Ameliorative effect of Myristica fragrans (nutmeg) extract on oxidative status and histology of pancreas in alloxan induced diabetic rats

Background: Many traditional treatments have been recommended in the alternative system of medicine for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. The aim of this study was to assess oxidative stress and histological changes in the pancreas of alloxan-induced diabetic rats following Myristica fragrans seed (nutmeg) extract treatment. Materials and methods: Forty-eight male Wistar rats weighing 200–250 g were randomly divided into six groups of 8 rats each — group I, non-diabetic rats; group II, diabetic rats; groups III, IV and V, diabetic rats given orally nutmeg extract at levels of 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg, respectively; and group VI, diabetic rats given orally metformin (100 mg/kg). The experiment lasted for 28 days. Results: Data showed that nutmeg extract (100 and 200 mg/kg) significantly decreased the blood glucose levels and increased the levels of serum insulin in diabetic rats. Administration of nutmeg extract to diabetic rats reduced oxidative stress and improved the antioxidant activities in pancreatic tissue. Histopathologic results of treated groups revealed marked improvement in the morphology of the pancreas compared with the control diabetic group. In addition, number of pancreatic islets and per cent of β-cells increased significantly in these groups in comparison with diabetic untreated group. Conclusions: These results suggest that nutmeg extract has potent antidiabetic and β-cell protection activities in alloxan induced diabetic rats, possibly via its antioxidant properties

Keywords: Chemical Forms of Iron, Concentration, Corn, Iron Uptake, Sequential Extraction

Neda Pashapoor1, Adel Reyhanitabar2*, Shahin Oustan2     Received: June 19, 2015    Accepted: February 14, 2016 1-Graduated MSc Student of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran. 2- Assoc. Prof., Dept. of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran. *Corresponding Author: [email protected]       Abstract       Iron (Fe) is the most important micronutrient for crops that has low availability in calcareous soils. Phytoavailability of Fe depends on the relative distribution of different chemical Fe forms in soil, which is function of soil properties. In this greenhouse research, total Fe fractionated into different forms by sequential extraction procedure was studied in 21 soil samples that varied in physical and chemical properties. According to the results, different Fe fractions concentration were as: Residual iron (Fe-Res)> iron associated with the crystalline iron oxides (Fe-CFeOX)> iron associated with the amorphous iron oxides (Fe-AFeOX)> manganese- oxide- associated Fe (Fe- MnOX)> organic matter-associated Fe (Fe-OM)> exchangeable iron (Fe-Ex) ≥ carbonates-bound iron (Fe-Car).  Fe-Ex, Fe-OM, Fe-AFeOX, Fe-CFeOX, Fe-Res and available iron (Fe-DTPA) had a significant relationship with corn shoot and root dry matter, active iron content, chlorophyll index and shoot iron uptake. Correlation coefficient showed that the Fe-Ex, Fe-AFeOX and Fe-Res had a close and significant relationship with all measured agronomical traits of corn. It is concluded that, these forms of iron are probably the source of available iron for corn in studied soils

Risk Factors, Clinical And CT Findings In Death Due To Intra Cerebral Hemorrhage

This study is carried out to determine effective risk factors for early death and their causes in those who died due to intra cerebral hemorrhage within 30 days."nMaterials and Methods: From patients who have been admitted in Neurologic ward of Imam Khomeini hospital in Tabriz, We enrolled 100 patients with intra cerebral hemorrhage and the causes and risk factors effective in early death were evaluated among these patients by age, sex, blood pressure, level of consciousness, location of hematoma, CT findings and other risk factors."nResults: We enrolled 100 patients who died due to intra cerebral Hemorrhage among 358 patients with I.C.H, 62 male and 38 female, with mean age of 60.8. The time course of hospitalization was 4.5 days. The most important risk factor was hypertension on 90 percent of patients, previous C.V.A on 28 percent other risk time of admission in 66 percent of patients with G.C.S under 8."nConclusion: Hypertension was the most common and important risk factors and male gender and age were the second risk factors for early death with intra cerebral hemorrhage

Prediction of pathologic complete response to neoadjuvant systemic therapy in triple negative breast cancer using deep learning on multiparametric MRI

Abstract Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive subtype of breast cancer. Neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NAST) followed by surgery are currently standard of care for TNBC with 50-60% of patients achieving pathologic complete response (pCR). We investigated ability of deep learning (DL) on dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI and diffusion weighted imaging acquired early during NAST to predict TNBC patients’ pCR status in the breast. During the development phase using the images of 130 TNBC patients, the DL model achieved areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) of 0.97 ± 0.04 and 0.82 ± 0.10 for the training and the validation, respectively. The model achieved an AUC of 0.86 ± 0.03 when evaluated in the independent testing group of 32 patients. In an additional prospective blinded testing group of 48 patients, the model achieved an AUC of 0.83 ± 0.02. These results demonstrated that DL based on multiparametric MRI can potentially differentiate TNBC patients with pCR or non-pCR in the breast early during NAST