Influence of dietary supplementation of clove and rosemary essential oils or their combination on growth performance, immunity status, and blood antioxidant of growing rabbits.

This study aimed to assess the dietary effects of rosemary and clove essential oils separately and in combination on the growth performance; immunological, hematological, and physiological responses; and antioxidant status of growing rabbits. One hundred forty-four of 42-day-old growing V-line rabbits (both sexes with initial live body weights of 765 ± 6 g) were randomly allocated into four treatment groups of 36 rabbits each. Each group was further sub-divided into 12 replicates of 3 rabbits in a completely randomized design. The 1st group was fed a basal diet free of additives and served as the control group, the 2nd and 3rd groups were fed basal diets supplemented with rosemary and clove essential oils, respectively, at doses of 400 mg/kg diet. The 4th group received a basal diet supplemented with a combination of clove and rosemary essential oils at doses of 200 mg/kg diet each. The results showed that the different supplementations did not influence rabbit performance or immunological traits. Opposite to performance or immunological traits, differences in red blood cells and hemoglobin value among all dietary treatments were improved (P < 0.05). Dietary essential oil supplementation with clove, rosemary oil, or a mixed of both increased (P < 0.05) blood concentrations of catalase, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione peroxidase by 47, 42, and 7%; 56, 35, and 36%; and 40, 39, and 37%, respectively, in supplemented rabbits versus control rabbits. In conclusion, clove and/or rosemary essential oils can potentially be used in rabbit diets to improve antioxidant status without change in rabbit's growth performance or immunological parameters.

The relation between HLA-DRB1 alleles and the outcome of therapy in children with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura.

Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is a common hematologic disease. The pathogenesis involves formation of autoantibodies against platelet glycoproteins. The mechanism of autoimmunity might involve binding of antigenic peptides to HLA antigens. In this study, we tried to find out if a specific HLA allele might be associated with the occurrence of ITP, and whether or not this specific allele, if present, is related to the response to treatment. We investigated the frequency of HLA-DRB1 alleles in 30 Egyptian children with documented diagnosis of ITP. All patients were followed up for at least 6 months. Ten healthy children of matched age and sex served as a control group. The alleles were identified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) sequence specific primers. The median age of the study patients with good response was 3.94 +/- 2.31 years (range 2-10 years, female to male ratio was 2.6:1 and platelet count at presentation was 17.91 +/- 9.1 X 10(9)/L (range 10-36 X10(9)/L). For patients with poor response, female to male ratio was 3.8:1 the median age and platelet count at presentation were 4.85 +/- 2.57 years (range 2-10 years) and 29.36 +/- 24.02 X 109/L (range 10-81 X 109/1L) respectively. The median duration of disease for clinically responding patients was 10.29 +/- 2.75 months (range: 6-15 months) and for non responding patients was 29.84 +/- 16.30 months (range: 6-60 months). It was found that HLA-DRB1 *14 was significantly increased in ITP patients with good response (P<0.001) while HLA-DRB1 *13 was significantly decreased in patients with good response (P=0.002, OR=0.07, CI=0.01-0.69). In conclusion, HLA-DRB1 *07 allele seems to be protective marker against ITP, HLA-DRB1 *14 allele can be used as a predictive marker for therapy in ITP patients with good response and for favourable outcome after splenectomy. Moreover, HLA-DRB1 *13 allele has an important role in resistance to therapy. Our findings indicate that genetic factors might influence the clinical course of ITP.