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Background and Objective: Lichen planus presents with chronic, inflammatory mucocutaneous lesions with almost 1-2% prevalency without any relation to demographic variables. This study was done to describe the clinical pathologic features of lichen planus patients in Mashhad, Iran. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive study, demographic data (age and sex) and some factors such as histology, form and anatomical zone of lesions were recruited from patient’s medical records and pathological slides revised. Data analyzed by using SPSS-13 software and chi-square and T student tests. Results: 309 patients (177 male, 132 female) were enrolled. Mean age was 40.12±16.3 years-old and patients were categorized mostly in 41-50 years age group. Clinical presentation in 44% was plaque and 41.7% with papules, 23.9% hyper pigmented, 26.9% scaled, 4.9% annular form and 2.9% linear. 45.6% of patients had classic histo-morphology and 25.9% of them had hypertrophic form. There was not any relationship between lesion histopathology with either sex or age. Anatomical zone had a significant relation with histopathology of lesion (P<0.05). Conclusion: This study showed that the prevalence of genital and mucousal lesions was lower than reported in other studies in various parts of the world.

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Background and Objective: Superficial pigmented lesions are the most common complaint in dermatology. This study was done to assess the therapeutic effect of cryotherapy in facial lentigo and junctional nevus. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive study, 100 cases of flat-pigmented lesions with diameters up to 2 mm and after taking a photograph with USB microscope M2 (Scalar) treated with one freeze thaw cycle with liquid nitrogen through an applicator for 2 second in Imam Reza hospital, Mashhad, Iran during 2004-05. The patients were visited 3 times again through 3 successive months. According to the decrease in color of the lesion, patients were divided into 4 groups: sever pigmentation, no response, partial (>50% color loss) and complete response (<50% color loss). Data were analyzed using SPSS-11.5 and Wilcoxon test. Results: 96% of our patients were female and 4% were male. Mean age was 30±11.7 years. Based on Fitzpatrick criteria fifteen patients had type 2, fifty had type 3 and 35 had type 4 skin color. After the period of 3 months follow up, 6% of the patients completely healded, 58% had partial response, 31%with no response and 5% develop hyperpigmentation. Response in patients with type 2 Fitzpatrick skin color was clinically better than type 3 and 4 but this difference was not significant. Conclusion: Cryotherapy is considered as a simple, cost effective and safe therapeutic regiment in treating of 64% facial pigmental lesions.

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Background and Objective: Despite enormous progress in the understanding of human reproductive physiology, the underlying cause of male infertility remains undefined in about 50.0% of cases, which are referred to as idiopathic infertility and affects about 5.0-7.0% of the general male population. Human apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease (ApE1) is a multifunctional protein that has an important role in the base excision repair (BER) pathway. ApE1 SNP T>G found in exon 5 led to substitution of Asp>Glu at codon 148. This study was done to evaluate the association of ApE1 Asp148Glu polymorphism and the risk of idiopathic male infertility. Methods: In this case-control study, blood samples were collected from 90 patients diagnosed with idiopathic male infertility and 90 healthy men, genotyped by Allele-Specific PCR (AS-PCR) method by using specific primers that were designed and the association between genotype and allele frequencies in cases and controls were estimated. Results: There was no significant association between ApE1 gene polymorphism at codon 148 in case and control groups. Conclusion: No significant association was found between the Asp148Glu polymorphism and idiopathic male infertility.

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Background and Objective: Breast cancer is a cancer in women with high prevalancy worldwide. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the most important Pro-angiogenic factors. +405C/G is one of the common VEGF polymorphism which may have an impact on the level of gene expression and over loading of gene products. This study was done to evaluate the association between VEGF +405C/G gene polymorphism and breast cancer risk in north of Iran.

Methods: This case-control study was carried out on 50 patients with breast cancer and 50 normal aged-matched controls in north of Iran. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood cells. To determine the genotype of +405 C/G VEGF gene polymorphism, PCR-RFLP method was used.

Results: The prevalence of genotypic frequencies of GG, GC and CC in controls were 42%, 48% and 10%, respectively  and in patients were 22%, 46% and 32%, respectively (P<0.05). The +405C allele was considered as a risk factor in breast cancer (P<0.05).

Conclusion: It seems +405 C/G VEGF gene polymorphism may be associated with the breast cancer in northern Iran.