Evaluation of different dietary mixtures in rats with liver cirrhosis

The effect of feeding four different dietary mixtures on liver function, antioxidant state, plasma lipids, plasma amino acids, body weight, food intake and food efficiency ratio was studied in rats with liver cirrhosis. The different dietary mixtures contain different protein levels with high Fischer ratio. Antioxidants' sources from fruits, legumes and cereals were added to the mixtures. The different dietary mixtures contain medium chain triglycerides' oil and corn oil with different ratios. Branched chain amino acids were added to two dietary mixtures. Honey was used as sweetener and antioxidant. An extra balanced diet of 10% protein supplemented from casein was evaluated. Different groups of rats in which liver cirrhosis was induced were fed the different aforementioned diets for 10 weeks. A control group of normal healthy rats was fed balanced diet. The results showed that feeding some of the previously mentioned dietary mixtures showed improvement of the measured parameters, while others did not produce any improvements

Cardiovascular disease predictors in relation to smoking in egyptian men

The influence of smoking on novel CHD predictors such as serum albumin, bilirubin, lipid peroxides and free fatty acid [FFA] pattern, in addition to traditional predictors such as blood pressure, body mass index [BMI], serum total cholesterol, triacylglycerols, high density lipoprotein cholesterol [HDL-C] and iron between smokers and non smokers was compared. The prevalence of cardiac arrhythmias was higher in smokers than in non smokers. Both of BMI and blood pressure were not significantly changed between groups. Biochemical parameters revealed an extreme increase of serum lipid peroxides, triacylglycerols and total cholesterol/HDL-C ratio in smokers relative to non smokers. Smokers had severely reduced HDL-C levels and slightly decreased total cholesterol/total bilirubin ratio as compared to those of non smokers. Serum albumin and iron levels showed nonsignificant changes between both groups. FFA pattern demonstrated a marked reduction in oleic acid level and a significant increase in erucic acid concentration in smokers regarding to those of non smokers. Each of palmitic, stearic and arachidonic acids decreased in smokers than in non smokers. The percentages of decrease were 28.9%, 20.1% and 30.6%, respectively. Younger smokers had extremely higher levels of serum lipid peroxides, total cholesterol, triacylglycerols and total cholesterol/HDL-C ratio than their age matched controls. Serum HDL-C concentration was severely reduced in younger smokers as compared with their corresponding controls. Older smokers showed a significant decrease in HDL-C level and a marked increase in its ratio with cholesterol regarding to non smokers had the same age