NEUROPROTECTIVE POTENTIAL OF AZADIRACHTA INDICA LEAVES IN DIABETIC RATS

Objective: Azadirachta indica is a treasure of multiple pharmacological properties and presently leaves of this plant have been explored to evaluate the neuroprotective potential in diabetic rats.Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were injected with single intra peritoneal dose of streptozotocin (60mg/ Kg body weight (BW.) to develop animal model of diabetes. Post twenty one days of streptozotocin induction, animals were treated with aqueous Azadirachta indica Leaf Extract (ALE, 600mg/Kg BW.) for seven consecutive days. Followed this, all animals were evaluated for the levels of blood glucose, lipid peroxidation (LPO), C Reactive Proteins (CRP), pro oxidant biomarkers and histological changes.Results: Streptozotocin treated rats exhibited elevated levels of blood glucose, LPO, CRP and altered pro oxidant biomarkers in comparison to control rats. Additionally, histological alterations/damage was evidenced as fragmentation, vacuolization, inflammation etc. However, ALE treatment to these rats significantly decreased blood glucose levels, LPO, CRP levels and restored pro-oxidants status. Light microscopic and ultra microscopic analysis also indicated less damage, tissue architectural changes in comparison to untreated diabetic rats. Further decrease in hyperalgesia and inflammation levels; along with protective and restorative changes following ALE treatment suggested the neuroprotective potential of Azadirachta indica leaves in diabetic rats.Conclusion: The oral administration of ALE to streptozotocin induced diabetic animals resulted in neuro-protection against degenerative oxidative stress associated with metabolic and histopathological damage in the brain.Key words:  Azadirachta indica, Antioxidants, Hyperalgesia, Neuroprotection Â

Prune belly syndrome: a case of early prenatal diagnosis

Prune belly syndrome is a rare congenital disorder typically characterized by a triad of malformation of the urogenital tract, defect of abdominal wall musculature, and cryptorchidism. The condition is generally incompatible with life as infants born with this syndrome are either stillborn or die within the first few weeks of life. The present case is of a fetus presenting with prune bell syndrome, detected in first trimester of pregnancy

Role of radiology in central hemangioma of jaws

Central hemangioma, a bone destructive lesion, is a benign tumor. Hemangiomas of jaws are rare entity and produ- ces many different radiographic images. Radiographic differential diagnosis includes osteosarcoma, fibrous dysplasia, central giant cell granuloma, ameloblastoma, odontogenic myxoma, multiple myeloma, dentigerous cyst and aneurysmal bone cyst. Since it involves proliferation of blood vessels so aspiration or biopsy of such lesions can lead to severe hemorrhage which can turn out to be lethal. We stress on the importance of radiology in the timely diagnosis of such lesions which can prevent the disaster not only to the patient but also to oral surgeon in legal and professional aspects

Primary intraosseous carcinoma of mandible: an update on review of literature with a case report

Primary intraosseous carcinoma (PIOC) is a rare malignant neoplasm of the jaws which is locally aggressive with quite poor prognosis. Overall and disease free survival is poor with almost 50% patients failing within first 2 years of follow up and reason can be attributed to the delayed diagnosis. But knowledge of the clinical, radiographic and histopathologic features of PIOC allows accurate and early diagnosis of the lesion so that an early and appropriate treatment can be instituted for better prognosis. Here a typical case of PIOC of the mandible is presented and an attempt is made to discuss all possible differential diagnosis and an update on review of literature is presented. Our case highlights that radiographic examination is one of the most effective methods for detecting early lesions of PIOCs

Sonoporation, a redefined ultrasound modality as therapeutic aid: a review.

Traditionally a diagnostic modality, ultrasound is emerging as a promising tool for non-invasive therapy, drug delivery, and gene therapy. The ultrasound is a mechanical wave energy generated in a medium as oscillating pressure in space and time at frequencies above 20 kHz, beyond the audible range. The ultrasound exposure generates bioeffects resulting in tissue heating, shear stress, and cavitation, which have been exploited for therapeutic applications. Ultrasound cavitation, enhanced by injected micro bubbles, perturbs cell membrane structures to cause sonoporation and increases the permeability to bioactive materials. Ultrasound-mediated gene delivery has been applied to heart, blood vessel, lung, kidney, muscle, head and neck tumour with enhanced gene transfection efficiency. The genes can be incorporated into microbubbles which in turn can target a specific disease site. Local drug delivery ensures sufficient drug concentration at the diseased region while limiting toxicity for healthy tissues. Nevertheless, it has only recently become popular as a technique to enhance drug release from drug delivery systems. This review presents the main findings in the field of sonoporation, namely drug delivery, gene delivery and DNA transfer

