• Toxicological Research
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• 제24권1호
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• pp.51-58
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• 2008

The present study was designed to explore the immunotoxic effects of orally administered aluminum (AI) on pregnant rats (n = 60) and their growing fetuses and consequently on the animal wealth. The animals were randomly allocated into three equal groups of 20 rats each. The first group has no treatment and kept as a control (G1). The second and third groups of pregnant rats were treated orally with aluminum chloride at 345 mg/Kg b.wt. The second group (G2) received the tested compound from the $6^{th}$ day of gestation to the end of weaning, whereas the third group (G3) received the tested compound from the $15^{th}$h day of gestation to the end of weaning. Control and treated animals (dams and offspring) were immunized ip with (0.5 ml) 20% sheep red blood cell (SRBC) suspension seven days before the end of experiments. At the end of exposure, ten dams and ten offspring from each group were used for assessment of cell-mediated immunity and a similar number of animals were sacrificed for evaluating the humoral immune response and serum protein profile. Aluminum chloride exposure of dams ($G_2&G_3$) caused significant suppression of both cell mediated and humoral immune responses in the obtained offsprings compared to the control group ($G_1$) without any significant effect on the immune responses of these dams. Moreover, the serum total globulins, albumin/ globulin (A/G) ratio and gamma globulin fraction were significantly decreased in the treated dam's offsprings compared to the corresponding controls while the serum total protein and all serum protein fractions showed non significant difference between the control and treated dams and between the two treated dam groups themselves. There were no histopathological changes observed in thymus, spleen and liver of the control and treated dams. Thymus of treated dam's offsprings (G2) showed lymphoid depletion in both cortex and medulla. Their spleens showed lymphoid depletion in the white pulps and congestion with hemosiderosis in the red pulps. Liver of treated dam's offsprings showed dilation and congestion of its central vein with degenerative changes in the hepatocytes. These histopathological changes were more severe in G2 than in G3 offsprings. It can be concluded that gestational and/ or lactation exposure of pregnant dams to AI chloride caused suppression of both cellular and humoral immune responses of their offsprings.

• 한국환경보건학회지
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• 제21권3호
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• pp.16-22
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• 1995

This study was designed to investigate the antibody production to sheep red blood cells(SRBC) and proliferation of mitogen-stimulated spleen cells in Balb/c mice which received cadmium chloride. The mice were divided into three independent groups which were one control and two experimental groups by the cadmium treatment or not. No specific treatment was done for the control group. One of two experimental groups, which is called 'pre-treatment group' in this paper, was subcutaneously injected with low dose of cadmium chloride(0.5 mg/kg/day) for 5 consecutive days before the primary SRBC immunization. The other called 'non-pretreatment group' was only pretreated with normal saline. Both experimental groups were intraperitoneally injected with high dose of cadmium chloride(5 mg/kg) 8 hours before the primary immunization. Mice were intraperitoneally immunized twice with 2% SRBC suspension containing $10^8$ cells. The results obtained were as follows, 1. The PFG responses to SRBC were significantly increased in two experimental groups, cadmium pretreatment and non-pretreatment compared with that of control group(p<0.05). 2. The total antibody titers to SRBC in cadmium treated groups were similar to that of control group, but titers of IgG antibody were significantly elevated(p<0.01). 3. The proliferation response of spleen lymphocytes to various mitogens was suppressed in proportion to the concentration of cadmium and the degree of cadmium accumulation in liver was increased in the cadmium treated groups. These results suggest that cadmium chloride could affect on mouse immune response, especially its cell mediated immune response could be decreased while its humoral immune response could be increased, which may not be influenced by the administration methods or pretreatment of cadmium to mouse.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제50권1호
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• pp.53-56
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• 2012

Treatment of hydatid disease is mainly surgical, with medical treatment being reserved as a coadjuvant treatment. Use of effective scolicidal agents during surgery of cystic echinococcosis is essential to reduce the recurrence rate. The goal of this study was to evaluate the in vitro scolicidal effects of hydroalcoholic extracts of $Satureja$ $khuzestanica$ leaves and aqueous extracts of $Olea$ $europaea$ leaves on hydatid cyst protoscolices. $Echinococcus$ $granulosus$ protoscolices were collected from the liver of sheep infected with the hydatid cyst. Various concentrations of plant extracts were used in different exposure times for viability assay of protoscolices. Among the olive leaf extracts tested, 0.1% and 0.01% concentrations had strong scolicidal effects in 120 min. $S.$ $khuzestanica$ 0.1% had very strong scolicidal effects in 30, 60, and 120 min of exposure times and the mortality rate decreased with the lower concentration. The finding have shown that the scolicidal activity of $S.$ $khuzestanica$ against cystic echinococosis protoscolices were more effective, while the $O.$ $europaea$ extract showed less effects.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제52권2호
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• pp.193-196
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• 2014

