scholarly journals The protective effect of curcumin against aluminum chloride-induced oxidative stress and hepatotoxicity in rats

Author(s):  
Ebrahim Cheraghi ◽  
Kambiz Roshanaei

Aluminum is recognized as a public health concern because of its potential toxic effects on human health. Therefore, the present experiment was undertaken to determine the effectiveness of curcumin (CUR) in reducing the hepatotoxicity induced by aluminum chloride (AlCl3) in animals. In this experimental study, forty male rats were allocated to five groups (N = 8), viz. no treatment (control), solvent (DMSO or distilled water), CUR (10 mg/kg B.W.), AlCl3 (10 mg/kg B.W.), and CUR+AlCl3 (each with 10 mg/kg B.W.). Treatments were performed by intra-peritoneal injections for 28 days. On the final day, animals were sacrificed, and liver function markers in blood plasma, hepatic antioxidants, and lipid peroxidation index in liver homogenate were estimated. AlCl3 treatment resulted in a significant increase in plasma AST, ALT, ALP and LDH activities with decreased total protein compared to control. AlCl3 significantly reduced superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione (GSH) levels but increased malondialdehyde (MDA) level in the liver compared to control. AlCl3 also caused various histopathological changes in the livers of rats. Curcumin could normalize nearly all these parameters. CUR improved levels of changes in different parameters when was combined with AlCl3. It is concluded that CUR has beneficial effects being able to antagonize AlCl3 toxicity.

Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 701
Author(s):  
Aroa Lopez-Santamarina ◽  
Esther Gonzalez Gonzalez ◽  
Alexandre Lamas ◽  
Alicia del Carmen Mondragon ◽  
Patricia Regal ◽  
...  

Allergies are an increasing global public health concern, especially for children and people living in urban environments. Allergies impair the quality of life of those who suffer from them, and for this reason, alternatives for the treatment of allergic diseases or reduction in their symptoms are being sought. The main objective of this study was to compile the studies carried out on probiotics as a possible therapy for allergies. The most studied allergies on which probiotics have been shown to have a beneficial effect are rhinitis, asthma, and atopic dermatitis. Most studies have studied the administration of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium spp. in children and have shown beneficial effects, such as a reduction in hyperreactivity and inflammation caused by allergens and a decrease in cytokine release, among other beneficial effects. In the case of children, no clear beneficial effects were found in several studies, and the potential risk from the use of some opportunistic bacteria, such as probiotics, seems controversial. In the studies that reported beneficial results, these effects were found to make allergy symptoms less aggressive, thus reducing morbidity in allergy sufferers. The different effects of the same probiotic bacteria on different patients seem to reinforce the idea that the efficacy of probiotics is dependent on the microbial species or strain, its derived metabolites and byproducts, and the gut microbiota eubiosis of the patient. This study is relevant in the context of allergic diseases, as it provides a broader understanding of new alternatives for the treatment of allergies, both in children, who are the main sufferers, and adults, showing that probiotics, in some cases, reduce the symptoms and severity of such diseases.


Author(s):  
A Mahmoudi ◽  
M B Shojaeifard ◽  
S Nematollahii ◽  
S M J Mortazavi ◽  
A R Mehdizadeh

