Objectives: Antioxidant treatment with Iron chelating agents is one of the suggested treatments for fatty liver disease, which has become an important health problem in the recent decades. In this study the authors evaluated the general antioxidant, iron chelating, and sugar and fat absorption characteristics of green tea. Methods: Patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease were randomly assigned to 2 groups for a double blind clinical trial. Patients in the intervention group received 550 milligrams of green tea tablets daily as well as nutritional education for 3 months. The control group received the same protocol with green tea replaced with placebo tablets. Results: After 3 months, 45 participants (21 in the intervention and 24 in the placebo group) completed the follow-up. The change in body mass index (BMI), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and fasting blood sugar (FBS) was significantly different between the 2 groups, while the change in total iron binding capacity (TIBC), ferritin, alanine transaminase (ALT), HOMA, and weight did not show a significant difference. Conclusions:The difference between the 2 groups was mainly observed in anthropometrics, liver enzyme, and metabolic indicators, although the difference might not have been highlighted due to the effectiveness of routine treatments, that both groups received.

Background: The protein listeriolysin O (LLO) encoded by hly gene, is one of the most important virulence factors of Listeria monocytogenes, responsible for phagosomal membrane disruption and bacterial escape to the cytoplasm, stimulation of CD8+ T cells and Th1 response. Recently pathobiotechnological vaccination using probiotic bacteria have been proposed. One of these strategies is expression of LLO in non-pathogenic bacteria such as lactic acid bacteria as delivery strains. Objective: In the current study, we aimed to clone hly gene in a Lactobacillus species via pNZ8110, an inducible expression vector which is specific for Lactococcus species. Materials and Methods: Hly gene was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and inserted into pNZ8110 by restriction enzymes cutting and ligation method. After transformation and propagation in Escherichia coli MC1061 intermediate host, it was successfully electrotransformed into Lactobacillus plantarum. Results: Gel electrophoresis of colony PCR, extracted plasmids and restriction analysis along with sequencing confirmed the transformation. After induction with supernatant of nisin producer, strain Lactococcus lactis NZ9700, expression of LLO was confirmed by SDS-PAGE and western blot. Conclusion: Here, we employed a nonpathogenic probiotic strain, L. plantarum for the first time to express hly gene of L. monocytogenes in order to propose a new vaccine candidate.