Multiple sclerosis (MS) can result in significant mental and physical symptoms, specially muscle weakness, abnormal walking mechanics, balance problems, spasticity, fatigue, cognitive impairment and ...depression. Patients with MS frequently decrease physical activity due to the fear from worsening the symptoms and this can result in reconditioning. Physicians now believe that regular exercise training is a potential solution for limiting the reconditioning process and achieving an optimal level of patient activities, functions and many physical and mental symptoms without any concern about triggering the onset or exacerbation of disease symptoms or relapse.
Appropriate exercise can cause noteworthy and important improvements in different areas of cardio respiratory fitness (Aerobic fitness), muscle strength, flexibility, balance, fatigue, cognition, quality of life and respiratory function in MS patients. Aerobic exercise training with low to moderate intensity can result in the improvement of aerobic fitness and reduction of fatigue in MS patients affected by mild or moderate disability. MS patients can positively adapt to resistance training which may result in improved fatigue and ambulation. Flexibility exercises such as stretching the muscles may diminish spasticity and prevent future painful contractions. Balance exercises have beneficial effects on fall rates and better balance. Some general guidelines exist for exercise recommendation in the MS population. The individualized exercise program should be designed to address a patient's chief complaint, improve strength, endurance, balance, coordination, fatigue and so on. An exercise staircase model has been proposed for exercise prescription and progression for a broad spectrum of MS patients.
Exercise should be considered as a safe and effective means of rehabilitation in MS patients. Existing evidence shows that a supervised and individualized exercise program may improve fitness, functional capacity and quality of life as well as modifiable impairments in MS patients.
Renal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury following kidney transplantation has been found to be a great clinical problem owing to initiation of acute inflammatory responses and subsequently rapid loss ...of kidney function. It is well known that lavender oil exhibits an extensive spectrum of pharmacological and biochemical activities. The purpose of this study was to clarify molecular targets of lavender in treatment of this disease.
Male Wistar rats weighing 200–250 g were divided into three major groups: sham, I/R, and I/R + different doses of lavender oil (L1:50 mg/kg, L2: 100 mg/kg, and L3: 200 mg/kg). A rat model of renal I/R (45 min ischemia and 24 h reperfusion) was created and lavender was administrated at 1 h after the beginning of reperfusion (i.p). Activities of antioxidant enzymes such as SOD, GPX, and CAT, and lipid peroxidation were evaluated. The expression of inflammatory cytokines such as TNFα, IL1β, and IL10 was determined by IHC and ELISA assay. Apoptosis activity and tissue damage were evaluated by TUNEL and H & E staining, respectively.
Our results showed that lavender oil markedly restored activities of antioxidant enzymes and reduced lipid peroxidation (P < 0.05). Lavender significantly decreased levels of TNFα and IL1β and increased level of IL10 in a dose-dependent manner (P < 0.05). Lavender reduced TUNEL positive cells in a dose-dependent manner. However, lavender reduced damage to peritubular capillaries and contributed to preservation of normal morphology of renal cells.
In sum, our findings establish a fundamental foundation for future drug industry to decrease the rates of rejection in kidney transplant patients.
Many renal cancer patients experience disease recurrence after combined treatments or immunotherapy due to permanence of cancer stem cells (CSCs). This study was conducted to evaluate the expression ...patterns and clinical significance of octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (OCT4) and NANOG as the key stem cell factors in renal cell carcinoma (RCC). A total of 186 RCC tissues were immunostained on a tissue microarray (TMA) for the putative CSC markers OCT4 and NANOG. Subsequently, the correlation among the expression of these markers, the clinicopathological variables and survival outcomes were determined. OCT4 and NANOG were expressed in both the nucleus and the cytoplasm of RCC cells. Coexpression of OCT4 and NANOG in renal cancer was significantly associated with RCC subtypes. A significant association was found among nuclear coexpression of OCT4 and NANOG, worse PFS in RCC, and the clear cell renal cell carcinomas (ccRCC) subtype. The OCT4-nuclear
/NANOG-nuclear
phenotype in RCC and ccRCC subtype indicated aggressive tumor behavior and predicted a worse clinical outcome, which may be a useful biomarker to identify patients at high risk of postoperative recurrence and metastasis. Cytoplasmic expression of NANOG could be considered as a novel independent prognostic predictor in patients with renal cancer.
