Escin attenuates oxidative damage, apoptosis and lipid peroxidation in a model of cyclophosphamide-induced liver damage.

To investigate the effects of escin (ES) on acute damage induced by alkylating agent, experimental rats were injected with cyclophosphamide (CPM) to cause liver damage. The animals were divided into four groups: Control Group, CPM (200 mg/kg), ES (10 mg/kg), CPM, and ES Groups. Immunohistopathological, hepatic histopathological, and biochemical changes were analyzed. The activities of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), malondyaldehyde (MDA), glutathion (GSH), total oxidant status (TOS) and total antioxidant status (TAS) in serum were all determined. Serum and immunohistopathology analysis revealed that MDA, ALT, AST, LDH, TOC and OSI, caspase-3 and Bax levels had increased while GSH, TAC, Bcl- 2 and OSI levels decreased in CPM Group when compared to Control Group. These findings appear to account for the severe damage detected. In the CPM + ES treated group, positive improvements were found in biochemical parameters as well as in cell-death and tissue-related damage parameters.The results show that ES considerably protects the rat liver against CPM-induced hepatotoxicity thanks to because of its anti-oxidant and anti-apoptotic properties.

A rapid diagnostic approach for gastric and colon cancers via Fourier transform mid-infrared spectroscopy coupled with chemometrics from paraffin-embedded tissues.

This paper describes the feasibility of Attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform mid-infrared (ATR-MIR) spectroscopy method coupled with chemometrics for the rapid diagnostic approach and screening spectral changes for gastric and colon cancers from paraffin-embedded tissues. A total number of 82 tissue samples were analyzed by a simple ATR-MIR method combined with PCA, HCA, SIMCA and LDA methodologies. Spectral analyses showed significant differences for the molecular contents particularly about the lipid, nucleic acid, protein and other biomolecules in the samples of gastric cancer (GC) and colon cancer (CC) groups from their control/healthy groups. Significant changes in the characteristic of these molecules were only observed for cancer groups based upon the increment in their biosynthesis, and they could be utilized as diagnostic spectral biomarkers. Under the optimum conditions, SIMCA provided excellent classification for diseased and control groups, with 5% significance level. As well, 97.75% of the studied tissue samples were correctly discriminated on the basis of their origin by LDA. Consequently, the findings of this study highlighted the rapid diagnosis of gastric and colon cancer cases from paraffin-embedded tissues via ATR-MIR spectroscopy complemented with chemometrics.

Parathyroid hormone in washout fluid seems to be superior to cytology for localization of the lesion in MIBI-negative patients with primary hyperparathyroidism

Background/aim: Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is characterized by increased calcium (Ca) and parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels. Surgical removal of the culprit hyperfunctioning parathyroid gland is the preferred treatment. In this study, we aimed to determine whether PTH-washout or cytological examination of suspicious lesions was superior in MIBI-negative patients diagnosed with PHPT.Materials and methods: We retrospectively evaluated the medical records of 98 patients diagnosed with PHPT. Seventy-six patients who had positive parathyroid scintigraphy and who did not undergo parathyroidectomy in our center due to various reasons were excluded. We evaluated the remaining 22 patients with negative scintigraphy. Medical records including PTH levels in serum and washout fluid of fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB), biochemical data, cytological results of FNAB, and histologic reports were reviewed.Results: The patients had a mean age of 50 +- 9 (31-72) years, serum Ca of 10.9 +- 0.5 (10.3-12.7) mg/dL, serum PTH of 285 +- 156 (107.2-679) pg/mL, and PTH of washout fluid of 19,523 +- 38,632 (1410-166,000) pg/mL. Cytological evaluation revealed insufficient material in 9 patients and cells of indeterminate origin in 4 patients.Conclusion: Our results showed that when evaluating ambiguous lesions on neck ultrasound, measuring the PTH level in washout fluid of FNAB is a reliable and effective method for diagnosis of parathyroid lesions and is superior to FNAB for localization.