ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is an important primary cause of end-stage kidney disease. This study explores the mechanisms of the reno-protective effects of Momordica charantia (M. charantia) in diabetic rats following treatment with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) regimen triplavar. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats (n=48) were divided into 7 groups (A-G).Treatment groups (B-G) had 7 animals per group and control group (Group A) had 6 animals per group. Diabetes was induced with streptozotocin (STZ) by intraperitoneal injection (STZ 45 mg/kg body weight). The animals were euthanized on the tenth week with kidneys removed for examination and blood obtained via cardiac puncture. RESULTS: Key renal parameters showed no albuminuria, normal blood urea nitrogen (BUN), serum creatinine and electrolytes in all groups treated with M. charantia. Untreated diabetic (Group B) and HAART treated diabetic (Group C) showed severe albuminuria, a significantly raised BUN and serum creatinine (P<0.05) and gross electrolyte disturbances. Blood glucose levels were consistently and significantly raised in all groups not receiving the adjuvant M. charantia (P<0.05). Levels of oxidative stress enzymes Superoxide dismutase (SOD), Catalase and activities of Reduced Gluthaione (GSH) and Malondiadehyde (MDA) were significantly lower in all groups not receiving M. charantia. Histopathology in untreated diabetic and HAART treated animals showed severe degenerative changes in the glomeruli and inflammatory cellular infiltration while M. charantia treated animals showed an essentially normal glomerular appearance with capillary loops and normal cytoarchitecture. CONCLUSION: M. charantia extract administration improved blood glucose levels, reinstates renal function, reduces body weight loss and restores hyperglycemia.
ABSTRACT
The morphological characteristics of the humeral bone has been investigated in recent times with studies showing varying degrees of sexual dimorphism. Osteologists and forensic scientists have shown that sex determination methods based on skeletal measurements are population specific, and these population-specific variations are present in many body dimensions. The present study aims to establish sex identification using osteometric standards for the humerus in a contemporary KwaZulu-Natal population. A total of 11 parameters were measured in a sample of n=211 humeri (males, 113; females, 98) from the osteological collection in the Discipline of Clinical Anatomy, Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. The difference in means for nearly all variables were found to be significantly higher in males compared to females (P<0.01) with the most effective single parameter for predicting sex being the vertical head diameter having an accuracy of 82.5%. Stepwise discriminant analysis increased the overall accuracy rate to 87.7% when all measurements were jointly applied. We conclude that the humerus is an important bone which can be reliably used for sex determination based on standard metric methods despite minor tribal or ancestral differences amongst an otherwise homogenous population.
