BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES (DANISH-I ZISTI-I IRAN)
Year:2009 | Volume:3 | Issue:4|Papers Count:7

Olive (Olea europeae L.) is a tree that has been used as a hepatoprotective and antioxidant agent in traditional medicine. In present study, the protective effects of ethanolic extract of olive leaves in rats were evaluated. Wistar rats were orally treated with olive leaves extract (10, 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg) along with administration of CCl4 (50% CCl4/sunflower oil; 1ml/kg) for 28 days. The results showed that the treatment of olive leaves extract significantly lowered the CCl4-induced serum levels of hepatic enzyme markers AST (aspartate amino transferase) and ALT (alanine amino transferase). Therefore, the results of the study suggest that the extract could protect liver against the CCl4-induced oxidative damage in rats, and this hepatoprotective effect might be attributed to its modulation on detoxification enzymes, its antioxidant and free radical scavenger effects.

Iron deficiency affects some portion of the global population, as most widespread nutrient deficiency. The early stage of iron deficiency can be recognized by abnormalities in serum ferritin (SF), zinc protoporphyrin (ZPP), and some other related blood factors. The more advanced stage of iron deficiency, iron deficiency anemia (IDA), occurs when anemia develops. Iron-deficiency anemia in pregnant women continues to remain a major preventable cause of unfavorable prenatal outcome, even increasing the mortality. Difficulties in determination of serum iron level concentration in both pregnant women and newborns causes makes the investigations to be further complicated. Under a cross-sectional study a sample test is carried out pregnant women and newborns. Pregnant are studied in three categories of Iron depletion anemia, Iron deficiency erythropoiesis and Iron deficiency anemia.There are no significant statistical differences between maternal age and weeks of gestation and also the mean birth weight. Except for SF and ZPP, increase of other serum factors cause the similar behavior in newborn’s blood factors level, although no significant statistical differences are seen (p<0.05). It is generally assumed that the iron status of the fetus, and subsequently the infants, are quite independent of maternal iron status during pregnancy.

Euphrates Turtles, Refetus euphraticus, belongs to Trionychidae family. In this research 32 Euphrates Turtles were collected from different habitats in Khuzestan Province during 2007-2008, were studied in terms of their biology and morphometry. In contrary to the other turtles R. euphraticus possesses a soft shell with soft and flexible edges. Their carapaces are round to oval shape and the color in non-adults is olive-green with yellow, beige or white spots. In adults, however, there are either no spots on the shell or there are limited or darker spots. The head is elongated and its tube-shaped snout is short and thick covered by fleshy lobes. The neck is relatively long and flexible. All its front and hind toes are paddled and only 3 of its toes, in both front and hind paws, possess claws. They are carnivorous and lay 4-5 eggs per year. The size of the eggs is average 28.95 mm in diameter. The statistical data indicates no meaningful difference in characteristics and appearance between male and female. Maximum of the relative abundance of the weight (57.5%) was till 5 kg. Maximum of the relative abundance of the carapace's length (24%) was between 30-40 cm. Maximum of the relative abundance of the carapace's width (31%), maximum of the relative abundance of the plastron's length (28%) and maximum of the relative abundance of the plastron's width (21%) were between 25-30 cm.Maximum of the relative abundance of the tail length1 (from the end of the plastron to the end of the tail) (46%) was between 5-15 cm. Maximum of the relative abundance of the tail length2 (from the end of the plastron to the initial part of the cloak) (19%) was between 10-12.5 cm. In this research sexual ratio (male/female) was 1/0.7.

