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Introduction: Previous studies indicated that children, who acquired conversation concept, produce adjectives better than other mental retarded.
Other studies showed that Down syndrome children have lower linguistic abilities than other mental retarded children. The main goal of this research was to study the effects of Down syndrome on production of semantic skills.
Materials and' Methods: This analytic cross-sectional study was conducted on girls who studied in exceptional primary schools of Semnan city.
Samples were chosen systenlaticaly. At first, 38 Down syndrome girls, who were monolingual and with no sign of sensory and motor deficits, were selected.
Then, 37 mental retarded girls (non-Down syndrome), that mental retardation had no specific ethiology, were matched on date of birth, educational level, failuer in previous classes, parent's job and education. These 75 pupils participated in operative tests and those who were able to comprehend the concept of conversation were examined by Raven Colourd Progressive Matrices. At final stage, 30 educable girls were participated in production test.
Results: Our findings showed that:
1. The production of nominal and superlative adjectives were equivalent between two groups, but Down syndromes had lower ability in production of comparatives;
2. The simplisity of adjectives were as fallow: nominal> comparative> superlative, and big-small> tall-short> thick-thief> wide-narrow.
3. There were few samples able to produce superlatives.
Conclusion: This investigation revealed that girls suffering from Down syndrome have lower ability on production of semantic skills.

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Introduction: An association between depression and altered immunity has been suggested by a number of studies but has not been consistently demonstrated .The effect of maternal depression response on fetal immune system have not been investigated. Thus in this study we evaluated the effects of depression on some parameters of innate and humoral immune system of pregnant women and their infants. Materials and Methods: 62 pregnant women (including 32 depressed and 30 healthy) and their infants in Taleghani hospital of Arak in 2004 were included in this study. All depressed mothers had a diagnosis of depression by Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and clinical interview based on DSM-IV system. The level of immunoglobulins and components were evaluated by single radial immunosdiffusion (SRID) method of Mancini. Leukocyte and lymphocyte counts were determined by Hycel (an automated cell counter) and for more accurancy were also evaluated by manual method. Statistical analysis was performed using K-S, Mann-Withney, One way ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis and Pearson tests. P<0/05 was considered significant. Results: Serum IgM level and serum C4 level of infants of mothers with depression were significantly lower than infants of healthy mothers. Lymphocyte number and percentage in infants of depressed mothers was also significantly higher than infants of healthy mothers. The mean cord/maternal blood ratio of IgG in infants of depressed mothers was also significantly lower than infants of healthy mothers. Serum IgG level of depressed mother was significantly higher than other mothers. Conclusion: Fetal impact of stress and depression during pregnancy is just beginning to be understood and research in this area is developing. Our results indicated that maternal depression adversely affects the development and function of fetal immune system. These results are in agreement with the immunological findings of preterm and LBW infants.

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Background: Postpartum women are a population at risk for sedentary life. Previous studies have shown that self-efficacy is an important determinant of stage of change and exercise adherence. This study evaluates the relationship between self-efficacy and stage of change and physical activity (PA) behavior in Iranian mothers. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 300 postpartum mothers were selected randomly from all health centers in Arak. The instruments used in this study included the 7-day PA recall, stages of exercise adoption tool, and self-efficacy for exercise scale. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software. Results: Ninety-one percent of the participants were in the pre-contemplation, contemplation, and preparation stages of change. Mean score for moderate PA was 38.94±40.5 minutes a week. Significant relationships were found between the stages of PA behavior change and METs of weekly energy expenditure from moderate activities (r=0.60, P<0.001). Also, statistically significant relationships were found between self-efficacy and the stages of PA behavior change (r=0.50, P<0.001) weekly energy expenditure from moderate activities (r=0.40, P<0.001), and pre-pregnancy PA behavior (r=0.39, P<0.001). Conclusion: The level of PA of the participants was less than the recommended minimum level for regular PA behavior (150 minutes of moderately intense PA per week). In this population, self-efficacy plays an important role in PA behavior and it should be taken into consideration in designing interventions for improving PA behavior.

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Background: Lateral epicondylitis may cause pain and functional disability in many daily activities. Steroid injection or phonophoresis are the recommended treatments in this regard. In this study, we aim to compare the effect of ultrasound guided local injection of dexamethasone with dexamethasone phonophoresis for treatment of lateral epicondylitis.

