Toxic effects of Litsea elliptica Blume essential oil on red blood cells of Sprague-Dawley rats

Litsea elliptica Blume leaves have been traditionally used as medicinal herbs because of its antimutagenicity,chemopreventative and insecticidal properties. In this study,the toxic effects of L. elliptica essential oil against Sprague-Dawley rat’s red blood cells (RBCs) were evaluated. L. elliptica essential oil was given by oral gavage 5 times per week for 3 treated groups in the doses of 125,250,and 500 mg/(kg body weight),respectively,and the control group received distilled water. Full blood count,RBC osmotic fragility,RBC morphological changes,and RBC membrane lipid were analyzed 28 d after the treatment. Although L. elliptica essential oil administration had significantly different effects on hemoglobin (Hb),mean cell hemoglobin concentration (MCHC),mean cell volume (MCV),and mean cell hemoglobin (MCH) in the experimental groups as compared to the control group (P<0.05),the values were still within the normal range. L. elliptica induced morphological changes of RBC into the form of echinocyte. The percentage of echinocyte increased significantly among the treated groups in a dose-response manner (P<0.001). The concentrations of RBC membrane phospholipids and cholesterol of all treated groups were significantly lower than those of control group (P<0.001). However,the RBC membrane osmotic fragility and total proteins of RBC membrane findings did not differ significantly between control and treated groups (P>0.05). It is concluded that structural changes in the RBC membrane due to L. elliptica essential oil administration did not cause severe membrane damage.

Chlorella vulgaris triggers apoptosis in hepatocarcinogenesis-induced rats

Chlorella vulgaris （CV） has been reported to have antioxidant and anticancer properties. We evaluated the effect of CV on apoptotic regulator protein expression in liver cancer-induced rats. Male Wistar rats （200-250 g） were divided into eight groups： control group （normal diet）, CDE group （choline deficient diet supplemented with ethionine in drinking water to induce hepatocarcinogenesis）, CV groups with three different doses of CV （50, 150, and 300 mg/kg body weight）, and CDE groups treated with different doses of CV （50, 150, and 300 mg/kg body weight）. Rats were sacrificed at various weeks and liver tissues were embedded in paraffin blocks for immunohistochemistry studies. CV, at increasing doses, decreased the expression of anti-apoptotic protein, Bcl-2, but increased the expression of pro-apoptotic protein, caspase 8, in CDE rats, which was correlated with decreased hepatoctyes proliferation and increased apoptosis as determined by bromodeoxy-uridine （BrdU） labeling and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase mediated dUTP nick-end labeling （TUNEL） assay, respectively. Our study shows that CV has definite chemopreventive effect by inducing apoptosis via decreasing the expression of Bcl-2 and increasing the expression of caspase 8 in hepatocarcinogenesis-induced rats.

Topographical anatomy of asterion by an innovative technique using transillumination and skiagram

The asterion is the point viewed in the norma lateralis of the skull, where the parietomastoid, occipito-mastoid and the lambdoid sutures meet. In the infants, it is the site of the posterolateral or mastoid fontanelle, which closes by the second year. Interestingly, the name ＂asterion＂ is derived from Latin and it stands for ＂edible root＂, or ＂starry＂. The asterion was a river God of Argos, in the Peloponnesos, southern Greece. The standard textbooks do not emphasize much on the asterion. As per standard textbooks, the parietomastoid and the occipitomastoid sutures meet the lateral end of the lambdoid suture at the asterion.