Vitamin E effects on developmental disorders in fetuses and cognitive dysfunction in adults following acrylamide treatment during pregnancy.

We investigated the effects of acrylamide (AA) and vitamin E treatment during pregnancy on brain tissues of fetuses and on adult rats. Pregnant rats were divided into five groups: control, corn oil, vitamin E, AA, vitamin E +AA. The rats administered AA received10 mg/kg/day and those administered vitamin E received 100 mg/kg/day both by via oral gavage for 20 days. On day 20 of pregnancy, half of the pregnant rats were removed by cesarean section in each group. Morphological development parameters were measured in each fetus and histopathological, biochemical and genetic analyses were conducted on the fetuses. The remaining pregnant rats in each group gave birth to the fetuses vaginally and biochemical, histopathological, genetic and cognitive function tests were conducted when the pups were 8 weeks old. AA administration caused adverse effects on fetus number, fetal weight, crown-rump length, placenta and brain weight. AA negatively affected malondialdehyde, reduced glutathione, total oxidant and antioxidant status, brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels, brain tissue morphology, histopathology error score and gene expression (BDNF/ß-actin mRNA ratio) in fetuses. AA administration caused disruption of biochemical, histopathological and cognitive functions in adult rats. Vitamin E provided protection against neurotoxicity in both fetuses and adult rats. We conclude that exposure to AA during pregnancy should be avoided and adequate amounts of antioxidants, such as vitamin E, should be consumed.

An Intradiscal Granuloma Due to a Retained Wooden Foreign Body.

We report a patient with a wooden foreign body granuloma in the intervertebral disc space being symptomatic 17 years after a paraspinal penetrant trauma. According to the our result of the search for wooden foreign body granulomas, this is the first case suffered from a wooden foreign body granuloma in the intervertebral disc space that reported in the literature. In this report, we emphasized the importance of rigorous examination and follow up in paraspinal wooden penetrant traumas.

Nebivolol attenuates cerebral vasospasm both by increasing endothelial nitric oxide and by decreasing oxidative stress in an experimental subarachnoid haemorrhage.

OBJECTIVE: Evidence suggests that reduction of nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability due to oxidative stress plays a central role in the pathophysiology of cerebral vasospasm after subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH). To prevent SAH-induced cerebral vasospasm, therefore we used nebivolol hydrochloride as a NO-mediated vasodilator and an antioxidant drug in an experimental rat model of SAH. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty female Wistar rats were divided into control, SAH, SAH plus placebo, and SAH plus nebivolol groups. Starting six hours after inducing SAH, 5 mg/kg of nebivolol hydrochloride and of pharmaceutical excipients of nebivolol was given orally once daily for five days to SAH plus nebivolol and SAH plus placebo groups, respectively. The lumen diameter and vessel wall thickness of the basilar artery were measured in brain sections. The serum and brain supernatant levels of nitric oxide (NO) were analysed. The brain supernatant levels of intrinsic antioxidants superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) were measured as markers of the antioxidant status. RESULTS: Nebivolol administration attenuated cerebral vasospasm both by increasing NO levels and by decreasing oxidative stress. Our study also demonstrated that nebivolol administration reverses SAH created imbalance between SOD and GSH-Px by increasing GSH-Px activity relative to SOD. CONCLUSIONS: Nebivolol attenuates the cerebral vasospasm after SAH both increasing NO levels and decreasing oxidative stress. Therefore, it may promise to prevent SAH-induced cerebral vasospasm as an anti-spasmodic and anti-oxidant agent.