Effect of Stretching Versus Aerobic Exercises on Pregnant Diabetic Women

Purpose: This study was conducted to determine the effect of stretching versus aerobic exercises on pregnant diabetic women. Subjects: Sixty primigravidae and multigravidae women shared in this study. They were selected from Benha University Hospital in Benha. Their ages were ranged from 25-35 years. Their BMI was ranged from 30-35 kg/m2. Their gestational ages were between 20-24 weeks’ gestation. All pregnant women were complaining of gestational diabetes mellitus. Design: Design of this study was randomized controlled study. They were randomly assigned into two equal groups: Group A (stretching exercises group); It consisted of thirty pregnant diabetic women. They were treated by medical treatment, diet control and stretching exercises for 40 minutes, 3 times per week, after one hour of the main meal and insulin injection, for 12 weeks. Group B (aerobic exercises group); It consisted of thirty pregnant diabetic women. They were treated by medical treatment, diet control and aerobic exercise program in the form of walking on treadmill, at moderate intensity (60% of the maximum heart rate), for 45 minutes, 3 times per week, after one hour of the main meal and insulin injection, for 12 weeks. Methods: Body mass index (BMI) was assessed by weight and height scale. Fasting and postprandial blood glucose levels were assessed by using blood glucose monitoring system; fasting insulin level and HbA1C were assessed by blood analysis for each woman in both groups A and B before and after treatment. Results: Results of this study revealed that there was significant decrease in fasting blood glucose level, post-prandial blood glucose level, fasting insulin level and HbA1C level in both groups A and B after treatment. Pretreatment, there was no significant difference between both groups A and B in fasting blood glucose level, post-prandial blood glucose level, fasting insulin level and HbA1C level. Post treatment, there was significant difference between both groups A and B in fasting blood glucose level, post-prandial blood glucose level, fasting insulin level and HbA1C level (more decrease in group A). Conclusion: It can be concluded that both stretching and aerobic exercises during pregnancy can improve gestational diabetes mellitus by decreasing fasting blood glucose level, post-prandial blood glucose level, fasting insulin level and HbA1C level, but stretching exercises are more effective than aerobic exercises

Circulating MCP-1 level and 2518 gene polymorphism as a marker of nephropathy development in Egyptian patients

Objective: Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) is a member of CC chemokine that plays an important role in the recruitment of monocytes/macrophages into renal tubulointerstitium. A biallelic A/G polymorphism at position 2518 in the MCP-1 gene was found to regulateMCP-1 expression. MCP-1 and its A/G gene polymorphism have been implicated in the pathogenesis of some renal diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of circulating MCP-1 level and the relevance of functional genetic variations of MCP-1 as early predictors of the development of glomerulonephropathy (GN) in Egyptian patients.Methods: This is a case control study that was conducted in 50 GN patients, 20 non-GN cases and 20 ethnically matched healthy controls. MCP-1 serum level was detected by ELISA technique, while genotyping of polymorphisms in the MCP-1 genes was performed using a polymerasechain reaction (PCR) followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP)detection.Results: High MCP-1 circulating levels and subsequently MCP-1 2518G polymorphism are associated with the developing of nephropathy  irrespective to the underlying etiology. MCP-1 serum level was significantly high when compared with healthy controls (P = 0.0007) and non-GN cases (P = 0.01). There was predominance of A allele at 2518 of MCP-1 gene in healthy controls (87.5%) and non-GN cases (77.5%). The frequency of the 2518G MCP-1 polymorphism was significantly higher in GN patients than in healthy controls (

Morphology of Intestinal Goblet Cells of The Dromedary (Camelus dromedarius)

Morphology of the goblet cells in the intestine of the dromedary (Camelus dromedarius ) was carried out by light and electron microscopes. Histologically, the goblet cells appeared as globular or ovoidshaped with basally located flat nuclei. They were dispersed among the columnar cells lining the epithelia of the villi and crypts of Lieberkuhn, and they increased greatly in number towards the rectum. Goblet cells showed positive reaction to (PAS) stain. Ultrastructurally, the scanning electron microscopy showed villi with rough surface which displayed goblet cells and microvilli in the small intestine. In the large intestine, the surface of the mucosal fold was characteristically covered by goblet cells and epithelial cells. The ultrastructure of the goblet cells showed the cell membrane lacked microvilli and the cytoplasm contained numerous large spherical granules of mucin, rough endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria. The nucleus containing eccentric nucleolus, chromatin and heterochromatin materials.Key words: dromedary, goblet cells, intestine, morpholog

