Superoxide dismutase and catalase activities and their correlation with malondialdehyde in schizophrenic patients

Free radical mediated pathological processes may have a role in schizophrenia. Free radicals (oxy radicals, such as superoxide, hydroxyl ions and nitric oxide) cause cell injury, when they are generated in excess or when the antioxidant defense is impaired. Both these processes seem to be affected in schizophrenia. In this study we investigated erythrocyte superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities as antioxidant enzymes, malondialdehyde (MDA) as a sign of lipid peroxidation in schizophrenic patients. Activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase and malondialdehyde were greater in patients compared with the control group which may reflect increased oxidative stress in the brain tissue of schizophrenics. In the patient group erythrocyte SOD and CAT activities were weakly negative correlated with MDA concentration. These data reveal that antioxidant defense mechanisms might be impaired in schizophrenic patients. These findings also provide a theoretical basis for the development of novel therapeutic strategies, such as antioxidant supplementation.     

Overexpression of Aldose Reductase Render Mouse Hepatocytes More Sensitive to Acetaminophen Induced Oxidative Stress and Cell Death

Acetaminophen (APAP) a commonly used drug for decrease the fever and pain but is capable to induced hepatotoxicity at over dose. This study was carried out to investigate the effect of APAP on the expression of anti-apoptotic and antioxidative defense genes, and whether aldose reductase over-expressing plasmid capable to protect against APAP-induced oxidative stress and cell death. APAP treatment induced oxidative stress and hepatotoxicity, and significantly increased aldose reductase mRNA and protein expression in mouse hepatocyte (AML-12). Unexpectedly, AML-12 cells over-expressing aldose reductase augmented APAP-induced reduction in cell viability, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, glutathione (GSH) depletion and glutathione S-transferase A2 expression. Moreover, over-expression of aldose reductase potentiated APAP induced reduction on proliferating cell nuclear antigen, B cell lymphoma-extra large (bcl-x_L), catalase, glutathione peroxidase-1 (GPx-1) and abolished APAP-induced B-cell lymphoma 2 (bcl-2) inductions. Further, over-expression of aldose reductase significantly abolished AMP activated protein kinase (AMPK) activity in APAP-treated cells and induced p53 expression. This results demonstrate that APAP induced toxicity in AML-12, increased aldose reductase expression, and over-expression of aldose reductase render this cell more susceptible to APAP induced oxidative stress and cell death, this probably due to inhibition AMPK or bcl-2 activity, or may due to competition between aldose reductase and glutathione reductase for NADPH.     

Serum oestradiol in women with carcinomas of the breast and uterine cervix

Endogenous oestrogens are thought to be involved in breast cancer, but few studies could show the direct relationship between hormones and pathological process of the disease. In the present study, oestradiol was estimated in the serum of pre-and postmenopausal breast cancer patients along with normal healthy controls and patients with carcinoma of the uterine cervix which is not dependent on oestrogens. Premenopausal patients with breast cancer showed higher levels of oestradiol as compared to premenopausal control women as well as cervical cancer patients. Whereas, no statistically significant differences were observed in serum oestradiol levels amongst postmenopausal groups of breast cancer, cervical cancer and normal women. The result of the study reflects the association of oestradiol as well as its difference in the pathological events of pre and postmenopausal breast cancer.     

Medicinal plants for treatment of diabetes mellitus

Many plants have been used for the treatment of diabetes mellitus in Indian system of medicine and in other ancient systems of the world. Out of these only a few have been evaluated as per modern system of medicine. From many such plants only extracts have been prepared and their usefulness evaluated in experimental diabetes in animals. In some plants likeAllium cepa, Allium sativum, Ficus bengalensis, Gymnema sylvestre, Pterocarpus marsupium etc. active hypoglycemic principles have been isolated and their mechanism of action studied. Most of them seem to act directly on pancreas (pancreatic effect) and stimulate insulin level in blood. Some have extra pancreatic effect also by acting directly on tissues like liver, muscle etc. and alter favourably the activities of the regulatory enzymes of glycolysis, gluconeogenesis and other pathways. Since the plant products have less side effects, they have the potential as good hypoglycemic drugs. They may also provide clues for the development of new and better oral drugs for diabetes.     

