Morteza Sadeghi

Serum MMP-9 Level Associated with Initiation and Progression Steps of Breast Cancer in the Iranian Population

Blood matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) level is a promising new diagnostic marker. The aim of the current case—control study is to investigate the correlation between the serum MMP-9 level with occurrence and progression of breast cancer. The serum MMP-9 level was investigated by gelatin zymography in 100 patients with breast cancer and 120 healthy participants. The average value of MMP-9 activity was significantly higher in patients with breast cancer than in control ( P < .002), this value correlates with tumor stage ( P = .005) and tumor size ( P = .012). Our results suggest serum MMP-9 level is a potential diagnostic marker for predicting breast cancer occurrence and progression.

Walking ability of spinal cord injury individuals: How to improve it?

BACKGROUND Subjects with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) should use various assistive devices to stand and walk. Unfortunately they suffer from slow walking speed, high energy consumption, and too much force applied on upper limb while walking. The aim of this study was to determine the gap between the gait performance of SCI and normal subjects to conclude how the performance of SCI can be improved. METHOD Three groups of SCI walked with orthosis, SCI walked without orthosis, and normal subjects were recruited in this study. The normal subjects also walked with the same orthoses as SCI subjects. Some parameters such as ranges of motion of hip, knee and spatiotemporal gait parameters were evaluated by use of Qualysis motion analysis system. The difference between the gait parameters of three groups were evaluated by use of two sample t test. RESULTS The mean values of hip joint range of motion of normal subjects while walking with and without orthosis were 48.3 ± 2.5 and 18.5 ± 8.8 degrees, respectively (p-value = 0.00). There was a significant difference between walking speed of normal subjects with and without orthosis. The walking speed of SCI subject with and without orthosis differed significantly. CONCLUSION Although use of orthosis enable SCI subjects to stand and walk, but has some restrictions. As use of orthosis decreased the abilities of normal subjects it can be concluded that more attention should be done on design of orthosis and style of walking.

The Closest of Human between Three Hominidae Based on 16S rRNA Sequence Homology

Recently some evolution scientists claim that modern human have a common ancestor with African apes and other hominidae. In order to dentify the relation between the human and African apes in molecular view here we present a comparison between the human 16s rRNA sequence and three other hominidae (chimpanzee, gorilla, and orangutan). In this study we compared the sequences of the 16s rRNA and the intraspecies sequences were compared for each hominidae and the phylogenic trees were constructed for all the species. CLUSTALW program was used for sequence alignment and phylogenic tree creation. Phylogenic trees were designed by the neighbor-joining method. Our findings confirmed a common ancestor for human and three hominidae (chimpanzee, gorilla, bonobo). Moreover, we found higher nucleotide diversity between the hominidae than the human. We could hypothesize that the hominidae derivative from a common ancestor in a prior time in comparison with human. Our phylogenic findings may indicate that gibbon and orangutan was the first twin that separated from the great ape ancestor. Therefore, this could indicate that gibbon and orangutan may not be considered as humans closest, but the chimpanzee and bonobo might be considered as human closet.