The role of oxidative stress in chemotherapy-induced gonadotoxicity in a rat model, and the protective effects of Nigella Sativa oil on oxidative stress, the anti-Müllerian hormone level, and apoptosis.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the role of oxidative stress (OS) in carboplatin-induced gonadotoxicity and whether Nigella Sativa oil (NSO), an herbal antioxidant, has a protective effect on ovarian apoptosis, OS, and the anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) level in a rat model. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included 24 adult female rats that were divided into 4 treatment groups. Group A saline + saline (sham group); group B: NSO + saline; group C: saline + carboplatin; group D: NSO + carboplatin. Saline, NSO, and carboplatin were administered intraperitoneally 24 and/or 48 h before sacrification as 4 mL/kg, 4 mL/kg, and 80 mg/kg, respectively. Apoptosis, OS parameters, and AMH were measured. RESULTS: Oxidant levels and apoptosis were higher, whereas AMH and the antioxidants were lower in group C than in group A. Apoptosis, OS parameters, and AMH levels were negatively affected by chemotherapy (CTx) in group C whilst improvement in those parameters was observed in group D following NSO pretreatment. The levels of apoptosis and malondialdehyde (MDA), an OS parameter, in group D were lower than in group C as they declined from 34.3% to 8.65% (p = 0.002) and from 199.4 nmol/g tissue to 136.4 nmol/g tissue (p = 0.002), respectively. However, the slight increase in AMH level from 2.7 ng/mL to 3.5 ng/mL due to the NSO effect was not significant between groups C and D. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings show that carboplatin has adverse effects on AMH, ovarian tissue apoptosis, and OS parameters. NSO pretreatment might protect ovarian tissue and decrease CTx-induced ovarian injury by decreasing OS and apoptosis, but the protective effect of NSO on AMH is limited.

Effects of Echinacea extract on the performance, antibody titres, and intestinal histology of layer chicks.

1. This research was conducted to determine the effect of diet supplementation with Echinacea extract (cichoric acid) on the growth performance, antibody titres and intestinal tissue histology of layer chicks. 2. White, 1-d-old, Hy-Line hybrid chicks (n = 540) were divided into three treatments, each consisting of 6 groups of 30 chicks (n = 180): (1) control; (2) 2·5 mg/kg cichoric-acid-fed; and (3) 5 mg/kg cichoric-acid-fed. The trial lasted 60 d. 3. While the growth performance of the chicks was depressed between d 1 and 45, it was found to improve between d 45 and 60. 4. Feed consumption was lower in both of the cichoric-acid-fed groups than in the control group between d 1-15 and 15-30, but was higher between d 30 and 45. Overall, mean feed consumption did not differ between the control and cichoric-acid-fed groups during the 60 d study period. 5. During the 60 d evaluation period, live weight gain, feed utilisation rate and final live weight were higher in the control group than in both of the cichoric-acid-fed groups. 6. Antibody titres against infectious bronchitis and infectious bursal disease did not differ between the three groups, but those for Newcastle disease were higher in the 2·5 mg/kg cichoric-acid-fed group than in the control group after 45 d. 7. Height and width of the jejunal villus and the thickness of the muscle layer were lower in the 5 mg/kg cichoric-acid-fed group than in both the control and the 2·5 mg/kg cichoric-acid-fed groups. The height of the ileal villus was also lower in the 5 mg/kg cichoric-acid-fed group than in the other two groups. 8. Echinacea extract supplementation for layer chicks appears not to benefit growth performance and intestinal histology during the growing period.

Effects of dietary copper on production and egg cholesterol content in laying hens.

1. This experiment was carried out to determine the effects of diets supplemented with different amounts of copper on egg production, food intake, food conversion ratio, egg weight, damaged egg ratio, specific gravity, mortality and cholesterol concentration in yolk. The experiment lasted 90 d and 400 Hisex-Brown hens, aged 27 weeks at the start of the study, were used. 2. There were no statistically significant effects of supplementary copper on egg production, food intake or food conversion efficiency. 3. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of damaged eggs, egg weight, specific gravity and live weight. 4. At the end of the experiment, the lowest yolk cholesterol concentrations were obtained in the 150 kg/kg copper group and the greatest concentrations were in the control group. 5. Consequently, the use of supplementary copper to provide 150 kg/kg in poultry diets was concluded to decrease yolk cholesterol concentrations without any effect on production performance.

