Functional and psychosocial impact of COVID-19 pandemic on rheumatic patients’ quality of life in Saudi Arabia

Quality of Life Research - The COVID-19 pandemic might add to the stressors experienced by people living with rheumatic diseases. This study aimed to examine rheumatic patients’ functional...     

Functional beta-cells derived from umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells for curing rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes mellitus

INTRODUCTIONThis study aimed to investigate the therapeutic response to injected human umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells (UCBMSCs) among albino rats with streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes mellitus.METHODSControl group (GI; n = 25) rats were fed with standard rat diet. Rats with STZ-induced diabetes mellitus without (GII; n = 25) and with (GIII; n = 25) differentiated human UCBMSCs implantation were the test groups. Rats were sacrificed in Week 11 following implantation. Liver biopsies were sectioned and stained in order to highlight both the presence and function of impregnated cells in the liver tissue.RESULTSHaematoxylin and eosin-stained sections in GI and GII rats showed normal liver architecture while GIII rats showed presence of cell clusters inside the liver tissue and around the central veins. Cell clusters with blue cytoplasm were present in sections in GIII rats but absent in GI and GII rats, indicating the presence of injected differentiated human UCBMSCs. The anti-human insulin immunostaining of GIII rats showed clusters of cells within the liver parenchyma and around central veins, indicating that these cells were active and secreting insulin.CONCLUSIONUCBMSCs are proficient in differentiating into insulin-producing cells in vivo under specific conditions and, when transplanted into the liver of albino rats with STZ-induced diabetes mellitus, were able to secrete insulin and partially control the status of diabetes mellitus in rats.     

Comparison of 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional acquisition for 18F-FDG PET oncology studies performed on an LSO-based scanner.

Three-dimensional (3D) PET acquisition has the potential to reduce image noise but the advantage of 3D PET for studies outside the brain has not been well established. To compare the performance of 2-dimensional (2D) and 3D acquisition for whole-body (18)F-FDG applications, a series of patient studies were performed using a lutetium oxyorthosilicate (LSO)-based tomograph. METHODS: Comparative 2D and 3D images were acquired for 27 oncology patients using an LSO-based tomograph. Data acquisition (350-650 keV, 6 ns) started 99 +/- 12 min (mean +/- SD) after injection of 624 +/- 76 MBq (18)F-FDG. Bias caused by tracer redistribution and decay was eliminated by acquiring dynamic data over a single-bed position using a protocol that alternated between septa-in and septa-out modes (2D, 3D, 2D, 3D, 2D, 3D). Frames were combined to form 8 statistically independent sinograms: four 2D replicates (105 s) and four 3D replicates (90 s). The different frame durations in 2D and 3D compensated for the different number of overlapping bed positions required for an 85-cm whole-body study. Images were reconstructed with either 2D or fully 3D ordered-subsets expectation maximization (2 iterations and 8 subsets; 2D 6-mm gaussian, 3D 5- and 6-mm gaussian). Image target-to-background ratio was assessed by dividing the lesion maximum by the mean within a neighboring background region. Image noise was assessed by applying background regions of interest to the replicate images and calculating the within-patient coefficient of variation. RESULTS: The difference in target-to-background ratio between the 2D and 3D images, when they were filtered with 6-mm and 5-mm gaussian filters, respectively, was not highly statistically significant (P = 0.16). The mean ratio of 3D to 2D image values was 0.94 with 95% limits of agreement of 0.63-1.41. The within-patient coefficients of variation for the 2D and 3D images were 13% +/- 15% and 9% +/- 10%, respectively (P = 0.0005). CONCLUSION: Under conditions of matched target to-to-background ratios, the 3D mode was found to produce images with significantly less variability than the 2D mode. These data provide support for the use of 3D acquisition with LSO detectors to reduce scan times in whole-body (18)F-FDG applications.     

The effects of pummelo juice on pharmacokinetics of sildenafil in healthy adult male Jordanian volunteers

Purpose  

The main purpose of this work was to investigate the effect of pummelo juice on the pharmacokinetics of sildenafil after oral administration.     

