Evaluation of antioxidants and argpyrimidine in normal and cataractous lenses in north Indian population

AIM： To assess the level of glutathione, thioltransferase, and argpyrimidine in nuclear and cortical cataractous lenses as well as in the clear lenses in the north Indian population.METHODS： Human cataractous lenses were collected from the patients who underwent extracapsular cataract extraction surgery; clear lenses were collected from the freshly donated eye bank eyes. Antioxidant molecules such as glutathione and thioltransferase enzyme activity were measured; simultaneously in these lenses a blue fluorophore argpyrimidine, an advanced glycation end（AGE） product level was assessed using high performance liquid chromatography（HPLC）.RESULTS： The protein concentration was found to be present at higher levels in the control lenses compared to cataract lenses. A significant decrease in the glutathione level was observed in the nuclear cataractous lenses compared to cortical cataractous（P=0.004） and clear lenses（P≤0.005）, but no significant change in the level of antioxidant enzyme thioltransferase was observed. Further, argpyrimidine a blue fluorophore（AGE） was found to be significantly higher in the nuclear cataract（P=0.013） compared to cortical cataract lenses.CONCLUSION： Antioxidants such as glutathione significantly decrease in age-related nuclear and cortical cataract and an AGE, argpyrimidine are present at significantly higher levels in nuclear cataract.

Effect of ischemic preconditioning on antioxidant status in the gerbil hippocampal CA1 region after transient forebrain ischemia

Ischemic preconditioning（IPC） is a condition of sublethal transient global ischemia and exhibits neuroprotective effects against subsequent lethal ischemic insult.We,in this study,examined the neuroprotective effects of IPC and its effects on immunoreactive changes of antioxidant enzymes including superoxide dismutase（SOD） 1 and SOD2,catalase（CAT） and glutathione peroxidase（GPX） in the gerbil hippocampal CA1 region after transient forebrain ischemia.Pyramidal neurons of the stratum pyramidale（SP） in the hippocampal CA1 region of animals died 5 days after lethal transient ischemia without IPC（8.6%（ratio of remanent neurons） of the sham-operated group）;however,IPC prevented the pyramidal neurons from subsequent lethal ischemic injury（92.3%（ratio of remanent neurons） of the sham-operated group）.SOD1,SOD2,CAT and GPX immunoreactivities in the sham-operated animals were easily detected in pyramidal neurons in the stratum pyramidale（SP） of the hippocampal CA1 region,while all of these immunoreactivities were rarely detected in the stratum pyramidale at 5 days after lethal transient ischemia without IPC.Meanwhile,their immunoreactivities in the sham-operated animals with IPC were similar to（SOD1,SOD2 and CAT） or higher（GPX） than those in the sham-operated animals without IPC.Furthermore,their immunoreactivities in the stratum pyramidale of the ischemia-operated animals with IPC were steadily maintained after lethal ischemia/reperfusion.Results of western blot analysis for SOD1,SOD2,CAT and GPX were similar to immunohistochemical data.In conclusion,IPC maintained or increased the expression of antioxidant enzymes in the stratum pyramidale of the hippocampal CA1 region after subsequent lethal transient forebrain ischemia and IPC exhibited neuroprotective effects in the hippocampal CA1 region against transient forebrain ischemia.

An Ultimate Approach to Retarding the Aging Process by Integrating Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine

Aging and death are unavoidable in life. While immortality may be impossible, many people dream of living a long and healthy life. Throughout history, humans have searched for ways to stay young, but have not found an effective way. This may be because the methods used do not target the causes of aging directly. To address this, we investigated how to delay aging using traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Western medicine approaches. In this article, we will explain the causes of aging in the context of TCM and Western medicine and suggest methods to delay it. By integrating TCM and Western medicine, I hope to help everyone age healthily and enjoy a long life.