Background: Electromagnetic fields (EMF) with different intensities are widely used at home, offices and public places.Today, there is a growing global concern about the effects of human exposure to EMFs. Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic neurological diseases, affecting 50 million people of all ages worldwide. We aimed to investigate the effect of exposure to Wi-Fi radiation on epileptic behavior of rats.Methods: 147 male rats, weighing 200-250 g, were divided into seven groups; negative control (no intervention), sham 1(distilled water), positive control (Pentylentetrazol [PTZ]), intervention group 1 (PTZ + Wi-Fi “off”), sham 2 (distilled water + Wi-Fi “off”), sham 3 (distilled water + Wi-Fi “on”), and intervention group 2 (PTZ + Wi-Fi “on”). The rats were exposed to Wi-Fi for 2h at a distance of 30cm from a commercial Wi-Fi router. Convulsive behaviors of rats were monitored and scored based on the intensity and type by measuring latency/threshold time, number of convulsions, sum of scores and durations of seizure, and duration of score 6 seizure. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U-tests were used to analyze the data.Results: Convulsion was observed in interventions Group 4 and Group 7, and positive control. The mean number of events, and sum of scores were significantly different in intervention 2 than other two groups. However, the differences in mean threshold, mean sum of durations and “ time to show convulsion with score 6 ” were not statistically significant (P>0.05).Conclusion: Due to limitations of our study including the sample size, these findings should be interpreted with caution.  In this study, exposure to 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi radiation showed significant beneficial effects on the epileptic behaviour of rats. More experiments are needed to verify if these exposures can be used as a therapeutic approach for amelioration of seizures in epilepsy.


2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 75-84
Author(s):  
Venkata Vijaya K. Dalai ◽  
Jason E. Childress ◽  
Paul E Schulz

Dementia is a major public health concern that afflicts an estimated 24.3 million people worldwide. Great strides are being made in order to better diagnose, prevent, and treat these disorders. Dementia is associated with multiple complications, some of which can be life-threatening, such as dysphagia. There is great variability between dementias in terms of when dysphagia and other swallowing disorders occur. In order to prepare the reader for the other articles in this publication discussing swallowing issues in depth, the authors of this article will provide a brief overview of the prevalence, risk factors, pathogenesis, clinical presentation, diagnosis, current treatment options, and implications for eating for the common forms of neurodegenerative dementias.


Author(s):  
Bethan Evans ◽  
Charlotte Cooper

Over the last twenty years or so, fatness, pathologised as overweight and obesity, has been a core public health concern around which has grown a lucrative international weight loss industry. Referred to as a ‘time bomb’ and ‘the terror within’, analogies of ‘war’ circulate around obesity, framing fatness as enemy.2 Religious imagery and cultural and moral ideologies inform medical, popular and policy language with the ‘sins’ of ‘gluttony’ and ‘sloth’, evoked to frame fat people as immoral at worst and unknowledgeable victims at best, and understandings of fatness intersect with gender, class, age, sexuality, disability and race to make some fat bodies more problematically fat than others. As Evans and Colls argue, drawing on Michel Foucault, a combination of medical and moral knowledges produces the powerful ‘obesity truths’ through which fatness is framed as universally abject and pathological. Dominant and medicalised discourses of fatness (as obesity) leave little room for alternative understandings.


Author(s):  
Agung Biworo ◽  
Dwi Rezki Amalia ◽  
Gratianus Billy Himawan ◽  
Lisda Rizky Amalia ◽  
Valentina Halim ◽  
...  

The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of cadmium (Cd) on glucose metabolism disruption in liver cells homogenate in vitro. The glucose metabolism disruption was analyzed by measuring the level of liver glucose, glycogen and methylglyoxal (MG), and the activity of glucokinase activity. In this experiment, a liver sample was taken from male rats (Rattus novergicus). Samples then homogenized and divided into four groups with; C served as control which contains liver homogenate only; T1 which contains liver homogenate + 0.03 mg/l of cadmium sulphate (CdSO4); T2 which contains liver homogenate + 0.3 mg/l of CdSO4; and T3 which contains liver homogenate + 3 mg/l of CdSO4. After treatment, liver glucose, glycogen, and MG levels, and glucokinase activity were estimated. The activity of liver glucokinase was estimated by measuring the Michaelis-Menten constant (Km) value. The results revealed that Cd exposure could significantly increase glucose and MG levels, the Km value of glucokinase, and decreased the glycogen level in liver cells (P>0.05). These results indicated that Cd exposure induced the disruption of glucose metabolism in the liver.


2004 ◽  
Vol 8 (32) ◽  
Author(s):  

Resistance to antimicrobials has become a major public health concern, and it has been shown that there is a relationship, albeit complex, between antimicrobial resistance and consumption


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document