The lack of specificity for tumor cells, which is associated with conventional cancer chemotherapy, is the main cause of failure of a new anticancer agent. Therefore, majority of the currently available anticancer drugs are designed to have selective toxicity to rapidly dividing cells. Among these agents and the focus of many studies are compounds obtained from natural products with high therapeutic index. In this study the cytotoxicity of HESA-A (a marine biological compound) was evaluated on cancer and normal cells.
HESA-A was dissolved in normal saline (pH 1.5), shacked for 30 minutes and filtered. Prior to its use, this stock solution (0.8 mg/ml, pH 7.4) was sterilized using 0.22 microbiological filters and diluted to final concentrations of 0.4, 0.2, 0.1 and 0.05 mg/ml. 180 l of cells (MDA-MB-468, HepII, Hela as cancer cells; L929 and McCoy as normal cells) were grown in completed RPMI1640 and seeded in 96 well micro plates at a concentration of 1-5 x 104 cells/ml. After their incubation for 24 hours, 20 l of different concentrations of HESA-A was added and cells were further incubated for 72 hours. Using MTT assay, percent cell survival was determined by ELISA at 540 nm. Doxorubicin was used as a positive control.
HESA-A (0.1 mg/ml) reduced the number of viable MDA-MB-468 cells to less than 50%. For Hela and HepII cells the IC50's were 0.2 and 0.4 mg/ml, respectively. In normal cells IC50 was not obtained at any given concentration. Therefore these results suggest that HESA-A selectively and in a concentration dependent manner inhibits the growth of cancer cells.

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Recent neurochemical studies suggest that alterations in functions of the central neurotransmitters may be involved in addiction. Serotonin (5-HT), dopamine (DA) and endogenous opiate are the most important neurotransmitters involved in addiction. Nucleus raphe dorsalis (NRD) on the other hand is the important site that secrete or modulate these substances. Release of 5-HT can be evoked by focal electrical stimulation of NRD. In this study electrical stimulation (30 min: pulse 0.5 ms, 150 A, 20 Hz) of the antero-dorsal part of the nucleus raphe dorsalis produced significant decrease in initiation of morphine self-administration during 10 consecutive 2-h sessions. During all sessions lever-pressing behavior was measured. After the last test session, morphine withdrawal syndrome signs (wet dog shakes, jumping, writhing and diarrhea) in the naloxone-induced behavior, were measured. The results show that these withdrawal syndrome signs are decreased by application of electrical stimulation of NRD. It is concluded that electrical stimulation of NRD enhances the serotonergic and endogenous opiate transmission, and this activation might be involved in reduction of craving for morphine.

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A single channel flow injection manifold for spectrophotometric determination of ascorbic acid is described. The method is based on the on-line reduction of mono (1,10 Phenanthroline)-iron (III) complex to tris (1,10-Phenanthroline) - iron (II) complex by reducing action of dienol group of ascorbic acid and the absorbance of the resultant tris chelate was monitored at 510 nm. The effects of reaction coil length, sample volume, flow rate and the reagent concentration on the analytical signal are discussed. A calibration curve for ascorbic acid over the range 0-50 ppm, under optimized conditions is reported. The proposed method was sensitive, rapid (sample rate of 200 s/h) and reproducible (R.S.D 0.5%, n=15). Satisfactory results were obtained in the determination of ascorbic acid in Pharmaceutical preparations.

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This study was designed to examine the hypoglycaemic effects of methanolic extract of Hypoxis hemerocallidea (family: Hypoxidaceae) corm (commonly known as 'African Potato') in normal (normoglycaemic) and in streptozotocin-induced diabetic (hyperglycaemic) rats. Adult, male Wistar rats (Rattus norvegicus) weighing 250-300 g were used. 1, 2, 4, 8 and 24 hours after oral administration of graded doses of African Potato methanolic extract (APME, 100-800 mg/kg p.o.) into the rats, blood samples were taken from the tail veins of the rats, and blood glucose concentrations were determined by using Bayer's Glucometer EliteÒ and blood glucose strips. Glibenclamide (5 mg/kg p.o.) was used as reference antidiabetic drug for comparison. Following acute treatment, relatively moderate to high doses of APME (100-800 mg/kg p.o.) produced dose dependent, significant (p<0.05-0.001) reductions in the blood glucose concentrations of both normal and diabetic rats. The plant extract-induced maximal reductions in the blood glucose concentrations of normal and diabetic rats were found to be 35.07% and 55.32% respectively. Glibenclamide (5 mg/kg p.o.) also produced significant (p<0.01-0.001) reductions in the blood glucose concentrations of normal and diabetic rats. Glibenclamide induced maximal reductions in the blood glucose concentrations of normal and diabetic rats were found to be 46.27% and 68.71% respectively. Although 'African Potato' is less potent than glibenclamide as an antidiabetic agent, the results of this experimental study indicate that the herb possesses hypoglycaemic activity, and thus, lend credence to the suggested folkloric use of ‘African Potato’ in the management of adult-onset diabetes mellitus in some communities of South Africa.

