The aim of this study was to evaluate serum and synovial levels of IL-17A by ELISA in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and find out the correlations between IL-17A levels and various clinical, laboratory parameters and RA disease activity and severity indices. Group I consists of 30 adult active RA patients fulfilling the ARA 1987 revised criteria, with knee effusion and receiving basic therapy, and with a mean age of 41.47±11.49 years and mean disease duration of 9.5±4.16 years. Group II consisted of 13 healthy volunteers, age- and sex-matched, with a mean age of 39.08±14.19 years. RA patients showed significantly higher mean serum IL-17A levels than controls (11.25±9.67 vs. 0.6±1.4 pg/mL, respectively, p=0.0002). Synovial IL-17A levels showed a significant positive correlation with serum IL-17A levels (r=0.5 and p=0.005). RA patients with negative rheumatoid factor (RF) had non-significantly higher mean serum IL-17A levels (12±9.86 pg/mL) compared to those with positive RF (10.82±9.81 pg/mL); however, the mean synovial IL-17A levels were nearly the same. Significant positive correlations were found between both serum and synovial IL-17A levels and DAS-28 scores (r=0.556, 0.392 and p=0.001, 0.032, respectively). RA patients with class III functional status showed significantly higher mean serum IL-17A levels (17.53±13.43 pg/mL) than classes I and II (8.97±6.97 pg/mL, p=0.009). These led us to conclude that the elevated serum and synovial IL-17A levels in RA patients parallel the degree of disease activity and severity. This may highlight the usefulness of IL-17 (especially serum level) as a possible marker for more aggressive joint involvement and damage.

The effect of the dentifrice ingredient triclosan (2,4,4'-trichloro-2'-hydroxyldiphenyl ether) on the production of interleukin (IL)-1beta and IL-6 was studied in human gingival fibroblasts challenged with tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) in vitro. When gingival fibroblasts were treated simultaneously with triclosan (0.25, 0.5 microg/ml) and TNFalpha (10 ng/ml), the stimulatory effect of TNFalpha on IL-1beta production was reduced by the agent. In situ hybridisation showed that the TNFalpha-induced expression of IL-1beta mRNA was significantly reduced by triclosan. Furthermore, when the cells were treated simultaneously with a known protein kinase C (PKC) activator, phorbol 12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA) and TNFalpha in the presence of triclosan (0.5 microg/ml), the agent reduced the production of IL-1beta. In contrast to its effect on IL-1beta, triclosan did not influence the mRNA expression or the production of IL-6 induced by TNFalpha. The finding that triclosan reduces the production of the inflammatory mediator IL-1beta in gingival fibroblasts further supports the view that triclosan exhibits an anti-inflammatory effect.

Fetal hemoglobin (Hb F) is the normal hemoglobin (Hb) that is present in the fetus and usually almost absent in adults. The objective of this study was to assess the changes in Hb F levels during normal pregnancy. The level of Hb F was determined in serial blood samples from women at different stages of pregnancy using cation exchange high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and compared to age and sex-matched controls. A significant increase (p <0.001) was observed in the level of maternal Hb F; the mean Hb F level during pregnancy was 0.71 +/- 0.51%, while in the non pregnant control group it was 0.28 +/- 0.35%. There was no significant difference in Hb F levels in the three trimester groups using the ANOVA test (F = 0.25). Correlation studies between the gestational age and level of Hb F showed no significant increase of Hb F with advancing pregnancy (R = -0.053, p >0.05). The cause of the rise in Hb F is yet to be elucidated.

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<span>Ammonium nitrate (AN, NH4NO3) is one of the materials used in chemical industry and in agriculture. AN is not considered a fire risk but it is a strong oxidizing agent that can lead to fire and explosion, so, the ammonium nitrate must be stored under specific environmental conditions to avoid the occurrence of dangerous situations. In this paper, a smart monitoring system for Ammonium nitrate storage is developed. The system consists of three-parts: monitoring chemicals system part (MCS), warehouse monitoring part (WMP), and emergency part (EP). MCS includes several hardware components: Arduino microcontroller, Ds18b20 sensor, MQ sensors, system for mobile communication (GSM), global position system (GPS), buzzer, and LCD. Two types of alarms are designed, the first one is for the WMP that to receive the alarm when temperature is exceeds than a specific threshold in chemical warehouse. The second one is for EP. It represents the receiver part to receive the alarm with the location of the place that indicates to certain gases leakage that could cause a fire or explosion. Also, a buzzer is listening and display the sensor state on LCD. The system follows the object-oriented software engineering (OOSE) approach using unified modeling language (UML).</span>