinc and copper as two efficient trace elements in the maturation medium for vitrified-warmed oocytes.

Molecular survey of aminoglycoside-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii isolated from tertiary hospitals in Qazvin, Iran

Aminoglycoside-modifying enzymes (AMEs) and 16S rRNA methylases (16S RMTase) are two main resistance mechanisms against aminoglycosides. This study aimed to evaluate the frequency of AMEs and 16S rRNA methylase genes among aminoglycoside non-susceptible Acinetobacter baumannii isolates and to assess their clonal relationship using repetitive extragenic palindromic-PCR (rep-PCR). In this cross-sectional study, a total of 192 A. baumannii isolates were collected from the patients hospitalized in Qazvin, Iran (January 2016 to January 2018). Identification of isolates was performed by standard laboratory methods and API 20E strips. Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined by Kirby–Bauer method followed by examination of the genes encoding the AMEs and 16S RMTase by PCR and sequencing methods. The clonal relationship of isolates was carried out by rep-PCR. In total, 98.4% of isolates were non-susceptible to aminoglycosides, 98.4%, 97.9% and 83.9% of isolates were found to be non-susceptible against gentamicin, tobramycin and amikacin, respectively. The frequencies of aph(3′)-VI, aac(6′)-Ib, aac(3)-II, aph(3′)-Ia and armA genes were 59.3%, 39.2%, 39.2%, 31.7% and 69.8%, respectively, either alone or in combination. Rep-PCR results showed that the aminoglycoside non-susceptible isolates belonged to three distinct clones: A (79.4%), B (17.5%) and C (3.2%). The findings of this study showed a high frequency for AMEs with the emergence of armA genes among the aminoglycoside non-susceptible A. baumannii isolates. Rational administration of aminoglycosides as well as using an appropriate infection control policy may reduce the presence of resistance to antibiotics in medical centres.

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Little is known regarding carbapenem resistance mechanisms in A. baumannii in our region.

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More than 85% of our isolates were non-susceptible to carbapenems in Qazvin hospitals, Iran.

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bla_OXA-23, bla_OXA-24, bla_IMP-1, and bla_VIM-1 genes is established in carbapenem resistant A. baumannii isolates.

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Clonal distribution of carbapenem resistant A. baumannii was demonstrated in investigated hospital settings.

Rat lung decellularization using chemical detergents for lung tissue engineering

Although pulmonary diseases account for a large number of deaths in the world, most have no treatment other than transplantation. New therapeutic methods for lung treatment include lung tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Lung decellularization has been used to produce an appropriate scaffold for recellularization and implantation. We investigated 3-[(3-cholamidopropyl) dimethylammonio]-1-propanesulfonate (CHAPS) with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and Triton X-100 detergents for effecting rat lung decellularization. We evaluated using conventional histology, immunofluorescence staining and SEM methods for removing nuclear material while leaving intact extracellular matrix proteins and three-dimensional architecture. We investigated different concentrations of CHAPS, SDS and Triton X-100 for different periods. We found that 2 mM CHAPS + 0/1% SDS for 48 h was the best among the treatments investigated. Our method can be used to produce an appropriate scaffold for recellularization by stem cells and for investigations ex vivo and in vivo.

Optimization of radioactive sources to achieve the highest precision in three-phase flow meters using Jaya algorithm

Gamma ray source has very important role in precision of multi-phase flow metering. In this study, different combination of gamma ray sources ((¹³³Ba-¹³⁷Cs), (¹³³Ba-⁶⁰Co), (²⁴¹Am-¹³⁷Cs), (²⁴¹Am-⁶⁰Co), (¹³³Ba-²⁴¹Am) and (⁶⁰Co-¹³⁷Cs)) were investigated in order to optimize the three-phase flow meter. Three phases were water, oil and gas and the regime was considered annular. The required data was numerically generated using MCNP-X code which is a Monte-Carlo code. Indeed, the present study devotes to forecast the volume fractions in the annular three-phase flow, based on a multi energy metering system including various radiation sources and also one NaI detector, using a hybrid model of artificial neural network and Jaya Optimization algorithm. Since the summation of volume fractions is constant, a constraint modeling problem exists, meaning that the hybrid model must forecast only two volume fractions. Six hybrid models associated with the number of used radiation sources are designed. The models are employed to forecast the gas and water volume fractions. The next step is to train the hybrid models based on numerically obtained data. The results show that, the best forecast results are obtained for the gas and water volume fractions of the system including the (²⁴¹Am-¹³⁷Cs) as the radiation source.

