VASCULAR PERMEABILITY- INCREASING EFFECT OF THE LEAF ESSENTIAL OIL OF OCIMUM GRATISSIMUM LINN AS A MECHANISM FOR ITS WOUND HEALING PROPERTY.

Persistent microvascular hyperpermeability to plasma proteins is a characteristic feature of normal wound healing. Does the leaf essential oil of Ocimum gratissimum heal wounds by promoting this feature? Evan’s blue dye (20mg/kg body weight) in normal saline was administered intravenously through marginal ear vein of experimental rabbits (n=5). Each animal served as its own control. One hour after Evan’s blue dye administration, 0.1ml each of Ocimum oil, histamine dihydrochloride (30µg/ml) and normal saline were randomly administered by intra-dermal injection at the prepared sites on each of the animals. Increase in vascular permeability was assessed by dye effusion test. Analysis of the differences in vascular permeability between treatment groups showed that, Ocimum oil, in intensity and duration, was significantly (

Far-Infrared Therapy Induces the Nuclear Translocation of PLZF Which Inhibits VEGF-Induced Proliferation in Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells

Many studies suggest that far-infrared (FIR) therapy can reduce the frequency of some vascular-related diseases. The non-thermal effect of FIR was recently found to play a role in the long-term protective effect on vascular function, but its molecular mechanism is still unknown. In the present study, we evaluated the biological effect of FIR on vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-induced proliferation in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). We found that FIR ranging 3∼10 µm significantly inhibited VEGF-induced proliferation in HUVECs. According to intensity and time course analyses, the inhibitory effect of FIR peaked at an effective intensity of 0.13 mW/cm2 at 30 min. On the other hand, a thermal effect did not inhibit VEGF-induced proliferation in HUVECs. FIR exposure also inhibited the VEGF-induced phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases in HUVECs. FIR exposure further induced the phosphorylation of endothelial nitric oxide (NO) synthase (eNOS) and NO generation in VEGF-treated HUVECs. Both VEGF-induced NO and reactive oxygen species generation was involved in the inhibitory effect of FIR. Nitrotyrosine formation significantly increased in HUVECs treated with VEGF and FIR together. Inhibition of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) by wortmannin abolished the FIR-induced phosphorylation of eNOS and Akt in HUVECs. FIR exposure upregulated the expression of PI3K p85 at the transcriptional level. We further found that FIR exposure induced the nuclear translocation of promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger protein (PLZF) in HUVECs. This induction was independent of a thermal effect. The small interfering RNA transfection of PLZF blocked FIR-increased PI3K levels and the inhibitory effect of FIR. These data suggest that FIR induces the nuclear translocation of PLZF which inhibits VEGF-induced proliferation in HUVECs

Full Length Research Article - Malaria Prevention: Knowledge, Attitude And Practice In A Southwestern Nigerian Community.

Assessing and analyzing local malaria problems are a prerequisite for successful control interventions. We sought to assess the knowledge of the symptoms of malaria, attitude towards preventive measures as well as treatment seeking behaviors among members of the Ile-Ife community in southwestern Nigeria. A cross sectional study was carried out using a questionnaire, which was self or researcher administered to community members of semi-urban Ile-Ife.Analysis of "what respondents will do first" during malaria attack showed that 35.5%, 0.9% and 13.4% of respondents will use synthetic anti-malarials, consult a herbalist and use local herb, respectively, while 27.3%, 1.7% and 18.2% will go to the hospital, take spiritual/ritual waters for cure and just pray, respectively, with 3.0% of the respondents indicating that they will ignore the signs. Factors influencing respondents' choice of malaria treatment and preventive methods included cost, religious beliefs, perceived safety, convenience and respondents' state of health for 22.7%, 5.4%, 20.8%, 26.5% and 24.6% of the respondents, respectively. The use of insecticide impregnated net are uncommon amongst the respondents (0%). Treatment seeking practice in malaria was related to level of education and religion. We found that convenience and the severity of the disease affected respondents' choice of treatment in more than 50% of the cases. We suggest that malaria public enlightenment efforts should be intensified, effective malaria preventive methods be made affordable and that support be provided to make malaria treatments at public hospitals free

Peroxynitrite stimulates pulmonary artery endothelial and smooth muscle cell proliferation : Involvement of ERK and PKC

