ABSTRACT
The present work was aimed to study the efficacy and possible mechanism of oligosaccharides based standardized fenugreek seed extract (SFSE-OS) on high-fat diet (HFD)-induced insulin resistance in male C57BL/6 mice. The effects of 12 weeks of oral administration of SFSE-OS (30, 60 and 100 mg/kg, twice daily) were evaluated on HFD fed mice for anthropomorphic, glycemic, gene expression related and histopathological parameters. Separate groups of mice with vehicle co-administered with HFD and low-fat diet (LFD) were maintained as HFD control and LFD control respectively. Twelve weeks of SFSE-OS (60 and 100 mg/kg, p.o.) administration showed significant prophylactic effects on HFD induced insulin resistance in terms of body weight, plasma glucose and insulin levels, glycated hemoglobin, insulin resistance (IR), area under the curve (AUC) of plasma glucose during oral glucose tolerance and intraperitoneal insulin tolerance. Furthermore, HFDinduced mRNA expression changes in adipose tissue, liver and skeletal muscle were prevented by SFSE-OS coadministration. Histology of sections of the pancreas showed the normal architecture in all groups of mice. SFSE-OS showed promising efficacy in prevention of HFD-induced insulin resistance through modulation of Glut-2, Glut-4, IRS-2 and SREBP-1c expression.
ABSTRACT
To evaluate immunomodulatory activity of polyphenolic fraction of Cinnamomum zeylanicumbark (PP-CZ) against infection-related conditions using normal and immune-compromised mice. The normal and cyclophosphamide (CYP)-induced immune-compromised mice were sensitized with SRBCs and PP-CZ (10, 25, and 50 mg/kg, p.o.) was administered orally for 7 days. The haemagglutinin (HA) antibody titres (primary and secondary) and delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) response was measured at 7- and 14-days postimmunization, respectively. In separate experiments, effects of PP-CZ on numbers of resident peritoneal macrophages in peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC), against host resistance (E coli-induced abdominal sepsis) and phagocytic activity against Candida albicans were evaluated in mice. PP-CZ had shown a have beneficial effects on multiple arms of theimmune system in animal models and improves humoral (antibody production), cellular (DTH) and innate (PMN phagocytosis) responses of the immune system, as well as numbers of resident peritoneal macrophages. PP-CZ also showed protection to mice against lethal E. coli abdominal sepsis. PP-CZ demonstrated significant immunomodulatory activity through multiple arms of immunity in normal and infection-related immuno-compromised conditions.
ABSTRACT
The objective of the present study was to investigate therapeutic efficacy of standardized fenugreek seed extract with trigonelline as marker (SFSE-T) in experimental urolithiasis in rats. Effects of subacute oral treatments of SFSE-T (30 and 60 mg/kg) and reference anti-urolithiasis drug, Cystone (750 mg/kg) were evaluated against 0.75% ethylene glycol (EG) and 1 % w/v ammonium chloride (AC) induced urolithiasis in rats. The biochemical (urinary and serum) and histopathological parameters were investigated. Subacute oral treatment of SFSE-T (60 mg/kg) showed reversal of EG+AC induced changes in urine (decreased 24-h urine output, pH, excretion of creatinine, citrate, and chloride and increased uric acid and oxalate excretion) and serum (increased creatine, uric acid and blood urea nitrogen) parameters and decreased creatine clearance. Histopathology examination of the kidneys sections from SFSE-T (60 mg/kg) treated rats showed lowered number of crystals, cell damage and tubulointerstitial damage index as compared with EG+AC control rats. Standardized fenugreek seed extracts showed promising therapeutic effect against experimental urolithiasis in rats.
ABSTRACT
Sibutramine is one of the very few drugs that are approved for long-term treatment of obesity. Sibutramine is a racemic mixture (RS) containing two equal forms of the R(+) and S(-) enantiomers. In this paper, we have investigated comparative anorexic effect of sibutramine enantiomers and their recemate form in rats. After obtaining two days of baseline results, rats were administered orally either with (RS)-sibutramine or its enantiomers (R)- or (S)-sibutramine at dose levels of 5, 10, 20 mg/kg each for 4 days and body weight, food intake and water intake were measured daily. Locomotor activity score of each rat was also recorded on each day. R-Sibutramine and (RS)-sibutramine produced dose dependant decrease in the body weight and food intake. On the other hand, (S)-sibutramine was shown to increase in these parameters. Neither sibutramine nor it's enantiomers showed any consistent effects on spontaneous motor activity (SMA) scores. In conclusion, (R)-sibutramine is better anorexic than or (RS)-sibutramine or it's (S)-enantiomers.