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Background and objectives: Osteoarthritis is the result of a defect in synovial membrane-covered joint tissues. The purpose of this study was to investigate effects of glucosamine sulfate alone and combined with moderate intensity exercise on serum levels of CS 846 epitope and cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) in a rat model of osteoarthritis.
Methods: In this study, after inducing osteoarthritis in 42 male Wistar rats (weighting 250±300 g, aged 8 to 12 weeks), the rats were randomly divided into five groups: control-healthy, control-patient, patient-exercise, patient-glucosamine and patient-glucosamine-exercise. The training program consisted of 30 minutes of running on a non-slip treadmill at speed of 16 m/min in the first week with progressive overload principle reaching 50 minutes by the eighth week. The glucosamine groups received oral glucosamine sulfate (250 mg/kg/day) once a day for eight consecutive weeks. The serum levels of CS 846 epitope and COMP were measured using commercial ELISA kits. Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and Tukey's post hoc test. All statistical analyses were performed in GraghPad prism 8 and at significance level of 0.05.
Results: Combined exercise and glucosamine supplementation caused a significant decrease in the COMP and CS846 levels. This decrease was more profound compared to that of glucosamine and exercise alone.
Conclusion: Overall, the findings of the present study showed that osteoarthritis increases serum COMP and CS 846 levels. In addition, glucosamine supplementation combined with exercise can significantly improve knee osteoarthritis in rats.

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Background and objectives: Conventional culture and sensitivity methods take around 48 hours to generate antibiotic sensitivity results after a blood culture is flagged as positive by automated systems. However, it is imperative to initiate early targeted antibiotic therapy for effective management of sepsis and to reduce morbidity, mortality, and cost of treatment. This study aimed to evaluate the direct sensitivity test (DST) as a potential tool to obtain quicker antibiotic susceptibility results from positive BacT/ALERT blood culture vials and the VITEK-2 system (the reference method).
Methods: Blood culture bottles flagged as positive by BacT/ALERT were Gram-stained. Cultures with polymicrobial growth were excluded from the study. The isolates were then simultaneously cultured and processed for the DST using the disk diffusion method. Agreements or errors were interpreted according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute’s guidelines.
Results: Among 76 Gram-positive isolates, we observed 99.2% essential agreement between the DST and AST. The rate of minor and major errors was 4.04% and 1.18%, respectively. Among 75 Gram-negative isolates, we observed 98.99% essential agreement between the DST and AST. The rate of minor and major errors was 4% and 2%, respectively. No very major error was seen in either Gram-negative or -positive isolates.
Conclusions: The DST results are available earlier than the AST results, which can ultimately help in the early initiation of targeted antibiotic therapy.

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Background: Escherichia coli consists of a wide range of strains with huge diversity in their genome, distributed in nature and the alimentary tracts of animals and humans. This study analyzed the phylogenetic group determination and genetic diversity of E. coli strains isolated from domestic animals and human clinical samples.
Methods: Twenty E. coli isolates from domestic animals were analyzed for phylogenetic grouping. Also, 100 clinical samples and 20 animal samples were evaluated by the enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus–polymerase chain reaction (ERIC-PCR) technique. The results and the similarity between the strains were determined based on the Dice similarity coefficient in the SAHN program of the NTSYS-pc software.
Results: The frequency of phylogroups among animal samples were A = 5%, B1 = 65%, B2 = 20%, and D = 10%. Based on the ERIC-PCR results, the clinical strains were allocated into 19 clusters. Most strains were in the E7 cluster. Fifty percent of the E. coli isolated from animal specimens belonged to the E4 group, and the lowest number of strains was in the E3 and E5 (1 strain) groups.
Conclusion: The results confirmed the efficiency and usefulness of the ERIC-PCR tool for the identification and classification of bacteria. Also, we demonstrated the most phylogroup among animal samples.