Effect of betel/areca nut (Areca catechu) extracts on intestinal epithelial cell lining

Carcinogenic and other toxic manifestations of areca/betel nut extracts on the buccal cavity and upper digestive tract are well documented. The present study deals with in vivo and in situ effects of aqueous and alcoholic extracts of areca nut on rat intestinal epithelial cell membrane. In vivo daily oral administration by gastric intubation for 1p w produced significant declines in brush border membrane alkaline phosphatase, Ca2+-Mg2+-ATPase, and the digestive enzyme sucrase. The decline in activities were more prominent after 4-w exposures. Instant short term in situ exposure to aqueous extract produced higher enzyme activities, indicating the initial activation of active sites by areca nut extract constituent(s). Significant declines in brush border membrane constituents (total hexose, sialic acid and cholesterol) were also evident following continuous exposures to areca nut extracts. These findings suggest that prolonged chewing of areca nut causes significant alterations in intestinal epithelial cell lining functions and could lead to malabsorption of nutrients.     

Reduction of Chromium-VI by Chromium Resistant Lactobacilli: A Prospective Bacterium for Bioremediation

Chromium is a toxic heavy metal, which primarily exists in two inorganic forms, Cr (VI) and Cr (III). Highly soluble hexavalent chromium is carcinogenic due to its oxidizing nature. It is well established that the intestinal bacteria including Lactobacilli have regulatory effect on intestinal homeostasis and a breakdown in the relationship between intestinal cells and bacteria results in the manifestation of gastrointestinal (GI) disorders. In this study Cr (VI) resistance was developed in Lactobacillus strains and the reduction of Cr (VI) was evaluated. All resistant strains showed similarities with their respective normal strains and did not acquire resistance to various antibiotics. A complete bacterial reduction of 32ppm Cr (VI) was observed within 6 to 8 hours. The presence of chromate reducing enzyme have also been established following the partial purification (2 to 5 fold) and characterization of chromate reductase in Lactobacillus strains. The chromate reductase of our strains showed optimum activity at pH 6.0 and 30°C. To our knowledge; these strains are fast in Cr (VI) reduction than any other known bacteria. The results suggest that chromate- resistant Lactobacillus strains would be useful for chromium detoxification from GI-tract as well as for bioremediation of hexavalent chromium from contaminated environment.     

Optimal control study to enhance oil production in labscale Vapex by varying solvent injection pressure with time

In this study, we determine and validate optimal policies of solvent injection pressure versus time to enhance oil production in labscale Vapex or vapor extraction of heavy oil. The study utilizes propane as solvent for a heavy oil of viscosity 14 500 mPa s. The necessary conditions for maximum oil production are derived using a detailed mass transfer model with interfacial solvent concentration versus time as a control function. Based on these conditions, a computational algorithm is developed and implemented to determine the optimal control, which is then converted into the optimal policy of solvent injection pressure versus time using experimental data. The experiments demonstrate that the optimal policy enhances oil production by 20–37% compared with that using constant solvent injection pressure. Moreover, the average deviation of the optimally calculated oil production from its experimental counterpart, both obtained using the same optimal solvent injection policy, is found to be a low value of 4.8%. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Radiation-induced galectin-1 by endothelial cells: a promising molecular target for preferential drug delivery to the tumor vasculature

The present study reports on a new strategy for selective, radiation therapy-amplified drug delivery using an antiangiogenic 33-a.a., tumor vasculature-targeting ligand, anginex, to improve the therapeutic ratio for strategies developed against solid tumors. Our findings indicate that galectin-1 is (a) one of the major receptors for anginex (b) overexpressed by tumor neovasculature and (c) further specifically upregulated in endothelial cells in response to radiation exposure as low as 0.5 Gy. An investigation of [18]-F-labeled anginex biodistribution in SCK tumors indicates that anginex is an effective targeting molecule for image and radiation-guided therapy of solid tumors. An anginex-conjugated liposome capable of being loaded with drug was shown to selectively target endothelial cells post-radiation. The presence of endothelial cells in a three-dimensional co-culture system with tumor cells developed to study tumor/endothelial cell interactions in vitro led to higher levels of galectin-1 and showed a further increase in expression upon radiation exposure when compared to tumor cell spheroids alone. Similar increase in galectin-1 was observed in tumor tissue originating from the tumor‐endothelial cell spheroids in vivo and radiation exposure further induced galectin-1 in these tumors. The overall results suggest feasibility of using a clinical or subclinical radiation dose to increase expression of the galectin-1 receptor on the tumor microvasculature to promote delivery of therapeutics via the anginex peptide. This approach may reduce systemic toxicity, overcome drug resistance, and improve the therapeutic efficacy of conventional chemo/radiation strategies.     

