Cholestasis impaired spatial and non-spatial novelty detection in mice

Bile duct ligation [BDL] is shown to induce cholestasis-related liver function impairments as well as consequent cognitive dysfunctions [i.e. impaired learning and memory formation]. This study investigates the effects of cholestasis [14, 21 and 28 days post bile duct ligation] on spatial and non-spatial novelty detection, using a non-associative task. Male mice weighing 30-35 g were used. Cholestasis was induced by ligation of the main bile duct using two ligatures and transecting the duct at the midpoint between them. Open field paradigm was employed to assess the spatial and non-spatial memories retention. Our data showed that cholestasis [28 days after bile duct ligation] decrease and increased duration time of displace and non-displace objects respectively, indicating spatial memory deficit. Moreover, this intervention [28 days after bile duct ligation] decreased and did not alter duration time of substitute and non-substitute objects respectively, suggesting non-spatial memory deficit. Moreover, the data postulated that 14 and 21 days post bile duct ligation both spatial and non-spatial memories did not alter. Our results suggested that cholestasis [28 but not 14 and 21 days post bile duct ligation] impaired spatial and non-spatial memory in the mice

Structural biology: modeling applications and techniques at a glance

As recent advancements in biology shows, the molecular machines specially proteins, RNA and complex molecules play the main role of the so called cell functionality. It means a very big part of the system biology is concerned with the interactions of such molecular components. Drug industries and research institutes are trying hard to better understand the concepts underlying these interactions and are highly dependent on the issues regarding these molecular elements. However the costs for such projects are so high and in many cases these projects will be funded by governments or profit making companies. With this in mind it has to be said that the techniques like stimulation are always a very good candidate to decrease such costs and to provide scientists with a bright future of the project results before undergoing costly experiments. However the costs involved projects that determine an approximation for the problem is not that much high but they are also costly. So it is of utmost importance to invent special techniques for the concept of stimulation that can also decrease the project costs and also predict much accurately. Since the system biology and proteomics as the study of the proteins and their functions are in the center of consideration for the purpose of drug discovery, understanding the cell functionalities and the underlying causes behind diseases; so we need advance software and algorithms that can predict the structure of the molecular components and to provide researchers with the computational tools to analyze such models. In this paper we make review of the importance of molecular modeling, its limitations and applications

Effect of hyperglycemic condition on observed surface area to volume ratio of human cancerous cells

The human blood basal glucose level is a completely controlled range. Information on the relationship between culture glucose concentration and changes in the cell's surface area, volume and surface area to volume [S/V] ratio are lacking. Cancerous epithelial-like cell lines SW480, SW742 and T-47D were cultured in mediums nourished with 4.7 mM per liter of glucose as the control group and three other groups with glucose concentrations of 9.4, 14.1 and 18.8 mM at 37[degree]C for 48hr. Digital images of cells were analyzed using the Image J software. Observed changes in surface area, volume, and surface area to volume [S/V] ratio were significantly [P<0.05] different between the control group and the X4 group [18.8 mM glucose] in the three cell lines tested. Cultured cells responded delicately but sharply to glucose elevation. The goal of this research is to show the dictating of changes via pathologic conditions in cellular levels that could be a good answer to changing the body metabolic parameters. Besides the S/V ratio could be studied as a variant parameter in other metabolic challenges

Evaluation of Persian academy approved genetics terms acceptance in upper graduate user population

Finding Persian equivalents for scientific terms is one of the aims of Academy of Persian language and literature, and more than 50 scientific committees are now working on this scope in terminology department of the academy. Genetics and biotechnology terminology committee is one of these teams that started his activity from 2009 and since then approved more than 500 of these terms for use in academic fields. In this research 101 questionnaires including 20 questioned term were given to more than 101 upper graduate users including MSc and PhD students and academic staff of randomly selected universities in Tehran and Semnan provinces. And then the evaluation of their acceptance was carried out by a model given by Cooper for the Study of Language Spread. All 20 studied terms were randomly selected from genetic approved terms and divided in to two groups: newly coined equivalents [those equivalents that was newly coined by the committee] and selected equivalents [those that have the selected equivalent before]. Results gathered and analyzed with statistical tests, and showed that most of accepted terms are among selected equivalents. By another words the newly coined terms has much less acceptability than the others. This research introduces a method for evaluation of approved Persian equivalents of scientific terms and besides show the state of some of these equivalents between user populations. The important point is that term selection for scientific terms including genetic terms; is not an obligatory rule, but is a proposal for meeting the researchers need to strength Persian language as a scientific language. And usage of these equivalents is completely on the part of researchers and students and their point of view to equivalents