The capability of radial basis function to forecast the volume fractions of the annular three-phase flow of gas-oil-water

The problem of how to precisely measure the volume fractions of oil-gas-water mixtures in a pipeline remains as one of the main challenges in the petroleum industry. This paper reports the capability of Radial Basis Function (RBF) in forecasting the volume fractions in a gas-oil-water multiphase system. Indeed, in the present research, the volume fractions in the annular three-phase flow are measured based on a dual energy metering system including the ¹⁵²Eu and ¹³⁷Cs and one NaI detector, and then modeled by a RBF model. Since the summation of volume fractions are constant (equal to 100%), therefore it is enough for the RBF model to forecast only two volume fractions. In this investigation, three RBF models are employed. The first model is used to forecast the oil and water volume fractions. The next one is utilized to forecast the water and gas volume fractions, and the last one to forecast the gas and oil volume fractions. In the next stage, the numerical data obtained from MCNP-X code must be introduced to the RBF models. Then, the average errors of these three models are calculated and compared. The model which has the least error is picked up as the best predictive model. Based on the results, the best RBF model, forecasts the oil and water volume fractions with the mean relative error of less than 0.5%, which indicates that the RBF model introduced in this study ensures an effective enough mechanism to forecast the results.

Histologic analyses of different concentrations of TritonX-100 and Sodium dodecyl sulfate detergent in lung decellularization

Pulmonary diseases cusecs a large portion of mortality in the world. There is no more cure for pulmonary diseases and many approaches are needed for finding ways to cure. Nowadays, implantation and drugs are only ways for curing those people who are facing with these diseases. Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine have been appeared as multidisciplinary field and also, they presents new therapeutic approaches for pulmonary diseases. One of these therapeutic approaches is decellularization which removes cellular but leaves intact important extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins and three-dimensional (3D) architecture and also, this approach has been studied for in-vitro and ex-vivo. In this study, we aimed to investigate a comparison of different concentrations of Triton X-100 and Sodium dodecyl sulfate detergents in lung decellularization in order to evaluate the effects of different concentrations and times of mentioned detergents on three dimensional and ECM proteins lung. Two detergents (Triton-X100 and Sodium dodecyl sulfat) were used with different concentrations for decellularizing rat lungs for maintaining of three-dimensional lung architecture and ECM protein compositions which have significant roles in differentiation and migration of stem cells. Results showed that SDS 0.05%, 0.1% and Triton-X100 0.1% could maintain 3D, elastin and collagen better than other concentrations in 24 and 48 h- decellularization. We concluded that these approaches can help to achieve three-dimensional architecture and extracellular matrix of lung with minimum destruction for next step such as recellularization and in-vivo study.

Glutathione S-transferase activities in African catfish injected with β-naphthoflavone: effects of ploidy, gender, dose, and sampling time

Glutathione S-transferases (GST) are considered among the most controversial biomarkers of water pollutants in fish with little known about factors influencing their activities. The objective of this study was to investigate how gender, dose, ploidy, and sampling time alter hepatic GST activities in African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) following β-naphthoflavone (β-NF) injection. Newly matured male and female diploid and triploid fish were intraperitoneally (i.p.) injected with 0, 15, or 75 mg/kg of β-NF, and livers were excised 24, 48, and 72 h post-injection. Results showed that hepatic GST activities were significantly inhibited by both doses of β-NF. Inhibition was greater in females than males, but no significant differences were observed between diploid and triploid fish. Enzymatic activities differed over time with lowest levels 72 h post-injection. These results extend our understanding of GST activity in fish and highlight the necessity of considering confounding factors when comparing different studies.

The consistency of antibiotic resistance' results in two methods of disk diffusion and MIC in isolated organisms from patients with urinary tract infections

Introduction: The urinary tract infection is the most common infection and drug resistance to it is increasing. Due to the acute infection, the prescribing of medicine is conducted before culture and antibiogram and according to the results, disk diffusion is adjusted. The aim of this study was to compare it with MIC to determine to what extent the current method could be useful. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional investigation research regarding drug resistance was conducted with the help of two methods of disk diffusion and MIC on the isolations of patients' urine culture with UTI (midstream clean catch). Bacterial resistance was measured, and sensitivity and specificity were evaluated. Results: The MIC method was considered the gold standard and, according to the related formula, the sensitivity and specificity of disk diffusion were related to 13 antibiotics obtained as it follows: ciprofloxacin 69% and 69.1% (0.0001 > p and Kappa = .292), cotrimoxazole 50% and 77.3% (p = 0.010), nitrofurantoin 84.7% and 58.2% (0.0001 > p and Kappa = 0.44), ampicilin 83.3% and 85.3% (0.0001 > p and Kappa = 0.33), ofloxacin 65.5% and 83.9% (0.0001 > p and Kappa = 0.429), cephalexin 46.2% and 75.2% (p = 0.012 and Kappa = 0.116), gentamicin 64.2% and 66% (0.0001 > p and Kappa = 0.276), ceftriaxone 27.6% and 80.9% (p = 0.216 and Kappa = 0.074), nalidixic acid 42.1% and 89.2% (0.0001 > p and Kappa = 0.354), imipenem 63.4% and 70.4% (0.0001 > p and Kappa 0.306), co-amoxiclav 83% and 71% (0.0001 > p and Kappa = 0.412), cefixime 21% and 80.9% (0.0001 > p and Kappa = 0.412), vancomycin 55.9% and 94.7 (0.9001 > p and Kappa = 0.532). Sensitivity and specificity of this method were reported to be lower than MIC. Conclusions: Due to the low sensitivity and specificity of the disk diffusion method, antibiotic therapy should be certainly considered in clinical conditions, and risk factors for the infection and only by this approach cannot prescribe the drug.

