Effects of different periods of renal ischemia on liver as a remote organ

AIM:To assess the hepatic changes after induction of different periods of renal ischemia. METHODS:Rats were subjected to either sham operation or ischemia (30,45 and 60 min) followed by 60 min reperfusion. Liver and renal functional indices were measured. Hepatic glutathione (GSH) and ferric reducing antioxidant power levels and the concentration of interleukin (IL)-10 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) were evaluated. Portions of liver and kidney tissues were fixed for histological evaluation. RESULTS:Forty-five minutes renal ischemia followed by 60 min reperfusion caused significant changes in liver structure and a significant reduction in renalfunction. These rats showed a significant decrease in liver GSH,as well as a significant increase in TNF-α and IL-10 concentrations. These results demonstrated that renal ischemia caused changes in liver histology,function,oxidative stress and inflammatory status,which led to a reduction in hepatic antioxidant capacity. With 30 min ischemia,the magnitude of these changes was less than those with 45 or 60 min ischemia.CONCLUSION:A minimum of 45 min ischemia is needed to study the effects of renal injury on the liver as a remote organ.

Amifostine对环磷酰胺衍生物所致正常造血祖/干细胞毒性的保护作用

为了估价Amifostine(WR-2721)对正常造血干细胞的保护作用,我们用不同剂量的环磷酰胺衍生物(4-HC,ASTA-Z)对13例正常造血干细胞进行了体外处理,并测定其PCM-CFU-GM,5R-CFU-GM和LTO-IC的LD_(95),发现在处理前经过WR-2721孵育的13例中10例LD_(95)明显增加(P<0.05),显示了明确的保护效果,而在9例白血病祖细胞组中,这种保护效果却没有被发现。相反,经过WR-2721孵育9例白血病祖细胞对化疗的敏感性都有不同程度的增加。

Enhanced biocompatibility of ZnS:Mn quantum dots encapsulated with Aloe vera extract for therapeutic applications

Toxicity of nanoparticles remains to be a major issue in their application to the biomedical field. Aloe vera（AV） is one of the most widely exploited medicinal plants that have a multitude of amazing properties in the field of medicine.Methanol extract of Aloe vera can be used as a novel stabilising agent for quantum dots to reduce toxicity. We report the synthesis, structural characterization, antibacterial activity and cytotoxicity studies of ZnS：Mn quantum dots synthesized by the colloidal precipitation method, using methanol extract of Aloe vera（AVME） as the capping agent. The ZnS：Mn quantum dots capped with AVME exhibit superior performances in biocompatibility and antibacterial activity compared with ZnS：Mn quantum dots without encapsulation.

Epigenetic modulations rendering cell-to-cell variability and phenotypic metastability

Tumor cells display phenotypic plasticity and heterogeneity due to genetic and epigenetic variations which limit the predictability of therapeutic interventions. Chromatin modifications can arise stochas- tically but can also be a consequence of environmental influences such as the microenvironment of cancer cells. A better understanding of the impact and dynamics of epigenetic modulation at defined chromosomal sites is required to get access to the underlying mechanisms. We investigated the epige- netic modulations leading to cell-to-cell heterogeneity in a tumor cell line model. To this end, we analyzed expression variance in 80 genetically uniform cell populations having a single-copy reporter randomly integrated in the genorne. Single-cell analysis showed high intraclonal heterogeneity. Epige- netic characterization revealed that expression heterogeneity was accompanied by differential histone marks whereas contribution of DNA methylation could be excluded. Strikingly, some clones revealed a highly dynamic, stochastically altered chromatin state of the transgene cassette which was accompanied with a metastable expression pattern. In contrast, other clones represented a robust chromatin state of the transgene cassette with a stable expression pattern. Together, these results elucidate locus-specific epigenetic modulation in gene expression that contributes to phenotypic heterogeneity of cells and might account for cellular plasticity.

Evaluation of in vitro antioxidant, antiglycation and antimicrobial potential of indigenous Myanmar medicinal plants

Objective： Myanmar has a long history of using medicinal plants for treatment of various diseases. To the best of our knowledge there are no previous reports on antiglycation activities of medicinal plants from Myanmar. Therefore, this study was aimed to evaluate the antioxidant, antiglycation and antimicrobial properties of 20 ethanolic extracts from 17 medicinal plants indigenous to Myanmar. Methods： In vitro scavenging assays of 2,2-diphenyl-l-picrylhydrazyl （DPPH）, nitric oxide （NO）, superoxide （SO） radicals were used to determine the antioxidant activities. Folin-Ciocalteu＇s method was performed to determine the total phenolic content. Antiglycation and antimicrobial activities were detected by bovine serum albumin-fluorescent assay and agar well diffusion method. Results： Terminalia cbebula Retz. （Fruit）, containing the highest total phenolic content, showed high antioxidant activities with inhibition of 77.98% ± 0.92% 88.95% ± 2.42%, 88.56% ±1.87% and 70.74% ±2.57% for DPPH, NO, SO assays and antiglycation activity respectively. It also showed the antimicrobial activities against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coil, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans with inhibition zone of 19, 18, 17, 25 and 15 ram, respectively. Garcinia mangostana Linn. showed the strongest activities for SO and antiglycation assays with inhibition of 93.68% ± 2.63% and 82.37%± 1.78%. Bark of Melia sp. was the best NO radical scavenger with inhibition rate of 89.39%± 0.60%. Conclusion： The results suggest that these plants are potential sources of antioxidants with free radical-scavenging and antiglycation activities and could be useful for decreasing the oxidative stress and glycation end-product formation in glycation-related diseases.