Evaluation of the genetic effects of the in vitro antimicrobial activities of Rhazya stricta leaf extract using molecular techniques and scanning electron microscope

Rhazya stricta plants have always played a major role in the treatment of human and animal diseases and it has main role in the folk medicine. The aim of this study was to explore the potential antimicrobial activities of the aqueous leaves extract of R. stricta on Gram-negative and Gram-positive food-borne bacteria and evaluate the antimicrobial effect at the molecular level. The results indicate that the aqueous leaves extract of R. stricta exhibited the antimicrobial activity against tested microorganisms. A clear, but significantly smaller, inhibition zones were formed after the treatment of two Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli and Aeromonas hydrophila) and one Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus) with the aqueous leaves extract of R. stricta (50 mg) comparing with those formed after the treatment with streptomycin (15 mg). Moreover, the results obtained after the treatments of bacterial strains with elevated concentrations of aqueous extracts of the wild plant of R. stricta leaves reveled that the extract has potent lethal activities as the growth turbidity decreased as the concentration or time of exposure increased. In addition, the observation by the scanning electron microscope showed that cells of the bacterial strains were damaged after the treatment with plant extracts. The noticed antimicrobial effect was explored at the molecular level, using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the plasmid DNA and random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis of the genomic DNA extracted from the control (untreated) and R. stricta leaf extract-treated bacterial strains. The results demonstrate polymorphic band pattern for most treated microbes compared with the wild type (untreated) strain. Concerning gene expression under the same conditions, total protein contents of the three treated bacteria showed significantly gradual increase in all of the treatment doses compared to control. In addition, the SDS-PAGE of the bacterial cellular proteins resulted in the induction of some protein bands under the treatment conditions. All these results strongly point out the mutagenicity, lethal and antimicrobial effect of the leaves extract of R. stricta. The results indicate the possibility of using the leaves extract of R. stricta as a source of antibacterial compounds for treatment of infections caused by multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacterial pathogens.Keywords: Medicinal plants, Rhazya stricta, antimicrobial, mutagenicity, RAPD, RFLP, SEM, E. coli, S. aureus, A. hydrophilaAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(21), pp. 3171-318

Quantification of bone histomorphometric parameters using the Weibel technique in animals

Bone histomorphometric measurements are required to understand the efficacy of treatment on bone remodelling. Previous studies used the Weibel technique as a quantitative stereological method to determine bone cellular and dynamic changes. However, there was no description on how this technique was applied. This studyaimed to provide a full picture about the utilization of the Weibel technique to measure static and dynamic bone histomorphometric indices. Technical expertise, processing of bone samples, randomization of the trabecular sections and an adequate number of analysed images for each section are required to achieve reliable results with a low possibility of errors

Genetic diversity and DNA fingerprint study in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L) cultivars grown in Egypt using simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers

A collection of ten cultivars of tomato grown in Egypt were screened with 20 simple sequence repeat (SSR) primers in order to determine genetic identities, genetic diversity and genetic relationships among these  cultivars. On an average, 38 alleles were amplified using SSR primers with scorable fragment sizes ranging  from approximately 75 to 275 bp. 23 alleles were polymorphic thus revealing 60.5% of polymorphism. The  genetic similarity estimated according to SSR data was scaled between 17.6 and 93.2%, suggesting the  potential of SSR markers in discriminating among plants of close or distant genetic backgrounds. Unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) clustering grouped the cultivars into two groups where the  two Egyptian cultivars Edkawy and Giza 80 were clustered in different group. In addition, clustering was found  consistent with the known information regarding growth habit. The genetic distance information obtained in  this study might be useful to breeder for planning crosses among these cultivars.Key words: Tomato cultivars, diversity, Simple sequence repeats (SSR), Egypt

PON-Based Connectivity for Fog Computing

Fog computing plays a crucial role in satisfying the requirements of delay-sensitive applications such as connected vehicles, smart grids, and actuator networks by moving data processing close to end users. Passive optical networks (PONs) are widely used in access networks to reduce the power consumption while providing high bandwidth to end users under flexible designs. Typically, distributed fog computing units in access networks have limited processing and storage capacities that can be under or over utilized depending on instantaneous demands. To extend the available capacity in access network, this paper proposes a fog computing architecture based on SDN-enabled PONs to achieve full connectivity among distributed fog computing servers. The power consumption results show that this architecture can achieve up to about 80% power savings in comparison to legacy fog computing based on spine and leaf data centers with the same number of servers