Design of a multiplex PCR method for detection of toxigenic-pathogenic in Vibrio cholerae

OBJECTIVE

To study virulence and regulatory genes (hlyA, ctxB, tcpI) in clinical strains of Vibrio cholerae (V. cholerae), simultaneously.

METHODS

Three important genes, tcpI, hlyA and ctxB were used for detection of toxigenic and pathogenic V. cholera by chain reaction assay method.

RESULTS

According to the results of the PCR, the incidence of hlyA, tcpI, and ctxB genes in clinical isolates was obtained as 94.7% (72 sample), 90.8% (69 sample), and 92.1% (70 sample), respectively. Five strains possessed all genes except ctxB, six strains possessed all genes except tcpI, four strains possessed all genes except hlyA, one strain possessed only hlyA and 60 strains contained a combination of three genes, Including hlyA, ctxB and tcpI.

CONCLUSIONS

Result show that this method could be reliable to detect toxigenic-pathogenic strains of V. cholerae in Iran.

Rapid detection of Borrelia burgdorferi strains by nested polymerase chain reaction

This study was carried out to evaluate the nested PCR for specific detection of different strains of B. burgdorferi. Five strains of B. burgdorferi including ACA-1, B-31, 2B45, 3B45, 7B49 obtained from different countries were used in this study. The strains of B. hermsii, Escherichia. coli and T. pallidum were also included as control strains. Two pairs of nested PCR primers were used to amplify the gene encoding the Osp-A protein of B. burgdorfer under standard PCR condition. In a two stage procedure, nested PCR yielded a positive reaction for five tested strains of B. burgdorferi. None the strains including B. hermsii, E. coli and T. pallidum showed positive reaction when used as control strains in PCR. In conclusion, nested PCR showed acceptable specificity for rapid detection ofB. burgdorferi.

Quantitative interpretation of Fourier-transform infrared spectoscopic data from a size--exlusion chromatorgraphy solvent- evaporation interface

Quantitative evaluation of polymer composition across the SEC chromatogram can provide more accurate characterization of heterogeneous polymer samples for problem solving and for material specification. To this end Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) with solvent-evaporation interfaces has become a very powerful detector for size-exclusion chromatography (SEC). The solvent-evaporation interface removes the mobile phase at the exit of the chromatograph and deposits the separated molecular sizes as polymer films on infrared transparent substrates. Quantitative interpretation of the FTIR spectra obtained from these films has recently been found to be best accomplished by using partial least squares. In this paper, polystyrene and poly(methylmethacrylate), alone, as blends, and a copolymer were analyzed in a SEC equipped with an evaporative interface. Molecular weight effects, wavelength selection, the effect of averaging spectra on results, and selection of the best data preprocessing method were investigated. General methods of evaluating these variables were developed to arrive at conditions for this particular "model" situation in order to provide a basis for the analysis of more complex polymers.

Quantitative FTIR detection in size-exclusion chromatography

With the increasing popularity of evaporative interfaces, detection using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometry in the mid-infrared region is becoming more important in size-exclusion chromatography (SEC). FTIR spectrometry is a powerful, and potentially very widely applicable, method for obtaining chemical functional group information for each molecular size fraction. Quantitative evaluation of polymer composition across the SEC chromatogram can provide more accurate characterization of heterogeneous polymer samples for problem solving and for material specification. The evaporative interface removes the SEC mobile phase at the exit of the column and deposits the eluting polymer as a continuous film stripe or as a series of discrete films on infrared transparent substrates. Initially this detection approach was used only for qualitative analysis. More recently, it is being used quantitatively. Previously we demonstrated that the quality of the film generated by the evaporative interface was critical to determining the suitability of the resulting FTIR spectra for quantitative analysis. In a continuation of this work, the objective of this paper is to develop a procedure for obtaining valid quantitative results for polymer blends with the interface. Experimental topics include improving the quality of polymer films by post-SEC treatments, off-line FTIR calibrating using other means to obtain high quality polymer films, and utilizing in-line SEC detectors in calibration. Interpretation aspects focus upon peak fitting of FTIR spectra, linear regression, partial least squares, and data pre-processing. PLS prediction with internal calibration using the second derivative of solvent-annealed film spectra was found to provide the best compromise between processing time, accuracy and precision.