Melanoma antigen gene (MAGE)-A6 and MAGE-A11 are two of the most cancer-testis antigens overexpressed in various types of cancers. However, the clinical and prognosis value of MAGE-A6 and MAGE-A11 ...co-expression in the pathophysiology of the bladder is unknown. Three studies were selected from GEO databases in order to introduce the common genes that are involved in bladder cancer. Then immunohistochemical analysis for staining pattern and clinicopathological significance of suggested markers, MAGE-A6 and MAGE-A11, were performed in 199 and 213 paraffin-embedded bladder cancer with long adjacent normal tissues, respectively. A significant and positive correlation was found between both nuclear and cytoplasmic expressions of MAGE-A6 as well as expression of cytoplasmic MAGE-A11 with histological grade, PT stage, lamina propria invasion, and LP/ muscularis (L/M) involvement (all of the p-values in terms of H-score were < 0.0001). Additionally, significant differences were found between both nuclear and cytoplasmic MAGE-A6/MAGE-A11 phenotypes with tumor size (P = 0.007, P = 0.043, respectively), different histological grades, PT stage, LP involvement, and L/M involvement (all of the p-values for both phenotypes were < 0.0001). The current study added the value of these novel markers to the bladder cancer clinical settlement that might be considered as an admirable target for immunotherapy.
Scientific reports notified that the pandemic caused by the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has raised an unprecedented mental health emergency worldwide. Abrupt changes in daily routine, ...environmental constraints, adopted home confinement measures, and uncertainty about a date for returning to usual activities can potentially affect mental health and sports activities in athletes. Hence, we designed a cross-sectional study with a within-subjects design to investigate the impact of the pandemic on mental health, mood states, and life satisfaction of elite athletes. During the three phases of home confinement (April 14–24,
n
= 525), reopening (May 9–19,
n
= 464), and current semi-lockdown (July 20–31,
n
= 428), elite athletes voluntarily responded to an online survey. The self-report questionnaire was prepared to collect demographic and epidemiological variables of interest and the COVID-19-related information. All participants also completed the Profile of Mood State (POMS), General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28), and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). The main result is that the training rate, mental health, life satisfaction, and positive mood have decreased during the home confinement period as compared with the reopening and semi-lockdown phases. However, the need for psychosocial services has increased during the pandemic period. The present study provides the first preliminary evidence that home confinement conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic might have negatively influenced elite athlete’s mood state, mental health, and life satisfaction, as well as training rates. Monitoring the psychological parameters of elite athletes and developing strategies to improve their mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic should be on the agenda. Next studies, therefore, seem reasonable to focus on active interventions for athletes during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Purpose
Food addiction (FA) following bariatric surgery (BS) has received a burst of attention in recent years due to its important contribution to obesity. Therefore, this study was conducted to ...explore the prevalence of FA disorder and its predictors 2 years after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) and assess its relationship with physical activity (PA), body composition, and weight outcomes.
Materials and Methods
Four hundred fifty individuals who had undergone LSG 2 years prior to the study were enrolled. FA was diagnosed using the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS). The collected data included body composition (fat mass (FM), fat-free mass (FFM)), PA, and nutritional intakes.
Results
Eighty-nine subjects (about 20%) met the criteria for FA disorder. FA patients had significantly lower PA (
p
= 0.04) and higher weight (
p
< 0.001), BMI (
p
< 0.001), FM, and FFM (
p
= 0.01) compared to those without FA. Regarding weight and body composition changes, the finding reveals that FA patients (vs. non-FA) had a significantly less excess weight loss (EWL%) (
p
< 0.001) and total weight loss (TWL%) (
p
= 0.05) as well as a higher FFM loss (kg) (
p
= 0.04) (linear regression analysis). A younger age (
p
trend = 0.01), higher BMI (
p
trend = 0.04), and more excess weight (
p
trend = 0.03) were related to higher odds of FA disorder at second year after LSG (logistic regression analysis).
Conclusion
The results showed that FA was highly prevalent 2 years after LSG. In addition, FA disorder was associated with negative long-term outcomes following LSG. Younger individuals with more excess weight and higher BMI at baseline are more vulnerable to FA.
Graphical abstract
The crucial oncogenic role of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in tumor maintenance, progression, drug resistance, and relapse has been clarified in different cancers, particularly in colorectal cancer ...(CRC). The current study was conducted to evaluate the co-expression pattern and clinical significance of epithelial cell adhesion molecules (EpCAM) and activated leukocyte cell adhesion (CD166 or ALCAM) in CRC patients.
This study was carried out on 458 paraffin-embedded CRC specimens by immunohistochemistry on tissue microarray (TMA) slides.
