Introduction: Cardiac and blood vessel diseases are major problems in the developed and developing countries. The most important cause of these diseases is atherosclerosis, that high density of plasma lipids is considered the main factor in its appearance and development. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of kombucha extract on plasma lipoproteins, and liver enzymes in male Wi star rats.Materials and Methods: Animals were divided into 4 groups: l) Control group which received normal water and food diet.2) Sham group which received water and high fat diet (included: 66.5g carbohydrate, 20.lg fat, and 4.49g protein).3) Experimental group 1 received high fat diet and kombucha extract.4) Experimental group 2, received food diet and kombucha extract. The kombucha extract was poured in a container and was put in access of the animals. The duration of the treatment has been continued for 8 weeks. After weighting, the animals were anesthetized with ether. After treatment for 8 weeks, blood serum was prepared and the concentrations of triglyceride, cholesterol, plasma lipoproteins and liver enzymes such as AST and AL T were measured.Results: The results showed that the serum level of cholesterol, LDL, AST and ALT in both experimental groups had no significant decrease as compared with control group, but serum level of HDL had decreased significantly as compared to the control group (p<0.05). On the other hand, serum level of TG in both experimental groups indicated significant decreases as compared to the control group (p<0.001).Conclusion: The use of the kombucha extract can decrease triglyceride and increase HDL serum. Therefore this extract might be used in treating diseases such as cardiac and blood vessel diseases.

Background: Bacterial zoonoses have the first priority in laboratory rat colonies to be considered, monitored and eradicated. These bacteria count as health risk factors for personnel and researchers and may interfere with experimental results. In this study, conventional laboratory rats from three breeding colonies including Salmonella typhimurium, Salmonella enteritidis, Streptobacillus moniliformis, Pasteurella pneumotropica and Streptococcus pneumonia, were screened for detection of five bacterial zoo noses.Methods: Study population were carried out for 60 rats of same numbers of male and female of the three breeds including, Sprague Dawley, Wistar and NMRI of 3-4, 6-8 and 25 weeks ages. Animals were allocated in a random fashion as 20 animals for each breed. Two hundred and forty specimens of nasopharynx (n=120), cecum (n=60) and liver (n=60) were taken from all animals and cultured for bacteriological tests.Findings: Mentioned zoonotic bacteria were absent in all of specimens; however in 82.1% of the specimens, commonly nonpathogenic bacteria, mainly Escherichia coli, Bacillus spp, Streptococcus other than Streptobacillus moniliformis, and Entrobacter aero genes were observed. There was significant difference in value of infection to nonzoonotic bacteria only between first two age groups of animals with 25 weeks age group in three breed rats (P<0.001).Conclusion: Results of our study recommend that use of these animals have no human risk or research interferences for mentioned zoonotic bacteria.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the degenerative diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), which results in the destruction of myelin sheath. MS could be induced in laboratory animals, by injection of ethidium bromide (EB) into Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF). This disease may cause impotence or subfertility in men. The objective of this study was to evaluate the role of MS on spermatogenesis, sperm parameters such as... and sex hormones of wistar rats. A total of 36 rats (5 weeks old) were divided into 3 groups of control, sham and experimental. 20ul of physiological saline was injected into cerebellomedullary cistern (CC) of rats in sham group, and, 20ul of EB was injected into CC of experimental group. One week after EB injection, two rats from each group were killed randomly to investigate the morphology of pons. The rest were killed 5 weeks after injections to study the spermatogenic cells, sperm parameters and sex hormones. The results showed that sperm progressive motility was significantly reduced from 74.4±2.2 in control group to 60.6±1.4 in experimental group (p<0/001). Also, the number of round cells was increased from /73±0/1 in control group to 2.16±/25 in experimental group (p</001). However, the number of spermatogonial cells, primary spermatocytes, and spermatids were insignificantly reduced in experimental group. The number of spermatozoa as well as leydig cells was reduced in experimental group comparing with other groups (p<0/05).Concentrations of FSH, LH and testosterone in experimental group have also reduced. In conclusion, experimental MS. can alter the spermatogenic cells, sperm motility, as well as FSH, LH and testosterone hormones concentrations, which may influence the fertility potentials of rats.

Background: Ferula assa-foetida is an herbaceous plant from Apiaceae family. Several pharmacological effects of oleo-gum resin of this plant were introduced in modern and traditional medicines such as digestive, antimicrobial, anti-diabetic, appetizing, insecticidal, and etc. Objectives: This study aimed to acute and sub-chronic toxicity of chloroform fraction of oleo-gum extract of Ferula in Wistar rats. The safety of this can guarantee its use in treatment and various industries. Methods: Rats in six groups including male and female (kept separately) at different doses (50 mg/kg, 500 mg/kg, and 2000 mg/kg) and two control groups (control and DMSO( were selected to evaluate the acute toxicity of chloroform fraction of Ferula. For 30 days, 50 mg/kg and 250 mg/kg of sample was administrated to male and female rats. Mortality, appearance and behavioral changes, food intake, the weight of rats, and hematological, biochemical variables and histopathological changes were examined. Results: Physical and behavioral changes were not observed in acute and sub-chronic toxicity conditions. Food intake significantly differed between male and female DMSO control and other groups. In biochemical variables study, only SGOT (AST) showed a significant difference from the control group (DMSO) in acute toxicity and BUN, ALP and SGOT (AST) in sub-chronic toxicity. Also, any histopathological change was observed in spleen, liver, and kidney organs. Conclusion: Oleo-gum resin of F. assa-foetida has not toxic effects, so it should be used with caution in the long term.

Introduction: Obesity and increase of body weight are major problems in developed and developing countries and they are the most important cause of atherosclerosis, cardiac and blood vessels diseases.The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of kombucha extract on the rate of compact visceral lipid and body weight and triglyceride in male Wistar rats.Methods: Animals were divided in 4 groups: 1) Control group which received water and food diet.2) Sham group which received water and high fat diet (included: 66.5g Carbohydrate, 20.1g Fat, and 4.49g protein). 3) Experimental group1 received high fat diet and kombucha extract.4) Experimental group 2, received food diet and kombucha extract. The duration of the treatment continued for 8 weeks.After weighting, the animals were anesthetized with ether. After treatment (8 weeks), blood serum was prepared and amount of triglyceride was measured, and the weight compact lipid in their body was collected and their weight was determined.Findings: The results showed that the weight of animals after the treatment period was decreased (p<0.05). On the other hand, the weight of visceral lipid in both experimental groups as compared with control group was significantly decreased (p<0.001).On the other hand, serum level of TG in both experimental groups were showed significant decrease as compared with control group (p<0.001).Conclusion: using of the kombucha extract can cause losing weight, and decrease lipid storage and also decrease triglyceride. Thus probably this extract could be used in treating diseases such as obesity and cardiac and blood vessel diseases.