Anti implantation effects of Jatropha curcas crude oil when fed to pregnant Sprague dawley rats during the early gestation period

Jatropha curcas is a species of flowering plants in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. The seeds contain 27-40% oil consisting of curcin and tetramethylpyrazine which are toxic and cause abortion, fetotoxicity and teratogenic effects if consume during pregnancy. Twenty four Sprague dawley rats at early gestation weighing about 200- 300g were randomized into four groups: Positive control group was orally administered with retinyl palmitate, negative control group with corn oil (vehicle), treatment group with 0.7 ml/kg body weight of the oil and the normal group was given distilled water. Females were paired overnight with male rats and presence of sperm in the vaginal smears indicated positive mating and considered pregnant day 1. Rats were dosed orally once daily from day 1 till day 7 of gestation. Maternal body weights were also recorded daily. Rats were euthanized by diethyl ether inhalation on day 8 and the uteri removed and stained with 1% ammonium sulphide. The number of implantation sites was counted and data obtained were analysed using SPSS. There is a significant reduction in number of implantation sites i.e., treatment groups, positive and negative control and normal group are 0.83±0.401, 4.5±0.428, 8.67±0.333, 9.17±0.307 respectively. There is also a significant difference between treatment and control group in maternal body weights. In addition, a high percentage (90%) of anti-implantation activity was recorded in treatment groups. The small number of implantation sites and high percentage of anti-implantation activity suggests that Jatropha curcas crude oil have anti-fertility effects when fed to pregnant rats during early gestation

Teratogenic effects and maternal toxicity sprague dawley rats fed Ficusdeltoidea leaves aqueous extract in late gestation

Ficusdeltoidea have many beneficial uses however no report has been documented on the possible teratogenic effects if consumed during pregnancy. A study was conducted to observe the effects of feeding Ficusdeltoidea leaves aqueous extract (FDLAE) to rats during the late gestation period. Thirty pregnant Sprague Dawley rats were divided equally into five groups: positive control (retinylpalmitate in corn oil), negative control (only water), vehicle control (corn oil), low dose (5g/kg/day) and high dose (10g/kg/day) of FDLAE. Dams were sacrificed at term and their uteri removed by Caesarean section. Livers, placentae and kidneys of dams were subjected to histopathological examination. Fetuses were stained with Adlizarin Red S to observe skeletal malformations. The results showed that the maternal liver and kidneys were significantly (p<0.05) affected in FDLAE treatment and positive control groups, however only the placenta was affected in the positive control group. Mortality of dams and numerous skeletal abnormalities of fetuses were also observed in FDLAE treatment groups. We suggest that feeding FDLAE to pregnant dams during the late gestation period cause teratogenic effects and contribute to maternal toxicity

Effects of tocotrienols on sperm parameters, testes weight and ultrastructure in Sprague Dawley rats

Vitamin E is divided equally into 2 families, tocopherols and tocotrienols. Being an antioxidant, vitamin E has been reported to improve disorders related to oxidative damage in many organ systems. Sources of vitamin E can be found in many foods including palm oil which is rich in tocotrienols. Studies on the effects of vitamin E on male fertility have shown encouraging results. This study was conducted to observe the effects of feeding tocotrienols from palm oil to male Sprague-Dawley rats on sperm parameters, testes weight and sperm ultrastructure. Blood nitric oxide (NO) levels were also measured. Thirty-five rats were separated equally into 5 groups: initial group (sacrificed before experiment for base line values), control group (fed commercial pellets only), vehiclegroup (palm oil), low dose and high dose of tocotrienol treatment groups. The four groups were sacrificed at the end of the six weeks experiment and sperm parameters (motility, viability and count) were measured while sperm ultrastructure was observed via transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Cardiac blood was taken for NO analysis. Testes were also weighed. At high dose, it is found that sperm parameters increased significantly (p<0.05) but there was no significant change in NO readings. Testes weight does not show any changes while TEM showed lowered mitochondrial cristae distortion in both treatment groups. High dose of tocotrienol increase sperm parameters suggesting that the mechanism for better male fertility is related to better cristae membrane integrityin sperm

Detection and cloning of Phospholipase C‐zeta (PLCζ) gene fragments from testes of Rattus tiomanicus (Malayan wood rat).

PLC‐zeta is a novel, sperm‐specific phospholipase‐C that is highly effective in causing Ca2+ oscillation and activation in mouse eggs during fertilization. Upon sperm‐oocyte fusion, PLC‐zeta diffuse into the oocyte cytosol and stimulate the inositol1, 4, 5‐trisphosphate (IP3) pathway thus increasing IP3 levels and activating IP3 receptor‐mediated Ca2+ release from intracellular stores. This event will trigger oocyte activation, essential for embryo development. The importance of PLC‐zeta was demonstrated when PLC‐zeta removal from sperm extracts stops Ca2+ release in eggs. In addition, sperm from transgenic mice expressing short hairpin RNAs targeting PLC‐zeta mRNA has been shown to reduce PLC‐zeta protein and significantly disturbs the calcium oscillatory behavior of eggs inseminated with these sperm. Rattus tiomanicus (Malayan wood rat) is the predominant rodent pest targeting oil palm estates in Malaysia. Various methods have been used to control their population. In the current study, PLC‐zeta expression was detected using one‐step RT‐PCR from the testes. The PLC‐zeta sequence of R. tiomanicus showed strong similarity on alignment with PLC‐zeta sequence of R. norvegicus. Discovery of a highly conserved PLC‐zeta among rodents and understanding of the molecular properties of PLC‐zeta can lead to further development of alternative approaches of controlling them in a more environmental friendly way. Disruption of the expression of PLC‐zeta in R. tomianicus could lead to poor fertility in the male thus lowering the population of this pest and its deleterious effects to the agriculture sector especially oil palm, one of the most broadly grown crops in South East Asia

