Jorjani Biomedicine Journal

Background and objectives: Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis (RAS) is a common disease of the nonkeratinized oral mucosa characterized by painful ulcerations and inflammation, causing difficulty in eating, swallowing, and speaking. Symptomatic treatment is considered for this disease due to the ambiguity of the exact etiology. The beneficial therapeutic effects of Persica and Propolis mouthwashes led us to the objective of studying therapeutic potentials of these herbal mouthwashes.
Material and Methods: The present double-blind clinical trial was conducted on 40 patients with minor aphthous ulcers and no systemic disease, who were divided into two groups of 20 via random allocation (systematic random sampling). Each group received 15 drops of propolis or persica mouthwashes three times a day for 10 days. Pain intensity was recorded by measuring the score of Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and the diameter of minor aphthous lesions (in mm) at three periods of before treatment, and on the second and sixth days after treatment. Data were analyzed by Mann-Whitney test.
Results: There was no significant difference between pain intensity and ulcer size before treatment and on the second day of treatment. The pain intensity on day 6 was significantly lower in Persica group (P=0.045) but no difference was observed in the mean ulcer size on day 6 between the two groups (P=0.104). The rate of pain relief (P=0.031) and reduction of ulcer size (P=0.046) were significantly higher in Persica group.
Conclusion: Propolis and Persica mouthwashes both reduce pain intensity and ulcer size in minor aphthous ulcers, and Persica showed a stronger potential to achieve these goals compared to propolis.

Background: Self-care is defined as a strategy to adapt the events and stresses of life, which improves health and includes special activities that alleviate the symptoms of the disease. This study aimed to investigate the impact of a self-care program on the self-esteem of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) attending rural health centers in Gorgan City in 2023.
Methods: A quasi-experimental, pre-and post-test intervention study was conducted using a multistage sampling technique in patients with T2DM and prediabetes attending health centers in rural health centers of Gorgan City. An educational program was conducted on 68 patients divided into two groups of diabetes and pre-diabetes (34 patients in each group). Data were collected using a personal information checklist, standard self-care questionnaires, and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory. Follow-up was conducted two months after the intervention. The data were described using mean and standard deviation, and analyzed by Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Chi-square, Independent T-test, and Paired T-test.
Results: The mean age in the T2DM group was 58 ±7.26, and 60.29 ± 9.47 years in the pre-diabetes group. The mean fasting blood sugar levels in the T2DM and pre-diabetes groups after the intervention were 131.24 and 100.94, respectively, which showed a significant statistical difference (P-Value=0.02). The mean self-esteem scores in the T2DM and pre-diabetes groups after the intervention also showed a significant statistical difference (P-Value =0.006).
Conclusion: In the current study, the present intervention led to the improvement of self-esteem and self-care scores in people with T2DM and pre-diabetes.
 

Background: Autophagy is associated with the degradation of intracellular organelles and, as a regulator of cellular homeostasis, can affect muscle atrophy. Therefore, this study aimed to examine ATG5, ATG7, and Beclin1 gene expression in the soleus muscle of an animal model of Parkinson following eight weeks of endurance training with branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) supplementation.
Methods: In this study, 25 male Wistar rats (weight = 180-200 g and age = 12 weeks) were used. First, the rats were divided into five groups (n = 5): healthy control, Parkinson control, Parkinson + training, Parkinson + BCAA, and Parkinson + training + BCAA. Eight weeks of moderate-intensity endurance training were performed. After anesthetizing the rats, the soleus muscles were isolated; then, RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis, and real-time PCR were used for gene expression analysis. One-way analysis of variance with Tukey's post-hoc test was used to analyze the data (P ≤ 0.05).
Results: ATG5, ATG7, and Beclin1 gene expression in the soleus muscle of rats significantly increased after Parkinson's induction (P-Value = 0.001). After both interventions, there was a significant decrease in the gene expression of ATG5, ATG7, and Beclin1 (P-Value = 0.001), observed only in the endurance training with BCAA supplementation group.
Conclusion: Although endurance training and BCAA supplementation alone did not significantly affect ATG5, ATG7, and Beclin1 gene expression, combining both interventions caused a significant decrease, indicating the significant effect of using endurance training with BCAA supplementation for Parkinson's disease in rats.