background and objective: formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues are a valuable source of dna for molecular studies. we designed and optimized an efficient procedure for dna extraction from formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tissues. materials and methods: seventy three blocks of cervical paraffin-embedded tissues were investigated. dna was extracted using 45 minutes boiling in alkaline solutio...

background: classical bacteriological detection of brucella species from food, and environment is routinely carried out based on morphological and biochemical characteristics. however, for increasing specificity and sensitivity of species identification methods, development of a molecular assay is necessary that was main aim of this study. methods: panel of some reference strains belonging to t...

background: one of the adulterant practice in dairy industry is the use of a less costly type of milk such as cow and goat milk instead of more expensive ones especially sheep milk. the aim of the present study was to assess fraud identification of undeclared milk species in composition of sheep yogurt and cheese offered as “pure sheep” in iranian local markets. methods: samples of sheep yogurt...

foodborne pathogens comprise microorganisms such as viruses, bacteria and parasites that can be transmitted by food and affect public health worldwide. the most common viruses transmitted via food are hepatitis a virus and norwalk-like caliciviruses. also, the most common bacteria involved in foodborne illnesses are campylobacter jejuni, clostridium perfringens, salmonella spp, escherichia coli...

purpose: to compare the value of conventional laboratory methods and polymerase chain reaction (pcr) in the diagnosis of fungal keratitis. methods: this cross sectional study was conducted at khalili hospital, shiraz, iran. samples were taken from thirty-eight patients with findings suspicious for fungal keratitis. corneal scrapings were used for gram, giemsa and koh stains, culture and pcr ana...

Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reactions (qRT-PCR) have become the method of choice for rapid, sensitive, quantitative comparison of RNA transcript abundance. Useful data from this method depend on fitting data to theoretical curves that allow computation of mRNA levels. Calculating accurate mRNA levels requires important parameters such as reaction efficiency and the fractional cycle ...

The gravimetric uterotrophic assay is currently the most well-established, short-term rodent estrogenicity assay. Increasing attention is being paid to the extent to which use of morphometric or molecular changes in the uterus could act as surrogates for the gravimetric end point of the assay, thereby perhaps increasing the sensitivity of the assay. In this paper I discuss the available data, p...