Long term glucocorticoids administration induces oxidative stress which leads to alteration of bone structure and strength. Palm oil is rich in tocotrienol, an antioxidant. It can be used for the prevention of oxidative stress related diseases. The main objective of this study was to determine the mechanism of palm tocotrienol in maintaining the bone structure and strength in glucocorticoidinduced osteoporosis. Thirty two adult male Sprague-Dawley rats, aged 3 months, weighing 300-320 g rats were used in this study. Sixteen rats undergone adrenalectomy and were administered with 120µg/kg/day intramuscular injection of dexamethasone. Eight rats were supplemented with oral palm tocotrienol 60 mg/kg/day (Adrx+Dex+PTT) and the other eight rats were given oral vehicle palm olein 0.1 ml/kg/day (Adrx+Dex). Eight rats underwent sham procedure and were given vehicle palm olein 0.05 ml/kg/day by intramuscularly and oral 0.1 ml/kg/day (Sham). The rats were euthanized after two months of treatments. Eight rats were euthanized after acclimatic action without receiving any treatment (Baseline). The right femurs were used for bone biomechanical strength and histomorphometry analysis while the left for gene expression and oxidative stress enzymes activities. The results indicated that long-term glucocorticoid treatment significantly increased bone resorption marker, CTX (6060.7 ± 410 pg/ml) and decreased bone structure and strength. Osteoblast and osteoclast related genes expressions indicated an increase in bone turnover. Supplementation of palm tocotrienol had maintained serum resorption (2619.4 + 209 pg/ml) marker level and preserved bone structure and strength. Gene expression analysis showed decrease in bone resorption. The findings suggested that palm tocotrienol has potential benefits against glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis by regulating osteoblast and osteoclast related gene expressions.
Introduction: Childhood malnutrition is common and severe among indigenous community. The Community Feed-ing Program was first launched in 2010 among 15 villages in Kemar indigenous settlement among children below six years old. The objective of this study was to improve the nutrition status of indigenous children in Kemar settlement, Hulu Perak. Methods: All the indigenous children aged below six received high calorie food, full cream milk and multivitamin with an average of 500kcal/day. Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), specified for malnourished children, provides nutrition that accounts for one-half to two-thirds of a child’s daily needs. The feeding sessions was carried out once a day, five days a week and managed by a group of trained local volunteers and research assistants. Weight and height were measured monthly. Results: The coverage throughout 2013 to 2018, ranged from 90.3% to 100%. The percentage of children with normal body weight had increased from only 38.7 % in 2010 to 60.6% in 2018. From year 2013 to 2018, the percentage of stunted children had reduced from 77% to 72.5%, and severe stunting reduced from 35.2% in 2015 to 24.9% in 2018. Conclusion: The continuity of this program is essential to sustain normal nutritional status and hence the wellbeing of this group of children in the interior remote community.
Pharmacology teaching during preclinical years is important for medical students to make rational choices in choosing suitable treatment for patients in future. Therefore, the present study determined the adequacy and effectiveness of pharmacology teaching in the undergraduate medical program at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Center (UKMMC). Suggestions for improvement of the curriculum were also identified. An online questionnaire on the perceptions of pharmacology teaching methodology was distributed to a total of 459 medical students in 4th and 5th year at UKMMC. The questionnaire covered demographics, perceptions about pharmacology teaching, the ideal teaching learning methodology for learning pharmacology, pharmacology topics which are useful for future clinical practice, the pharmacology topic which was most interesting and recommendations for improvement. The response rate was 46.4% and majority of the participants were females (65.7%). Most of the students agreed that interactive learning was more helpful than didactic lectures (88.0%). Seventy percent of the students reported that pharmacology lectures in the preclinical years were helpful during the clinical years. Percentage of students who agreed that pharmacology teaching in their preclinical was adequate for their clinical practice was 47.0%. There was no association between demographic variables (gender, race, year of study and medical family background) and interest in pharmacology (p>0.05). In conclusion, the pharmacology teaching during preclinical years was perceived to be effective and useful for students’ clinical practice. More pharmacology teaching sessions in clinical years was suggested which may improve adequacy of pharmacology teaching.
In this work, the effect of solvent pre-treatment (hexane, petroleum ether and ethanol) on the physicochemical, thermal and morphology behavior of Mangifera pajang seed fat (MPSF) were investigated. Fat extraction was performed using Soxhlet method, and results showed that the yield, physicochemical, and crystalline structures of the MPSF were significantly (p < 0.05) influenced by the extraction solvents. Hexane gave the highest fat yield (7.67 %) with low unsaturation value (52.13 g iodine/g) compared with petroleum ether and ethanol. Hexane MPSF also had low oxidation rate (peroxide value of 1.1 mEq/g). Both non-stabilized and stabilized hexane MPSF showed a single melting endothermic peak at high temperature with onset, maximum peak and offset temperature of 16.23 ˚C-18.21 °C, 28.22 ˚C-31.25 °C and 34.85 ˚C-39.58 °C, respectively. Hexane MPSF crystallized rapidly at high temperature with single maximum peak starting at 16.51 ˚C-16.68 °C and ending at 0.23 ˚C-1.13 °C. In comparison with ethanol extract, hexane MPSF demonstrated a compact crystalline structure with a large densely packed center. Therefore, MPSF obtained from hexane presented better overall quality than those obtained from other extraction solvents. MPSF exhibited similar melting and morphological behavior to mango kernel fat and commercial cocoa butter. These results suggested that hexane was the best solvent for the extraction of MPSF. This fat also has the potential to be applied as a cocoa butter alternative fat or functional fat.