High Doses of Boron Have No Protective Effect Against Nephrolithiasis or Oxidative Stress in a Rat Model.

Boron plays roles in the metabolism of calcium, vitamin D, steroid hormones, healthy bone development, and maintenance of cell membranes. The biological effects of boron are dose-dependent but follow a U-shaped pattern, rendering it important to define the active range. The studies of Bahadoran et al. on rats and Naghii et al. on humans showed that low doses of boron (3 and 10 mg/day) prevented kidney stone formation. The aim of this study was to determine whether high doses of boron have an anti-urolithiatic or antioxidant effect on nephrolithiasis in an experimental rat model. The study was conducted on 50 adult male Wistar rats randomized to five groups. Nephrolithiasis was induced with water containing 0.75% ethylene glycol (EG) and 2% ammonium chloride (AC). This treatment was given to animals in all groups for 10 days, except the positive and negative controls. Simultaneously, groups 2, 3, and 4 were given boric acid via gavage at doses of 25, 50, and 100 mg/kg/day (equivalent to 4/8/16 mg boron respectively) as the source of boron. Animals in the negative and positive control groups were given 6 µL/g distilled water without boric acid. At day 10, intra-cardiac blood samples were drawn from all animals. The right and left kidneys were removed for biochemical and histopathological examinations, respectively. The groups were compared with respect to serum urea, creatinine, calcium, phosphorous, total antioxidant status (TAS), total oxidant status (TOS), serum paraoxonase (PON1) activity, tissue calcium and oxalate levels, and stone burden as determined by histopathological examination. Serum urea and creatinine levels were significantly higher (p < 0.001 and p < 0.05, respectively), while serum calcium and phosphorous levels were significantly lower (p < 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively), in animals given EG/AC compared to negative controls. No significant differences were detected in serum calcium, phosphorous, urea, or creatinine levels between animals treated with boron and positive controls (p > 0.05). Serum PON1 activity was significantly lower in animals given EG/AC than in negative controls (p < 0.001), while no significant difference in serum PON1 level was detected between rats treated with boron and positive controls. No significant differences were detected in vitamin D, TAS, TOS, tissue calcium, or tissue oxalate levels among groups. No stone formation was detected on histopathological examination in negative controls. No significant differences were found in stone formation between rats treated with boron and positive controls. Based on this study, high doses of boron had no protective effect against nephrolithiasis and oxidative stress.

Subtypes of white blood cells in patients with prostate cancer or benign prostatic hyperplasia and healthy individuals.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to evaluate the baseline white blood cell (WBC), neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, basophil, eosinophil count, total prostate-specific antigen (TPSA), free PSA (FPSA) level, neutrophil- to-lymphocyte and neutrophil-to-monocyte ratios among patients with prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), as well as healthy individuals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 2005-2012 laboratory files of 160 patients with prostate cancer at Kayseri Training and Research Hospital, Oncology Outpatient Clinic, 285 patients who were pathologically diagnosed with BPH in Urology Outpatient Clinic and 200 healthy individuals who were admitted to Internal Medicine Outpatient Clinic were retrospectively analyzed. Baseline WBC, neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, basophil, eosinophil count, TPSA, FPSA level, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and neutrophil-to-monocyte ratio were recorded and compared across groups. RESULTS: Patients with prostate cancer had a lower lymphocyte level compared to the patients with BPH and healthy controls (p<0.001). The mean monocyte count, leukocyte-to-monocyte ratio, and leukocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio were higher in patients with prostate cancer, but without significance. The mean WBC and leukocyte count were lower in patients with prostate cancer, but again without statistical significance (p=0.130). The mean TPSA and FPSA were 39.4 and 5.67, respectively in patients with prostate cancer, while they were 5.78 and 1.28 in patients with BPH. There was a significant difference in the mean TPSA and FPSA levels between the patient groups (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our study results showed that patients with prostate cancer had a lower level of lymphocytes, neutrophils and WBCs and a higher level of monocytes with a significant difference in lymphocyte count, compared to healthy controls. We suggest that lymphocyte count may be used in combination with other parameters in the diagnosis of prostate cancer, thanks to its ease of assessment.

Assessment of the effects of access count in percutaneous nephrolithotomy on renal functions by technetium-99m-dimercaptosuccinic Acid scintigraphy.

Objective. To determine the effects of percutaneous nephrolithotomy on renal functions by using DMSA scintigraphy while considering access counts. Material and Methods. A total of 37 patients who had undergone percutaneous nephrolithotomy were included. Preoperative DMSA scans were performed a day before the surgery, whereas postoperative scans were randomized by evaluating them before (n = 25) and after (n = 12) the 6th postoperative month. Twenty-six of 37 cases underwent percutaneous nephrolithotomy with a single access site and 11 with multiple access sites. Results. There were no significant changes of total renal functions in the whole study group (P = 0.054). In the single access group, total functions were significantly elevated (P = 0.03) In the multiple access group, while treated site functions were significantly decreased (P = 0.01), total functions did not change significantly (P = 0.42). There was an insignificant decrease in those evaluated before the 6th postoperative month (P = 0.27) and an insignificant increase in the others (P = 0.11). Conclusion. We could not find a superiority of single access over multiple accesses. There is a temporary functional loss in the treated site.