Teratogenic effects of retinyl palmitate during early and late gestation periods in rats.

Retinyl palmitate or vitamin A palmitate has been associated with dose-related developmental toxicity when administered orally to mice, rats, rabbits, and monkeys during critical stages of embryonic development. We report a study to determine the teratogenic effects of retinyl palmitate in pregnant Sprague Dawley rats during early and late gestation periods and to observe the toxic effects of retinyl palmitate in dams. Forty sexually mature fertile female Sprague Dawley rats were divided into 4 groups: Early control, Late control, Early gestation (Early) and Late gestation (Late) groups. Control groups were given a placebo of maize oil while treatment groups were given the same dosage of retinyl palmitate. Pregnant females were randomly assigned to the different groups and treated with retinyl palmitate during early pregnancy on gestation day (GD) 1-7 for Early group and GD 8-14 for Late group. The results obtained showed that retinyl palmitate treated groups had no significant difference in maternal body weights compared to control groups. Maternal kidney weights in early treated group showed significant difference (p<0.05) compared to early control group while liver weights had no significant difference in both control and treatment groups. Fetuses from both early and late treated groups showed a significant decrease in weight compared to control groups. For fetal skeletal anomalies, treatment with retinyl palmitate in Early and Late groups showed malformed wavy ribs and thoracic vertebrae, additional ribs, lumbar vertebral defect and extra ossification center. This preliminary experiment suggests that retinyl palmitate show significant teratogenic effects when fed to pregnant Sprague Dawley rats during early and late gestation periods

Neurogenic components in equine and canine arthritis

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Zerumbone improved immunoreactivity of neuropeptides in monosodium iodoacetate induced knee osteoarthritis in rat

The main objective of this investigation was to explore the improvement effect of oral administration of zerumbone on the density of protein gene product; calcitonin gene related peptide and neuropeptide Y immunoreactive nerve fibers against monosodium iodoacetate induced osteoarthritis changes in rat’s knee synovial membrane. Prostaglandin (PG) E2 and F2α were determined to assess their role during osteoarthritis events and post zerumbone application. Forty rats were divided equally into four groups. Rats in the first and second groups were treated with two different concentrations of zerumbone. Rats in the third group received celecoxib (Celebrex®) and served as positive control; whereas those of the fourth group were given corn oil and served as the negative control. The results revealed lower pathology score beside an improvement of the immunoreactive nerve fibers densities in zerumbone treated groups compared with the negative control. Different prostaglandin levels were detected within the different treated groups. The data showed that, zerumbone had dose dependent plausible improvement effect against the depleted immunoreactive nerve fibers which occurred after monosodium iodoacetate injection. The prostaglandin E2 but not PGF2α showed distinct role during the osteoarthritis events and the post oral treatment with zerumbone.Key words: Osteoarthritis, neuropeptides, monosodium iodoacetate (MIA), zerumbone, rat

Effects of Ostertagia ostertagi and omeprazole treatment on feed intake and gastrin-related responses in the calf

Infection with the bovine abomasal nematode, Ostertagia ostertagi, results in a loss of acid-secreting parietal cells and an increase in gastric pH. The effects of an experimental infection with Ostertagia and/or daily treatment with omeprazole (OMP) at 2 mg kg−1 bodyweight for four consecutive days (experiment days 24–27, inclusive) on voluntary feed intake, blood and tissue gastrin concentrations, abomasal G-cell numbers, gastric pH, and blood cholecystokinin (CCK) and pepsinogen concentrations were investigated in the calf. Ostertagia-infected calves demonstrated a significant drop in feed intake between days 24 and 27 post-infection (38%; P<0.001) and in G-cell numbers (42%; P<0.05) and significant increases in abomasal pH (P<0.001), fundic mucosal weight (99%; P<0.01), and blood gastrin (P<0.05) and pepsinogen (P<0.0001). OMP treatment of worm-free animals resulted in a significant drop in intake between days 24 and 27 (30%; P<0.001) and in G-cell numbers (17%; P<0.05) and significant increases in abomasal pH (P<0.01) and blood gastrin (P<0.001). OMP treatment of Ostertagia-infected animals with an existing hypergastrinaemia had no effect on feed intake, abomasal pH, blood gastrin or pepsinogen or abomasal G-cell numbers. Blood CCK concentrations were also unaffected by either Ostertagia infection or OMP treatment. These data suggest that: (a) the depression in feed intake associated with OMP in worm-free calves was not due to a side effect of drug treatment; (b) inappetance in Ostertagia-infected animals is closely associated with the parasite-induced hypergastrinaemia; and (c) the elevation in abomasal pH was a major factor responsible for the elevated blood gastrin concentrations seen in parasitised and OMP-treated animals

Isolation and characterization of rabbit bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells

Background: Stem cells are defined as cells that can self-renew indefinitely and able to differentiate into various mature cells when induced appropriately. It have many other properties bring attention to use in regenerative medicine. Stem cell therapy has attracted much interest in this 21st century, not only because of the controversy surrounding the ethics involving pluripotent stem cells, but their potential for clinical use. Objectives: The aim of this study was to isolate and characterize mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow of New Zealand white rabbits by its morphological, multipotential differentiation an immunophenotypical analysis. Materials and Methods: Three rabbits were euthanized with pentobarbital, an incision was made through the skin at thigh region and all muscles related to femoral bone were removed. The two epiphysis ends were cut ant the bone marrow was flushed to be cultured for series of passages. Results: The bone marrow cells were shown to adhere to the plastic surface and started to form fibroblastic-like colonies after 3 to 7 days of initial seeding. Further characterization was conducted using cells from passage two onward by analyzing their surface protein expression and ability to differentiate into mesodermal lineages under a relevant inductive condition. Flow cytometer analysis showed that the adherent bone marrow cells were expressing CD44 and CD90 but not CD34 which is a standard profile of mesenchymal stem cells. Besides, the bone marrow cells which were subjected to adipogenic and osteogenic differentiation exhibited differentiation into adipocytes and osteoblasts when cultured in appropriate inductive differentiation media. Conclusion: Based on our observation, the bone marrow adherent cells from New Zealand white rabbits had reflected common mesenchymal stem cells characteristics which have been confirmed via morphological, multipotential ability and immunophenotyping analysis