Decreased Levels of Spleen Tissue CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ Regulatory T Lymphocytes in Mice Exposed to Berberine

Gholamreza Karimi,Mahmoud Mahmoudi,Mahdi Balali-Mood,Maryam Rahnama,Shahrzad Zamani Taghizadeh Rabe,Nafiseh Tabasi,Bamdad Riahi-Zanjani 사단법인약침학회 2017 Journal of Acupuncture & Meridian Studies Vol.10 No.2

The effects of isoquinoline alkaloid berberine (BER) on spleen tissue CD4þCD25þFoxp3þ regulatory T (Treg) cells were evaluated in BALB/c mice. Here, BER was administered daily by intraperitoneal injection at doses of 5 mg/kg and 10 mg/kg for 14 days. Following the exposure, mice spleen cellularities, IL-10 production by splenocytes, and spleen Treg/CD4þ cell profiles were studied in all the test groups of animals. The results showed that a high dose of BER (10 mg/kg) could decrease both the absolute and relative percentages of spleen Treg cells as well as decrease the production of IL-10 by splenocytes in the treated mice (p < 0.05). BER at 5 mg/kg did not appear to affect any of these parameters. Based on the finding here, it would seem that BER has effective immunostimulatory properties, which contradicts the results from other studies indicating immunosuppressive effects of BER. Depending on the doses of BER used, it might have a broad spectrum from immunosuppressive to stimulatory effects. Further studies, including more doses, are required to better evaluate the effects of this natural product. Mechanistic studies are required, particularly in case of redox state of the immune cells, to elucidate and determine how BER functions to impart the toxicity effects demonstrated here and in other studies.

Prevalence of Colorectal Polyps in a Group of Subjects at Average-risk of Colorectal Cancer Undergoing Colonoscopic Screening in Tehran, Iran between 2008 and 2013

Sohrabi, Masoudreza,Zamani, Farhad,Ajdarkosh, Hossien,Rakhshani, Naser,Ameli, Mitra,Mohamadnejad, Mehdi,Kabir, Ali,Hemmasi, Gholamreza,Khonsari, Mahmoudreza,Motamed, Nima Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.22

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the prime causes of mortality around the globe, with a significantly rising incidence in the Middle East region in recent decades. Since detection of CRC in the early stages is an important issue, and also since to date there are no comprehensive epidemiologic studies depicting the Middle East region with special attention to the average risk group, further investigation is of significant necessity in this regard. Aim: Our aim was to investigate the prevalence of preneoplastic and neoplastic lesions of the colon in an average risk population. Materials and Methods: A total of 1,208 eligible asymptomatic, average- risk adults older than 40 years of age, referred to Firuzgar Hospotal in the years 2008-2012, were enrolled. They underwent colonoscopy screening and all polypoid lesions were removed and examined by an expert gastrointestinal pathologist. The lesions were classified by size, location, numbers and pathologic findings. Size of lesions was measured objectively by endoscopists. Results: The mean age of participants was $56.5{\pm}9.59$ and 51.6% were male. The overall polyp detection rate was 199/1208 (16.5 %), 26 subjects having non-neoplastic polyps, including hyperplastic lesions, and 173/1208 (14.3%) having neoplastic polyps, of which 26 (2.15%) were advanced neoplasms. The prevalence of colorectal neoplasia was more common among the 50-59 age group. Advanced adenoma was more frequent among the 60-69 age group. The majority of adenomas were detected in the distal colon, but a quarter of advanced adenomas were found in the proximal colon; advance age and male gender was associated with the presence of adenoma. Conclusions: It seems that CRC screening among average-risk population might be recommended in countries such as Iran. However, sigmioidoscopy alone would miss many colorectal adenomas. Furthermore, the 50-59 age group could be considered as an appropriate target population for this purpose in Iran.

