Effects of Glycyrrhizic Acid on Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma (PPARγ), Lipoprotein Lipase (LPL), Serum Lipid and HOMA-IR in Rats

Studies on ligand binding potential of glycyrrhizic acid, a potential agonist to PPARγ, displayed encouraging results in amelioration of metabolic syndrome. The regulation of gene cassettes by PPARγ affects glucose homeostasis, lipid, lipoprotein metabolism and adipogenesis. This study was performed to determine the effects of GA on total PPARγ and LPL expression levels, lipid parameters and HOMA-IR. Oral administration of 100 mg/kg GA for 24 hours resulted in an increase in insulin sensitivity with decreases in blood glucose, serum insulin and HOMA-IR. Improvement in serum lipid parameters was also observed with a decrease in triacylglycerol, total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol and an elevation in HDL-cholesterol. GA administration also resulted in up-regulation of total PPARγ and LPL expression levels in the visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissues, abdominal and quadriceps femoris muscles, as well as liver and kidney, with a significant up-regulation only in the visceral adipose tissue, abdominal and quadriceps femoris muscles. Thus, oral administration of 100 mg/kg GA for 24 hours improved insulin sensitivity and lipid profiles and induced upregulation of total PPARγ and LPL expression levels in all studied tissues

Construction of phosphomannose isomerase (PMI) transformation vectors and evaluation of the effectiveness of vectors in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L)

Phosphomannose isomerase (pmi) gene isolated from Escherichia coli allows transgenic plants carrying it to convert mannose-6- phosphate (from mannose), a carbon source that could not be naturally utilized by plants into fructose-6-phosphate which can be utilized by plants as a carbon source. This conversion ability provides energy source to allow the transformed cells to survive on the medium containing mannose. In this study, four transformation vectors carrying the pmi gene alone or in combination with the β-glucuronidase (gusA) gene were constructed and driven by either the maize ubiquitin (Ubi1) or the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV35S) promoter. Restriction digestion, PCR amplification and sequencing were carried out to ensure sequence integrity and orientation. Tobacco was used as a model system to study the effectiveness of the constructs and selection system. PMI11G and pMI3G, which carry gusA gene, were used to study the gene transient expression in tobacco. PMI3 construct, which only carries the pmi gene driven by CaMV35S promoter, was stably transformed into tobacco using biolistics after selection on 30 g 1-1 mannose without sucrose. Transgenic plants were verified using PCR analysis

Palm oil γ-tocotrienol and α-tocopherol act as potent inducers in the immune response of mouse splenocytes in vitro / Narimah Abdul Hamid Hasani, Khalid bin Abdul Kadir and Wan Zurinah Wan Ngah

Vitamin E may have anti carcinogenesis effect in human and animal models via the mechanism of cell cycle arrest and enhancement of immune system. The cell-mediated immune inducing properties of palm oil vitamin E, for example, γ-tocotrienol and α-tocopherol, were investigated by measuring the mitogenesis response of splenocytes, extracted from normal male Mus musculus to splenic T-lymphocytes mitogens, phytohemagglutinin (PHA; 0.25 μg/mL) and concanavalin A (Con A; 1.0 μg/mL); and B-lymphocytes mitogen i.e., lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 1.0 μg/mL). Both γ-tocotrienol and α-tocopherol enhanced the cell proliferation of mitogen untreated splenocytes as determined by 5-Bromo-2'-deoxy-uridine (BrdU) detection method. Both compounds also enhanced the T-lymphocytes response to PHA and Con A, as well as B-lymphocytes responses to LPS at all concentration used (0-300 μM). γ-Tocotrienol was observed to affect cell proliferation more than α-tocopherol. The uptake of γ-tocotrienol and α-tocopherol into the splenocytes was determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). γ-Tocotrienol was absorbed into the cells at markedly higher levels than α-tocopherol with the ratio of 4.8 : 1 (p<0.01, n=4) at 300 μM of treatment. This may be the reason of the higher proliferation affect of γ-tocotrienol as compared to α-tocopherol. In conclusion, we are of the opinion that palm oil γ-tocotrienol and α-tocopherol are able to synergistically influence splenocytes proliferation thus enhancing the cellmediated immune system

