Anti Diabetic Effect of Curcuma Longa Extract via Non-insulin Dependent Cellular Pathway AMPK

Introduction: Blood glucose is high in diabetic patients. It is taken from blood by two separate pathways: Insulin-dependent pathway of phosphoinositide 3 kinase (PI3K) and insulin-independent pathway AMPK (AMP-Activated protein kinase). The first pathway is impaired in type 2 diabetic patients, but the second pathway is active. On the other hand, curcuma longa extract containing a high percentage curcumin has Anti-diabetic effects, but its exact mechanism is not clear. Therefore, this study intends to investigate the effect of curcumin on the activation of the critical pathway AMPK in C2C12 cells. Methods: C2C12 cells, after growth and differentiation to muscle myoblast, were exposed to 40 µM concentrations of curcumin (test group) and 0.1%DMSO (control) for one hour. Then cells were collected, lysed and p-AMPK and p-ACC proteins were identified by Western blotting technique. Data were normalized with the β-Actin internal control and each band was calculated as arbitrary number compared with the control. Significant results were determined by using SPSS statistical software and student t-test. Results: Phosphorylation of enzymes, that indicates their activation, significantly increased for p-AMPK (23±1.6) and for p-ACC (31.7±2) in presence of curcumin Compared to the control (3±0.5; 1.7±0.4) (p-value <0.05). Conclusion: The results demonstrated that anti-diabetic effects of curcumin could be done through the activation of AMPK / ACC

The Effect of Melittin on Rac1 Protein Expression as a Metastatic Factor in AGS Gastric Cancer Cell Lines

Introduction: Understanding the molecular mechanisms of metastasis is important for the design and effective use of novel therapeutic strategies in order to combat metastases. One class of molecules that has been implicated in metastasis is Rac1. Regarding complications of conventional therapies such as chemotherapy, current studies are evaluating natural compounds with anticancer Properties. Melittin is a natural compound derived from honey bee venom which has revealed amphipatic properties. Some studies have shown that melittin has an important role in reducing cancer cells metastasis by affecting Rac1 expression. Since the studies on melittin role in regard to Rac1 in gastric cancer cells are rare, the present study examined the effect of melittin on Rac1 protein expression in AGS gastric cancer cells. Methods: AGS cells, after growth and reaching to 80% density, were exposed to 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 μg/ml concentrations of melittin (test groups) for six hours. Then cells were collected, lysed with lysis buffer and Rac1 protein was identified by Western blotting technique. Data were normalized with the β-Actin internal control and calculated as the relative percentage. The study data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software via One-Way Anova test. Results: Comparison of Rac1 expression levels in AGS cancer cells showed that cells which were exposed to 6 hours of 0.2μg/ml (109±5.5), 0.3(105±3.6) melittin had higher Rac1 expression percentages compared to the control (100) and 0.4 (100±2). Rac1 expression percentages were not significant with a confidence interval (CI) of 95% ( P>0.05 ). Conclusion: In this study the results demonstrated that melittin does not have any effect on Rac1 in gastric cancer cells (AGS)

COMBINATION OF AEROBIC EXERCISE TRAINING AND BERBERINE ATTENUATE KIDNEY CACHEXIA IN DIABETIC RATS BY INCREASING THE BCL-2/BAX RATIO