There is evidence that peroxynitrite is generated in pulmonary hypertension and we have therefore investigated whether peroxynitrite can cause proliferation of pulmonary artery cells. Bovine pulmonary artery endothelial (PAEC) and smooth muscle cells (PASMC) were exposed to peroxynitrite solution or to the peroxynitrite generating compound, 3-morpholinosydnonimine (SIN-1). Vascular cell proliferation was determined by cell count and H-3-thymidine incorporation. Protein biochemistry was by western blot analysis. Transient exposure to peroxynitrite stimulated the proliferation of PASMC (peroxynitrite 0.2 nM -2 mu M) and PAEC (peroxynitrite 0.2 mu M). Peroxynitrite 0.2 mu M stimulated DNA synthesis in PASMC cell by 200 +/- 22% and in PAEC by 137 +/- 4%. DNA synthesis in PAEC and PASMC was also stimulated by the peroxynitrite generator SIN-1 2 mu M. Cell proliferation was accompanied by activation of ERK, which peaked at 15 min and remained elevated for 12 h in PASMC. However peroxynitrite at the concentrations used in this study did not activate the stress pathways p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) or Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK). Peroxynitrite-induced proliferation and ERK phosphorylation in PASMC were abolished by the peroxynitrite scavenger ebselen 5 mu M. Peroxynitrite-induced proliferation and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation in PASMC was prevented by selective inhibitors of MAP kinase kinase (MEK) (U0126 5 mu M, PD98059 50 mu M), Raf-1 (Raf-1 kinase inhibitor 10 mu M), Ras (FPT II and FPT III 10 mu M) and protein kinase C (PKC) (GF109203X 10 mu M). Inhibition of EGF or PDGF receptor signaling using AG-1296. AG-1478 or imatinib prevented peroxynitrite-induced cell proliferation and ERK phosphorylation in PASMC. Peroxynitrite can stimulate proliferation of pulmonary artery cells, involving ERK, PKC and EGF or PDGF receptors

Research Paper - VASCULAR PERMEABILITY- INCREASING EFFECT OF THE LEAF ESSENTIAL OIL OF OCIMUM GRATISSIMUM LINN AS A MECHANISM FOR ITS WOUND HEALING PROPERTY.

Persistent microvascular hyperpermeability to plasma proteins is a characteristic feature of normal wound healing. Does the leaf essential oil of Ocimum gratissimum heal wounds by promoting this feature? Evan's blue dye (20mg/kg body weight) in normal saline was administered intravenously through marginal ear vein of experimental rabbits (n=5). Each animal served as its own control. One hour after Evan's blue dye administration, 0.1ml each of Ocimum oil, histamine dihydrochloride (30μg/ml) and normal saline were randomly administered by intra-dermal injection at the prepared sites on each of the animals. Increase in vascular permeability was assessed by dye effusion test. Analysis of the differences in vascular permeability between treatment groups showed that, Ocimum oil, in intensity and duration, was significantly (p<.05) more effective in increasing cutaneous capillary permeability over a 24h period after treatment. The ability of Ocimum oil in increasing vascular permeability may be one of the factors that contribute to its wound healing property

Full Length Research Article - Prevalence of Hypertension in a University Community in South West Nigeria

A worksite study of hypertension prevalence was carried out in a university community in Southwestern Nigeria. Overall crude prevalence was 21% in the respondent population. About 16% of these were already on treatment with medicines. The study established no significant (p>0.05) relationship between coffee consumption and hypertension. Prevalence was 32% in subjects with over 3 children, while among subjects with eye problem, diabetics and those who took local kola nuts and it was 18.6%, 1.9% and 7.4%, respectively. There is need for increased awareness of the disease and other cardiovascular risk factors within the populace and to encourage the possession or provision of self-measurement blood pressure devices

Imputation of incomplete large‐scale monitoring count data via penalized estimation

In biodiversity monitoring, large datasets are becoming more and more widely available and are increasingly used globally to estimate species trends and conservation status. These large-scale datasets challenge existing statistical analysis methods, many of which are not adapted to their size, incompleteness and heterogeneity. The development of scalable methods to impute missing data in incomplete large-scale monitoring datasets is crucial to balance sampling in time or space and thus better inform conservation policies. We developed a new method based on penalized Poisson models to impute and analyse incomplete monitoring data in a large-scale framework. The method allows parameterization of (a) space and time factors, (b) the main effects of predictor covariates, as well as (c) space–time interactions. It also benefits from robust statistical and computational capability in large-scale settings. The method was tested extensively on both simulated and real-life waterbird data, with the findings revealing that it outperforms six existing methods in terms of missing data imputation errors. Applying the method to 16 waterbird species, we estimated their long-term trends for the first time at the entire North African scale, a region where monitoring data suffer from many gaps in space and time series. This new approach opens promising perspectives to increase the accuracy of species-abundance trend estimations. We made it freely available in the r package ‘lori’ (https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=lori) and recommend its use for large-scale count data, particularly in citizen science monitoring programmes