Effect of probiotic supplementation on laying hen diets on yield performance and serum and egg yolk cholesterol.

The effects of dietary supplementation of a commercial probiotic (BioPlus 2B) on daily feed consumption, egg yield, egg weight, specific gravity, body weight, feed conversion ratio, serum and egg yolk cholesterol, and serum trigylceride in layer hens were investigated. In 12 replicates, 480 27-week-old Brown-Nick layers were fed with diets containing 0, 250, 500 or 750 mg kg(-1) probiotic for 90 days. When compared with the controls, supplementation of 250, 500 and 750 mg kg(-1) probiotic increased egg production, but decreased the damaged egg ratio (p < 0.05), egg yolk cholesterol and serum cholesterol (p < 0.001) levels. In addition, serum triglyceride levels were reduced by using 500 and 750 mg kg(-1) probiotic supplementation (p < 0.001). Feed conversion ratios were positively affected by supplementation of 250 and 500 mg kg(-1) probiotic compared with controls (p < 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between the control and all treatment groups on feed consumption, egg weight, specific gravity, body weight, and egg yolk weight.

No effect of GA-AS (904 nm) laser irradiation on the intact skin of the injured rat sciatic nerve.

We evaluated the electrophysiological and histopathological effects of low-energy gallium arsenide (904 nm) laser irradiation on the intact skin injured rat sciatic nerve. Twenty-four male Wistar rats were divided into three groups ( n=8 each). At the level of proximal third of the femur the sciatic nerve was crushed bilaterally with an aneurysm clip (Aesculap FE 751, Tuttingen, Germany) for half a second. A gallium arsenide laser (wavelength 904 nm, pulse duration 220 ns, peak power per pulse 27 W, spot size 0.28 cm2, pulse repetition rate 16, 128 and 1000 Hz; total applied energy density 0.31, 2.48 and 19 J/cm2) was applied to the right sciatic nerve for 15 min daily at the same time on 7 consecutive days. The same procedure was performed on the left sciatic nerve of same animal, but without radiation emission, and this was accepted as control. Compound muscle action potentials were recorded from right and left sides in all three groups before surgery, just at the end of injury, at the 24th hour and on the 14th and 21st days of injury in all rats using a BIOPAC MP 100 Acquisition System Version 3.5.7 (Santa Barbara, USA). BIOPAC Acknowledge Analysis Software (ACK 100 W) was used to measure CMAP amplitude, area, proximal and distal latency, total duration and conduction velocity. Twenty-one days after injury, the rats were sacrificed. The sciatic nerves of the operated parts were harvested from the right and left sides. Histopathological evaluation was performed by light microscopy. Statistical evaluation was done using analysis of variance for two factors (right and left sides) repeated-measures (CMAP variables within groups) and the Tukey-Kramer Honestly Significant Difference test (CMAP variables between laser groups). The significance was set at p < 0.05. No statistically significant difference (p > 0.05) was found regarding the amplitude, area, duration and conduction velocity of CMAP for each applied dose (0.31, 2.48 and 19 J/cm2) on the irradiated (right) side and the control (left) side, or between irradiated groups. Twenty-one days after injury there were no qualitative differences in the morphological pattern of the regenerated nerve fibres in either irradiated (0.31, 2.48 and 19 J/cm2) or control nerves when evaluated by light microscopy. This study showed that low-energy GaAs irradiation did not have any effect on the injured rat sciatic nerve.

Effect of lactose and dried whey supplementation on growth performance and histology of the immune system in broilers.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of lactose and dried whey supplementation as dietary component on growth performance and histology of lymphoid organs and ileum in broilers. A total of 480 day-old chicks were utilised for 42 days. Animals were assigned randomly to one of three treatments: control, lactose (2.5%), and dried whey (3.85%). Body weight was greater for animals supplemented with lactose or dried whey than for those not supplemented. There were no effects of treatments on feed intake and feed efficiency. In general, the effects of lactose or dried whey supplementation on histology of lymphoid organs and ileum were variable. Plasma cell counts were lower for animals supplemented with lactose than for those supplemented with dried whey. However, the length of intestinal villi during the starter period was greater for experimental groups than for control group.

