Resveratrol inhibits rhabdomyosarcoma cell proliferation.

Rhabdomysarcoma is the most common soft tissue tumour in children under the age of 15. Although the introduction of multimodal treatment programmes, including chemotherapy, radiation therapy and excision have increased the overall survival, the chemotherapeutic agents currently used for the treatment of rhabdomyosarcoma exhibit considerable toxicity. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects and possible mechanism(s) of action of resveratrol on human embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) cells. Resveratrol is a natural polyphenolic compound produced in a number of edible plants and has received considerable attention as a potential chemopreventive and/or chemotherapeutic agent against various types of cancers. In the present study, resveratrol was shown to inhibit cell proliferation of RD cells in a dose-dependent manner with an IC50 of 48.1 micromol/l and induce an arrest in the S/G2 phase of the cell cycle. As evident from immunocytochemical data, resveratrol treatment increased the size of the RD cells. Furthermore, resveratrol treatment resulted in a significant downregulation of cyclin B expression as demonstrated by western blot analyses. In conclusion, the present study shows that resveratrol exerts a strong inhibition of rhabdomyosarcoma cell proliferation in part by arresting cells in S/G2 phase of the cell cycle. These findings warrant further investigation to establish potential use of resveratrol as a relatively non-toxic chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of rhabdomyosarcoma.     

Public health policies for the common interest: rethinking EU states’ incentives strategies when a pandemic reshuffles all interests

The European Journal of Health Economics -     

Traditional medicine of Baja California Sur (Mexico) II

Continuing our studies of traditional medicine, as used in rural areas of Baja California Sur, now we wish to report on the medicinal uses of 49 more plants. Some of the more complex recipes of these medicinal plants, are discussed in the present paper. The information presented here was collected in the Municipio of Los Cabos and part of the Municipio of La Paz, B.C.S., Mexico.     

Usefulness of stochastic analysis of body weight as a tool in experimental aging research

The statistical characteristics of body weight in a number of longitudinally studied mouse populations were examined. Frequency distribution of body weights appears to be rather “fluid” (though within a strict range), changing from symmetric to positively skewed to symmetric and finally to negatively skewed as the mice pass through the stages of early maturity, middle age, and senescence. Because body weight is a highly integrated physiological variable, it is postulated that various diets which affect survivorship would affect body weight frequency distribution similarly. The data from studies with an antioxidant diet and two toxic diets support this hypothesis. In general, the effects on body weight can be assessed in a relatively short time (6–9 months) after initiation of the experiment and 4–6 months before the effect of the experimental diet is manifested in the population's survivorship, thus offering an analytical tool for considerable shortening of the duration of such studies.