Elevated expression of EpCAM and CD166 was observed in 61.5% (246/427) and 40.5% (164/405) of CRC cases. Our analysis showed a significant positive association of EpCAM expression with tumor size (P = 0.02), tumor stage (P = 0.007), tumor differentiate (P = 0.005), vascular (P = 0.01), neural (P = 0.01), and lymph node (P = 0.001) invasion. There were no significant differences between CD166 expression and clinicopathological parameters. Moreover, the combined analysis demonstrated a reciprocal significant correlation between EpCAM and CD166 expression (P = 0.02). Interestingly, there was a significant positive correlation between EpCAM/CD166 phenotypes expression and tumor stage (P = 0.03), tumor differentiation (P = 0.05), neural, and lymph node invasion (P =0.01).
The significant correlation of EpCAM and CD166 expression and their association with tumor progression and aggressive behavior is the reason for the suggestion of these two CSC markers as promising targets to promote novel effective targeted-therapy strategies for cancer treatment in the present study.
Prostate cancer is one of the five common cancers and has the second incidence rate and the third mortality rate in Iranian population. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association of ...rs16901979, rs4242382 and rs1447295 on 8q24 locus, rs2735839 (KLK3 gene) and rs721048 (EHBP1 gene) with prostate adenocarcinoma through multi-stage approach to identify the polymorphisms associated with prostate cancer and use them as screening factors. Screening tests can identify people who may have a chance of developing the disease before detection and any symptoms.
The case-control study included 103 cases (prostate adenocarcinoma) and 100 controls (benign prostatic hyperplasia). Tetra-primer ARMS-PCR was used to genotyping of each participant. A Multi-stage approach was used for efficient genomic study. In this method, a smaller number of people can be used. Chi-squared, Fisher's exact test and logistic regression were used to investigate the SNPs associated with prostate cancer and Gleason score.
In the first stage (59 men), the frequency of polymorphisms rs16901979, rs4242382, rs1447295, rs2735839 and rs721048 in the prostate adenocarcinoma group was evaluated compared to the control group (P-value < 0.3) in order to select meaningful polymorphisms. There was not any significant difference between genotype frequency rs16901979 (P = 0.671) and rs721048 (P = 0.474) in the case group compared to BPH. Therefore, these polymorphisms were eliminated, and in the second step (144 men), rs4242382, rs2735839 and rs1447295 were evaluated (P-value < 0.05). According to the total population (203 men), there was significant difference between genotype frequency rs4242382 (P = 0.001), rs2735839 (P = 0.000) and rs1447295 (P = 0.005) even after using Bonferroni correction (p = 0.016). The effect of these three polymorphisms on prostate cancer was not modified by age and PSA. There was a significant difference between the allelic frequency of A vs G (rs4242382, rs2735839) at all classes of Gleason score and A vs C (rs1447295) at Gleason score ≥ 8.
The results of this study for rs2735839, rs4242382 and rs1447295 indicate the association of these polymorphisms with prostate adenocarcinoma predisposition in Iranian population. Exposure effect is homogeneous between different ages and PSA level categories. These three polymorphisms should be studied in a larger population to confirm these results.
Purpose
One-anastomosis gastric bypass (OAGB) is a novel laparoscopic approach. The anastomosis of OAGB can be sewn either with a stapler or manually. The aim of this study is to determine the ...outcome of hand-sewn OAGB.
Materials and Methods
A total of 805 consecutive patients were retrospectively enrolled in this study. Data collection included change in weight, body mass index (BMI), symptoms, and complications before surgery and continued during annual follow-up visits up to 5 years. Inclusion criteria were patients with a BMI of higher than 40 kg/m
2
or higher than 35 kg/m
2
with one severe comorbidity. Patients with BMI > 50 kg/m
2
were referred to dieticians.
Results
The follow-up rate ranged from 93 to 50% at the 1-year and 5-year visits after surgery, respectively. Mean weight and BMI of patients before surgery were 121.93 kg (± 22.92) and 44.79 kg/m
2
(± 6.07), respectively. Mean of annual BMI in 5 years of follow-up were 27.83, 27.26, 28.90, 29.45, and 29.56 kg/m
2
. Excess weight loss (EWL) in 5 years of follow-up were 85.7%, 89.5%, 78.9%, 77.7%, and 76.0%. Reflux was present in 202 patients (25.1%) before surgery and resolved in 153 cases (75.7%) 1 year after surgery. Procedure-specific early complication was an anastomosis leak in one patient, which led to death. Two cases of malnutrition necessitating reversal and two severe reflux disorders leading to Roux-en-Y bypass surgery were remarkable late complications.
Conclusion
Hand-sewn anastomosis could represent an efficient and safe technique in the management of patients undergoing OAGB surgery with acceptable outcomes and rare adverse complications.
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