Identification of Renoprotective Phytosterols from Mulberry (Morus alba) Fruit against Cisplatin-Induced Cytotoxicity in LLC-PK1 Kidney Cells

The aim of this study was to explore the protective effects of bioactive compounds from the fruit of the mulberry tree (Morus alba L.) against cisplatin-induced apoptosis in LLC-PK1 pig kidney epithelial cells. Morus alba fruit is a well-known edible fruit commonly used in traditional folk medicine. Chemical investigation of M. alba fruit resulted in the isolation and identification of six phytosterols (1–6). Their structures were determined as 7-ketositosterol (1), stigmast-4-en-3β-ol-6-one (2), (3β,6α)-stigmast-4-ene-3,6-diol (3), stigmast-4-ene-3β,6β-diol (4), 7β-hydroxysitosterol 3-O-β-d-glucoside (5), and 7α-hydroxysitosterol 3-O-β-d-glucoside (6) by analyzing their physical and spectroscopic data as well as liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry data. All compounds displayed protective effects against cisplatin-induced LLC-PK1 cell damage, improving cisplatin-induced cytotoxicity to more than 80% of the control value. Compound 1 displayed the best effect at a relatively low concentration by inhibiting the percentage of apoptotic cells following cisplatin treatment. Its molecular mechanisms were identified using Western blot assays. Treatment of LLC-PK1 cells with compound 1 decreased the upregulated phosphorylation of p38 and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) following cisplatin treatment. In addition, compound 1 significantly suppressed cleaved caspase-3 in cisplatin-induced LLC-PK1 cells. Taken together, these findings indicated that cisplatin-induced apoptosis was significantly inhibited by compound 1 in LLC-PK1 cells, thereby supporting the potential of 7-ketositosterol (1) as an adjuvant candidate for treating cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity.

A GC-MS-based Metabolomic Strategy to Investigate the Protective Effects of Mulberry Polysaccharide on CCl4-induced Acute Liver Injury in Mice

BackgroundMulberry (Morus alba) fruits of the woody mulberry tree (family: Moraceae Morus) is a type of mulberry fruit grown in the southern Xinjiang region,which polysaccharides have antioxidant and liver protective effects.This article further preliminary study on the protective effects of mulberry polysaccharide (MP) on liver.MethodsA detection kit was used to assess serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), liver malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and other indicators. Liver tissue sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and observed under a microscope. The entire endogenous metabolite profiling was acquired via metabolomics strategy using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to assess the underlying protective mechanisms of MPs. ResultsResults indicated that MPs exerted a hepatoprotective effect on acute liver injury by decreasing serum ALT and AST levels, hepatic MDA, and restored hepatic SOD glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activities. A total of 33 possible endogenous metabolites associated with lipid, glucose, and energy metabolism including amino acids, sugars, and fatty acids, were found.ConclusionsThe results of the present study provide a reference for elucidating the protective mechanisms of MPs against acute liver injury.

Paper trapping research after adding Mulberry tree branches bark cellulose pulp

The paper presents the study results of paper trapping during inkjet printing which contains cellulose pulp from the inner bark layer of mulberry branches. The connection between the print density and the paper surface structure, in particular, water absorption and raggedness, is established. The study of the stepwise gradation transition and color rendition, the graphic accuracy of reproduction of the slur element of the image is carried out. Densitometric and microscopic analysis of the impressions printed on an inkjet printer was performed. It was revealed that the pigments of water ink, depending on the microgeometry of the paper surface, penetrated deeper in different ways. It was found that the maximum thickness of the paint layer, expressed using the optical density values for the primary colors of the subtractive synthesis, and the best color reproduction were provided by the surface of the paper sample with 100 % addition of cellulose pulp from the inner layer of the bark of mulberry tree branches, which has the least roughness, according to the scanning probe microscope Solver HV. Recommendations are given for testing paper data on inkjet printers that use pigment inks and are less demanding on the surface properties of paper, or by printing methods that do not use low-viscosity printing inks.

The Spanish build their empire.

The chapter summarizes the Spanish conquests and navigation. It also provides a brief summary of how Ferdinand Magellan found another route to the Pacific and the Moluccas, which led to the signing of Treaty of Tordesillas. This divided any newly discovered lands between Spain and Portugal along a Meridian west of the Cape Verde Islands, but no line of demarcation had been set on the other side of the world. This meant that both countries could lay claim to the Spice Islands, as long as Portugal travelled there from the east and Spain from the west. After Magellan's conquest, the Spanish explore the Pacific, which gave them control over the Pacific countries including the Philippines. The chapter also discusses how the charting of 'Urdaneta's Route' made possible a trans-Pacific galleon trade and the profitable colonization of the Philippines and other Latin American countries. Soon ships were travelling regularly from Manila to New Spain. A complex trade network evolved that was truly global in nature. Into Manila would flow spices from the Moluccas and silk and porcelain from China. These would be shipped across the Pacific by the Spanish to Acapulco, a journey of four to six months. The silver came from Potosí, Bolivia where hundreds of thousands of enslaved Incan lives were sacrificed by the Spanish to extract that silver from the bowels of the earth. The mines became the centre of Spanish wealth and were the reason Spain remained powerful during the colonial period. From 1556 to 1783, they extracted some 45,000 tons of silver from these mines. Aside from these, is the silk production as New Spain had a native mulberry tree called the Morera criolla. The Spanish finished their conquest by 1521 and by 1523, the first silkworm eggs had been exported to Mexico. Finally, the chapter closes how England, by means of American privateers, fought off Portugal and Spain.

Breaking the Peace

This chapter examines Woolf’s feminist, pacifist, and anti-fascist engagement with Darwin’s work on dictators through the trope of the worm, suggesting how we might we read both Woolf and Darwin through the lens of animal studies. McCracken reads Woolf’s ‘creature Dictator’ and related worm imagery back through Charles Darwin’s writings both on worms and on nineteenth-century Argentinian Dictator General Juan Manuel de Rosas, whom he met during his voyage on the HMS Beagle. According to Darwin, Rosas led a ‘war of extermination’ against indigenous peoples, yet ‘disapproved of peace having been broken’. This chapter argues that Woolf re-appropriates the Social Darwinist rhetoric of the 1930s, and twists animal imagery to feminist advantage. The chapter also analyses Woolf’s silkworm and related mulberry tree imagery in Three Guineas through Darwin’s interest in breeding silkworms. Placing this imagery in the context of 1930s social Darwinist silk production discourse under the Third Reich, McCracken, argues that, contrary to critics who read her silkworm as symbolic of female creativity, Woolf’s writing intimately connects Darwinian silkworm breeding imagery and fascist politics.

GROWING ONE AND HALF YEAR-OLD SEEDLINGS OF MULBERRY HYBRIDS IN THE CONDITION OF KASHKADARYA REGION

In the article the problem of growing one and half year old seedlings of hybrids of mulberry tree has been described in the condition of Kashkadarya region. It has been reported that in mid-salted gray soils of Karshi steppes under summer sowing levels in the second year plantings it was more useful to rejuvenate them by leveling system above the soil till the beginning of vegetation. Herein, mineral fertilizers are applied twice at the rate of 240 kg of nitrogen, 90 kg phosphorus, and 45 potassium per ha that allow to obtain more quantity of seedlings and nursery plants of mulberry free. KEYWORDS: Mulberry tree, seeds, seedlings, nursery plants, root crown, plantation, cultivation, irrigation, shoots, fertilizer, germination, hybrid, survival.