Osteosarcoma of maxilla: a case report

Osteosarcoma is a common primary malignant bone tumor producing osteoid or bone. It occurs very infrequently in the jaws and comprises of 4% of the tumour number as compared to the osteosarcoma of the long bones. Os- teosarcoma of the maxilla is even rarer presenting with common clinical features of pain and swelling. This pre- sented case is a rare case of osteosarcoma of maxilla in a 21-year-old female patient. Diagnosis and pre-operative assessment was performed using a combination of intraoral periapical radiograph, occlusal radiograph, paranasal view and computed tomography (CT). CT revealed destruction of the walls of maxillary sinus and sunray type of ossification in the soft tissues. Conformation was done with histology report followed by surgical removal of the tumor with safety margins. Dental professionals may be the first to detect jaw osteosarcomas in their initial stages. Regardless of the favourable biological behaviour, the patients of jaw osteosarcoma usually exhibit advanced tumor as it often goes unnoticed by the dental professional thus stressing on the need for early diagnosis of the lesion. The aim of this case report is to draw attention to the possibility of diagnosing this tumor based on clinical and radio- graphical characteristics before confirmation by histology

A comparative study of lip print patterns in monozygotic and dizygotic twins

Background: External surface of lips has many elevations and depressions forming a characteristic pattern called lip prints, the study of which is known as cheiloscopy. This is unique for the individuals like in fingerprints.Methods: The present study was conducted in 40 pairs of twins and their families to evaluate the possibility of variation of lip print patterns in twins and their parents to find out any similarity among twins and their families.  The twins were taken as the primary subject and their parents as the secondary subjects.Results: The subjects with congenital lip deformity and any inflammation were excluded from the study. The lip prints were taken on the cello tape and highlighted with the black printer powder of Oddyessy make. the photographs were taken for the permanent record. The prints were studied on Adobe Photoshop 7.0 software and classified under Tsuchihashi classification.Conclusions: Comparison of lip prints showed that they are unique to each individual and among twins revealed that they are similar but not identical and their characteristics resembled either parent. Since the lip print patterns are unique, lip print analysis can be considered as a tool for personal identification

MFS transportome of the human pathogenic yeast Candida albicans

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The major facilitator superfamily (MFS) is one of the two largest superfamilies of membrane transporters present ubiquitously in bacteria, archaea, and eukarya and includes members that function as uniporters, symporters or antiporters. We report here the complete transportome of MFS proteins of a human pathogenic yeast <it>Candida albicans</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Computational analysis of <it>C. albicans </it>genome enabled us to identify 95 potential MFS proteins which clustered into 17 families using Saier's Transport Commission (TC) system. Among these SP, DHA1, DHA2 and ACS represented major families consisting of 22, 22, 9 and 16 members, respectively. Family designations in <it>C. albicans </it>were validated by subjecting <it>Saccharomyces cerevisiae </it>genome to TC system. Based on the published available genomics/proteomics data, 87 of the putative MFS genes of <it>C. albicans </it>were found to express either at mRNA or protein levels. We checked the expression of the remaining 8 genes by using RT-PCR and observed that they are not expressed under basal growth conditions implying that either these 8 genes are expressed under specific growth conditions or they may be candidates for pseudogenes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The <it>in silico </it>characterisation of MFS transporters in <it>Candida albicans </it>genome revealed a large complement of MFS transporters with most of them showing expression. Considering the clinical relevance of <it>C. albicans </it>and role of MFS members in antifungal resistance and nutrient transport, this analysis would pave way for identifying their physiological relevance.</p

Effect of vitamin D supplementation on bone health parameters of healthy young Indian women

Summary There is a huge prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in the Indian population. We studied the efficacy and safety of oral vitamin D supplementation in apparently healthy adult women. Monthly cholecalciferol given orally, 60,000 IU/month during summers and 120,000 IU/month during winters, safely increases 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25 (OH)D) levels to near normal levels. Introduction There is a huge burden of hypovitaminosis D in the Indian population. The current recommendation for vitamin D supplementation is not supported by sufficient evidence. Methods Study subjects included 100 healthy adult women of reproductive age group from hospital staff. They wer