Background & Objective: Diclofenac is a non-steroidal, anti-inflamatory drug that is prescribed as an analgesic. However, there is little known about the effects of diclofenac on the neural cells. In this study, we investigated the effects of diclofenac as sodium salt on the proliferation and differentiation of PC12 cells.

Materials & Methods: This expeimental study was done in Kerman neuroscience research center during 2004. The cell proliferation was evaluated by using XTT assay in the both free-serum neurobasal medium supplemented with B27 supplement and DMEM/F12 medium containing 10% FBS. The nerve growth factor(NGF) – induced differentiation was assessed  by measuring the neurite length for each treatment.

Results: The drug toxicity was exhibited at the higher concentrations of 310 mM in the supplemented neurobasal medium. The treatment of cells in the DMEM/F12 medium increased their sensitivity to diclofenac, with 40 and 85% growth inhibition at the 155 and 310 mM concentrations, respectively. The different generics of drug exhibited a equal toxic effects on the PC12 cells. The NGF- induced differentiation was not reduced by toxic and subtoxic concentrations of diclofenac.

Conclusion: This study indicated that diclofenac may be able to exhibit its neurotoxic effects through growth inhibition, but not differentiation inhibition. B27 supplement has several antioxidant compounds. Therefore, the difference of diclofenac cytotoxic effects in two culture media suggest that drug cytotoxicity may be related to the oxidative stress.

Background and Objective: Several strains of the Echinococcus granulosus have been described based on morphological characters, intermediate host specificity and/or genetic analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA. The aim of this study was to characterize different E.granulosus isolates by using sequences of mitochondrial atp6 gene.

Materials and Methods: In this study, Sixty infected liver and lungs of cattle, sheep and goats were collected from the abattoir of Varamin city-Iran during 2008. Protoscoleces were removed from each fertile cyst and DNA extracted. New and specific primers were designed for two existing genotypes (G1 and G6) of E. granulosus known to occur in Iran and applied in PCR reactions.

Results: The new primers selectively amplified the G1 and G6 genotypes of E. granulosus with specific bands of 708 and 705 bp respectively. The G1 genotype was identified in all fertile cyst samples.

Conclusion: This study showed that the new primer pairs which specifically amplify portions of the mitochondrial atp6 gene of the G1 and G6 strains of Echinococcus granulosus are proper molecular marker for investigating genetic variation in a number of isolates of E. granulosus from a range of hosts (sheep, goats, cattle) in Iran. The result of sequenced samples showed that our sequences were the same as those reported previously for these strains.