The effects of palm kernel cake based diet on spermatogenesis in Malin X Santa-Ines rams

Testes from nine male Malin × Santa-Ines rams with an average body weight of 43.1 ± 3.53 kg, were used to study the effects of palm kernel cake (PKC) based diet on spermatogenic cells and to assess copper (Cu) levels in liver, testis and plasma in sheep. Animals were divided into three groups and randomly assigned three dietary treatments using restricted randomization of body weight in completely randomized design. The dietary treatments were 60% palm kernel cake plus 40% oil palm frond (PKC), 60% palm kernel cake plus 40% oil palm frond supplemented with 23 mg/kg dry matter of molybdenum as ammonium molybdate [(NH4)6Mo7O24·4H2O] and 600 mg/kg dry matter of sulphate as sodium sulphate [Na2SO4] (PKC-MS) and 60% concentrate of corn-soybean mix + 40% oil palm frond (Control), the concentrate was mixed in a ratio of 79% corn, 20% soybean meal and 1% standard mineral mix. The results obtained showed that the number of spermatogonia, spermatocytes, spermatids and Leydig cells were not significantly different among the three treatment groups. However, spermatozoa, Sertoli cells and degenerated cells showed significant changes, which, may be probably due to the Cu content in PKC. Liver and testis Cu levels in the rams under PKC diet was found to be significantly higher (P < 0.05) than rams in Control and PKC-MS diets. Plasma Cu levels showed a significant increase (P < 0.05) at the end of the experiment as compared to at the beginning of the experiment for PKC and Control. In conclusion, spermatogenesis is normal in rams fed the diet without PKC and PKC supplemented with Mo and S. However spermatogenesis was altered in the PKC based diet probably due to the toxic effects of Cu and the significant changes in organs and plasma. Thus, Mo and S play a major role in reducing the accumulation of Cu in organs

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

Anti-inflammatory and anti-pyretic effects of hexane fraction of Ardisia crispa Thunb. D.C

Hexane fraction of Ardisia crispa root (ACHE) was used to investigate its anti-inflammatory and anti-pyretic activities in this study. For anti-inflammatory activity, 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) was applied to ear of mice to induce oedema and treated with 0.5,1 and 2mg/ear of ACHE topically. In cotton-pellet granuloma test, treated groups have received 3, 10, 30 and 100mg/kg of hexane extract administered orally for 7 days. For antipyretic activity, brewer's yeast was injected in mice to induce fever and later, ACHE at dose ranging from 10 to 300 mg/kg were administered to the rats orally. The results exhibited that 1 and 2mg/ear of ACHE produced significant suppression by 19.9% and 20.2% respectively. the lowest dose of ACHE showed no significant effect when compared with control. Results showed that ACHE showed significant anti-pyretic effect at all doses (10, 30, 100 and 300 mg/kg). At 30, 100 and 300mg/kg, ACHE even exhibited higher efficacy when compared with 100 mg/kg acetaminophen. ACHE also elicited a significant (P<0.05) inhibition of granuloma tissue and exudate formation. Thus, it can be concluded that Ardisia crispa posseses antiinflammatory and antipyretic effects

Narrative problem-based learning in biomedical sciences

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a process of acquiring knowledge based on the problem given. This method will give understanding on the underlying problem. PBL improves teaching practices by replacing traditional teaching methods. It reduces the passive information giving process thus making undergraduate education a platform for life¬long learning. PBL reverses the traditional approach to teaching and learning. Problem based learning is a method of teaching and learning where the students need to be proactive in their discussion. Case studies were given and students were required to explore from all aspect of Biomedical Science to help them to understand the situation underlying it. Narrative Problem-based Learning was based on non_ction events. It was taken from the experience of those who underwent the events. Triggers presented in each topic were aimed to help final year Biomedical students to integrate knowledge gained throughout their study in the field of Biomedical Sciences

Comparison of PCR fingerprinting techniques for the discrimination of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Weltevreden isolated from indigenous vegetables in Malaysia.

Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica (S.) serovar Weltevreden has emerged as a public health problem in many countries. Genomic DNA of S. Weltevreden from indigenous vegetables namely 'selom' (Oenanthe stolonifera), 'pegaga' (Centella asiatica), 'kesum' (Polygonum minus) and 'kangkong' (Ipomoea aquatica) were characterized by duplex-polymerase chain reaction (duplex-PCR), multiplex-polymerase chain reaction (multiplex-PCR), random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus-polymerase chain reaction (ERIC-PCR) and polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). The results demonstrated that a total of four clusters and three single isolates were generated from ERIC-PCR with primers ERIC-1 and ERIC-2 whereas RAPD with arbitrary primers OPAR2, OPAR17 and OPAR19 discriminated the S. Weltevreden into nine clusters and eight single isolates at a common 65% similarity level with discriminatory index (D) of 0.7443 and 0.9394 respectively. Composite analysis of banding profiles generated from RAPD-PCR and ERIC-PCR showed eight clusters and six single isolates at 65% similarity level with the highest D value that is 0.9508. On the other hand, PCR-RFLP and duplex PCR data exhibited a consistent profile for S. Weltevreden. Multiplex-PCR targeting three different antibiotic resistance genes and a common Salmonella specific gene segment produced two distinguishing profiles among the S. Weltevreden examined. These results demonstrated that the combined analysis of RAPD-PCR and ERIC-PCR is a better tool for characterizing S. Weltevreden than individual methods