Taurine ameliorates 5-flourouracil-induced intestinal mucositis, hepatorenal and reproductive organ damage in Wistar rats

5-Fluorouracil is one of the most commonly used anticancer drugs for the treatment of various types of cancer but has potential adverse effects such as intestinal mucositis, renal, hepatic, and reproductive organ toxicity. Attention has been given to approaches to reduce the side effects and improve the therapeutic effectiveness of chemotherapeutic drugs. In this study, we have investigated the protective effect of taurine (Tau) on 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) induced adverse effects in Wistar rats. Animals were divided into four groups with six animals ( n = 6) in each group. Group I received vehicle only and served as control group. Groups II, III, and IV animals were given oral gavage of 5-FU at 50 mg/kg body weight for 4 days. Tau was given to the animals of groups III and IV 30 min prior to 5-FU administration. We observed marked elevation in the myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity after 5-FU administration, which was reversed by Tau pretreatment. Histological observation of liver, kidney, intestine, testis, and prostate revealed that 5-FU administration resulted in anomalies like distortion of normal cellular architecture, infiltration of inflammatory cells, and loss of cellular integrity. These histopathological changes were markedly suppressed by Tau treatment. In conclusion, biochemical and histological findings of this study suggest that Tau has strong preventive potential against complications of anticancer drug 5-FU and hence Tau may play an important role in combinational chemotherapy to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of anticancer drugs. </jats:p

Evaluation of an experimental silane primer system in promoting adhesion between orthodontic bracket and ceramic

The aim of the study was to evaluate in vitro the effect of an experimental silane primer system on the adhesion strength of metallic orthodontic brackets bonded to a ceramic surface. For this purpose, a total of 180 glazed ceramic porcelain fused to metal (PFM) veneer were randomly assigned into 2 groups of 90 specimens, according to the primer used. Each group was further divided into 3 subgroups according to the surface treatment to be received, thus there were 6 study groups; three with 3-acryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (ACPS) silane primer, namely 1a (pretreatment with hydrofluoric acid, HF), 1b (pretreatment with grit-blasting) and 1c (pretreatment with tribochemical silica-coating) and 3 with a novel silane system (ACPS+bis-1,2(triethoxysilyl) ethane (BTSE)) assigned as 2a (HF), 2b (grit-blast), and 2c (tribochemical silica coating). The samples were evaluated for surface roughness (Ra) before and after surface conditioning. Next, 15 samples from each subgroups were subjected to thermo-cycling and remaining 15 samples served as the baseline (n = 15). Adhesion strength (the shear bond strength, SBS) was recorded using a universal testing machine. Debonding failure types were classified according to the adhesive remnant index (ARI). Contact angles of the primers were measured. Data were analyzed by ANOVA and Tukey’s multiple comparison post hoc analysis. The highest SBS at baseline (26 8+1 7 MPa) and after thermocycling (24 6+1 7 MPa) was observed in group 2c, and the lowest (9 6+1 5 MPa and 4 5+1 1 MPa) was found in group 1a. Specimens pretreated with tribochemical silica-coating exhibited the highest Ra and the lowest Ra was observed in HF treated specimens. The application of experimental silane primer system on specimens pretreated with tribochemical silica-coating demonstrated increased adhesion of orthodontic brackets making it an excellent choice in orthodontic bonding for a relatively long term use