Investigating the Effects of Hydro-alcoholic Urtica Dioica Extract and Retinoic Acid on Follicular Development: An Animal Study.

Background: Urtica dioica (UD), as a natural antioxidant, has positive effects on oocyte maturation. This study aimed to investigate the effects of hydro-alcoholic UD extract and retinoic acid on follicular development in an in vitro fertilization (IVF) condition. Methods: A total of 40 female Wistar rats were randomly divided into 5 groups: group 1 received normal saline, group 2 was given 25 mg/kg retinoic acid, group 3 was administered with 100 mg/kg UD extract, group 4 was treated with retinoic acid plus UD extract, and group 5 received 10 mg/kg olive oil. The histomorphometric parameters were analyzed, including the number of follicles, follicular atrophy, fertilized oocytes, 2-cell embryos, dead embryos, and blastocysts. Results: Retinoic acid caused a significant increase in the primary, preantral, and atretic follicles and a substantial decrease in the corpus luteum compared with the control group (p<0.001). The number of preantral, antral follicles, and corpus luteum was significantly higher in group 3 compared with group 1 (p<0.001). Moreover, coadministration of UD plus retinoic acid (group 4) significantly reduced the atretic follicles (p<0.05). Conclusion: Based on the results, UD herbal extract, as a natural antioxidant agent, could reduce the adverse effects of retinoic acid on oocyte maturation in an IVF condition.

Quick and sensitive colorimetric detection of amino acid with functionalized-silver/copper nanoparticles in the presence of cross linker, and bacteria detection by using DNA-template nanoparticles as peroxidase activity.

In this project, poly (citric acid) (PCA) functionalized on nano Ag/Cu was synthesized by chemical analysis method. The nano probe was applied to detection of cysteine by using the magnesium (II) ions as a cross linker. The characterization of Ag/Cu/PCA nano probe was studied by using the UV-visible, morphological microscopy, dynamic light scattering, and zeta potential analyzer. The zeta potential and size of Ag/Cu/PCA were -38.0 mV and 18.0 nm, respectively. The prepared nano probe shows rapid response for detection of cysteine. The detection limit of Ag/Cu/PCA nano probe was 0.07 nM. Additional, the Ag/Cu/PCA nanoparticles was applied to cysteine detection from real samples in the presence of amino acids compounds. Rapidly and sensitive determination of Streptococcus pneumoniae is substantial for food safety and human health. The DNA-Ag/Cu/PCA were prepared as a template in chemical method and experimented as a bio-receptor for the cell bacteria detection as peroxidase-like catalytic process. The DNA-Ag/Cu/PCA nano probe shows a linear dynamic concertation range of Streptococcus pneumoniae via detection limit about 65 CFU/mL. The project presents that the DNA-Ag/Cu/PCA could detect the biological and bacterial samples via high accuracy.