In fish, a complex set of mechanisms deal with environmental stresses including hypoxia. In order to probe the hypothesis that hypoxia-induced stress could be manifested in varieties of pathways, a model species, mirror carp (Cyprinus carpio), were chronically exposed to hypoxic condition (dissolved oxygen level: 1.80±0.6mg/l) for 21 days and subsequently allowed to recover under normoxic condition (dissolved oxygen level: 8.2±0.5mg/l) for 7 days. At the end of these exposure periods, an integrated approach was applied to evaluate several endpoints at different levels of biological organisation. These included determination of (i) oxidative damage to DNA in erythrocytes (using modified comet assay), (ii) lipid peroxidation in liver samples by measuring the malondialdehyde production using the 2-thiobarbituric acid [i.e. thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) assay] and (iii) histopathological changes in gills. In addition, transcriptional expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 α (HIF-1α) and genes involved in the repair of oxidative damage to DNA (i.e. ogg1) and base excision repair (i.e. xrcc1) using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction in liver samples were also determined. The results suggested significantly enhanced expression of these genes in response to hypoxia compared to concurrent normoxic controls. While the expression of HIF-1α reverted to control values within 7 days exposure to normoxic condition (P < 0.05), the transcriptional expression of the two genes involved in DNA repair process remained significantly high under the recovery period, which complemented the induction of oxidative damage to DNA. Hypoxic groups showed significantly increased values for TBARS level (~2-fold) and histopathological changes in gill tissues compared to both normoxic and recovery groups. Overall, oxidative damage to DNA determined by modified comet assay reflected the observed biological responses in other tissues of the fish. Along with other parameters, this integrated experimental design further strengthens the applications of the comet assay as an important technique to assess stress-induced DNA damage in ecotoxicological studies. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the UK Environmental Mutagen Society.
Anemia of chronic disease (ACD) and iron deficiency anemia (IDA) are the two most important types of anemia in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Functional iron deficiency in ACD can be attributed to overexpression of the main iron regulatory hormone hepcidin leading to diversion of iron from the circulation into storage sites resulting in iron-restricted erythropoiesis. The aim is to investigate the role of circulating hepcidin and to uncover the frequency of IDA in RA. The study included 51 patients with RA. Complete blood counts, serum iron, total iron binding capacity, ferritin, and hepcidin- 25 were assessed. ACD was found in 37.3% of patients, IDA in 11.8%, and combined (ACD/IDA) in 17.6%. Serum hepcidin was higher in ACD than in con
... Show MoreThe present study aimed to investigate the histological, enzyme histochemical changes and liver function effects of Maxxthor insecticide on albino rats in liver. The experiment included 20 rat which were divided into four groups, the first group 5 rats were considered the control animals and the others were divided equally into three groups with a dose of 0.01, 0.1and 1 mg / kg of body weight, respectively for a period 40 days. The animals given each 48 hours via oral route Maxxthor by tube dosage after dissolved with distilled water. Microscopic examination of liver showed inflammatory cell aggregation around vessels, congestion and dilation of sinusoids hepatocytes hypertrophy with severs inflammatory cells infiltration, kupffer cells pro
... Show MoreKey components estimated in Acol total plant leaves and the results were as follows plant Acol humidity 72%
Tow simple, rapid and sensitive spectrophotometric methods for the determination of mesalazine in pharmaceutical preparations have been carried out. The proposed methods depend on oxidative coupling reaction of mesalazine with m-aminophenol in the existence of N-bromosuccinamide in alkaline medium (method A) and 2,6-dihydroxybenzoic acid in the existence of sodium metaperiodate in basic medium (method B) to produce colored products , show highest absorptions at 640 (nm) and 515 (nm), alternately. Beer’s law was consistent in concentrations extent of 1.25-30 and 0.5-12.5 (µg.mL-1) with molar absorptivity of 0.36×104 and 0.77×104 L.mol-1.cm<
... Show MoreCryptography is the technology of protecting information and communication by means of encoding the sending information. Existing methods often operate within predetermined mathematical structures which can be subject to pattern recognition and which are lack biological randomness. To address these challenges, this paper introduced a new bio-inspired cryptography approach to protect text messages using the coding mechanisms of DNA and RNA materials. The encryption system consists of six steps: encoding the plaintext message into DNA sequences, transcribing DNA into RNA, applying the complementary base pairing, scrambling RNA segments, optional reverse transcription, and encoding the resulting DNA-RNA characters into ciphertext. Rand
... Show MoreSpecialized Escherichia coli (E. coli) isolates, called uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC), cause most of urinary tract infections (UITs). Once bacteria reached the urinary tract of the host, they have to adhere to the host cell for the colonization. For this purpose, bacteria have different structures including fimbrial adhesins. Most of the UPECs contain type 1 fimbriae encoded by fim operon (fimB, E, A, I, C, D, F, G, H) which is responsible for the adhesive ability in these isolates. Ninety-four isolates of UPEC were obtained from UTI patients in Baghdad hospitals and their diagnosis were confirmed by the PCR method using 16srDNA as a housekeeping gene. The UPEC isolates were tested for their ability of adherence to the urothelial cells obtai
... Show MoreThis study was designed to evaluate the effect of anesthesia on thyroid hormones (T3, T4, rT3), thyrotropin(TSH), and cortisol levels in patients undergoing major urological surgery. The study included fifty patients scheduled for elective major urological surgery where 70% of the patients underwent general anesthesia, while30% underwent regional anesthesia. All patients were in stable control general conditions. The study showed that the thyroid hormones, thyrotropin and cortisol levels were affected with general anesthesia more than regional. The levels of these hormones responded to anesthetics and surgical stresses. This response was thought to be mainly mediated by afferent neurogenic impulses from the area of injury. Therefore, ab
... Show MoreThe effects of nutrients and physical conditions on phytase production were investigated with a recently isolated strain of Aspergillus tubingensis SKA under solid state fermentation on wheat bran. The nutrient factors investigated included carbon source, nitrogen source, phosphate source and concentration, metal ions (salts) and the physical parameters investigated included inoculum size, pH, temperature and fermentation duration. Our investigations revealed that optimal productivity of phytase was achieved using wheat bran supplemented with: 1.5% glucose. 0.5% (NH4)2SO4, 0.1% sodium phytate. Additionally, optimal physical conditions were 1 × 105 spore/g substrate, initial pH of 5.0, temperature of fermentation 30˚C and fermentation dura
... Show MoreThe present study aimed to investigate the histological changes of heart, lung, liver and kidney which caused by different concentrations (10, 20 and 40 mg/kg) of Ivabradine. Results of the study revealed some histological changes represented by aggregation of the lymphocytes around respiratory bronchioles of the lung. In the liver, the drug caused hepatocyte necrosis and infiltration of the lymphocytes. In Kidney, there are no histopathological modifications in the tissue after the animals treated with 10 mg\kg of Ivabradine. When the animals treated with Ivabradine drug at 20mg/kg of bw, dose showed vascular congestion between myocardial fibers of heart. Emphysematous c
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