Antineoplastic effects of bee honey and Nigella sativa on hepatocellular carcinoma cells.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate in vitro antitumor effects of bee honey (BH) and Nigella sativa (NS) on HepG2 through their antioxidant and apoptotic activities. METHODS: HepG2 cell line was treated with different concentrations of diluted unfractionated BH and different concentrations of alcohol extract of NS. Exposure lasted for different time durations (6-72 hours), both dose-response and time course-response were conducted. Cell viability was tested by trypan blue exclusion test. Total antioxidant status and caspase-3 activity were estimated in the cell lysate. Nitric oxide levels were measured in culture supernatants of both treated and untreated HepG2 at all indicated times. RESULTS: Treatment of HepG2 cells with BH and NS leads to a significant decrease in both the number of viable HepG2 cells and the levels of nitric oxide on one hand, but improvement of the total antioxidant status and caspase-3 activity on the other, especially in HepG2 cells treated with higher doses of BH and NS (20% and 5000 µg/mL, respectively) and for longer duration (72 hours). CONCLUSIONS: BH and NS are effective in reducing the viability of HepG2 cells, improving their antioxidant status and inducing their apoptotic death.

TGF-beta1, TNF-alpha and cytochrome c in human astrocytic tumors: a short-term follow up and correlation with survival.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the association of signals of apoptosis namely, TGF-beta1, TNF-alpha and cytochrome c release in cytoplasm with survival rate to determine the potential use of such parameters as predictive markers for patients with astrocytomas. DESIGN AND METHODS: We measured TGF-beta1, TNF-alpha and cytoplasmic cytochrome c in 30 astrocytic tumors Grade II, III and IV. RESULTS: We found that TNF-alpha and cytochrome c release in Grade IV tends to be significantly lower than those in Grade II, whereas TGF-beta1 did not significantly change in the different grades. Patients with astrocytic tumors having elevated cytochrome c showed a better survival rate compared to those with less release. There is neither a correlation shown between TNF-alpha and cytochrome c release nor between TNF-alpha and patient survival. TGF-beta1 was positively correlated with cytochrome c release. Patients showing such correlation had increased survival rate over 18 months follow up period. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that TGF-beta1 and cytochrome c may be useful prognostic markers that help patients' stratification and in adjusting the disciplines of therapy.

Evaluation of blood units with isolated anti HBC for the presence of HBV DNA.

We screened blood donors in one center in Saudi Arabia for a safety transfusion. We found that among 5043 blood donors negative for HCV and HIV, the incidence of HBsAg positivity was 2.97%. When antiHBc antibody was measured (HBcIg) in HBsAg negative donors, we observed that 21.47% were positive indicating previous exposure to hepatitis B virus. The HBcIg positive blood was further screened for HBsAb and the specimens were found to be reactive in 81.54%. Based on these data blood transfusion was permissible from donors who showed HBsAg negativity, HBcIg positive and HBsAb reactive blood. In order to ensure safety transfusion an aliquot of specimens (n = 80) was further analyzed for HBV DNA by PCR. We found only one specimen positive with incidence of 1.25%. So we recommended restricting transfusion from the previously mentioned donors to emergencies.