NOPR Collection:

Effect of feeding graded doses of Citrinin on clinical and teratology in female Wistar rats

Sat, 01 Feb 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Effect of feeding graded doses of Citrinin on clinical and teratology in female Wistar rats Authors: Singh, N D; Sharma, A K; Patil, R D; Rahman, S; Leishangthem, G D; Kumar, M Abstract: Citrinin is the one of the well-known mycotoxins, which is possibly spread all over the world. The graded doses of citrinin (1, 3 and 5 ppm CIT in feed) in female Wistar rats 10 weeks prior to mating, during mating and during organogenesis resulted in resorptions and post implantation losses, decreased fetal body weights and crown-rump lengths in fetuses of all groups. Various developmental anomalies recorded in fetuses of treated rats included gross (wrist drop, curled tail, stretched forelimb, subcutaneous haematoma), skeletal (incomplete ossification of skull bones, incomplete fusion of vertebral bodies, complete and partial agenesis of sternaebrae, metacarpals, metatarsals and phalanges, fused ribs and swing out ribs) and visceral (internal and external hydrocephalus, cerebellar hypoplasia, microphthalmia, roundening of heart, contracted kidneys, dilated renal pelvis and cryptorchid testes). The results suggest that CIT has adverse effects on fetal development which may be due to the longer bioavailability of citrinin in the animals. Page(s): 159-167

Chlorambucil and ascorbic acid-mediated anticancer activity and hematological toxicity in Dalton's ascites lymphoma-bearing mice

Sat, 01 Feb 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Chlorambucil and ascorbic acid-mediated anticancer activity and hematological toxicity in Dalton's ascites lymphoma-bearing mice Authors: Kalita, Suravi; Verma, Akalesh Kumar; Prasad, Surya Bali Abstract: Chlorambucil is an anticancer drug with alkylating and immunosuppressive activities. Considering various reports on the possible antioxidant/protective functions of ascorbic acid (vitamin C), it was aimed at to explore the modulatory effect of ascorbic acid on therapeutic efficacy and toxicity induced by chlorambucil. Dalton’s ascites lymphoma tumor serially maintained in Swiss albino mice were used for the present experiments. The result of antitumor activity showed that combination treatment with ascorbic acid and chlorambucil exhibited enhanced antitumor activity with 170% increase in life span (ILS), which is significantly higher as compared to chlorambucil alone (ILS 140%). Analysis of apoptosis in Dalton’s lymphoma tumor cells revealed a significantly higher apoptotic index after combination treatment as compared to chlorambucil alone. Blood hemoglobin content, erythrocytes and leukocytes counts were decreased after chlorambucil treatment, however, overall recovery in these hematological values was noted after combination treatment. Chlorambucil treatment also caused morphological abnormalities in red blood cells, majority of which include acanthocytes, burr and microcystis. Combination treatment of mice with ascorbic acid plus chlorambucil showed less histopathological changes in kidney as compared to chlorambucil treatment alone, thus, ascorbic acid is effective in reducing chlorambucil-induced renal toxicity in the hosts. Based on the results, for further development, hopefully into the clinical usage, the administration of ascorbic acid in combination with chlorambucil may be recommended. Page(s): 112-124

Antidiarrhoeal evaluation of rhizomes of Cryptocoryne spiralis Fisch. ex Wydler: Antimotility and antisecretory effects

Sat, 01 Feb 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Antidiarrhoeal evaluation of rhizomes of Cryptocoryne spiralis Fisch. ex Wydler: Antimotility and antisecretory effects Authors: Prasad, Satyendra K; Laloo, Damiki; Kumar, Rajesh; Sahu, Alakh N; Hemalatha, S Abstract: The antidiarrhoeal activity of Cryptocoryne spiralis rhizomes extract (250, 500, 750 mg/kg, po) was evaluated using faecal excretion, castor oil-induced diarrhoea, small intestinal transit, intestinal fluid accumulation, gastric emptying and PGE₂ induced enteropooling models in rats. In addition, various biochemical estimations, histopathological studies and antibacterial evaluations on strains responsible for diarrhoea were also performed. The results illustrated a significant reduction in normal faecal output rate after 5^th and 7^th h of treatment, while castor oil-induced diarrhoea model depicted a protection of 55.44% at same dose level from diarrhoea. The other models except, gastric emptying test demonstrated more pronounced effect at same dose level. A significant inhibition in nitric oxide, increase in carbohydrates, protein, DNA, Na⁺ and K⁺ level with minimum degeneration of colonic fibrous tissues and potent antibacterial activity were also observed. The antidiarrhoeal potential of C. spiralis may be as a result of antimotility and antisecretory type effect mediated through nitric oxide pathway. Page(s): 139-146

Mating latency, duration of copulation and fertility in four species of the Drosophila bipectinata complex

Sat, 01 Feb 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Mating latency, duration of copulation and fertility in four species of the Drosophila bipectinata complex Authors: Singh, Akanksha; Singh, Bashisth N Abstract: Significant interspecific variations in mean duration of copulation and fertility were observed in four species of the Drosophila bipectinata species complex. However, D. bipectinata showed positive correlation between duration of copulation and fertility. Similarly, D. malerkotliana showed negative correlation between mating latency and duration of copulation. Likewise, D. pseudoananassae showed positive correlation between mating latency and fertility. These results suggest that D. pseudoananassae has distant relatedness from the other three species with respect to mating latency, duration of copulation and fertility which supports the previous findings. Page(s): 175-180