Effect of polyphenol extract from Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim. on endocrine hormones and monoamine oxidase activity in a mouse model of climacteric depression

Purpose: To investigate the effects of polyphenol extract from Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim. (ZPPC) on endocrine hormones, monoamine  oxidase activity and behavior in a mouse model of climacteric depression.Methods: Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) female albino mice (n = 50) weighing 24 – 26 g (mean wt = 25.0 ± 1.0 g) were randomly assigned to five groups of ten rats each: normal control group, negative control, and ZPPC (50 mg/kg), ZPPC (100 mg/kg) and ZPPC (200 mg/kg) groups. Depression was induced in the mice via oral administration of moclobemide at a dose of 20 mg/kg, and intraperitoneal injection of imipramine (20 mg/kg) 1 h and 30 min, before treatment. Tail suspension, forced swimming and voluntary activity tests were performed on the mice. The activity of monoamine oxidase (MAO) in mouse brain and the levels of endocrine hormones were also determined.Results: Treatment of depressed mice with ZPPC significantly and dose-dependently increased their tail suspension and immobility time (p < 0.05). The activity of monoamine oxidase in the brains of mice in the negative control group was significantly higher than that of normal control mice, but was significantly and dose-dependently reduced by ZPPC treatment (p < 0.05). Similarly, treatment of depressed mice with ZPPC significantly and dose-dependently reduced their serum adrenocorticotropin and corticosterone levels (p < 0.05).Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that ZPPC exerts antidepressant effect via suppression of brain MAO activity. Keywords: Climacteric depression, Endocrine hormones, Menopause, Monoamine oxidase, Polyphenol

Hydrogen injection reduces ammonia nitrogen and changes microbial community composition in aquaculture water

The study aimed to investigate the effect of hydrogen on nitrogen and phosphorus removal and microbial community composition in aquaculture water. Two groups were designed separated: Group H was charged with hydrogen and Group D was set as control. Water samples were collected at 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 days after hydrogen injection to detect not only the content of total nitrogen, ammonia nitrogen and phosphorus, but also microbial community composition in aquaculture water. Our findings have demonstrated that 7-days’ hydrogen treatment could effectively reduce ammonia nitrogen in aquaculture water. And in Day 7, the concentration of ammonia nitrogen in Group D was 1.66 times as that in Group H. Meanwhile, microbial structures in the water bodies of these two groups were significantly different. The abundance of bacteria such as Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Desulphuria increased clearly in Group H, which means nitrification and denitrification occurred in the effect of hydrogen injection. These findings suggested that hydrogen could significantly improve aquaculture water health and reduce the production of ammonia nitrogen, which means hydrogen could be used as a functional external method to protect the aquaculture environment

Improvement of Corrosion Protection of Coating System via Inhibitor Response Order

This study aims at investigating the effect of inhibitor response order on anticorrosion properties of AA2024 with coating system. The inhibitor response order was constructed by adding different inhibitor in sol-gel primer or epoxy top coating of the coating system. Nanocontainers of graphene oxide/layered double hydroxides (GO/LDHs) were loaded with 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT) and vanadate separately to get the inhibitors of GO/LDHs-MBT and GO/LDHs-VOx, which were used in this work. The protection performances of the coating systems with different inhibitor combination and different inhibitor response order were investigated. The best protective coating system is composed of sol-gel coating with GO/LDHs-MBT and epoxy coating with GO/LDHs-VOx. It is contributed to inhibitor combination and a proper response order of the inhibitors. When filiform corrosion occurs, MBT anions from the sol-gel coating are close to the alloy and they inhibit the corrosion in anodic areas immediately, and then vanadate anions from the out and thick epoxy coating reduce the kinetics of the cathodic oxygen reduction reaction. Response order enhances the corrosion protection properties provided by inhibitor combination, which gives a promising way to design good anticorrosive coating system