Effect of dietary probiotic on performance and humoral immune response in layer hens.

1. The effects of dietary supplementation of a commercial probiotic (Protexin) on daily feed consumption, egg yield, egg weight, food conversion ratio and humoral immune response in layer hens were investigated. In 7 replicates, a total of 280 40-week-old layers were given diets containing either 0, 250, 500 or 750 parts per million (ppm) for 90 d. 2. When compared with the controls, the food consumption, food conversion ratio and the proportions of damaged eggs were lower in the group consuming 500 ppm probiotic (P<0.05). 3. There was no significant difference between the controls and the groups receiving 250 and 750 ppm probiotic in food consumption, food conversion ratio and proportion of damaged eggs. Similarly, the egg yield, egg weight, specific gravity, and peripheral immune response showed no statistically significant differences between the groups.

The effects of withdrawal of vitamin and trace mineral supplements from layer diets on egg yield and trace mineral composition.

1. This study was conducted as three trials. 2. In the first trial, zinc, manganese, copper and iron concentrations were determined in dietary raw materials collected from various regions of Turkey. 3. In the second trial, 200 Hisex Brown laying hens, 30 weeks of age, were divided into two groups. The first group served as controls and were fed on a standard commercial layer diet. The second group were fed on a commercial layer diet that was not supplemented with trace minerals and vitamins. Egg production, egg weight, specific gravity, food consumption and food efficiency of the birds in each group were determined. In the unsupplemented group, egg production (0.75 vs 0.83) and food intake (114 vs 122 g) were lower than the those of the control group (P < 0.05). Food efficiency was 2.42 (kg food/kg gain) in the group consuming the unsupplemented diet and 2.36 in the controls. 4. In the third trial, as in Trial 2, Hisex Brown laying hens, 62 weeks of age were used. In the unsupplemented group, the mean egg weight was significantly lower than that of controls (68.0 vs 69.6 g) (P < 0.01). 5. At the end of the second and third trials, egg samples collected from experimental groups were hard boiled in water. The levels of zinc, manganese, copper and iron in the egg yolk were determined. The zinc level of the egg yolk from the control group of second trial was higher (23.5 mg/kg) than those of the unsupplemented group (13.6 mg/kg).

Effects of boron supplementation of adequate and inadequate vitamin D3-containing diet on performance and serum biochemical characters of broiler chickens.

In this study, supplementation of two levels (5 and 25 parts per million; ppm) of boron into broiler diets including 125 IU kg(-1) (inadequate) and 2000 IU kg(-1) (adequate) vitamin D3 was investigated. The effects of supplementation on performance and biochemical characters (Ca, P, Mg, glucose and AP) of broilers from 1 to 45 days of age were evaluated. Boron provided significant increases in performances of chicks fed both adequate and inadequate vitamin D3-containing diets. The improvements in the inadequate vitamin D3-containing group were higher than that of adequate vitamin D3-containing group. The boron addition had a positive effect on Ca, P and alkaline phosphatase levels of chicks. Boron might be regarded as beneficial in inadequate vitamin D3-containing broiler feed.

Effects of dietary levels of vitamin A on the egg yield and immune responses of laying hens.

This research, which was designed and carried out as two consecutive experiments, investigated the effects of four different levels (0, 4,000, 12,000, and 24,000 IU/kg) of vitamin A supplementation on egg yield, plasma vitamin A levels, and immune responses of laying hens. Transmission of maternal immunity to their descendants was also studied. In the first experiment, egg yield, blood vitamin A levels, and various parameters of the immune system such as T lymphocyte levels in the peripheral blood, plasma cell counts in the spleen, and antibody titers against Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) in the sera were investigated for a 1-yr period. A total of 864 Hisex-brown laying hens were used in this experiment. The chicks were reared as commercial flocks until the 18th wk of age. No significant differences occurred among the parameters of the different diet groups. In the second experiment, maternal immunity was assessed in the chickens, supplied by hatching the eggs from hens in the first experiment. Maternal immunity was assayed by using the parameters as in Experiment 1. For this purpose, both blood and tissue samples were taken on the 2nd, 7th, and 10th d posthatch. Vitamin A supplementation had no significant effects on maternally, derived antibody titers or histologic structure of the lymphoid organs.