Promutagenic methylation damage in bladder DNA from patients with bladder cancer associated with schistosomiasis and from normal individuals.

Radioimmunoassays (RIAs) have been used to detect the promutagenic lesion O6-methyldeoxyguanosine (O6-MedG) in DNA isolated from the bladder tissues of Egyptian patients presenting with bladder carcinoma and concomitant schistosomiasis (bilharziasis), a parasitic disease known to be associated with the presence of N-nitrosamines in the urine. Alkylation damage was present in the DNA of the majority of the samples (44/46, 96%); 38 samples were of tumour tissue and 8 from uninvolved bladder mucosa. Levels of O6-MedG ranged from undetectable (ND; i.e. less than 0.01 mumol O6-MedG/mol dG) to 0.485 mumol/mol dG with an overall mean of 0.134 +/- 0.10 mumol/mol dG, including the two samples that were below the limit of detection. In contrast, methylation damage was detected in only 4/12 (33%) of the DNA samples from normal bladder tissue of European origin. In these samples levels of O6-MedG ranged from ND to 0.225 mumol/mol dG with an overall mean of 0.046 +/- 0.082 mumol O6-MedG/mol dG. These results confirm that alkylation events can be detected in the DNA of schistosome-infected human bladder tissue. The methylation of uninvolved and tumour tissue DNA to similar extents suggests that the alkylating intermediate may have been present in the urine. These results indicate the need for further investigation to determine whether relationships exist between levels of DNA damage and the prevalence of schistosome infection and/or the extent and type of bacterial infection that frequently accompanies this disease.     

Cetirizine dihydrochloride interaction with some diclofenac complexes.

IR, 1H NMR and mass spectrometric studies showed that cetirizine dihydrochloride interacted strongly with diclofenac sodium, even when the latter was metal bound, forming high molecular weight stable adducts. These new formations were unaffected by the possible steric constraints that may exist because of coordination yet did not have the power to break the formed coordinate bonds. The formed ionic bond took place between the carbonyl ion of diclofenac and the positively charged piperazine ring of cetirizine, forming a ternary compound in the case of the divalent metal clusters (Ca{(dic)2.2H2O}, Mg{(dic)2.2H2O}, Zn{(dic)2.2H2O}) and a quaternary one with the trivalent iron cluster (Fe{dic}3.3H2O). IR bands assigned to nuNH, deltaNH and nuC-N were shifted to lower frequency values in the spectra of the complexes; thus showing that coordination took place at the NH of the diphenylamine. TG and elemental analysis confirmed these results.     

Hormonal Therapy of Acne

Journal of Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery -     

Involvement of alkylating agents in schistosome-associated bladder cancer: the possible basic mechanisms of induction.

Carcinoma of the urinary bladder is a common malignancy in many tropical and subtropical countries. There is a well documented sequela of chronic urinary schistosomal infection and bladder cancer associated with schistosomiasis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the endemic areas. Experimental bladder cancer can be induced in schistosome-infected animals. Multiple factors have been suggested as causative agents in schistosome-associated bladder carcinogenesis and the N-nitroso compounds appear to be of particular importance. These agents have long been suspected to play a major role in the aetiology of a variety of human cancers. A model for the induction of bladder cancer associated with schistosomiasis is proposed which takes into account the interrelationships between different factors resulting from the infection, especially the role of alkylating agents that can contribute to the induction of this neoplasm.     

Pseudo-angiomatous hyperplasia of mammary stroma: a case with gigantomastia

Pseudo-angiomatous hyperplasia of mammary stroma (PASH) is a histopathological entity which is a microscopic fortuitous finding in mammary biopsies performed for different reasons. It may be symptomatic and appears then as a palpable lump. The term pseudo-angiomatous emphasizes the characteristic aspect of the stroma simulating a vascular tumor. We report a case of PASH in a 71 year-old woman who presented a recurring breast mass with rapid swelling of the mammary gland (70 x 60 x 20 cm) treated by mastectomy. PASH must be distinguished from a well-differentiated angiosarcoma. It is ruled out by immunohistochemistry.