Investigation and design of ion-implanted MOSFET based on (18 nm) channel length

The aim of this study is to invistgate the characteristics of Si-MOSFET with 18 nm length of ion implemented channel. Technology computer aided design (TCAD) tool from Silvaco was used to simulate the MOSFET’s designed structure in this research. The results indicate that the MOSFET with 18 nm channel length has cut-off frequency of 548 GHz and transconductance of 967 μS, which are the most important factors in calculating the efficiency and improving the performance of the device. Also, it has threshold voltage of (-0.17 V) in addition obtaining a relatively small DIBL (55.11 mV/V). The subthreshold slope was in high value of 307.5 mV/dec. and this is one of the undesirable factors for the device results by short channel effect, but it does not reduce its performance and efficiency in general

γ-Glutamyl transpeptidase, glutathione S-transferase, alkaline phosphatase, and glutathione levels during different stages of chemically induced hepatocarcinogenesis in the rat

Chemically induced hepatocarcinogenesis in rats with partial hepatectomy was followed morphologically and enzymatically at 4, 6, 8, 12, and 16 weeks after injection of the inducer, diethylnitrosamine. The enzymes determined were plasma and liver γ-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and glutathione S-transferase (GST), The livers of the treated rats killed after 8 weeks appeared to be rough, pale, and larger compared with the control ones. After 6 weeks, large nodules were observed on the treated liver. Staining of the liver sections histochemically and immunohistochemically revealed that the enzyme-positive foci increased with time (r=0.93, p<0.05, for the placental form of GST (PGST); not significantly for GGT). The number of enzyme-positive foci per tissue surface area did not correlate with time. GGT, ALP, and GST activities in the plasma and liver of the treated rats were higher than those in the controls. Blood glutathione levels were not affected during chemically induced hepatocarcinogenesis in the rat

A STUDY ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CLOMIPHENE CITRATE IN COMPARISON TO GNRH ANTAGONIST IN PREVENTING LH SURGE AMONG PATIENTS UNDERGOING OVULATION INDUCTION IN IVF-ICSI

Objective: To determine the efficacy of clomiphene citrate (CC) in preventing luteinizing hormone (LH) surge without adding gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist or GnRH agonist in stimulated first fresh intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycle by evaluating the outcome of oocytes and embryo quality. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Settings: Fertility Clinic registry at Hospital University Kebangsaan Malaysia. Patients: A total of 235 fresh stimulated ICSI cycle for patients aged 18-40 years old using clomiphene citrate plus gonadotropin (n=117) and GnRH antagonist plus gonadotropin (n=118) were studied. Intervention: Comparing two different ovarian stimulation protocol. Main outcome measure(s): Social economical demographic, ovarian stimulation response and laboratory outcome. Fertilization rate as our primary outcome and our secondary outcome were oocyte retrieval rate, mature oocyte rate and top quality embryo rate. Result(s):There were no difference in the demographic and hormonal characteristic of the study groups. The primary outcome of fertilization rate has significant difference with p value of 0.003; 73.2% for CC group and 64.2% for GnRH antagonist group. The secondary outcome of OR rate (78.4 + 17.6 VS 80.3 + 13.4, p=0.368), mature oocyte rate (85.2 + 19.0 VS 81.7 + 16.7, p=0.130) and top quality embryo rate (79.1 + 24.2 VS 75.8 + 21.9, p=0.178) were comparable between both groups. There were significant difference between the endometrial thickness on the day of trigger and OHSS risk among both groups (8.5 + 0.95 VS 9.4 + 1.1, p<0.001 and 12.8% VS 44.1% respectively). Discussion: Minimal stimulation protocol with CC and gonadotropin may be the answer to many infertile couples in need of IVF and yet having financial situation deterring them in attempting IVF treatment. GnRH antagonist could be safely replaced by CC by extending to 10 days as this protocol gives better primary outcome and comparable secondary outcomes with less OHSS. CC is recognized to induce thinning of endometrial lining and thus, may impair embryo implantation. However, with advancement of the vitrification system and higher success rate in frozen-thaw embryo transfer worldwide provides an excellent solution for this issue