Materials and Methods: In this clinical trial, patients with lateral epicondylitis were randomely assigned to injection (n=18) and phonophoresis (n=18) groups. Three patients in phonophoresis group dropped out from the study. In injection group, dexamethasone with lidocaine was injected once with the guide of sonography at the base of common extensor tendon. Phonophoresis group received 5 minutes treatment with ultrasound using dexamethasone gel for 10 sessions. Patients’ pain in total and in specific and usual activities according to PRTEE questionnaire before, one and three months after treatment was calculated.

Results: Injection group compared to phonophoresis had significantly better improvement in pain (p=0.04), but there was no significant difference in serial changes of functional subscale and total score of PRTEE between groups. Injection group compared to phonophoresis had also better pain and total score one month after treatment (p=0.003 and p=0.01, respectively).

Conclusion: Dexamethasone injection compared to phonophoresis had significant improvement in patients’ pain which was more apparent one month after treatment, but the results were similar between groups three months after treatment.

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Background: Laryngeal carcinoma induce immune system suppression in tumour micro environments with unknown mechanism. Toll like receptors (TLRs) are important molecules which play a critical role in the management and induction of immune responses. In this regard, the importance and the role of TLR 2, 4 and 9 have not been studied together in laryngeal cancer. The present study aims to evaluate the expression level of TLR2, TLR4 and TLR9 in patients with laryngeal carcinoma.

Materials and Methods: 89 tumour samples and 35 tumour-free tissues were obtained from laryngeal carcinoma male patients and the expression level of TLR2, TLR4 and TLR9 was analysed using Real-time PCR method.

Results: The expression level of TLR2 was increased as the result of increasing lymph node involvement, pretumoral involvement and regional metastasis. Also, the TLR4 gene expression levels were increased 1.5 fold in patients with lymph node involvement. The expression Level of TLR9 was increased by increasing stage and primary tumour involvement. The expression pattern of TLR2 and TLR4 in tumour and tumour-free tissues was the same, while TLR9 gene expressions show higher level in tumour tissues than its normal tissue. None of our findings were statistical significant.

Conclusion: we have shown that the expression status of TLR2, TLR4 and TLR9 in patients with laryngeal cancer was correlated with their clinicopathologic features. Additionally, the expression level of TLRs in cancerous and non-cancerous tissues shows no significant changes.

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Background: A small percent of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) respond to 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU), as a first line of chemotherapy. In this study in, in order to design a new chemotherapy protocol, the effect of 5-FU and acriflavine (ACF) cotreatment on mortality rate of CRC cell lines was investigated.

Materials and Methods: Cytotoxicity of 5-FU and ACF against CRC cell lines (LS174T, SW480 and HCT116) was detected using MTT assay. Cells were treated with different concentrations of 5-FU (0.5-64 µM) or ACF (0.07-5 µM) for 72 hours and then cell viability and drugs IC50 was calculated. To assess the effect of ACF on anticancer activity of 5-FU, cells were cotreated with different concentrations of 5-FU and IC30 concentration of ACF.

Results: ACF and 5-FU suppress the viability of CRC cell lines in dose-dependent manner. 5-FU and ACF have most cytotoxic effect on LS174T and the lowest cytotoxic effect on SW480 cells. Cotreatment of ACF with 5-FU could not significantly change the sensitivity of cells against 5-FU (p>0.05).

Conclusion: In this study, the fatal and cytotoxic effect of ACF on three CRC cell lines was shown. However, cotreatment of ACF with 5-FU could not improve the anticancer activity of 5-FU.

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Background and Aim Oxidative stress is the main factor in the development and progression of diabetes and its related complications. There is growing evidence that antioxidants supplementation can improve oxidative stress induced in diabetes. The present investigation was conducted to study the effects of Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) on the Oxidative Stress Index (OSI) in diabetic rats.
Methods and Materials A total of 30 male rats were divided into five groups: saline, sesame oil (as a vehicle), CoQ10-treated (10 mg/kg/day), diabetic (induced with streptozotocin: 55 mg/kg), and CoQ10-treated diabetic (10 mg/kg/d). Then, we measured the Malondialdehyde (MDA), Total Oxidant Status (TOS), and Total Antioxidant Capacity (TAC) levels in the rats’ liver homogenate. Additionally, the OSI was calculated.
Ethical Considerations The Research Ethics Committee of Arak University of Medical Sciences approved this study (Code: IR.ARAKMU.REC.1397.119).
Results results showed a significant decrease in the level of liver MDA (P=0.022), TOS (P=0.03), and OSI (P=0.028) in the CoQ10-treated diabetic group compared to the diabetic rats. No significant change was observed in the total thiol group (P=0.25) and TAC (P=0.77) level in diabetic rats’ livers treated with CoQ10 compared to diabetic rats.