During the production of recombinant protein, hbFGF loses the correct conformation and is deposited into the insoluble form. The aggregates accumulate into inclusion bodies, which are known to be inactive. Protein aggregation is one of the major challenges of recombinant protein production.Therefore increasing solubility is a primary goal of recombinant protein production. The general strategy for preventing or decreasing aggregation in the host cell is co-expression of molecular chaperones along with the target protein. TF-16, pG-Tf2 and pET-1008 (human basic Fibroblast Growth Factor cDNA inserted to pET-22b) were transformed separately by CaCl2 and heat shock into the E.coli. The chaperones and hbFGF were induced and co-expressed by L-arabinose, tetracycline and IPTG. The soluble and insoluble fraction of hbFGF were separated and then compared by SDS-PAGE, western blotting and ELISA. Our results clearly indicate that trigger factor (TF) could increase solubility of hbFGF, but simultaneous overexpression of TF and GroEL promote total hbFGF degradation. However, overexpression of TF alone appeared to be sufficient for preventing aggregation of hbFGF but TF and GroEL-GroES play cooperative roles in assisting degradation of hbFGF. We showed that plasmid TF-16 was able to decrease the insolubility of hbFGF and could increase the soluble fraction.

Nitrogen is prone to serious losses (more than 50%) under paddy field conditions. Splitting fertilizer-N (to supply N-demands of rice s growth in key stages) is an imperative practice in fertilizer dressing management in paddy fields. This study was under taken to provide information to how the rice variety (improved var. shafagh) will respond to some best (recommended) split of fertilizer-N (urea) and some N-spray at heading stage, while hill spacing is quite densely (20cm×20cm) established.For the improved variety of shafagh, different N-splitting treatments could not significantly prove any superiority as far as Rice yield was concerned, and the same was true for different N-spray treatments at heading stage. But all the 3 best N-splitting could bring the yield level much higher (at least 1.5 ton per hectare) than ever obtained by this variety in the region. In fact, this completely new yield level (9160 kg ha-1) for the variety of shafagh which was obtained under densely plant population (20cm x 20cm) is a new challenge for rice production in the region. Challenge for sustainability of the new yield increase (1.5 tons per hectare) will open the scope in research to involve new farming practices.

L-asparaginase II from Echerchia coli has been supplied and employed in the acute leukemia. In this investigation, the various strains of E. coli including LAB, K12, DH5a and TOPTEN were tested for ansB gene by PCR reaction. The strains with ansB gene were cultured and as the absorbance at 600 nm reached to 1, the expression was induced by anaerobic induction. After induction, cells were harvested and the supernatant and periplasmic content of cells were tested for asparaginase activity.Asparaginase activity was measured by determining the rate of amonia formation. Screening of E. coli strains by PCR reaction revealed the ansB gene in LAB, K12 and DH5a strains of E. coli. Neither periplasmic nor supernatant of these strains had asparaginase activity aerobically. The amonia formation in all strains was almost the same anaerobically and about 0.01 mmol (3.6 unit/ml). The maximum enzyme production was at induction duration of 1 hour in E. coli LAB and DH5a, and 40 minutes in E. coli K12. The enzyme production was decreased 3 hours after anaerobic induction (2-2.5unit/ml).

The aim of this study was to compare the effect of mode of exercise on pulmonary and cardiovascular responses to progressive intensity exercise during the early follicular and luteal phases of the menstrual cycle. Twenty healthy, trained women volunteered to participate in the study. The inactive group included of 20 students who didn’t taken part in any regular physical activities. Each group of participants was randomly classified in to two equal groups (treadmill; T and cycle ergometer; CE). An incremental graded exercise test (GXT) was conducted on a cycle ergometer (Astrand test) and treadmill (Bruse test) in the early follicular and luteal of menstrual phases until they were unable to continue. The participant performed an incremental bout of exercise on T and CE during their early follicular and luteal phases until they were exhausted. The luteal phase was determined by the level of progesterone, prolactin, FSH and LH hormones in serum samples. The pulmonary gas analyzer (K4B2) was applied to measure the, oxygen pulse (VO2/HR) in two phases. T-tests were performed to detect baseline differences across menstrual phases by mode of exercise. The results indicated no significant differences in maximal VO2/HR across the menstrual cycle of active and inactive females.Additionally, the differences between average of VO2/HR were significant in mode of exercise in the inactive group (p<0.05) and there is not differences in active group. It seems that because of the physical depression during menstrual cycle, which is due to the female inactivity, the replacement of running with cycling, with the aim of making physical activity simpler and encouraging female to continue their activity during this time, is not recommendable in active female.