Vitamin C and aloe vera supplementation protects from chemical hepatocarcinogenesis in the rat

The effects of vitamin C and aloe vera gel extract supplementation on induced hepatocarcinogenesis in male Sprague-Dawley rats (120–150 g) by diethylnitrosamine (DEN) and 2-acetylaminofluorene (AAF) was investigated. The severity of the carcinogenesis process was determined by measuring γ-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) and the placental form of glutathione S-transferase (GSTP) histochemically in situ and in plasma and liver fractions. In addition, plasma alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and liver microsomal uridine diphosphate glucuronyl transferase (UDPGT) activity were also determined. Administration of DEN/AAF caused an increase in the surface area and number of enzyme-positive foci (both GGT and GSTP) compared with control. Supplementation of vitamin C or aloe vera gel extract to the cancer-induced rats suppressed this increase significantly (P < 0.05; P < 0.001). Increases in liver UDPGT, GGT, and GSTP activities were also observed with cancer induction that were again suppressed with either vitamin C or aloe vera gel supplementation. Plasma GGT in the DEN/AAF rats were determined monthly for the duration of the experiment and found to be reduced as early as 1 mo with aloe vera gel supplementation and 2 mo with vitamin C supplementation. In conclusion, vitamin C and aloe vera gel extract supplementation were found to be able to reduce the severity of chemical hepatocarcinogenesis

Development of a Mobile Robot with Camera-based Target Tracking and Obstacle Avoidance Systems

This work describes the preliminary design and development of a mobile robot called CREC (Camera-Based Mobile Robot for Elderly Care). The robot uses a low-cost HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor to avoid obstacle, and a Pixy CMUcam5 camera as the vision-based sensor to track the target. This camera uses colour marker tag to follow and monitor the target. CREC uses an Arduino UNO microcontroller to fuse data conveyed by the ultrasonic sensor and camera so that the robot can follow the target and avoid obstacles simultaneously. In this work, the hardware design of CREC is described. Furthermore, preliminary experiments to characterize the ultrasonic sensor and Pixy camera are demonstrated to verify the usefulness of the selected sensors for the mobile robot

Effects of palm oil clinker as coarse aggregates replacement in self curing concrete

Concrete, if properly design, can be one of the most durable material and widely used in construction due to its availability and good compressive strength. A good quality concrete can be produced not only through good design of concrete mix proportions but also good and proper curing process that ensure a complete hydration process of the cement. However, sometimes proper curing process was not provided during concreting on site due to various reasons. This study investigates the effects of 10 mm crushed Palm Oil Clinker (POC) as partial aggregates replacement to act as internal reservoirs in concrete to provide internal curing process of cement. This process or technique is also popularly known as self-curing process for concrete. The POC which has the density of 780 kg/m3 was used to replace 20% of the coarse aggregates. A water/cement ratio of 0.53 was used in the concrete mix design. Three different curing conditions were employed, namely, normal water curing, air curing and 7 days in water plus outside curing conditions. The workability of the POC and control concretes was determined through slump test. The concrete samples were tested for compression at the age of 3, 7 and 28 days while concrete prisms and cylindrical samples were tested at the age of 7 and 28 days. The experimental results show that the inclusion of POC was found to increase the workability of concrete by 27% but reduced the concrete compressive strength by about 6% compared with the control concrete. In addition, the flexural and tensile strengths of POC concrete were found to be less than the control concrete due to the properties of the POC which was lightweight and porous. The experimental results show that the porous structure of the POC aggregates can be utilised as water reservoir for the process of internal curing for the self-curing concrete