Does Enoxaparin treatment have any effects on the placenta in women with unexplained histories of habitual abortion? A case control study

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: It is very common to offer low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) medications to women with unexplained habitual abortion, to increase the livebirth rate. Although no benefit from LMWH has been clearly demonstrated, examination of the effects of enoxaparin on placental structure is lacking. OBJECTIVE: To assess placental structural changes in pregnancies treated with enoxaparin, compared with controls. DESIGN AND SETTING: Case-control study in an obstetrics and gynecology unit of a tertiary-level university hospital in Turkey. METHODS: Forty patients who had had term pregnancies and live births but also histories of habitual abortion were recruited for this study. Placentas were sampled using a systematic random sampling method. Tissue samples were obtained, embedded and sectioned for routine histological analyses. Hematoxylin and eosin staining was used. Surface area and length estimates from placental components were evaluated by using Image J. Cell proliferation and apoptosis were also assessed via immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the groups regarding maternal age, abortion rate, birth weight or gestational age. Comparison of the enoxaparin and control groups showed that there were no significant differences in terms of surface area and ratios of placental components. We found that Bcl-2 was generally expressed at high levels in the enoxaparin group, while there was no difference in terms of Ki-67 between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that enoxaparin did not show any significant effect on the placental structure of cases that had histories of habitual abortion.

A Novel and Rapid HPLC Method for Determination of Natamycin in Turkish Cheese Samples

Nicotine is a potential inducer of oxidative stress, which can damage the numerous tissues and biological molecules.Nicotine is first metabolized in liver, and the lung is the main target organ susceptible to smoking; therefore, the purpose ofthe current examination was scrutinizing the impacts of nicotine on these organs using the histological method, and studyingthe ameliorative (additive or synergistic) effects of quercetin and luteolin supplements in target tissues against nicotinetoxicity in young albino rats. Fifty animals were involved in this study which were divided into five groups of ten rats, theywere treated as: (1) untreated Control (Cont); (2) Nicotine (Ni) treated (0.75 mg/kg b.w./d, i.p.); (3) Nicotine as above withintragastric administration of quercetin (Ni+Qu) (50mg/kg b.w) or (4) with luteolin (50mg/kg b.w) in Group (Ni+Lu), and(5) nicotine with combination of quercetin and luteolin (Ni+Qu+Lu) as described above. All groups were treated for 8weeks, then their liver and lung tissues were dissected out. Several histological damages were noticed in (Ni) rats such asdegeneration changes in hepatocytes, slight congestion of central vein (CV) and cellular infiltration. Nicotine caused drasticchanges in lung tissues such as, inflammatory cells aggregation inside and outside the bronchiol artery with mild increase inthe thickness of bronchial muscular wall and marked thickening in the alveolar wall. All supplemented groups amelioratedthe damage that induced by nicotine injection in both liver and lung tissues. In liver tissues, the quercetin (Ni+Qu)supplemented rats showed the better improvement nearby normal hepatocytes than the other groups, while in lung tissues,the luteolin supplemented rats had better recovery than the other treatments. These observations suggested that the intake ofquercetin and luteolin as supplements may be useful in combating tissue injury that is a result of nicotine toxicity