Methods: A systematic review of the literature was conducted to identify relevant studies on honey used as an alternative treatment of gastric ulcer cause by NSAIDs. A comprehensive search was conducted in Medline, SCOPUS, and Ebscohost. The main criteria used were articles published in English and using NSAIDs-induced gastric ulcer in rat's model and those reporting the effectiveness of honey.
Results: Articles published between 2001 and 2014 were identified to be relevant in studies related to the inclusion criteria. The literature search found 30 potential and closely related articles in this review, but only 5 articles were taken which meet the criteria needed to be fulfilled.
Conclusions: All studies in this review reported the efficacy of honey for gastric ulcer based on its antioxidant and cytoprotective activities. Most of the studies conducted used different types of honey at various doses on rats. Future studies should be conducted to identify the appropriate dose for humans to achieve similar gastroprotective effects.
AIM: This study aims to develop a real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis method to analyze the presence of RM in beef meatballs.
METHODS: This research was carried out in the following stages: primer design, DNA isolation, analysis of DNA isolates, the optimization of primer annealing temperature, primer specificity test, sensitivity, and repeatability. The validated RT-PCR method was then used to analyze the marketed meatball samples.
RESULTS: The result showed that the designed primer targeting on ND2 gene set rat mt-DNA (forward: ACTCCATATCTCTCACCATATTTCC; reverse: GGGTTAGGGTACTTAGGATTGTTAG), had good specificity at an optimal annealing temperature of 56.3oC over the other eight species. The developed RT-PCR method produces a limit detection value of 195.31 pg, coefficient of determination (R 2) for linearity of 0.983, amplification efficiency (E) of 100%, and CV value for amplification response of 1.8%. The result showed that the developed RT-PCR method did not detect the presence of RM DNA in eight marketed beef meatball samples.
CONCLUSION: The developed method meets the acceptance criteria for RT-PCR and can be used as a halal authentication method to identify the presence of RM in beef meatballs.
Methods: In the experimental study, the rats were randomly divided into four groups of five rats in each and fed with high-fat diet for 12 weeks as follows: One group (normal diet group) was fed with a standard diet, one group was fed with HFD, and two groups were fed with HFD and orally fed with 150 and 450 mg/kg/day HAEM. The serum samples and liver tissues were used for measuring the biochemical and oxidative parameters and histopathological studies. HFD induced hepatosteatosis in rats as evidenced by the altered liver enzymes activity, serum lipid profile and oxidative status.
Results: Serum lipid profile (triglyceride, cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein) in rats fed with HFD + HAEM (150 and 450 mg/kg/day) was significantly decreased. Furthermore, the evaluation of oxidative stress showed a reduction of the malondialdehyde (MDA) level and an increase in ferric-reducing anti-oxidant power. Meanwhile, liver enzyme activities declined in response to HAEM.
Conclusion: Using the HAEM could be a future therapeutic agent in treating hepatosteatosis and reducing oxidative damages of HFD in the liver.
Objective: To investigate the nephroprotective effect of quercetin (QT) against renal injury induced by titanium dioxide nanoparticles (NTiO2) in rats.
Methods: NTiO2-intoxicated rats received 50 mg/kg of NTiO2 for seven days. The QT + NTiO2 group was pretreated with QT for seven days before being administered NTiO2. Uric acid, creatinine, and blood urea nitrogen were considered to be biomarkers of nephrotoxicity. Catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities and renal levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) were measured to assess the oxidative stress caused by NTiO2.
Results: NTiO2 significantly increased the plasma level of the biomarkers. It also significantly decreased the activities of CAT (P = 0.008) and SOD (P = 0.004), and significantly increased the MDA levels (P = 0.007). NTiO2 caused proximal tubule damage, the accumulation of red blood cells, the infiltration of inflammatory cells, and reduced the glomerular diameters, as well as induced apoptosis in the proximal tubules. Pre-treatment with QT attenuated the histological changes, normalised the plasma biomarkers, suppressed oxidative stress, ameliorated the activities of CAT (P = 0.007) and SOD (P = 0.006), and reduced apoptosis (P < 0.001).
Conclusion: QT was found to have a potent protective effect against nephrotoxicity induced by NTiO2 in rats. It also reduced apoptosis caused by NTiO2.
Methods: The control group was administered with phosphate buffer solution (PBS) while the other two groups received PCM alone (1000 mg/kg) and PCM + 25 mg/kg ZER, respectively, at 0 h and 4 h after PCM injection. After 24 h, the blood and liver were collected for differential white blood cell count, liver histological observation and biochemical analysis including alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and total protein concentration in serum and liver.
Results: Treatment with ZER was found to significantly reduce ALT (P = 0.041), AST (P = 0.044) and total hepatic protein (P = 0.045) in comparison to PCM-induced rats. Rats treated with ZER exhibited the normal structure of hepatocytes with no vacuolisation or necrosis and showed significantly reduced neutrophil count (P = 0.037). This finding suggests its ability to suppress the inflammatory processes caused by PCM overdosage and decrease the hepatocytes tendency to go through necrotic processes.
Conclusion: ZER possessed protective activity against PCM-induced acute hepatotoxicity in a rat model.