Antioxidant properties of extracts from the above-ground parts of Filipendula ulmaria

Extracts of the above-ground part of meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria L. Maxim.) demonstrate a pronounced antioxidant activity. It is established that 70% and 95% ethanol extracts contain the most active substances. Investigation of the chemical composition of the above-ground part of the plant and its 70% ethanol extract by means of qualitative reactions, thin-layer chromatography, and paper chromatography showed the presence of various phenolic compounds, including quercetin and its glycosides, dihydroquercetin, apigenin, rododendrol, esculetin, and m-hydroxybenzoic, salicylic, anisic, gallic, gentisic, ferulic, chlorogenic, and caffeic acids. __________ Translated From Khimiko-Farmatsevticheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 40, No. 12, Pp. 22–24, December, 2006.     

Histamine excites GABAergic cells in the rat substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area in vitro

We have investigated the effect of histamine (HA) on spontaneous firing of dopaminergic (DA) and GABAergic neurons in the substantia nigra (SN) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the rat in vitro. Single-unit extracellular recordings were obtained and drugs were bath applied. In both regions application of HA (10 and 100 μM) did not affect the firing frequency of DAergic cells, but increased the firing of GABAergic neurons. The histamine-induced excitation was blocked by the H₁ receptor antagonist mepyramine (1 μM), but was unaffected by application of the H₂ antagonist cimetidine (50 μM) or the H₃ antagonist thioperamide (10 μM). Our results suggest that histamine does not directly inhibit dopaminergic neurons in SN and VTA, but rather that this inhibition is mediated through histamine-induced excitation of GABAergic neurons.     

Dietary polyamines promote the growth of azoxymethane-induced aberrant crypt foci in rat colon

We have examined whether dietary polyamines influence the formation and initial growth of azoxymethane (AOM)-induced aberrant crypt foci (ACF) in rat colon. Effects of a combination of dietary polyamines at three dose levels (putrescine: 50, 280, 740 nmol/g; spermidine: 10, 261, 763 nmol/g; spermine: 1, 31, 91 nmol/g) in the polyamine-poor AIN-76A diet were studied in animals in two different experimental situations: animals treated with AOM alone and animals treated with AOM + difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), a specific inhibitor of endogenous polyamine synthesis. In both experimental situations, dietary polyamines enhanced the growth of ACF, expressed as the number of large ACF (foci with three or more aberrant crypts, ACF > or = 3), whereas the formation of ACF, expressed as the number of ACF, was apparently not altered. In animals treated with AOM alone, maximal growth enhancing effect on ACF was nearly obtained with the median level of dietary polyamine. In rats fed a low polyamine diet, basic AIN-76A, DFMO reduced the growth of AOM-induced ACF by 83%. This inhibitory effect of DFMO was counteracted by dietary polyamines in a dose- dependent manner, and it was abolished at the highest level of polyamines. In conclusion, it was demonstrated that dietary polyamines are able to enhance the growth of AOM-induced ACF. Further, dietary polyamines reversed the DFMO-caused inhibition of ACF growth, probably by compensating for the DFMO-reduced endogenous polyamine synthesis.      

Clinical and parasitological diagnosis of human dirofilariasis

The paper reports two new cases of human dirofiliriasis (its causative agent is Dirofiliria repens) with a rare clinical diagnosis of funiculitis of the right scrotal spermatic cord in a 12-year-old boy from the Tambov Region and of erysipelatous inflammation of the outer side of the right leg in a 68-year-old woman who resides in Moscow and lives in her country house in the Shakhovsky District, Moscow Region, in summer. Both cases of invasion are regarded as local. The bodies of the D. repens females detected measured 110 x 0.476-0.48 and 135 x 0.56-0.60 mm, respectively, and the females were identified as impubertal and pubertal, but infecund. In the former case, dirofiliriasis was an etiological factor of spermatic cord funiculitis. In the latter case, the location of Dirofiliria provoked prolonged (7-month) erysipelatous inflammation. Emphasis is placed on the implication of dirofiliriasis in human pathology. To have a more intimate knowledge of parasitic etiology will help physicians in making a differential diagnosis of dirofiliriasis and in elaborating a correct treatment policy after a clinical and parasitological diagnosis is established.     

Immunomorphological characteristics of animals with different levels of orientation and exploratory behavior

We revealed some relationships between the level of orientation and exploratory behavior, functional activity of the immune system, and structural and functional organization of the CNS in animals. Significant differences in brain morphology and expression of cytokine IL-1, type I IL-1 receptor, and erythropoietin receptor genes in brain cells were detected in (CBA×C57Bl/6)F1 mice with different initial levels of orientation and exploratory behavior. Immunocompetent cells of mice with high and low levels of exploratory behavior differ by spontaneous and mitogen-induced proliferative activity. The formation of humoral and cellular immune response in these animals causes opposite changes in exploratory behavior and the type of these changes depends on the initial level of this behavioral reaction.Translated from Byulleten Eksperimentalnoi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 138, No. 10, pp. 466–469, October, 2004