Fascioliasis is a zoonotic infection caused by Fasciola hepatica or Fasciola gigantica. We report an 87-year-old Korean male patient with postprandial abdominal pain and discomfort due to F. hepatica infection who was diagnosed and managed by endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) with extraction of 2 worms. At his first visit to the hospital, a gallbladder stone was suspected. CT and magnetic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) showed an intraductal mass in the common bile duct (CBD) without proximal duct dilatation. Based on radiological findings, the presumed diagnosis was intraductal cholangiocarcinoma. However, in ERCP which was performed for biliary decompression and tissue diagnosis, movable materials were detected in the CBD. Using a basket, 2 living leaf-like parasites were removed. The worms were morphologically compatible with F. hepatica. To rule out the possibility of the worms to be another morphologically close species, in particular F. gigantica, 1 specimen was processed for genetic analysis of its ITS-1 region. The results showed that the present worms were genetically identical (100%) with F. hepatica but different from F. gigantica.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제22권6호
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• pp.827-835
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• 2009

Insulin has crucial roles in energy metabolism in all mammals but has been less studied in ruminants. An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of hypoinsulinemia induction on appetite, performance, carcass composition and blood metabolite levels in sheep. Treatments were intravenous injection of four doses of streptozotocin; 0, 25, 50 and 75 mg/kg BW named C, L, M and H, respectively. Twenty male lambs were divided into four treatment groups. Animals in group H could not continue the experiment because of abnormalities. The duration of the experiment was eight consecutive weeks, and injection was performed at the end of week 3. Feed and water intakes were measured weekly and weight changes of animals were recorded and used for calculation of other growth parameters. Blood samples were collected weekly via venipuncture at fasting and 2.5 h post-prandial and analyzed for hormones and blood metabolites. Results showed a marked hypoinsulinemia in group M with significant decrease in fasted and postprandial insulin concentrations and also fasted leptin concentrations vs. the control group C (p<0.05). Group M showed significant increases in blood glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol, total protein, blood urea nitrogen and ketone body levels vs. group C (p<0.05). After injection, animals in group M showed diabetic hyperphagia and enhanced water intake as compared to group C (p<0.05) but, despite increased feed intake, they did not gain more weight than controls (p<0.05), and consequently, their feed conversion ratio was greater. Protein and fat contents of meat and liver were not significantly different among groups (p>0.05). In conclusion, the results suggested a regulatory role of insulin in energy metabolism of ruminants by exerting two opposing effects; central catabolic and peripheral anabolic.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제25권5호
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• pp.606-612
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• 2012

Insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-5 (IGFBP-5) is one of the six members of IGFBP family, important for cell growth, apoptosis and other IGF-stimulated signaling pathways. In order to explore the significance of IGFBP-5 in cells of the Inner Mongolian Cashmere goat (Capra hircus), IGFBP-5 gene complementary DNA (cDNA) was amplified by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) from the animal's fetal fibroblasts and tissue-specific expression analysis was performed by semi-quantitative RT-PCR. The gene is 816 base pairs (bp) in length and includes the complete open reading frame, encoding 271 amino acids (GenBank accession number JF720883). The full cDNA nucleotide sequence has a 99% identity with sheep, 98% with cattle and 95% with human. The amino acids sequence shares identity with 99%, 99% and 99%, respectively. The bioinformatics analysis showed that IGFBP-5 has an insulin growth factor-binding protein homologues (IB) domain and a thyroglobulin type-1 (TY) domain, four protein kinase C phosphorylation sites, five casein kinase II phosphorylation sites, three prenyl group binding sites (CaaX box). The IGFBP-5 gene was expressed in all the tested tissues including testis, brain, liver, lung, mammary gland, spleen, and kidney, suggesting that IGFBP-5 plays an important role in goat cells.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제52권4호
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• pp.413-418
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• 2014

