Adrenal medulla of AS/AGU rats: a histological and immunohistochemical study.

BACKGROUND: The outcome of the autograft therapy for Parkinson's disease including autologous cells from adrenal medulla was disappointing. This could be attributed to the pathological process in Parkinson's disease affecting cells of the adrenal medulla. This study was performed to investigate the histopathological changes in the adrenal medulla of AS/AGU rat, a model of Parkinson's disease, in comparison with Albino Swiss (AS) rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 24 male AS rats were divided into four groups, each of 6 animals: AS W1 - AS rats aged 1 week; AS adult - AS adult rats; AS/ /AGU W1 - AS/AGU rats aged 1 week; and AS/AGU adult - AS/AGU adult rats. The rats were sacrificed and the adrenal glands were dissected and processed for histological staining with haematoxylin and eosin and periodic acid Schiff and for immunohistochemical staining for S100 protein, ubiquitin and tyrosine hydroxylase. RESULTS: The histological investigation of the adrenal medulla of AS/AGU rats showed vascular congestion, inflammatory cellular infiltration, pyknotic nuclei, necrotic chromaffin cells and medullary inclusion bodies. The immunohistochemical investigation of AS/AGU rats showed a statistically significant decrease in the expression of S100 protein, ubiquitin and tyrosine hydroxylase compared to AS rats. CONCLUSIONS: The histological and immunohistological changes in the adrenal medulla could explain the failure of outcome of adrenal autograft therapy in Parkinson's disease.

Curcumin ameliorates experimental autoimmune acute myocarditis in rats as evidenced by decrease in thioredoxin immunoreactivity.

This study was performed to investigate the effect of curcumin on cardiac myosin-induced autoimmune myocarditis in rats and the change in thioredoxin (TRX) immunoreactivity in cardiomyocytes following curcumin treatment. Twenty-four six-week-old male Wistar rats were randomly allocated into 4 groups of 6 rats each. Group I received neither curcumin nor myosin. Group II received an oral solution of 1 g/kg/day of curcumin daily, from day 1 to day 21. To induce myocarditis, animals of both group III and group IV were injected by 1 mg of porcine cardiac myosin on days 1 and 8. In addition, animals of group IV received an oral solution of 1 g/kg/day of curcumin daily, from day 1 to day 21. Serum levels of creatine phosphokinase, troponin-T, tumour necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-6 were estimated. Hearts were processed for histopathological and immunohistochemical studies. Serum biomarkers levels were significantly increased in myocarditis group as compared to other groups. The intake of curcumin significantly reduced the deviation in these markers. Sections of the wall of the heart from myocarditis group were characterised by inflammatory cell infiltration. Most of cardiomyocytes showed pyknotic nuclei and increased sarcoplasmic eosinophilia with strong immunoreactivity for TRX. Sections from myocarditis-curcumin group showed normal architecture with moderate immunoreactivity for TRX. The present study demonstrated that curcumin ameliorates acute myocarditis in rats and encouraged the estimation of serum level of TRX as a relevant indicator for the evaluation of the progress of acute myocarditis.