Robust Shape Control of Two SMA Actuators Attached to a Flexible Beam Based on DK Iteration

Farshid Alambeigi,Ali Zamani,Gholamreza Vossoughi,Mohammad Reza Zakerzadeh 제어로봇시스템학회 2012 제어로봇시스템학회 국제학술대회 논문집 Vol.2012 No.10

There has been great demand for shape memory alloy (SMA) wires as actuators for shape control of flexible structures. The experimental setup of this study consists of a flexible beam actuated by two active SMA actuators. The input applied to the SMA actuator in this setup is electrical current while the output is the strain or position. To control strain of the actuator, the SMA wire is heated resistively in order to reach the desired temperature calculated by inverse of the phenomenological model. In heating the SMA wire resistively, the controllable quantity is the heat input to the wire via an applied current. In controller design, changes of physical properties of SMA wires and the surrounding air due to temperature change must be taken into consideration. This adds uncertainty to the presented model. Furthermore, both wires must approach the desired temperature while maintaining the same temperature history. Moreover, a suitable shape control requires overdamped response. A 2-DOF robust controller is designed in this study in order to achieve all the above requirements. The robust controller by the DK iteration method is designed after modeling of the system uncertainties. Required simulations are performed for evaluation of the controller. Obtained results show the ability of controller against time variant uncertainties.

Influence of Superabsorbent Polymer Rates on Growth of Saffron Replacement Corms

Hamid-Reza Fallahi,Gholamreza Zamani,Mokhadereh Mehrabani,Mahsa Aghhavani-Shajari,Alireza Samadzadeh 한국작물학회 2016 Journal of crop science and biotechnology Vol.19 No.1

Mother corm size is the most important factor for production of replacement corms, flower, and stigma yield in saffron. In semi-arid regions, water shortage is a deterrent agent for appropriate corm growth of saffron. Therefore, in this experiment the effects of six levels of superabsorbent polymer (SAP) including 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 kg ha-1 was investigated on growth indices of replacement corms of saffron. For this purpose, an experiment was evaluated at the research farm of the Saffron Research Group, Sarayan Faculty of Agriculture, University of Birjand, Iran, during 2013-2015. Results showed that SAP application did not considerable effect on corm growth indices in the first life cycle of saffron. Nevertheless, consumption of 30-40 kg ha-1 SAP somewhat improved the number and total weight of replacement corms per clone. In the second life cycle of saffron, the positive impact of SAP was clearly observed on the growth of replacement corms. The application of 40 kg ha-1 SAP increased the amount of number of replacement corms per clone by 13%, total weight of replacement corms per clone by 36%, and scale weight of corms per clone by 50% compared with control. In addition, the amount of mean weight of replacement corms and mean number of buds per corm in treatment of application of 40 kg ha-1 SAP were 29 and 27% higher than the control treatment, respectively. SAP application decreased the amount of non-standard (< 8 g) corm production while significantly increased the percentage of corms with standard weight. Overall, the increasing effect of SAP application on corm weight, bud number, and standard corm yield was higher than the number of produced corms per clone. In addition, water-use efficiency in SAP application treatments (6.1 kg standard corm m-3) was more than the control (4.34 kg m-3) treatment. In total, SAP application is an appropriate strategy for production of standard saffron corms in semi-arid regions.

THE SUBGRADIENT EXTRAGRADIENT METHOD FOR SOLVING MONOTONE BILEVEL EQUILIBRIUM PROBLEMS USING BREGMAN DISTANCE

Roushanak Lot kar,Gholamreza Zamani Eskandani,김종규 경남대학교 수학교육과 2023 Nonlinear Functional Analysis and Applications Vol.28 No.2

In this paper, we propose a new subgradient extragradient algorithm for finding a solution of monotone bilevel equilibrium problem in reflexive Banach spaces. The strong convergence of the algorithm is established under monotone assumptions of the cost bifunctions with Bregman Lipschitz-type continuous condition. Finally, a numerical experiments is reported to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm.