Stereological examination of curcumin’s effects on hippocampal damage caused by the anti-epileptic drugs phenobarbital and valproic acid in the developing rat brain

The anti-epileptic drugs phenobarbital and valproic acid have an extremely strong negative effect on cognitive processes such as learning and memory in the developing brain. We examined whether or not curcumin has protective effects on neuronal injury caused by these drugs in the developing rat brain. Young male Wistar rats were studied in two groups, a 7 days old and a 14 days old group (35 rats in each). Both groups were then divided into 7 sub-groups as the control, curcumin, dimethylsulfoxide, phenobarbital, valproic acid, phenobarbital + curcumin, and valproic acid + curcumin groups (n = 5 in each group). At 24 h after the intraperitoneal injection of the compounds, the rats were sacrificed, and the hippocampal tissue was subjected to stereological analysis with the optical fractionation method. Total numbers of neurons in the hippocampus of the 7 days old and 14 days old rats were calculated. It was found that treatment with phenobarbital resulted in a loss of 43% of the neurons, and valproic acid induced a loss of 57% of the neurons in the 7 days old rats. Curcumin prevented this loss significantly with only 19% in the phenobarbital group and 41% in the valproic acid group. In the 14 days old rat groups, phenobarbital was found to reduce the number of neurons by 30%, and valproic acid reduced it by 38%. Curcumin treatment limited neuronal loss to 3% in the phenobarbital + curcumin group and 10% in the valproic acid + curcumin group. These data strongly indicate that curcumin is a protective agent and prevents hippocampal neuronal damage induced by phenobarbital and valproic acid treatment.     

Genomic instability in fragile sites—still adding the pieces

Common fragile sites (CFSs) are specific genomic regions in normal chromosomes that exhibit genomic instability under DNA replication stress. As replication stress is an early feature of cancer development, CFSs are involved in the signature of genomic instability found in malignant tumors. The landscape of CFSs is tissue‐specific and differs under different replication stress inducers. Nevertheless, the features underlying CFS sensitivity to replication stress are shared. Here, we review the events generating replication stress and discuss the unique characteristics of CFS regions and the cellular responses aimed to stabilizing these regions.     

Use of a case-mix approach to study the trends in the incidence of second primary cancers

Purpose

To analyze trends in second primary cancer (SPC) incidence by using a case-mix approach to standardize on first cancer site distribution.

Repair strength of dental amalgams

This study tested the hypothesis that newly triturated amalgam condensed vertically on old amalgam was essential for establishing a bond between the new and old amalgams. Twelve rectangular bars were prepared with Dispersalloy and Tytin to establish their baseline flexure strength values. An additional 12 specimens were made and separated into 24 equal halves. All fracture surfaces were abraded with a flat end fissure bur. Twelve surfaces were paired with the original amalgam, and the remaining 12 surfaces were repaired with a different amalgam. At first, freshly triturated amalgam was condensed vertically on the floor of the specimen mold (Group A). The majority of specimens repaired with Group A failed to establish bond at the repair interface. All repair surfaces were abraded again and prepared by a second method. A metal spacer was used to create a four-wall cavity to facilitate vertical condensation directly on the repair surface (Group B). The specimens were stored in ambient air for seven days prior to flexure testing. The strength of specimens repaired with Group B ranged from 26% to 54% of the baseline specimens. ANOVA showed that amalgams repaired with a different amalgam yielded higher strength values than those repaired with the original amalgam, and the baseline specimens exhibited significantly higher strength values than all the repaired specimens.