A Generalized Service Replication Process in Distributed Environments

Replication is one of the main techniques aiming to improve Web services’ (WS) quality of service (QoS) in distributed environments, including clouds and mobile devices. Service replication is a way of improving WS performance and availability by creating several copies or replicas of Web services which work in parallel or sequentially under defined circumstances. In this paper, a generalized replication process for distributed environments is discussed based on established replication studies. The generalized replication process consists of three main steps: sensing the environment characteristics, determining the replication strategy, and implementing the selected replication strategy. To demonstrate application of the generalized replication process, a case study in the telecommunication domain is presented. The adequacy of the selected replication strategy is demonstrated by comparing it to another replication strategy as well as to a non-replicated service. The authors believe that a generalized replication process will help service providers to enhance QoS and accordingly attract more customer

Binding to CSA receptor is associated with asymptomatic and mild malaria: a preliminary study using P.falciparum field isolates from Sudan

Malaria imposes great socio-economic burden on humanity, and afflicts approximately 90 countries and territories in the tropical and subtropical regions, almost one half of them are in Africa, South of Sahara. Sequestration of parasitized erythrocytes within the small vessels of vital organs is a key event in the pathogenesis of malaria and responsible of virulence of Plasmodium falciparum parasite. To find out whether the ability of infected red blood cells (IRBCs) to adhere to a specific receptor is a risk factor for developing severe clinical manifestation of the disease, in-vitro cytoadhesion and inhibition experiments were performed on field isolates obtained from five symptomatic and five asymptomatic patients inhabiting Gazira State, Central Sudan. The results showed significant lower levels (

Lymphocyte apoptosis in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes mellitus

Background: Beta cell apoptosis has been associated with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) onset in newly diagnosed diabetic patients. There is an emerging evidence that T cell-induced apoptosis is a dominant effector mechanism in diabetes mellitus type 1 (DM1). Pancreatic β-cells derived from newly diagnosed type 1 diabetics were found to have increased cell surface expression of Fas (CD95) compared to β-cells from healthy subjects. Objective: The study investigates the spontaneous lymphocyte apoptosis via CD95 molecule expression to demonstrate activation induced cell death in children with high risk of DM1 and in type 1 diabetics under insulin therapy. Methods: This study comprised 90 children and adolescents, divided into 3 groups. G(1) comprised 40 type-1 diabetics, their ages ranging from 8.0 to 17.0 years and disease duration between 2.0 and 12.0 years. G(2) (prediabetics) included 30 euglycaemic subjects who were first degree relatives of type 1 diabetics, with normal fasting blood glucose and positive first phase insulin release (FPIR) and/or positive islet cell (ICA) or glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) antibodies. G(3) comprised 20 healthy, age and sex matched subjects with no clinical or laboratory signs or family history of type-1DM. Patients were subjected to clinical evaluation with special emphasis on signs suggestive of microvascular complications. The study measurements included random blood sugar (RBS), glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), urinary microalbumin assay and flow cytometric assessment of apoptosis by measuring CD95 percentage expression on CD3 lymphocytes. Results: The percentage of CD95 positive T-lymphocytes was significantly higher in prediabetics than in type-1 diabetics and controls (57.687±6.68, 45.01±6.648,16.75±4.98% respectively; p < 0.001). CD3 positive lymphocytes were significantly lower in prediabetics than type-1 diabetics and controls (52.93±11.64, 66.23±7.04, 63.910±3.4% respectively; p < 0.001). The percentage of CD95 on T-lymphocytes could not be correlated with age, insulin dose and RBS, but HbA1c was positively correlated with both CD3 lymphocytes and CD95% expression. Complicated type-1 diabetics showed higher CD95% expression compared to noncomplicated patients. Conclusion: Peripheral blood lymphocytes with CD95 antigen expression are increased in prediabetics. As CD95 is an important receptor for activation-induced cell death, CD95 mediated apoptosis could play a potential role in the pathogenesis of DM1.Keywords: lymphocyte apoptosis; CD95 system; type 1 DM; prediabetesEgypt J Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2008; 6(2): 57-6