8-Gingerol Ameliorates Myocardial Fibrosis by Attenuating Reactive Oxygen Species, Apoptosis, and Autophagy via the PI3K/Akt/mTOR Signaling Pathway

8-gingerol (8-Gin) is the series of phenolic substance that is extracted from ginger. Although many studies have revealed that 8-Gin has multiple pharmacological properties, the possible underlying mechanisms of 8-Gin against myocardial fibrosis (MF) remains unclear. The study examined the exact role and potential mechanisms of 8-Gin against isoproterenol (ISO)-induced MF. Male mice were intraperitoneally injected with 8-Gin (10 and 20 mg/kg/d) and concurrently subcutaneously injected with ISO (10 mg/kg/d) for 2 weeks. Electrocardiography, pathological heart morphology, myocardial enzymes, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, degree of apoptosis, and autophagy pathway-related proteins were measured. Our study observed 8-Gin significantly reduced J-point elevation and heart rate. Besides, 8-Gin caused a marked decrease in cardiac weight index and left ventricle weight index, serum levels of creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase (CK and LDH, respectively), ROS generation, and attenuated ISO-induced pathological heart damage. Moreover, treatment with 8-Gin resulted in a marked decrease in the levels of collagen types I and III and TGF-β in the heart tissue. Our results showed 8-Gin exposure significantly suppressed ISO-induced autophagosome formation. 8-Gin also could lead to down-regulation of the activities of matrix metalloproteinases-9 (MMP-9), Caspase-9, and Bax protein, up-regulation of the activity of Bcl-2 protein, and alleviation of cardiomyocyte apoptosis. Furthermore, 8-Gin produced an obvious increase in the expressions of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway-related proteins. Our data showed that 8-Gin exerted cardioprotective effects on ISO-induced MF, which possibly occurred in connection with inhibition of ROS generation, apoptosis, and autophagy via modulation of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway.

PROPHYLACTIC EFFECT OF COENZYME Q10 ON GROSS PARAMETERS OF RAT TESTIS EXPOSED TO MOSQUITO COIL SMOKE INHALATION

Objective: To determine the toxic effect of mosquito coil smoke inhalation on gross parameters of rat testis and explore the protective effect of Coenzyme Q10on testicular toxicity profile. Study Design: Laboratory-based experimental study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Anatomy Army Medical College, Rawalpindi in collaboration with National Institute of Health, Islamabad, from Jan 2020 to Dec 2020. Methodology: This study was carried out among 30 male Sprague Dawley rats, distributed into three groups as 10 rats/group; group A served as control group, rats in group B were exposed to allethrin-based mosquito coil smoke 4hours/day for 12 weeks. Rats in group C were administered Coenzyme Q10 (10 mg/kg/day) via oral gavage for 12 weeks along with mosquito coil smoke exposure. At the end of study, gross parameters of body weight gain, testicular weight and volume, and relative tissue body weight index of testis were compared among groups. Results: Rats exposed to mosquito coil smoke alone showed significantly less weight gain (p<0.001)), testicular weight (p<0.001), volume (p<0.001), and relative tissue body weight index (p<0.001) as compared to control group. Rats administered Coenzyme Q10 along with mosquito coil smoke exposure exhibited significantly higher weight gain (p<0.001), testicular weight (p<0.001), volume (p<0.001) and relative tissue body weight index (p<0.001) as compared to rats exposed to mosquito coil smoke alone. Conclusion: Long-term inhalation of allethrin-based mosquito coil smoke caused testicular atrophy among rats, as evident by reduced testicular weight, volume and relative tissue body weight index. Whereas, prophylactic oral administration of Coenzyme......................

Inimical Effects of Sodium Fluoride on Ovarian Weight and Relative Tissue Weight Index of Adult Albino Rats

Objective: To determine the impacts of sodium fluoride on ovarian weight and relative tissue weight index (RTWI) of adult Wistar albino rats. Study Design: Comparative study. Place and Duration of Study: This experimental study was performed at the Department of Anatomy, at Shaikh Zayed Postgraduate Medical Institute, Lahore from 25th November to 24th December 2016. Materials and Methods: Forty-four adult female albino Wistar rats were selected randomly for this study. They were segregated into 4 groups, each comprised of eleven rats. Group A was control, group B was low dose experimental, group C was medium dose experimental and group D was high dose experimental. The control group received distilled water whereas low, medium and high dose experimental groups received 100mg/L, 200mg/L and 300mg/L sodium fluoride solution respectively. The animals were weighed before and after experiment. At 31st and 32nd day, dissection was done, ovaries were removed and evaluated for ovarian tissue weight and RTWI. Results: The mean weight and RTWI of paired ovaries among the experimental groups were decreased. The differences among groups were statistically significant. Conclusion: The present study confirms that sodium fluoride has detrimental dose dependent effects on ovarian weight and RTWI of adult albino rats.

The consideration of storm durations in hydrological frequency analysis and design storm determination

&lt;p&gt;&amp;#160; &amp;#160; &amp;#160;For engineering practice, the determination of design storms mainly applies Intensity-duration-frequency method or revised ranking method with fixed given duration based on the long-term rainfall record. However, this kind of method does not address the influence of storm duration. Both long or short storms are combined together in performing frequency analysis. As a result, in some cases, the peak intensity of short duration design storm might be overestimated by traditional methods. Consequently, how to incorporate the concept of duration to improve current frequency analysis is essential to improve design storms are the two main purposes of this research. With this concern, this study tries to find better definitions of the rainfall characteristics based on different durations, and generate revised design storm in the consideration of more comprehensive rainfall patterns. For the purpose of flood control, this study tries to proposed the improved method based on a conceptual watershed with known drainage capacity. In the watershed, when the runoff exceeds this capacity, the accumulation of the surface runoff will become the flood water, and keep increasing with raining time. Considering this situation, the duration of storm plays an important role in the severity of flooding. For this concern, this study tries to incorporate two parameters, the peak intensity, and time that rainfall exceeds drainage capacity, to indicate the severity of storm. Following, to avoid the under/over-estimation of rainfall intensity without considering the influence of duration, we propose the data weight index to composed design storm by combining different duration rainfall events. More specifically, if the duration of rainfall event is similar to the design storm, the parameters of data will get a higher weight index to shape the rainfall characteristics of design. With this process, we can obtain the suitable parameters for our design storms and compare the risk of flood with any two storms with different duration in a same drainage capacity. Based on the equivalent risk of storms, we could transform the parameters of the rainfall with the same risk level even for different duration. By this way, this study will propose a method of design storms which offers a better application for flood protection plan and management.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Keywords: Design storm, Urban rainfall design, Hydrologic frequency analysis&lt;/p&gt;