Hydatid cyst caused by Echinococcus granulosus is one of the most important parasitic diseases around the world and many countries in Asia, including Iran, are involved with this infection. This disease can cause high mortality in humans as well as economic losses in livestock. To date, several molecular methods have been used to determine the genetic diversity of E. granulosus. So far, identification of E. granulosus using real-time PCR fluorescence-based quantitative assays has not been studied worldwide, also in Iran. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the genetic diversity of E. granulosus from center of Iran using real-time PCR method. A total of 71 hydatid cysts were collected from infected sheep, goat, and cattle slaughtered in Isfahan, Iran during 2013. DNA was extracted from protoscolices and/or germinal layers from each individual cyst and used as template to amplify the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene (cox1) (420 bp). Five cattle isolates out of 71 isolates were sterile and excluded from further investigation. Overall, of 66 isolates, partial sequences of the cox1 gene of E. granulosus indicated the presence of genotypes G1 in 49 isolates (74.2%), G3 in 15 isolates (22.7%), and G6 in 2 isolates (3.0%) in infected intermediate hosts. Sixteen sequences of G1 genotype had microgenetic variants, and they were compared to the original sequence of cox1. However, isolates identified as G3 and G6 genotypes were completely consistent with original sequences. G1 genotype in livestock was the dominant genotype in Isfahan region, Iran.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제52권1호
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• pp.47-49
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• 2014

Turkey remains an intermediate area for prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) surface antigenemia. The sheep-raising areas of Turkey also pose a high risk for cystic hydatid disease (CHD). Both HBV infection and CHD are major public health issues particularly in eastern parts of Turkey; however, there is no data regarding HBV infection in patients who have had CHD. The aims of this study were to evaluate the association between HBV infection and CHD and suggest ways to reduce HBV infection which is still widespread in Turkey. A retrospective study was conducted with 94 adult patients with active CHD referred to the hepatology department, Yuzuncuyil University School of Medicine from December 2010 to December 2012. All subjects came from rural areas of the region and underwent ultrasonography of abdomen which detected CHD of the liver. All the patients were serologically positive for Echinococcus granulosus. The control group consisted of 500 patients (300 men and 200 women) referred to the internal medicine clinics for other reasons. The patients with CHD and in the control group were tested for the existence of HBs antigen according to the standard procedures. The seroprevalence of HBs antigen was significantly higher in patients with active CHD than those in the control group (12.7% vs 5.2%; P=0.0017). Our data indicate that there is significant association between HBV infection and CHD. All patients with CHD should be screened for HBV infection.

• 대한수의학회지
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• 제39권3호
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• pp.513-522
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• 1999

DNA hybridization assay using probes prepared from liver was carried out to identify species characterization of the domestic animals. Gel electrophoresis showed that the target DNA extracted from raw muscle were 1kb and uniform pattern while fragments size of heated muscle were irregular. Hybridization was performed by adding 200ng/ml probe in hybridization solution and incubating for 12 hours at $68^{\circ}C$. To obtain good discrimination, applied washing buffer and washing step differently depending on the species. The probes of pig, horse and dog formed the specific hybrids with each target DNA respectively. Although cross reaction was detected in cattle, goat and sheep but signal intensity among these species made the discrimination possible each other. Such pattern was the same in the cases of chicken, turkey and duck. The hybridization pattern of heated muscle was similar to that of raw muscle in general, but the signal intensity was inferior to that of raw muscle. Species identification between closely related animal species, hybridized using the target DNA of such closely related animal species as a blocking agent, remarkable increase of discrimination from the evident decrease of non specific reaction compared with the control group. In addition, in the admixture where certain meat was included in the beef, pork, chicken meat, we could find whether any unjust meat was admixed or not. In this case, detection limit of certain meat in admixture was 1%.

• 약학회지
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• 제36권5호
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• pp.412-426
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• 1992

Effects of beta-carotene on the immunobiological responses were studied in ICR mice. ICR male mice were divided into 8 groups (10 mice/group), and beta-carotene at doses of 4, 20 and 100 mg/kg were orally administered to ICR mice once daily for 28 consecutive days. Cyclophosphamide (CY) was injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) to ICR mice with a single dose of 5 mg/kg body weight at 2 days before secondary immunization. Mice were sensitized and challenged with sheep red blood cells (5-RBC). Immune responses were evaluated by humoral immunity, cellular immunity and non-specific immunity. The results of this study were summarized as follows: (1) Beta-carotene significantly increased the weight ratios of liver, spleen and thymus to body weight depending on dose, and significantly increased the increasing rate of body weight and the number of circulating leukocyte. (2) Beta-carotene dose-dependently increased hemagglutination titer, Arthus reaction and hemolytic plaque forming cell related to humoral immunity. (3) Beta-carotene significantly increased delayed-type hypersensitivity reaction and rosette forming cell related to cellular immunity. (4) Beta-carotene dose-dependently increased phagocytic activity, and significantly increased natural killer (NK) cell activity. (5) Beta-carotene dose-dependently inhibited reductions in humoral immunity, cellular immunity, NK cell activity and phagocytic activity by treatment with CY.