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Purpose To evaluate the serum vitamin D levels of patients with vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC)Method A total of 39 VKC patients (21 males and 18 females) and 32 healthy individuals (19 males and 13 females) were enrolled in this study with the mean age of 18.38 ± 8.83 and 21.6 ± 9.43, respectively. The type and the grade of VKC were identified for each patient and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels of all subjects were evaluated.Results The patients affected by VKC had statistically significant lower 25(OH)D levels (27.64 ± 8.50 ng/mL) than healthy subjects group (35.96 ± 11.34 ng/mL) (p= 0.001). A reverse correlation was found between the serum vitamin D levels and the severity of the VKC but it was not statistically significant (r= −0.159, p= 0.33). Besides, there were a few cases with severe and very severe VKC (2 in grade 3 and 4 in grade 4). Patients with the mixed type of the disease had lower serum vitamin D levels in comparison to tarsal and limbal forms but the difference was not statistically significant (p= 0.38).Conclusion This study shows that the patients affected by VKC have lower vitamin D levels in comparison to healthy subjects and the screening of all patients with VKC for vitamin D levels seems rational.

Byline: Alireza. Javadzadeh, Amir. Ghorbanihaghjo, Somayeh. Bonyadi, Mohammad. Rashidi, Mehran. Mesgari, Nadereh. Rashtchizadeh, Hassan. Argani Purpose: To evaluate the effects of onion juice on sodium-selenite induced cataract formation. Materials and [...]

Abstract Ascorbic acid (AA) is a potent natural antioxidant. The aim of this study was to investigate the antioxidant effects of AA in experimental sciatic nerve (SN) injury in rats. [...]

Chitosan is a cationic polysaccharide and multi-potential polymer with the ability to interact with other natural and synthetic polyanionic/polymeric compounds, with or without a cross-linking agent. It has been able to composite nano-microparticles with a variety of features. This compound has the ability to carry quercetin, as an anti-tumor subject, through the various epithelial systems and release in the sustained and controlled state to the target site. This paper reviews published studies on detailed physicochemical properties of chitosan and quercetin in the fight against the tumor. This also focused on how the chitosan polymer interacts with other polymeric and polyanion species in order to improve its efficiency to make a more suitable capsule or matrix for a variety of drugs, especially quercetin, in oral delivery systems.

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a major public health risk for developing anxiety-related disorders and hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis dysregulation in humans. Extensive research has shown that dietary intake or supplementation of the natural flavonoid quercetin might be useful for treating anxiety-related symptoms. The objectives of this study were to determine whether quercetin treatment can attenuate anxiogenic-like behaviors and normalize HPA axis function in mice with mTBI. Animals subjected to mTBI were treated daily with quercetin (50?mg/kg) or diazepam (positive control, 3?mg/kg) for 14 days. Four behavioral tests (open field, plus maze, light-dark box, and zero maze) were used to assess anxiety-related behaviors in mice. To evaluate HPA axis function, adrenocorticotropic hormone and corticosterone were measured in the serum of mice after the anxiety tests. Quercetin treatment was found to significantly reduce anxiety-like behaviors in mTBI-induced mice. A strength of this study is the consistency of results among anxiety tests. The dysregulation of the HPA axis in mTBI-induced mice treated with quercetin was also attenuated, with decreased levels of adrenocorticotropic hormone and corticosterone. The effects of quercetin were comparable with those of diazepam treatment. Taken together, these results suggest that quercetin might be useful for treating anxiety-related symptoms and HPA axis hyperreactivity in patients with mTBI.

This study was designed to determine the effects of zinc supplementation on oxidative stress in hemodialysis (HD) patients through evaluating total antioxidant capacity (TAC), whole blood glutathione peroxidase (GSH) level, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, and malondialdehyde (MDA) level.