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Background and purpose: Human epidermal growth factor (hEGF) is a polypeptide of 53 amino acids with various medical application such as wound healing. The purpose of this study was cloning, expression, and purification of recombinant human EGF (rhEGF) and assessment of its mitogenic effect on NIH 3T3 cells. Materials and methods: Subcloninig of hEGF was performed in to pET24a (+). Protein expression was done under standard conditions. According to the protein expression as inclusion body, mild solubilization using alkaline pH buffer was utilized for protein solubilization. Ultimately, after refolding of solubilized proteins, MTT assay was performed to assess the mitogenic effect of rhEGF in NIH 3T3 cells treated with various concentrations of rhEGF. Results: Mild solubilization of inclusion bodies with alkaline buffer and subsequent refolding had a very high efficiency. MTT assay showed that cells treated with our rhEGF exhibited significantly higher proliferation compared to control after 72 h (P < 0.0001). Conclusion: It seems cytoplasmic expression system is an efficient system for production of recombinant hEGF. The method presented in this study is a simple, accessible, affordable and of high efficiency for solubilization of inclusion bodies which is also helpful in achieving bioactive form of human epidermal growth factor.

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Background and purpose: In Persian medicine, thirst is regarded as a disease and its different aspects including the causes, mechanisms and treatment options are explained. The aim of this study was to determine the Persian medicine and conventional medicine view of thirst and its etiology to help researchers in clinical studies.

Materials and methods: A search was conducted in Persian medical textbooks using thirst as the keyword. Then an electronic search was done in databases including pubmed, google scholar, Scopus, and SID using the following keywords:  thirst, etiology, and physiology. After extracting the data, the results were presented in concepts and tables.

Conclusion: Thirst is the feeling of needing to drink water and Persian medicine has different divisions for this feeling. Many of these divisions are formed based on the causes of thirst which are divided into bodily and nonbodily causes. Bodily causes include: ill-tempered, swelling, and obstruction and non-bodily causes include some medications or having certain foods.

Result: Persian medicine and conventional medicine share similar views about thirst. However, compared to Persian medicine, conventional medicine does not address some causes of thirst. Therefore, traditional Persian medical textbooks are believed to be useful in treatment of patients.

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Background and purpose: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common and drug-resistant inflammatory skin disease and its prevalence is 9-20% throughout the world. Vitamin D has been recently suggested as a potential option for AD treatment. The goal of this study was to assess Vitamin D3 levels in infants and children with AD and investigating the relationship between Vit D3 levels and AD severity.
Materials and methods: A cross-sectional analytical study was carried out in children diagnosed with AD attending the Allergy and Immunology Clinics in Urmia Shahid Motahari Hospital, West Azarbaijan province, Iran. One-way ANOVA was applied to understand the relationship between disease severity and Vit D3 levels. All data analyses were performed in SPSS V16.
Results: In this research, 46 people, including 29 males (63%) and 17 females (37%) were studied. Mean age of patients was 36.36±4.85 months, mean SCORAD (SCORing Atopic Dermatitis) was 45.94±2.84, and mean vitamin D3 levels were 30.70±2.35 ng/mL. Findings showed significant relationship between decrease in SCORAD and increase in vitamin D3 levels (P=0.046).
Conclusion: The current study, consistent with other studies, showed significant relationship between vitamin D3 levels and AD severity.

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 Background and purpose: Aphasia is the most common communication disorder resulting from stroke. In this condition all modalities of language, including reading, writing, auditory perception, and oral speech may be affected. Aphasia is divided into two categories: fluent (Wernicke's aphasia, Transcortical sensory aphasia, conduction aphasia, and anomic aphasia) and non-fluent (Broca's aphasia, global aphasia, transcortical motor aphasia, and mixed transcortical aphasia). As a result, the types of aphasia depend on the area of brain damage. In this study, the relationship between fluent aphasia and non-fluent aphasia with the brain damage area was investigated in stroke patients admitted to hospitals affiliated with Babol University of Medical Sciences in 2018.
Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study, the diagnosis and discrimination of aphasia types were determined by performing the Persian version of the aphasia test and MRI/CT-scan images were taken to find the exact brain damage area. Data were analyzed in SPSS V26.
Results: We studied 123 patients. There were 70 cases with aphasia (mean age: 68.16 years), including 41 men and 29 women. Frontal lobes (25.7%) and temporal lobes (25.7%) were the most common brain regions affected.
Conclusion: Damage to the frontal lobe and its surrounding areas is associated with incidence of aphasia, and damage to the temporal lobe and its surrounding areas is linked to the occurrence of fluent aphasia.