Distress thermometer (DT) is a single-item measure generated to assess the psychological distress among cancer patients. The aim of this study was to validate the translated DT as a tool to determine the psychological distress level and assess the factors associated with distress among the working breast cancer survivors and also to compare with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).
Herbal medicines are defined as traditionally used natural products. The current study in an attempt try to investigate the antibacterial activity on extended spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBL), methalo beta-lactamases (MBL) producing gram negative bacteria and methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and subsequently, to determine the antioxidant activity of Thymus daenensis. For this reasons, firstly cytotoxicity of T. daenensis was determined by MTT assay. Then, essential oil was subjected for antibacterial and antioxidant activity. Our results demonstrated that 15 mg/ml concentration of T. daenensis inhibited both P. aeruginosa producing MBL and E.coli producing ESBL, while this value was 25 mg/ml concentration for MRSA inhibition. The association between phenolic compound and antioxidant activity was found for the ABTS(•+) method (43.52%) in the lowest level, while, for FRAD and DPPH(•) methods the opposite story occurred (70.5% correlation for DPPH(•) and 50.9% for FRAD). Our findings suggested that T. daenensis has a potential herbal medicine that should be considered as an antibacterial and antioxidant with very low toxicity.
The present work was to determine the development and re-epithelization of bilayered corneal construct (BCC) in vitro and in vivo using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The in vitro BCC was transplanted to the rabbit's eye and after 90 days the BCC was harvested and analyzed. The corneas were processed for morphology studies. The result indicates that the BICC that was transplanted for 90 days showed good development and re-epithelization of epithelial layer similar to the normal cornea.
Biofilms are adherent, multi-layered colonies of bacteria that are typically more resistant to the host immune response and routine antibiotic therapy. HA biomaterial comprises of a single-phased hydroxyapatite scaffold with interconnected pore structure. The device is designed as osteoconductive space filler to be gently packed into bony voids or gaps following tooth extraction or any surgical procedure. Gentamycin-coated biomaterial (locally made hydroxyapatite) was evaluated to reduce or eradicate the biofilm on the implant materials. The results indicated that the HA coated with gentamycin was biocompatible to human osteoblast cell line and the biofilm has been reduced after being treated with different concentrations of gentamycin-coated hydroxyapatite (HA).
Chemoprevention has become an important area in cancer research due to the failure of current therapeutic modalities. Epidemiological and preclinical studies have demonstrated that nutrition plays a vital role in the etiology of cancer. This study was conducted to determine the chemopreventive effects of germinated brown rice (GBR) in rats induced with colon cancer. GBR is brown rice that has been claimed to be richer in nutrients compared to the common white rice. The male Sprague Dawley rats (6 weeks of age) were randomly divided into 5 groups: (G1) positive control (with colon cancer, unfed with GBR), (G2) fed with 2.5 g/kg of GBR (GBR (g)/weight of rat (kg)), (G3) fed with 5 g/kg of GBR, (G4) fed with 10 g/kg of GBR and (G5) negative control (without colon cancer, unfed with GBR). GBR was administered orally once daily via gavage after injection of 15 mg/kg of body weight of azoxymethane (AOM) once a week for two weeks, intraperitonially. After 8 weeks of treatment, animals were sacrificed and colons were removed. Colonic aberrant crypt foci (ACF) were evaluated histopathologically. Total number of ACF and AC, and multicrypt of ACF, and the expression of beta-catenin and COX-2 reduced significantly (p < 0.05) in all the groups treated with GBR (G2, G3 and G4) compared to the control group (G1). Spearman rank correlation test showed significant positive linear relationship between total beta-catenin and COX-2 score (Spearman's rho = 0.616, p = 0.0001). It is demonstrated that GBR inhibits the development of total number of ACF and AC, and multicrypt of ACF, reduces the expression of beta-catenin and COX-2, and thus can be a promising dietary supplement in prevention of colon cancer.