High Cholesterol Diet-Induced Changes in Oxysterol and Scavenger Receptor Levels in Heart Tissue.

Involvement of high cholesterol and oxidative stress in cardiovascular diseases is well studied, as it can be hypothesized that various products originated from lipid peroxidation, such as oxysterols, or affected protein expression might lead to cardiomyocyte damage followed by the pathological modifications. Although oxidation of excessive cholesterol to oxysterols in elevated stress conditions is identified by a number of studies, the role of a high cholesterol diet in regulating fatty acid and oxysterol accumulation, together with scavenger receptor mRNA levels, in the heart remains little investigated. Our study provides a detailed analysis of the changes in fatty acid, oxysterol, and scavenger receptor profiles and its relation with histological alterations in the heart tissue. We evaluated alterations of fatty acid composition, by the GC-MS method, while 4ß-, 25-, and 27-hydroxycholesterol and 7-ketocholesterol levels by means of LC-MS/MS in high cholesterol diet-fed rabbits. Additionally, a number of proteins related to lipid metabolism and scavenger receptor mRNA expressions were evaluated by Western blotting and RT-PCR. According to our in vivo results, a high cholesterol diet enhances a number of unsaturated fatty acids, oxysterols, and LXRα, in addition to CD36, CD68, CD204, and SR-F1 expressions while α-tocopherol supplementation decreases LXRα and SR expressions together with an increase in 27-hydroxycholesterol and ABCA1 levels. Our results indicated that the high cholesterol diet modulates proteins related to lipid metabolism, which might result in the malfunction of the heart and α-tocopherol shows its beneficial effects. We believe that this work will lead the generation of different theories in the development of heart diseases.

The Histological Effects of Ozone Therapy on Sciatic Nerve Crush Injury in Rats.

OBJECTIVE: Peripheral nerve injury is a common, important problem that lacks a definitive, effective treatment. It can cause neurologic deficits ranging from paresthesia to paralysis. This study evaluated the effect of ozone therapy on sciatic nerve crush injury in rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-four male rats were divided into control sham surgery, sciatic nerve injury, and sciatic nerve injury with ozone groups (each n = 8). The sciatic nerve injury was inflicted via De Koning's crush-force method. The sciatic nerve injury group received medical air and the sciatic nerve injury ozone group received 0.7 mg/kg ozone. Sciatic nerve samples were obtained 4 weeks after injury. Vascular congestion, vacuolization, edema formation, S100 expression, and the thicknesses of the perineurium and endoneurium and diameter of the injured sciatic nerves were evaluated. RESULTS: The diameter of the sciatic nerve and thicknesses of the perineurium and epineurium were significantly greater in the sciatic nerve injury group (P < 0.05) and significantly less in the sciatic nerve injury with ozone group (P < 0.001). High S100 immunoreactivity was seen in the sciatic nerve injury group compared with the other 2 groups (P < 0.05). The distributions of vascular congestion and vacuolization were significantly less in the sciatic nerve injury with ozone group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Ozone therapy improved sciatic nerve injury recovery without causing an increase in fibrotic tissue. Ozone reduced fibrosis, vascular congestion, vacuolization, and edema in rodents. Ozone treatment might be used to assist in sciatic nerve injury.

Cutaneous foreign body granulomas associated with lipolytic cocktail: Who is the enemy, mesotherapy or drugs injected?

Mesotherapy is widely used for its lipolytic effect as an alternative procedure to surgical methods. Although many benefits of lipolytic mesotherapy have been observed, numerous side effects have also been reported. Here, we report a case of cutaneous foreign body granulomas that occurred after lipolytic mesotherapy.

Stem cell and extracellular matrix-related molecules increase following melatonin treatment in the skin of postmenopausal rats.

The menopause has a negative effect in the skin. Melatonin affects skin functions and structures through actions mediated by cell-surface and putative-nuclear receptors expressed in skin cell. We have therefore determined the effects of melatonin treatment on stem cell in the epidermis and extracellular matrix related molecules in the dermis the skin of postmenopausal rats. A total of 45 female rats were divided into 5 groups: control group, group A [ovariectomy (OVX)], group B (OVX +10 mg/kg/day melatonin), group C (OVX +30 mg/kg/day melatonin), group S (sham operated + 10 mg/kg/day melatonin). Ventral skin samples were excised at 12th week after ovariectomy. Hematoxylin-eosin, periodic acid- methylamine silver, elastic van Gieson staining techniques were used to measure histomorphometrically the thickness of elastic fibers and basement membrane, depths of the epidermis, dermis, and subcutaneous fat layer. Immunohistochemical staining methods were used for fibroblast growth factor ß (FGF ß), collagen type I, fibronectin, ß-catenin, c-kit, c-Myc evaluation. Epidermal thickness, subcutaneous fat layer, and elastic fibers were significantly decreased in group C, and there was a significant increase after melatonin treatment. Although there was no difference in dermal thickness of group C, melatonin also significantly increased the dermal thickness. High FGF ß, type I collagen, fibronectin, ß-catenin, c-Myc immunoreactivity developed following melatonin in all groups. Thus melatonin treatment of postmenopausal rats was mostly due to the decrease of stem cell and extracellular matrix-related molecules in the skin.