Effects of curcumin administration on Nesfatin-1 levels in blood, brain and fat tissues of diabetic rats.

OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the efficacy of curcumin administration on blood glucose levels and its relationship with nesfatin-1 levels in blood brain and adipose tissue of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 28 male rats were divided into four groups: control group, type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) group, control plus curcumin group and type 2DM plus curcumin group. After fifteen days, blood samples were collected from sacrificed rats. Nesftain-1 levels were analysed from blood, brain, and fat tissues of rats in all groups. RESULTS: Nesfatin-1 level was found to be significantly lower in blood, brain and fat tissues of type 2 DM rats compared to the control group. A significant decrease in fasting blood glucose levels was observed in the curcumin administration group compared to type 2 DM group. Improvement of fasting blood glucose level was accompanied by improvement of nesfatin-1 levels in blood, brain, and fat tissues. CONCLUSIONS: As expected, curcumin administration caused significant improvement in fasting blood glucose levels. However, for the first time, we found marked improvements in nesfatin-1 levels in blood, brain, and fat tissues of type 2 DM rats. Thus, considering the crucial role of nesfatin-1 in regulation of glucose metabolism, it is logical to expect an interactive relationship between curcumin and nesfatin-1.

The selenium levels of mothers and their neonates using hair, breast milk, meconium, and maternal and umbilical cord blood in Van Basin.

The objective of the present study is to calculate linear regressions between a mother and her child with respect to their selenium concentration (ng/g) in the following traits: maternal blood and umbilical cord blood, maternal and child hair, maternal milk and child umbilical cord blood, maternal milk and meconium, maternal blood plasma, and child meconium. The data were collected at Research Hospital of the University of Yüzüncü Yil from 30 pairs of mothers and their newborn baby. The mean maternal serum Se level in 30 mothers was 68.52 +/- 3.57 ng/g and cord plasma level was 119.90 +/- 18.08 ng/g. The Se concentration in maternal and neonatal hair was 330.84 +/- 39.03 and 1,124.76 +/- 186.84 ng/g, respectively. The Se concentration of maternal milk at day 14 after delivery was determined as 68.63 +/- 7.78 ng/g (n = 13) and the concentration of Se was 418.90 +/- 45.49 ng/g (n = 22) for meconium of neonatal. There was no significant difference between maternal blood and milk Se levels. However, hair Se concentration was significantly higher than milk and maternal blood Se level. For each trait comparison, the average absolute difference in log(10)-transformed Se concentration was calculated between a mother and her child. The observed average absolute difference was compared with a test distribution of 1,000 resampled bootstrap averages where the number of samples was maintained but the relationship between a mother and her child was randomized among samples (alpha = 0.05).

Diagnóstico rápido da infecçäo do trato urinário e antibiograma em 8 horas pelo sistema Diramic-10: estudo comparativo preliminar com o método convencional / Quick diagnosis of urinary tract infection and determination of the antibiogram in eight hous: preliminary results

A detecçäo da infecçäo urinária constitui uma das análises mais frequentes nos laboratórios de microbiologia clínica. O predomínio de resultados negativos e a necessidade de incrementar a eficácia terapêutica e econômica têm estimulado o desenvolvimento de sistemas de diagnóstico rápido. O Sistema Diramic está dimensionado para determinar em 4 horas a infecçäo urinária e, na sequência, realizar o antibiograma em igual período de tempo. Neste estudo se reportam os resultados comparativos entre o Sistema Diramic e os métodos convencionais de cultura de urina e antibiograma em uso no Laboratório Central da Prefeitura Municipal de Belo Horizonte. Foram obtidos níveis de correspondência de 98,3 por cento na detecçäo da infecçäo urinária e 90,7 por cento na determinaçäo do antibiograma. Os resultados negativos liberados com quatro horas representaram 81,8 por cento do total de amostras de urina analisadas. Discute-se os aspectos operacionais do Sistema Diramic, os benefícios da indicaçäo precoce de antibióticos apropriados e suas vantagens econômicas, sociais e para os serviços de saúde.