International Journal of Medical Laboratory

7

Authors: Shaghayegh Pishkhan Dibazar, Ahmad Zavaran Hosseini, Fatemeh Yari, Shirin Fateh, Mohammad Reza Deyhim

Background and Aims: Ficolins are proteins that bind to carbohydrates, act as opsonins and play an important role in innate immunity. Polymorphism in ficolin-3 gene (FCN3) can lead to complement deficiency and increase the risk of some disorders such as diabetes. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of FCN3+1637delC as a single nucleotide polymorphism in this gene in healthy and diabetic subjects of Iran. Materials and Methods: Blood was taken from 36 diabetics and 37 healthy subjects who had referred to the Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization. Blood sugar was analyzed using a calorimetric method. After DNA extraction using salting out method, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was carried out and the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) method was accomplished using ApaI restriction enzyme. Consequently, the resulted fragments were evaluated using electrophoresis on 2% L-agarose gel. Results: Evaluation of the results indicated that the heterozygote form of single-nucleotide polymorphism FCN3+1637delC was seen in three samples (8.1%) of the studied healthy subjects and in two samples (5.6%) of the diabetic individuals. Besides, the homozygous form of the mutation was not seen in the studied healthy and diabetic subjects. Conclusions: Results of this study showed that FCN3 variant of single-nucleotide polymorphism FCN3+1637delC was not considered as a risk factor for type 2 diabetes mellitus in Iranian subjects.

9

Authors: Saba Gharibi, Bahram Moghimi, Mohammad Taher Tahoori, Mohammad Bagher Mahmudi, Ensieh Shahvazian, Ehsan Farashahi Yazd

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common autoimmune inflammatory demyelinating disease that affects the brain and spinal cord. Dysregulation or mutation of miRNA genes have been linked to the pathogenesis of MS. The miRNAs are short, 20-22 nucleotide long, single-stranded regulatory and non-protein coding RNAs that modulate the expression of multiple target genes. Among miRNAs, miR-223 has been reported to play a critical role in MS. This review concentrates on the emerging role of miR-223 in inflammatory responses and specifically discusses how alterations in miR-223 expression are associated with the development of MS. This review also suggests that miR-223 can be used as a biomarker for diagnosis of MS and discovering novel therapeutics for MS treatment.

9

Authors: Malihe Mohammadi, Hossein Ali Khazaei

Background and Aims: The prevalence of latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) among diabetic patients is less recognized and underdiagnosed. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of LADA in type 2 diabetic patients and to compare the characteristics of these two groups in Torbat-e Heydarieh, Iran. Materials and Methods: Totally, 198 male and 277 female patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes are aged between 35 -70 years were selected and the glutamic acid decarboxylase antibodies (GADA) assessment was used for the diagnosis of LADA in them. GADA in their sera was measured by commercial anti-GAD enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit. In addition, blood pressure, sera C-peptide and cholesterol levels was measured and compared in the mentioned two groups. Demographic data including age, gender, age at diagnosis, family history of diabetes, body mass index and need for insulin therapy were collected from subjects and data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: Of 475 patients, 53 ones (11.2%) were GADA positive. Significant difference was found between GADA positive and GADA negative patients in terms of mean age, C-peptide levels, cholesterol levels and need for insulin therapy to control the disease. As for gender, family history of diabetes, body mass index value and hypertension there was no significant correlation between these two groups. Conclusions: The prevalence of LADA in diabetic patients was 11.2%. Presence of GAD antibodies in diabetic patients is related to reduced levels of C-peptide, increased cholesterol levels and the need for insulin during the follow-up.

10

Authors: Fahimeh Nourbakhsh, Elaheh Tajbakhsh, Dana Daneshmand, Samaneh Borooni, Vajiheh Nourbakhsh

Background and Aims: Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) is an important multidrug-resistant opportunistic pathogen frequently causing various nosocomial infections and is a serious threat to burn patients. These infections are usually caused by the outbreak strains. The aim of this study was to show antibiotic resistance pattern and molecular typing of A. baumannii genes isolates collected from burn patients and also distribution of different types of burn patients. Materials and Methods: In this study, 307 different strains were detected. Totally 100 A. baumannii strain was selected in burn center of Isfahan hospital. Antibiotic resistance pattern was determined by disk diffusion method (Kirby Bauer). The presence of genes coding in antibiotic resistance were analyzed by using multiplex-PCR method. The standard strains of Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 and A. baumannii ATCC 19606 were used as negative and positive controls. Results: The antibiotic resistance pattern for A. baumannii showed high resistance for ciprofloxacin, ceftazidime, and tetracycline with frequency of 82.5%, 75.3%, 72%, respectively. Moreover, the most sensitive antibiotics were chloramphenicol, and nitrofurantoin with the resistance frequency of 3.9% and 2.8%. CITM (91.1%) was the highest detected gene. Conclusions: High prevalence of antibiotic resistance pattern among A. baumannii isolated from burn center hospitals indicates the important role of multidrug resistant isolates.