ABSTRACT
SUMMARY OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the presence of indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase and bacterial translocation after the administration of 3-aminobenzamide and infliximab in the TNBS model of rat colitis. METHODS: The study group was divided into five categories as follows: group 1: (control), group 2: colitis+saline, group 3: colitis+3-aminobenzamide, group 4: colitis+infliximab, and group 5: colitis+3-aminobenzamide+infliximab. Intestinal mesenteric cultures were incubated on specific agar media plates under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, bacterial translocation was evaluated and assessed as colony-forming units per gram of tissue. Colonic tissue samples were evaluated by Western blotting method to detect the presence of indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase. RESULTS: The results obtained were as follows: group 1: normal gut flora; group 2: eight of nine samples had bacterial translocation, of which six of them had positive indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase protein; group 3: five of nine samples had bacterial translocation, of which seven of them had positive indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase; group 4: three of nine samples had bacterial translocation, of which seven of them had positive indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase; and group 5: only one sample had exact indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase protein. CONCLUSION: Altered expression of indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase results in a lower bacterial translocation via infliximab compared with 3-aminobenzamide treatment. Combined treatments emphasized different approaches for the new molecules related to indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase.
ABSTRACT
To investigate the role of desert hedgehog [Dhh] in a neurodevelopmental disorder known as autism. This study was conducted at the Autism Research and Treatment Center, King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from October 2011 to May 2012. The serum levels of the Dhh protein in 57 patients recently diagnosed with autism and 37 age-matched healthy children were measured using ELISA. The Childhood Autism Rating Scale [CARS] was used for the assessment of autistic severity. The mean serum level of Dhh in patients with autism [1.38 +/- 0.50 ng/ml] was significantly lower [p = 0.0003] than that of normal controls [1.73 +/- 0.37 ng/ml]. There was no significant relationship between the serum level of Dhh and the CARS score [p = 0.28], age [p = 0.51] or gender [p = 0.76]. The Dhh serum level of patients with autism was lower than that of controls, probably indicating that the serum level of Dhh might be implicated in the physiology of autism. However, this finding should be treated with caution until further investigations are performed with larger populations