Serum apolipoproteins in the patients of myocardial infarction in different age groups

The level of serum cholesterol (Ch), serum-high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLc), serum-low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLc), serum very low density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDLc), Triglyceride (Tg), Apolipoprotein A-1, B and ratio of Apolipoprotein A1/B were observed in 151 survivors of myocardial infarction in different age groups. A significant increase was found in the level of triglyceride, LDLc, apolipoprotein-B and a significant decrease in apolipoprotein-A1 and the ratio of apolipoprotein A1/B. No significant alteration was found in serum cholesterol, HDLc except in the age group of 31–40 years and 41–50 years and VLDLc. Thus, serum Apo A-1 and Apo-B may be considerably better markers for coronary artery disease than traditional lipid parameters.     

Effect of <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">l</Emphasis>-Thyroxine on Micronuclei Frequency in Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes in Clinical and Experimental Conditions

The aim was to study the genotoxic effect of high concentration of thyroxine (T₄) in vivo in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) of the patients suffering from thyroid disorders. The effect was compared by performing in vitro experiments with addition of increasing concentration of T₄ (0.125–1 µM) in whole blood samples from healthy donors. Cytokinesis-blocked micronuclei (CBMN) assay method was used to assess the DNA damage in the PBL. The study included 104 patients which were grouped as control (n = 49), hyperthyroid (n = 31) and hypothyroid (n = 24). A significant increase in micronuclei (MN) frequency was observed in hyperthyroid patients when compared with the hypothyroid and euthyroid group thereby suggesting increased genotoxicity in hyperthyroidism (p < 0.001). A significant increase in MN frequency was observed at T₄ concentration of 0.5 µM and above when compared to lower T₄ concentrations (0.125 and 0.25 µM) and basal in in vitro experiments (p = 0.000). The results indicate that the T₄ in normal concentration does not exhibit the genotoxic effect, as observed in both the in vivo and in vitro experiments. The toxicity of T₄ increases at and above 0.5 μM concentration in vitro. Therefore acute T₄ overdose should be handled promptly and effectively so as to avoid the possible genotoxic effect of high concentration of T₄ in vivo.     

Place of salivary β glucuronidase activity in head & neck cancers

Salivary β-glucuronidase activity was studied in 20 healthy subjects without habits and 10 with habits, 38 untreated patients of advanced head and neck cancer and 21 patients after treatment either after surgery or radiation. Salivary β-glucuronidase activity was elevated in untreated cases of head and neck cancer (p<0.001), with a fall in the activity after treatment. The post operative fall in the activity of salivary β-glucuronidase activity was highly significant (p<0.001) as compared to post radiation. This test can be utilized in the diagnosis and also for monitoring the course of the disease.     

A citation-based document retrieval system for finding research expertise

Current citation-based document retrieval systems generally offer only limited search facilities, such as author search. In order to facilitate more advanced search functions, we have developed a significantly improved system that employs two novel techniques: Context-based Cluster Analysis (CCA) and Context-based Ontology Generation frAmework (COGA). CCA aims to extract relevant information from clusters originally obtained from disparate clustering methods by building relationships between them. The built relationships are then represented as formal context using the Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) technique. COGA aims to generate ontology from clusters relationship built by CCA. By combining these two techniques, we are able to perform ontology learning from a citation database using clustering results. We have implemented the improved system and have demonstrated its use for finding research domain expertise. We have also conducted performance evaluation on the system and the results are encouraging.     

Some biochemical markers in various neoplasms: A multivariate analysis

The analysis of biochemical parameters in 162 patients with various neoplastic disorders along with 50 normal subjects showed significant rise in serum alkaline phosphatase and lactate dehydrogenase as compared to normal subjects. 21 patients with other monoclonal gammopathies which include infection and immunological diseases were also studied. Parameters such as serum calcium, uric acid, total protein, albumin and globulin were also analyzed in 42 (26%) cases of multiple myeloma, 27 (17%) cases of gastro-intestinal malignancies, 22 (14%) cases of urogenital malignancies, 11 (6%) cases of carcinoma breast, 4 (2%) cases of bone tumors, 21 (12%) cases of other monoclonal gammopathies, including 7 (4%) cases of infection and 14 (8%) cases of immunological diseases. The results indicate use of enzymes alkaline phosphatase and lactate dehydrogenase in neoplastic disorders.