background: the present study investigated the functional maturity of oligodendrocyte derived from rat bone marrow stromal cells (bmsc). methods: the bmsc were isolated from female sprague-dawley rats and evaluated for different markers, such as fibronectin, cd106, cd90, oct-4 and cd45. transdifferentiation of olc from bmsc was obtained by exposing the bmsc to dmso and 1 µm all-trans-retinoic a...

objective: stevioside is a natural non-caloric sweetener which has been reported to have anti-inflammatory activity.  the aim of  the present study was to examine in vitro and in vivo effects of  stevioside on rats  plasma levels of tumor necrosis factor- α (tnf-α),  interleukin-1β (il-1β), tnf-α and il-1β release from lipopolysaccharide(lps)-stimulated rat peripheral blood mononuclear cells (p...

estrogen (e2) has neuroprotective effects on blood-brain-barrier (bbb) after traumatic brain injury (tbi). in order to investigate the roles of estrogen receptors (ers) in these kind of effects, er-α antagonist (mpp) and, er-β antagonist (phtpp), or non-selective estrogen receptors antagonist (ici 182780) were administered as regulators of cns cytokines levels and neuroinflammation after tbi. m...

objective(s): the present study was aimed to investigate the influence of thoracic epidural blockade on hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension in rats. materials and methods: forty eight wistar rats were randomly divided into 4 equal groups, named normoxia hypoxia hypoxia/ ropivacaine and hypoxia/saline. animals were placed in a hypoxia chamber and instrumented with epidural catheters at the th...

objective(s):dependence and tolerance to opioid analgesics are major problems limiting their clinical application. a-terpineol is a monoterpenoid alcohol with neuroprotective effects which is found in several medicinal plants such as myrtus communis, laurus nobilis, and stachys byzantina. it has been shown that some of these medicinal plants such as s. byzantina attenuate dependence and toleran...

background: hepatitis-c infection is a major problem in chronically transfused patients. we compared interferon-α (inf-α) monotherapy with combination of inf-α and amantadine in the treatment of β-thalassemia major patients who were chronically infected with hcv.materials and methods: forty six thalassemia major patients who were chronically infected with hcv were randomly divided into two grou...