[Effect of two kinds of fermented food on blood glucose and lipids in induced diabetic mice].

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effect of two kinds of fermented food, noni juice and natto, on blood glucose and lipids in induced diabetic mice. METHODS: Female (ICR) mice were induced into diabetes by an injection of alloxan (55 mg/kg, i. v.). After 72 hours, those mice whose fasting blood glucose levels were over 12.00 mmol/L and urine sugar was strongly positive (+ + +) were regarded as diabetical model and were randomly divided into three groups (n=10):diabetical model (DM) group, noni juice (NJ) group and natto (NT) group. Another ten normal female ICR mice were taken as normal control (NC) group. The mice in NJ and NT groups were gavaged with noni juice (25.0 ml/kg) and natto (0.6 g/kg) respectively. The other two groups were given normal saline (25.0 ml/kg). Continuous gavage administration was given for 30 days, the water-drinking volume and food-intake were recorded. After 1.5 h of the last administration, the glucose tolerance of mice was measured. Finally, the changes in glycated serum protein(GSP), insulin(Ins) and blood lipids of blood samples of mice, taken from the femoral artery, were determined. RESULTS: Compared to the NC group, the water-drinking amount and food-intake, GSP and total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride(TG) and low density lipoprotein (LDL) in DM group were increased significantly (P<0.01), while glucose tolerance, Ins and high density lipoprotein (HDL) were decreased significantly (P<0.01). However, when it came to DM group, NJ and NT could significantly (P<0.01 or P<0.05) reduce, GSP, TG and LDL, meanwhile improve glucose tolerance, Ins and HDL (P<0. 01). CONCLUSIONS: Both noni juice and natto could reduce the blood glucose levels in induced diabetical mice and improve blood lipids, which suggested that they may have certain application value in prevention and treatment of diabetic mellitus.

[Effect of saffron aqueous extract on the level of blood glucose in experimental diabetes mice].

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effects of saffron aqueous extract (SE) on blood glucose, lipid and pancreatic tissue in streptozocin-induced diabetes mice. METHODS: Diabetes mellitus mice were established by intraperitoneal injection of streptozocin (60 mg/kg) for two consecutive days. The 30 well-established diabetes mice were randomly divided into three groups(n=10):diabetic mellitus (DM) group, SE treated (SE) group and positive control (metformin hydrochloride, MH) group. Another ten normal mice were selected as normal control (NC) group. The mice in SE and MH groups were intragastrically administered with SE 100 mg/kg or MH 100 mg/kg once a day for 6 weeks, mice in DM and NC were given normal saline. The amount of food-intake, water consumption and body weight were measured weekly, the changes of the indicators including fasting blood glucose (FBG), oral glucose-tolerance test (OGTT), glycated serum protein (GSP), insulin (INS) and blood lipid were determined after 6 weeks of continuous administration. The pathologic changes in the pancreas tissues were detected by HE staining. RESULTS: Compared with the normal control group, the amount of food-intake, water consumption, area under the curve, FBG, GSP, and total cholesterol (TC) were significantly increased, while fasting weight, INS and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) were dramatically decreased in DM group. Compared with DM group, the water consumption, FBG, area under the curve and TC in SE group were starkly declined with a notable elevation of HDL-c and INS. In addition, the biopsy from DM mice showed the structure of pancreas islet was destroyed and reduced, and vascular proliferation with irregular shape. The damaged pancreas was obviously repaired by giving SE. CONCLUSIONS: The saffron aqueous extract had efficacy on blood glucose and blood lipids reduction, improvement on damaged pancreas in streptozocininduced diabetic mice, which suggested that saffron could be used for the treatment in diabetes.

[Study on FTIR spectra of finger nails of normal people and patients of esophagus cancer].

To investigate the application of human finger nails in the diagnosis of cancer, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was employed to study the finger nails from some normal people and some with esophagus cancer and others with an operation for curing esophagus cancer five months ago. The results showed that there are obvious differences between FTIR spectra in them in spectral parameters such as frequency, intensity and band shape etc. The changes in the phosphate symmetric stretching vibration v(s) (PO2-) and asymmetric stretching vibration v(a)s(PO2-) modes are uniform, the v(s) (PO2-) and v(a)s(PO2-) absorption peaks of cancerous ones shift to high wave number compared with those of normal people, while those with operation shift to low wave number compared with those of cancerous ones. The C-O stretching vibration mode of protein located at 1 164 cm(-1) is composed of three absorption peaks located at 1 173.3, 1 158.0 and 1 151.1 cm(-1) respectively, meanwhile, the intensities and the wave numbers of the three peaks of cancerous ones all increase compared with normal people. The wave numbers of amide I and amide II of cancerous ones are both lower than those of normal people, while those with operation are between the cancerous ones and normal people, which suggest that the contents of protein and alpha-helix in finger nails of normal people, cancerous ones and the ones with operation are discriminative. The peak of bending vibration delta(CH2) mode of CH2 groups of protein lipid of cancerous ones shifts to high wave number slightly and the intensity of the peak weakens compared with that of normal people, which indicate that the methylene chain in the finger nails membrane lipids of cancerous ones is more ordered than that of normal people. Nevertheless, the peak of stretching vibration v(s) (CH2) of cancerous ones is lower than that of normal people, while that of the ones with operation is between cancerous ones and normal ones. As a result, the pathological changes in viscera can induce the changing of framework structure of phosphate in nucleic acid molecule of finger nails, and destroy the hydrogen bond of C-O(H) group in amino acid remnant group in finger nails. Furthermore, it also can decrease the C-O bond in keratin which participates in the action of hydrogen bond, and prompt the changing of content of keratin in finger nails, nevertheless the content of keratin in finger nails of cancerous ones can be resumed to level of normal people by operation.

[A powerful tool for study of sperm--soft X-ray microscopy].

Soft X-ray microscopy is a microimaging technique using soft X-ray as illuminative source. It fills the gap between optical and electron microscopy. Soft X-ray microscopes have better resolution than visible microscopes. In comparison with electron microscopes, it can examine thick (up to 10 micrometers for biological samples) and wet specimens in their natural states without being dehydrated, sectioned and stained. In addition, soft X-ray microscopy can map elements and analyze the biological macromolecules such as protein and DNA in the examined samples. In this paper, the advantages of soft X-ray microscopy for biology are briefly described. The applications of soft X-ray microscopy to the analysis of mammal and human sperm are illustrated.