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Introduction: Chronic diarrhea (CD) is one of the major diseases frequently occur during infancy worldwide. The effects of various substances in breast milk on preventing inflammatory diseases such as chronic diarrhea are not fully elucidated. This study aimed to determine the concentration of inflammatory cytokines, including interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and anti-inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interleukin-13 (IL-13) through the mothers' breast milk feeding the infants with and without CD. Material and Methods: Breast milk samples were obtained from 45 mothers feeding the infants with CD as the case group and 45 mothers feeding the healthy infants without CD (or any other inflammatory diseases) as the control group. The concentration of inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines of breast milk was measured using ELISA technique. Results: The mean of IL-13 concentration was significantly reduced in the case group compared to the control group (p<0.001). Whereas the mean of IL-4 concentration was significantly increased in the CD group in comparison to the control group (p=0.001). Conclusion: The results indicated a lower IL-13 concentration and a higher IL-4 concentration in the mothers feeding the infants with CD. Therefore, low IL-13 as an anti-inflammatory cytokine in breast milk may be capable of predisposing the infants to CD. On the other hand, inflammatory cytokines may promote the immunity of infants with CD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background & objectives: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is one of the most common pathologic conditions of skin in children. The effect of breastfeeding on the risk of AD remains controversial. The aim of this study was to determine the counts of cytokine-producing cells in the mothers' breast milk of infants with and without AD to assess association, if any. Methods: Breast milk samples (10 ml) were obtained from mothers of 25 infants with AD and of 26 healthy infants as a control group. The number of cytokine-producing cells including interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-13 (IL-13) and IL-4 in the milk samples was determined using an enzyme-linked immunospot assay technique. Results: The mean of IL-13-producing cells in milk was significantly lower in mothers of AD-affected infants in comparison with mothers of normal infants (324.91±255.45 vs. 538.93±465.39, P<0.05). There were no significant differences between mothers of infants with and without AD regarding milk count of IFN-γ-, TNF-α- and IL-4-producing cells. Interpretation & conclusions: Our results showed lower number of IL-13-producing cells in milk of mothers of infants with AD. Therefore, lower count of IL-13-producing cells in mothers' milk may confer a susceptibility to AD. Further studies with a large number of samples need to be done to confirm our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high prevalence of resistance to penicillin by Streptococcus pneumoniae is considered as a great concern, particularly in Asian countries. The aim of this study was to investigate the changing trend of penicillin-resistant S. pneumoniae (PRSP) in Asia over a 20 years period. A review of the literature was conducted using the PubMed database, Google Scholar, Scopus, two Persian scientific search engines "Scientific Information Database" (www.sid.ir), and "Mag Iran" (www.magiran.com) through 1993 to 2013. Our study provides a unique chance to investigate the changing trend in PSSP in Asia over a 20 years period. Susceptibility rates among different centers in each country varied widely. In Malaysia, the PSSP rate decreased from 97.2% in 1995-1996 to 69% in 2000. In Singapore, PSSP levels decreased from 72.6% in 1997 to 30.5% in 2007-2008. In Iran, PSSP ranged from 0% to 100%. In Taiwan, the rate of PSSP was 60.3% in 1995 and <50% in other years. In Lebanon, the rate of PSSP was less than 50% (ranging from 30.1% to 50%) in all published data. In Hong Kong, the level of penicillin susceptibility decreased from 71.1% during 1993-1995 to less 42% in 2007. Continuous surveillance of resistance data from clinical isolates as well as implementation of strict infection control policies is recommended. More studies are needed for better evaluation PSSP rate in some Asian countries such as Vietnam, Singapore, Philippines, Pakistan, Nepal, Kuwait, Korea and Indonesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Homeostasis Model Assessment-estimated Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) is an important indicator of insulin resistance. In this population-based investigation, we sought to report the mean value of HOMA-IR in different subgroups of a large population-based database of Iranian healthy subjects., Methods: This study recruited adult healthy individuals between the ages of 18 to 70 years old to Massoud Medical Laboratory, Tehran, Iran. Fasting insulin was measured by using the Electro Chemiluminescence method using Roche Cobas 6000 e601/602 instrument., Results: The mean ± SD value of the HOMA-IR index in the studied population was 2.11 ± 0.99 (2.5-97.5% percentiles: 0.66-4.50). In addition, the mean ± SD of HOMA-IR index in male and female groups were 2.35  1.0 (2.5-97.5 percentile: 0.57-4.37) and 2.05 ± 1.0 (2.5-97.5 percentiles: 0.53-4.35), respectively. Interestingly, it was observed a significant increment for the HOMA-IR index in the male group compared with the female group in all age subgroups (P < 0.01)., Conclusions: Our findings showed the mean value of 2.11 ± 0.99 HOMA-IR in the Iranian healthy population. Considering the large sample size in our study, more clinical investigations in terms of ethnicity should be done to provide a precise standardized HOMA-IR index in the Iranian population., Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40200-022-01099-9., Competing Interests: Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Tehran University of Medical Sciences 2022. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.)