Pregnancy‐Induced Hypertension is Associated With Altered Anatomical Patterns of Hyrtl's Anastomosis

Umbilical arteries carry the blood from the fetus to the placenta and are typically connected by Hyrtl's anastomosis, a connection that is located near where the umbilical cord meets the placenta. The investigation of the anastomosis in pathological conditions, including pregnancy‐induced hypertension is limited. Hence, 200 placenta and umbilical cords, 100 from normotensive and 100 from pregnancy‐induced hypertensive subjects, were dissected and measurements were recorded. A single anastomosis between the umbilical arteries was observed in167 specimens. In 16 cases, the two umbilical arteries were fused, in 15 cases there was no anastomosis, and in two cases there was a single umbilical artery. In one specimen from a normotensive case, a double anastomosis was observed. To our knowledge this is only the second report of this rare anatomical variant. When an anastomosis is present, the connecting vessel can be transverse to or form an oblique angle with the umbilical arteries. We observed a striking increase in the number of artery pairs connected by a transverse vessel in specimens from hypertensive subjects relative to those from normotensive subjects. Moreover, placentas from hypertensive donors were small if the umbilical arteries were connected by an oblique anastomosis. In addition, the length of the anastomosis and its distance from the cord insertion was shorter in specimens from hypertensive compared to normotensive subjects. We conclude that pregnancy‐induced hypertension alters the anatomy of Hyrtl's anastomosis, and in some circumstances, the placenta. Anat Rec, 297:819–825, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Suboptimal chlorine treatment of drinking water leads to selection of multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa

The present study was undertaken to investigate the spectrum of bacteria present in the River Gomti water before and after chlorination for drinking purposes. We observed that the strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa that survived chlorination on three out of seven occasions were resistant to almost all the antibiotics tested. The chlorine-resistant bacteria had mucoid colonies and grew better at 24 degrees C. All attempts to isolate the plasmid responsible for chlorine resistance were unsuccessful. Laboratory experiments using different strains of the P. aeruginosa in distilled water showed that only the resistant strain survived chlorine treatment at a dose of < or =500 microg/L. Similar results were obtained when water collected from seven different sites on the River Gomti was treated with graded doses of chlorine. At the higher dose of chlorine, all the bacteria died in 30 min, whereas with lower doses all the bacteria survived. The present study underscores the importance of measuring water chlorine concentrations to assure they are sufficiently high to remove pathogenic bacteria from drinking water. To our knowledge, this is the first report in the literature of the selection of multidrug-resistant bacteria by suboptimal chlorine treatment of water.     

Fructose 1, 6 bisphosphatase activities in mouse liver as a function of age

Neutral fructose 1, 6 bisphosphatase activity increases till 7 days, after which, a decline is observed postnatally upto 30 days. Alkaline fructose 1, 6 bisphosphatase follows the same pattern. The optimum activity of fructose 1, 6 bisphosphatase in mouse liver at pH 6.5 and 9.0 of all the periods, suggests the presence of both neutral and alkaline enzyme during the developmental period studied. On the basis of similarity observed in optimum pH, the same properties of enzyme at all the developmental stages studied, could not be ruled out.     

2,5-Hexanedione-induced immunomodulatory effect in mice

The immunotoxic potential of 2,5-hexanedione (2,5-Hxdn), the end metabolite of n-hexane/methyl n-butyl ketone, was evaluated in a mouse model involving multiple pathomorphological, hematological, and immunological assays. Young adult male Swiss albino mice were given either single or seven consecutive oral doses of 0.2 X LD50 of 2.5-Hxdn. None of the treated mice exhibited any sign of hind limb weakness up to 1 week. On the eighth day, half the animals were sacrificed for initial pathomorphological studies of various organs and the other half were subjected to several immune function tests. The results revealed treatment-related reduction in cellularity of spleen, thymus, and mesentric lymph nodes and pathotoxicological changes. Further, immune function tests such as delayed-type hypersensitivity reaction, plaque-forming cell assay, phagocytosis by adherent peritoneal exudate cells, and resistance to endotoxin shock were considerably impaired. These results suggest that 2,5-Hxdn treatment causes profound impairment of immunity in mice even before the onset of peripheral neuropathy.