Effect of fat and carbohydrate sources at low calcium level on lipid metabolism in rats

The experiment was designed to study the effect of feeding diets containing either sucrose or starch and corn oil or ghee [butter oil] with two levels of calcium 0.25 [low] or 0.5% [adequate] on lipid metabolism in male rats, in a completely randomized design with treatments in a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial arrangement. The type of fat did not affect the serum total cholesterol levels at 0.5% calcium level, and had no effect on the percentage of cholesterol carried by serum different lipoproteins in all diets. Otherwise, corn oil compared with ghee reduced serum total lipids, triacylglycerol, phospholipids and total cholesterol [at 0.25% Ca] in sucrose diets, and serum total lipids and triacylglycerol [at 0.5% Ca] and total cholesterol [at 0.25% Ca] in starch diets. Feeding of sucrose diets resulted in significantly higher levels of serum different lipids compared with starch diets and its effect was very high in presence of saturated fat. The effect of sucrose in increasing heart lipids was higher using corn oil more than ghee. In liver triacylglycerol and total cholesterol were decreased by sucrose in ghee diets and increased in oil diets. Decreasing dietary calcium level resulted in increased serum lipids concentrations in animals fed the ghee-sucrose diet and decreased the percentage of LDL-cholesterol from 50 to 26 in the oil starch group

Effect of increasing dietary calcium on lipid metabolism in rats

The influence of increasing dietary calcium level from 0.5% to 2.5% on serum and tissue lipids in a low fat, cholesterol free diet containing sucrose or starch with corn oil or ghee was studied in male albino rats for six weeks. The concentration of serum total cholesterol tended to be lower [not significant] with higher calcium level. Liver cholesterol was lower for rats fed starch diets, also, for rats fed sucrose-oil diets. Cholesterol in heart was lower for rats fed oil- starch diet. Triacylglycerol concentration was lower in serum and liver of rats fed ghee-sucrose and higher in liver of rats fed oil- starch diets. The concentration of phospholipids was lower in serum and heart in rats fed oil-starch and ghee-sucrose diets, also, in liver in rats fed starch diets. Total lipids were decreased in serum of rats fed ghee diets, while total lipids in heart increased by increasing dietary Ca level except in ghee-starch group. Percentage of serum HDL-cholesterol/total cholesterol was higher [not significant] in rats fed 2.5% calcium, as well LDL-C/total cholesterol was higher for rats fed sucrose diets. Feeding starch diets resulted in lower serum total cholesterol, triacylglycerol, phospholipids and total lipids compared with sucrose diets

Leprosy in Dakahlia Governorate

Leprosy is one of the major public health problem of the developing countries.The aim of this research is to study leprosy in our locality.The data were obtained from Mansoura Leprosaria. The total number of patients was 525 with predominance of males over females.The highest incidence of the disease had been observed in the age group >15-45 years. Most of the cases were coming from rural areas. Tuberculoid leprosy was the most common type. The percentage of infected contacts was 2.35% of total patients

Complement and neutrophil chemotaxis in some dermatophytic infections

In this study assessment complement and neutrophil functions were done for 45 cases and 10 healthy controls to evaluate the capacity of different dermatophytes to activate complement and stimulate neutrophil chemotaxis and to detect the results of the interaction of the serum and neutrophil with the fungus. We found that dermatophytes can activate complement and stimulate neutrophil chemotaxis. We could suggest the complement activation a resulting influx of polymorpho leukocytes may stop fungal invasion and the close adherence of neutrophil to fungal hyphae although no sufficient to kill hyphae probably damage the hyphal cell wall and inhibits growth. Also, defective neutrophil chemotaxis motaxis which was found in patients with chronic dermatophytosis was not found to be due to deficiency complement components, this defect could be corrected by: Prompt antifungal therapy as the fungal products could alter neutrophil functions. Correction of the associated conditions [e.g. diabetes mellitus].Trials of levamisole, cimetidine ascorbic acids in conjunction with the antifungal therapy in the treatment of the chronic dermatophytosis patients

Radiotherapy, methotrexate, and topical keratolytic in treatment of psoriasis in a comparative study

In this study eighteen psoriatic patients were treated by various lines of therapy [local keratolytic, systemic methotrexate and radiotherapy] in order to evaluate the pathological changes in psoriasis under different therapies by cell counting study pre - and post-treatment. It was found that there were insignificant statistical difference in the different type of cells before and after using local therapy, while, there were statistical significant reduction in the percentage of mitotic cells after methotrexate. Also, there were very highly significant and highly significant reduction in the percentage of mitotic and resting cells respectively after radiotherapy. While, there was very highly significant statistical increase in the percentage of degenerating cells after radiotherapy

Bacteriological studies on the locally manufactured canned meat

Fifty cans of locally manufactured canned beef were collected from Giza and Cairo. The samples firstly subjected intensively for physical examination searching for outer manifestation of internal spoilage and according to this step the cans were divided into two groups, group A includes apparently defective cans, while group B includes apparently sound cans. Both groups than subjected to bacteriological examination for detection of aerobic and anaerobic counts. The mean aerobic and anaerobic counts for both groups A and B were 3.3 x 10[6], 4.5 x 10[6], 1.4 x 10[3] and 2.8 x 10[2] respectively

Validity of salivary testosterone measurements in hirsute women before and after spironolactone therapy

This study was conducted on twenty-one hirsute females and ten normal controls. Serum free testosterone[FT] and salivary total testosterone [SaT] were measured by radioimmunoassay [RIA] before and after a course of spironolactone therapy starting from the 4[th] to the 22[nd] days of the menstrual cycle. Salivary testosterone paralleled the changes in serum free testosterone with a significant positive correlation in all circumstances studied, suggesting that SaT measurements could be used as a safe alternative to serum sampling with the added advantages of being simple, non-invasive and avoiding undue disturbances of endocrine system