Black seed (Nigella sativa) is considered as a biological response modifier. Thymoquinone (TQ) is the bioactive and the most abundant constituent of the volatile oil of this seed which has been shown to possess anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-neoplastic effects. In this study, the effect of TQ on HepG2 cell line was investigated in an attempt to identify its potential mechanism of actio...

Background & Aims: Recent evidences indicate that parts of the immunoregulation system such as CD4+CD25+Tcells (Treg) and Th2 cells and Th1 cells, play very important roles in the maintenance of pregnancy. The deficiency in proper recognition of fetal alloantigen by the maternal immune system is associated with recurrent pregnancy failure. Here, we investigate the proportional changes of CD4+CD...

introduction: the p19 line of embryonal carcinoma cells develops into neurons, astroglia and fibroblasts after aggregation and exposure to retinoic acid (ra). dehydroepiandroesteron (dhea) is a neurosteroid, can increase proliferation of human neural stem cell (nsc) and positively regulated the number of neurons produced. this study was initiated to assess the effect of dhea on neural progenito...

Background: Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is associated with the highest mortality among end-stage cirrhotic liver disease patients. Neutrophil CD11b expression increases on neutrophil surface within 5 min of exposure to bacteria. Paracentesis remains only accepted method for accurate evaluation patients, many drawbacks; hence, a diagnostic noninvasive marker very high sensitivity and...

Background. Microlymphocytotoxicity (MLCT) and flowcytometry (FC) are the conventional serological methods to detect HLA-B* 27. Due to some disadvantages in these methods, most of the HLA laboratories have now switched over to molecular methods. Molecular techniques based on commercial kits are expensive; as such many laboratories with limited funds in developing countries cannot afford these t...

Objectives To elucidate the effects and potential mechanisms of hypericin-photodynamic therapy (HYP-PDT) for treating the human rheumatoid arthritis (RA) fibroblast-like synoviocyte (FLS) MH7A cell-line. Materials and Methods MH7A cells were subjected to HYP-PDT intervention and apoptosis was evaluated via MTT, nuclear staining, and flowcytometry analyses. Intracellular reactive oxygen specie...

OBJECTIVES Three-dimensional biomimetic scaffolds have widespread applications in biomedical tissue engineering due to similarity of their nanofibrous architecture to native extracellular matrix. Co-culture system has stimulatory effect on chondrogenesis of adult mesenchymal stem cells. This work presents a co-culture strategy using human articular chondrons and adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Perforin is one of the major effector molecules of cytotoxic cells associated with killing of cells harbouring intracellular bacterial infection. The precise role of perforin positive cells in tuberculosis still remains controversial. The present study was done to determine the number of circulating CD4(+) and CD8(+) perforin positive cells to assess the level of cytotox...

BACKGROUND HLA-G is a nonclassical HLA class I molecule which, when elevated in tumor cells, is one of the main factors involved in tumor evasion of immune responses including NK and T cells. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of HLA-G downregulation on NK cell cytotoxicity in tumor cell lines. METHODS The expression level of HLA-G was measured by real-time PCR and flowcytometry after transfe...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Derivatives of isatin are known to have cytotoxicity against human carcinoma cell lines. This compound therefore, has a potential to be used as a chemotherapeutic agent against cancer. This study was done to investigate the antioxidant and anticancer activities of isatin, extracted from flower of a folklore medicinal plant Couroupita guianensis against human promylocytic...