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Bilateral cataract extraction (BCE) with posterior chamber intraocular lens implantation (PCIOL) were performed on 252 patients (504 eyes). Comparison our findings with that of unila- teral cataract surgery revealed no untoward complications. Furthermore, the results of bilateral cataract surgery was found reliable and predictable. The study was retrospective and conducted over a 7 years period.
No major intra or post operative complications related to surgical procedure was encountered.
The incidence of minor intraoperative complications observed in 7.34% of the patients.
The results were encouraging and indicative of safety and efficiency of this procedure. Final visual acuity of 20/40 or better was achieved in 86.7% of the patients.
Our results in this study suggested that there are no specific intra or postoperative risk factors of bilateral cataract surgery and the visual results are good. We therefore conclude that if the operation is indicated, under particular plan this procedure is practicable.

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Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder characterized by insufficient insulin secretion and/or insensitive target tissues to metabolic actions of insulin. Despite progressive efforts in production of synthetic drugs for treating diabetic patients there is a widespread propensity of patients to herbal medicine. Among these herbal remedies consumption of Kombucha tea (a solution of Kombucha mushroom cultivated in sweeted black tea) is relatively popular in some societies as an antidiabetic drink. On the other hand black tea (camellia sinensise) is a normal drink approximately in all societies. A casecontrol clinical trial study was conducted to evaluate the effect of black tea and Kombucha tea on blood glucose level in diabetic rats. In this study Wistar male rats with a free access to normal diet and lightdark cycle were used in room temperature of 22-25°C. Diabetes mellitus was induced on 15 rats by intraperitoneal injection of 60 mg/kg BW Streptozotocin. The diabetic animals (with blood glucose level equal or more than 300 mg/dl) divided equally into two groups. The animals in group 1 consumed black tea and in group 2 Kombucha tea instead of fresh water while animals in group 3 consumed fresh water. The blood samples were obtained from each animal in 3, 7 and 15 days after diabetic induction and blood glucose level in these stages relative to that in the onset of diabetes induction and were compared with each other. Our data showed that blood sugar level of both the black tea and Kombucha tea consuming diabetic rats declined significantly (p<0.01). The blood sugar of the control group however remained at normal levels (p<0.107). There was no significant differences between black tea and Kombucha tea groups (p<0.273). Therefore, if there is any antidiabetic effect in Kombucha tea, it seems to be due to some components of black tea which is the basic element in production of Kombucha tea.

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Chronic renal failure (CRF) may be associated with moderate to severe alteration of thyroid hormones metabolism. Dialysis does not significantly normalize these abnormalities, but transplantation leads to improve the condition. In this study to evaluate the relationship between serum levels of thyroid hormones and transplanted kidney function first thyroid hormones were measured in 30 patients under dialysis selected for renal transplantation. The results were compared with those of 40 control individuals. After renal transplantation the patients treated with Cyclosporine, Prednisolone and Azatioprine were divided into two subgroups according to their serum levels of urea nitrogen, creatinine and kidney functions: Patients with primary graft function (group I) and patients with delayed graft function (group II). The thyroid hormones were evaluated in two groups. In hemodialyzed patients, the mean levels of measured thyroid hormones were at normal range but comparing with the control, mean levels of these hormones were low except T3 uptake (T3 UP) which was increased. No changes were observed in the levels of TSH. Ten days after graft, reduction in the serum levels of thyroid hormones were observed and elevation of T3 uptake was found in both groups. The alterations in group II were more than group I. In the 30th day after graft, changes in group I reached to normal levels and comparing with those of before operation marked improvement was noticed, but comparing with that of control the levels of FT3 TT3, TT4 and FTI were still low. In the group II the levels of TT3 and FTI were lower than that of normal and comparing with those of before operation reduction in the levels of TT4, TT3, FT3, FT4 and FTI was found. It was concluded that there is relationship between the levels of thyroid hormones and function of transplanted kidney and it is more significant in the cases of TT4 and TT3.

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We present here the development of a rapid, simple and reliable nonradioactive method for the quantification of mRNA by competitive reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (cRT-PCR) and silver staining after the polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). This technique does not require any labeling or blotting procedures. In this method, the RNA is reverse transcribed in the presence of an internal cellular RNA standard (cRNA) and amplified by the PCR using specific set of primers. The silver staining and scanning densitometry of the polyacrylamide gel allows the detection and quantitation of the target sequence. The quantitation of the target mRNA is performed by comparison with the cRNA and expressed per g of total cellular RNA (TC-RNA). This technique was used to study the platelet derived growth factor-A (PDGF-A) mRNA levels in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMN) from adult healthy human subjects (n = 10) as a measure of gene expression. We demostrate that use of cRT-PCR and silver staining provides sensitive and reproducible quantitation linear with the amount of PDGF-A mRNA in the sample. This simple method can be adapted to study the expression of any cellular or viral gene of known sequence and no radioactive substance or blotting method is required to quantify PCR products.

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