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. Short-term evaluation of autologous transplantation of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells in patients with cirrhosis: Egyptian study.Abstract: Background: Stem cell-based therapy has received attention as a possible alternative to organ transplantation. The aim of this study was to assess the safety and efficacy of autologous transplantation of bone marrow (BM)-derived stromal cells in post-HCV liver cirrhosis patients. Methodology: 10 9 10 6 of isolated human bone marrow (HBM)-stromal cells in 10 mL normal saline were injected in the spleen of 20 patients with end-stage liver cirrhosis guided by the ultrasonography, and then patients were followed up on monthly basis for six months. Results: A statistically significant decrease was detected in the total bilirubin, aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT) (p-value<0.01), prothrombin time (PT), and international normalized ratio (INR) levels (p-value<0.05), while a statistically significant increase in the albumin and PC (p-value<0.05) after follow-up. Conclusion: This study suggested the safety, feasibility, and efficacy of the intrasplenic injection of autologous BM stromal cells in improving liver function in Egyptian patients with cirrhosis.

Herein, we report the synthesis of different novel sets of coumarin-6-sulfonamide derivatives bearing different functionalities (4a, b, 8a–d, 11a–d, 13a, b, and 15a–c), and in vitro evaluation of their growth inhibitory activity towards the proliferation of three cancer cell lines; HepG2 (hepatocellular carcinoma), MCF-7 (breast cancer), and Caco-2 (colon cancer). HepG2 cells were the most sensitive cells to the influence of the target coumarins. Compounds 13a and 15a emerged as the most active members against HepG2 cells (IC50 = 3.48 ± 0.28 and 5.03 ± 0.39 µM, respectively). Compounds 13a and 15a were able to induce apoptosis in HepG2 cells, as assured by the upregulation of the Bax and downregulation of the Bcl-2, besides boosting caspase-3 levels. Besides, compound 13a induced a significant increase in the percentage of cells at Pre-G1 by 6.4-folds, with concurrent significant arrest in the G2-M phase by 5.4-folds compared to control. Also, 13a displayed significant increase in the percentage of annexin V-FITC positive apoptotic cells from 1.75–13.76%. Moreover, QSAR models were established to explore the structural requirements controlling the anti-proliferative activities.

Normal tissue damage following radiotherapy is still a major problem in cancer treatment. Therefore, the current work aimed at exploring the possible role of systemically injected bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) and/or locally injected platelet rich plasma (PRP) in ameliorating the side effects of ionizing radiation on the rat's tongue. Twelve rats served as control group (N) and 48 rats received a single radiation dose of 13 Gy to the head and neck region; then, they were equally divided into 4 experimental groups: irradiated only (C), irradiated + MSCs (S), irradiated + (PRP) (P), and combined group (PS). Animal scarification occurred in 3 and 7 days after radiation. Then, tongues were dissected and examined histologically and for expression of bcl-2 by RT-PCR. Histological examination of the treated groups (S), (P), and (PS) revealed an obvious improvement in the histological structure of the tongue, compared to group (C), in addition to upregulated expression of bcl-2, indicating decreased apoptotic activity. Conclusion. BM-MSCs and PRP have shown positive effect in minimizing the epithelial atrophy of normal oral mucosa after regional radiotherapy, which was emphasized by decreasing apoptotic activity in these tissues. Nevertheless, combined use of BM-MSCs and PRP did not reveal the assumed synergetic effect in oral tissue protection.

Two; major genotypic assemblages of Giardia intestinalis infect humans; the nested real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used for targeting the triose phosphate isomerase (tpi) gene to detect and genotype G. intestinalis in human feces in Egypt. Among 97 fecal samples, 30 (31%) were diagnosed as giardiasis by saline wet mount microscopy after staining with Lugol's iodine. The tpi gene was amplified from 41 (42.3%) fecal samples, of which 11 were microscopy-negative specimens. Of the total samples, 24 (58.5%) contained assemblage A group I, and 7 (17.1%) were assemblage A group II from the group of patients complaining of intermittent diarrhea. Eight (19.5%) samples contained assemblage B from patients with persistent diarrhea. Two (5%) samples had a mixture of assemblage A group II and assemblage B. The technique was able to detect as few as 20 trophozoites per PCR on fecal DNA-isolated, microscopy-negative, and quantitative (q)PCR-positive specimens; there was a higher average cycle threshold value than microscopy-positive and qPCR-positive specimens, suggesting that they represented true, low-burden infections. In conclusion, we could genotype G. intestinalis from fresh stool samples in Egypt; in infections commonly presented with intermittent diarrhea, the most prevalent genotype was assemblage A group I. The most vulnerable age group included 10-to 20-yr-old individuals.In developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, approximately 200 million people have symptomatic giardiasis (Thompson et al., 2000;Yason and Rivera, 2007). Giardia intestinalis is the most prevalent cause of parasitic diarrhea in the developed world, and this infection is also very common in developing countries. Moreover, there is an association of Giardia species and strain assemblages with diarrhea/dysentery (Haque, 2007).In Egypt, Foronda et al. (2008) found that assemblage B was the most prevalent (80%) genotype, with another 15% of the positive samples belonging to assemblage E, and 5% to assemblage A. Transmission of the G. intestinalis cyst to humans occurs mainly after ingestion of contaminated water, autoinfection, and person-to-person contact. Clinical manifestations of symptomatic giardiasis include greasy stools, flatulence, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, epigastric tenderness, as well as steatorrhea accompanied by full-blown malabsorption syndrome (Gardner and Hill, 2001). However, the majority of cases are asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic in immunocompetent individuals (Furness et al., 2000).Species of Giardia can be distinguished on the basis of morphology, ultrastructural features, or the 16S rRNA sequence; there are at least 6 species, i.e., G. intestinalis (5lamblia), G. agilis, G. muris, G. ardeae, G. psittaci, and G. microti (Monis et al., 1999). Among the 6 species, G. intestinalis infects humans and numerous other mammals (Thompson et al., 2000). Isolates of G. intestinalis are classified into 7 assemblages, based on the characterization of the glutamate dehydrogenase, small-subunit rR...