Fereshteh Ahmadabadi, FACSM1, Somayeh Azizi2, Marziyeh Saghebjoo2, Javad Mohiti-Ardakani3, B. Sue Graves, FACSM4. 1Keiser University, West Palm Beach, FL. 2University of Birjand, Birjand, FL. 3Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Science, Yazd, FL. 4Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL. Background: This study examined the effects of aerobic exercise training (AET) and berberine (BBR) supplementation on apoptosis indices in renal tissue of streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic Wistar rats. Methods: Forty-two Wistar rats were divided into two groups: control (Ctr) and aerobic exercise training (AET, 3 d/wk, 50-55% VO2max for 6 weeks), and four diabetic groups: diabetic (D), DAET, DBBR (50 mg/kg), and DAET+BBR. Diabetes was induced by intraperitoneal injection of STZ (60 mg/kg dissolved in 0.1 M citrate buffer, pH 4.5). The one-way ANOVA with LSD’s post-hoc test was used to determine the significance of differences between groups for caspase-3, Bax, Bcl-2, and Bcl-2 to Bax ratio. Results: The level of Bax in AET, DAET, and DAET+BBR were lower than the Ctr and D, with a greater improvement of the Bax level observed in the AET and DAET vs. DBBR. While the levels of caspase-3 and Bcl-2 showed no significant differences between groups, the level of Bcl-2 to Bax ratio exhibited a higher level only in the DAET+BBR compared to Ctr, D, AET, DAET, and BBR in the renal tissue. Conclusion: These results indicated that the synergetic treatment of aerobic exercise training combined with DBBR can possibly suppress the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway through increasing the Bcl-2 to Bax ratio in the kidney tissue of diabetic rats

Evaluation of serum lipoproteins - A and its Association with Inflammatory Markers in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Introduction: Several studies suggest that lipoprotein (a) [Lp(a)] act as acute phase reactant and is associated with early atherosclerosis in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine the concentration of serum LP (a) and its association with inflammatory markers in RA patients compared to healthy individuals. Methods: The study participants consisted of 100 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 100 healthy controls. The concentration of LP(a), RF,CRP was measured using Immunoturbidometric method. Results: Average of lipoprotein - a in patients with rheumatoid arthritis was 32.41 ± 2.33 SDmg/dl which was significantly higher than the control group with a mean concentration of 20.50 ± 1.03 SD mg/ dl (P=.001). The results showed that patient's serum lipoproteins – a concentrations was higher significantly in women with rheumatoid arthritis (34.63 ± 25.020mg/dl) than women in the control group (20.60 ± 10.56 mg/dl) (P = 0.001). However, no significant difference was observed between the mean serum LP(a) concentrations in male patients and the control (p = 0.304). CRP mean was 4.05 ±2.04 SDmg/dl and 17.87±1.48 SD mg/dl respectively in control and patient groups. Furthermore, RF mean in control and patient groups was 9.11±2.33SDmg/dl and 15.42 ± 8.64SD mg/dl respectively. Conclusion: The female patients' serum LP(a) concentration was higher significantly than females in the control group. Therefore, it can be concluded that increased concentration of lipoprotein - a may be associated with the patient's sex

Effect of Vitamin E on Oxidative Stress Markers of Proteins and Lipids in Children with Idiopathic Epilepsy

Introduction: Epilepsy is regarded as one of the prevalent neurological disorders in children. The role of anti-oxidants in protection of epilepsy has been discussed in several studies. Vitamin E can be mentioned as a natural antioxidant to neutralize free radicals. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the effects of vitamin E on oxidative stress markers such as malone dialdehyde(MDA) and protein carbonyl(PC) in children suffering from idiopathic epilepsy and vitamin D deficiency. Methods: In the current study, children suffering from idiopathic epilepsy and vitamin D deficiency were randomly divided into two groups. One group was treated with 50000 units of vitamin D oral capsules (per week) for 8 weeks and the other &nbsp;group was treated with 100 units of vitamin E (per day) for one month as well as 50000 unit of vitamin D for 8 weeks. The amount of MDA and PC were measured by the spectrophotometer method. The obtained data were analyzed via the &nbsp;SPSS software (ver, 19) using t-test. Results: The results indicated that the amount of&nbsp; MAD and PC revealed a significant decrease after the treatment. In fact, in the group treated with vitamin E, the amount of PC decreased significantly compared with the other group, though MDA reduction was not proved to be significant. Discussion: The findings of the present study revealed that treatment with vitamin E could reduce the PC amount in regard with epileptic patients