ABSTRACT
Poor educated people in some parts of Iran use burned mantles as a wound healing powder to prevent the bleeding and infections caused by injuries. Some lantern mantles contain low levels of radioactive thorium for maximizing the light output, while non-radioactive mantles contain yttrium. Although radioactive lantern mantles may cause a minimal radiation health hazard, it is generally believed that it would be dangerous when inhaled or ingested. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of burned radioactive lantern mantles on wound healing. Twenty rats were divided randomly into two groups of 10 animals each. After inducing general anesthesia, full thickness excision wound [314 +/- 31.4 mm[2]] was made on the dorsal neck in all animals. The 1st group received topical burned radioactive lantern mantle powder at 1st-3rd day after wound excision. The presence of radioactivity in the mantle was detected using a Monitor-4 survey meter. The 2nd group received non-radioactive lantern mantle powder at the same days. Accurate blind surface measurement of the wounds was performed by transparency tracing to assess the wound healing at 1st, 3rd, 7th, 10th and 15th days after excision. A progressive reduction in the wound area of both groups was observed. However, for thorium treated group, the rate of recovery was significantly enhanced compared to that of the control group. Although this value in the thorium group was not significantly different from that of the control group at the 3rd and 5th days after wounding, a statistically significant difference was observed between these two groups at the day7, day10 and day 15. The mean wound surface in thorium and control groups were 150.20 +/- 15.87 and 186.37 +/- 12.68 mm[2] at day7 [p<0.001], 92.90 +/- 15.97 and 134.12 +/- 14.19 mm[2] at day 10 [p<0.001], 1.40 +/- 0.41 and 8.56 +/- 2.04 mm[2] at day15 after wounding, respectively [p<0.01]. These findings suggest that low-level radioactive burned mantle accelerates wound healing in rats. However, as thorium oxide is a known human carcinogen, more research is needed to clarify if low levels of radioactive burned mantle can be utilized for enhancing wound healing
ABSTRACT
Epidemiological studies suggested that incidence of cardiovascular diseases in menopause women is more than their nonmenopausal period. The cardioprotective role of estrogen may be responsible for some of these effects. In the present study we evaluated the role of female sex hormones on baroreflex sensitivity in acute hypertension state of rat.This was an experimental-interventional study that performed on 48 male and female rats. The male and female animals were separately divided into three groups included vehicle, estrogen and progesterone receiving groups [8 animals in each groups]. Anesthetized female animals were ovariectomised, and then all animals were encapsulated with capsules containing sex hormones or solvent. 2 weeks after that, each femoral artery and vein cannulated under anesthetization to record mean arterial blood pressure [MAP], heart rate [HR] and also infusion of phenylephrin. AHR and AMAP were recorded before and after injection of phenylephrin, to evaluate the baroreceptors function, baroreflex sensitivity [BRS [[delta]HR/[delta]MAP]] index was used. The data obtained from power lab instrument and processed by computer. HR and MAP in estrogen and progestrone received groups, before phenylephrin injection [rest state], have no statistical differences with control group. BRS in the male estrogen-receiving group [0.6 +/- 0.03] was higher [p<0.05] compared to sham [0.48 +/- 0.05], also estrogen increased BRS [p<0.05] in female estrogen receiving group [0.76 +/- 0.03] compared to sham [0.45 +/- 0.05]. Mean artrial pressure and heart rate in both estrogen receiving groups were reduced compared to vehicle group. Therefore it can be concluded that estrogen increased baroreflex sensitivity to prevent variation in acute blood pressure
ABSTRACT
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disorder of connective tissue that has affected 1% of human population. The role of calcium antagonists in acute inflammation has shown by previous studies. Therefore the aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of verapamil and nifedipine[two calcium antagonists] on experimental arthritis induced by complete Ferund's adjuvant [CFA] in rat knee. This experimental study was carried out in 8 groups of adult male rats. In group 1 and 2 [CFA and control group], 0.2 ml of CFA or saline solution were injected respectively. Groups 3and 4 received 100 and 800micro g/kg nifedipine and groups 5 and 6 received the same doses of verapamil orally 7 days after injection of CFA till the end of study. Group 7 [solvent group] received dimethyl sulfoxide[DMSO] as same as groups 5 and 6 and group 8 received 15mg/kg ibuprofen daily from day 7th orally with gastrointestinal tube. The changes caused by chronic inflammation were evaluated by measurement the knee diameter and Evans blue [E.B] content through 28 through days of CFA injection.The finding of this study showed that on day 7th after CFA injection the knee diameter [13.1 +/- 0.2mm] increased significantly compared to the day zero [9.99 +/- 0.08 mm]. The increasing of diameter was significant till the end of study [day 28][p0.00]. DMSO failed to reduce the increased diameter induced by CFA but the high dose of nifedipine on day 14, 21 and 28 and its low dose only on day 28 reduced the increased diameter significantly [p<0.01]. The low dose of verapamil on days 14 and 28 and its high dose only on day 28 have had an inhibitory effect. Ibuprofen inhibited the increased diameter during all 28 days of study significantly [p<0.01]. The E.B content before the injection of CFA was 2.97 +/- 0.14micro g/l00mg tissue that increased significantly after injection of CFA. Whereas 7 days after CFA injection, E.B content was 12.37 +/- 0.7micro g/100mg tissue [p<0.001]. Either low or high dose of calcium channel blockers had significant inhibitory effect on E.B content on days 14, 21 and 28 p<0.001. The inhibitory effect of calcium channel blockers on E.B content was comparable to ibuprofen effect on the day 28.The findings of this study showed that nifedipine and verapamil can inhibit the experimental arthritis induced by CFA injection into the rat knee, by reducing the knee diameter and decrease the E.B content [albumin leakage]
ABSTRACT
Ovarian and steroid hormones have long and short-term effects of brain. Progesterone has functional and structural effect on Hippocampus neurons. In epilepsyprobably the number of brain neurons can reduce due to cell mortality. Therefore, in this study effect of progesterone were evaluated on the number of CA3 Hippocampus neurons. In this experimental study, 45 Male wistar rats were divided into 5 groups. 5 rats selected as an intact group. Group1 [control] were received, 50-mg/kg- pentylenetetrazd [PTZ]i.p. for kindling. Group 2 received PTZ sesom oil [i.p][vehicle], 30 min before, groups 3 and 4 received 25 and 50 mg/kg progesterone [i.p] 30 min before receiving PTZ. PTZ injected every 48 h and the rate of mortality, seizure stage and duration of V phase were calculated during in min after PTZ injection. If animal reach to phase 5, for three times they were considered as kindled rats and anesthetized by ether for histological study. Their brain were perfuse for fixation by formaldehyde [10%]. and after passage and blocking, 10 micron slices prepared and stained with HandE and Cresyl violet methods. Then CA3 neurons were counted with morphometric lens per mm[2]. The results were shown that injection of 25 and 50mg/kg progesterone reduced duration of phase V from 175.2 S in sham to 123.1 S and 113.1 S respectively, [p<0.05 and p0.01]. PTZ reduced the number of CA3 neurons form 178.3 +/- 8 in intact animals to 123.2 +/- 14.2 in control [p<0.05]. The mean number of neurons in 25 and 50 mg/kg progesterone were 137.3 +/- 10.5 and 145 +/- 8.5 respectively. The number of CA3 neuron in 50mg/kg progesterone group had significant difference compared to control group [p<0.05].The results of this study showed that, neuron mortality due to PTZ, reduced in progesterone receiving group compared to control. It seem that there is correlation between neuron mortality and phase 5 duration in progesterone receiving group