Acute toxic hepatitis caused by an aloe vera preparation in a young patient: a case report with a literature review.

Aloe is one of the leading products used in phytomedicine. Several cases of aloe-induced toxic hepatitis have been reported in recent years. However, its toxicology has not yet been systematically described in the literature. A 21-year-old female patient was admitted to our hospital with acute hepatitis after taking an aloe vera preparation for four weeks. Her history, clinical manifestation, laboratory findings, and histological findings all led to the diagnosis of aloe vera-induced toxic hepatitis. We report herein on a case of acute toxic hepatitis induced by aloe vera.

Paternal work stress and prolonged time to pregnancy.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore an association between psychosocial stress at work in married men and their spouses' prolonged time to pregnancy (TTP). METHODS: All married male workers of a large Korean petrochemical enterprise and their wives fulfilling the selection criteria were included. Main selection criteria were lack of use of contraceptives and experienced pregnancy in recent past. Data were available from 322 couples. Psychosocial stress at work was measured by the effort-reward imbalance questionnaire. Prolonged TTP was measured by the "TTP questionnaire". RESULTS: After adjustment for confounding effects of demographic and life-style characteristics and benzene exposure, delayed TTP, defined by frequency of first-cycle pregnancy, was associated with one standard deviation (SD) increase of the effort-reward ratio in the chronically stressed group of married men (OR = 0.47; 95% CI = 0.22-0.99) in logistic regression analysis. A similar, but somewhat weaker effect, was found for the overall group (OR = 0.67; 95% CI = 0.47-0.94). CONCLUSIONS: Paternal stress at work, as measured by effort-reward imbalance, seemed to be associated with a decreased number of conceptions in the first menstrual cycle.

Cooperative actions of Tra2alpha with 9G8 and SRp30c in the RNA splicing of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone gene transcript.

In earlier studies, we demonstrated that excision of the first intron (intron A) from the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) transcript is highly cell type- and developmental stage-specific. The removal of GnRH intron A requires exonic splicing enhancers on exons 3 and 4 (ESE3 and ESE4, respectively). Tra2alpha,a serine/arginine-rich (SR)-like protein, specifically binds to ESE4, although it requires additional nuclear co-factors for efficient removal of this intron. In the present study, we demonstrate the cooperative action of multiple SR proteins in the regulation of GnRH pre-mRNA splicing. SRp30c specifically binds to both ESE3 and ESE4, whereas 9G8 binds to an element in exon 3 and strongly enhances the excision of GnRH intron A in the presence of minimal amount of other nuclear components. Interestingly, Tra2alpha can interact with either 9G8 or SRp30c, whereas no interaction between 9G8 and SRp30c is observed. Tra2alpha has an additive effect on the RNA binding of these proteins. Overexpression or knock-down of these three proteins in cultured cells further suggests their essential role in intron A excision activities, and their presence in GnRH neurons of the mouse preoptic area further strengthens this possibility. Together, these results indicate that interaction of Tra2alpha with 9G8 and SRp30c appears to be crucial for ESE-dependent GnRH pre-mRNA splicing, allowing efficient generation of mature mRNA in GnRH-producing cells.

Lignans with inhibitory activity against NFAT transcription from Schisandra chinensis.

Seven lignans from Schisandra chinensis were investigated for their inhibitory activity on NFAT transcription. Both gomisin N (IC 50 : 1.33 +/- 0.05 microM) and schisandrol A (IC 50 : 1.34 +/- 0.05 microM) showed higher activity than gomisin E (IC 50 : 4.73 +/- 0.09 microM), schisandrin A (IC 50 : 7.23 +/- 0.21 microM), schisandrin C (IC 50 : 7.54 +/- 0.22 microM), benzoylisogomisin O (IC 50 : 11.06 +/- 1.02 microM) and schisandrol B (IC 50 : 16.37 +/- 1.00 microM).