Stress induced alterations in pre-pubertal ovarian follicular development in rat

The objective of the study was to find out whether stress experienced during neo-natal period alters the timing of formation of pre-antral and antral follicles and if so, whether pre-treatment with CRH receptor antagonist prevents these effects in rats. New born rat pups (n= 15) were exposed to maternal separation (6 hours/ day) from post-natal day (PND) 1 to 7 and were killed on PND 8, 11 and 15. The time of exposure was randomly changed every day during light phase (7Am to 7Pm) of the day to avoid habituation. There was a significant increase in serum corticosterone levels on PND 8 and 11 in stress group rats compared to controls indicating stress response in these pups. The ovary of both control and stressed rats contained oocytes and primary follicles on PND 8 and 11 and in showed progress of follicular development upto to pre-antral and early antral follicle formation on PND 11 and 15. However, mean number of healthy oocytes and all categories of follicles at all ages studied were significantly lower in stressed rats compared to controls. Concomitant with these changes, number of atreatic follicles showed an increase over control values in stressed rats. The increase in atresia of follicles was due to apoptosis as shown by increase in the percentage of granulosa cells showing TUNEL positive staining and caspase 3 activity. On the other hand, pre-treatment with CRH- receptor antagonist (CRH 9-41) 2ng/ 0.1 ml/ rat prior to undergoing stress regime on PND 1 to 7, prevented alterations in pre- pubertal follicular development thereby indicating that the ovarian changes were due to effects of stress induced activation of HPA axis. The results indicate that, stress during neonatal phase, though does not affect timing of formation of pre-antral and antral follicles, it does enhance atresia of follicles of all categories, including follicular reserve, which may affect the reproductive potential of adults. The results, for the first time reveal that CRF receptor antagonist prevents pre-pubertal ovarian stress response

Interestingness measure on privacy preserved data with horizontal partitioning

Association rule mining is a process of finding the frequent item sets based on the interestingness measure. The major challenge exists when performing the association of the data where privacy preservation is emphasized. The actual transaction data provides the evident to calculate the parameters for defining the association rules. In this paper, a solution is proposed to find one such parameter i.e. support count for item sets on the non transparent data, in other words the transaction data is not disclosed. The privacy preservation is ensured by transferring the x-anonymous records for every transaction record. All the anonymous set of actual transaction record perceives high generalized values. The clients process the anonymous set of every transaction record to arrive at high abstract values and these generalized values are used for support calculation. More the number of anonymous records, more the privacy of data is amplified. In experimental results it is shown that privacy is ensured with more number of formatted transactions

Genotoxic and antibacterial nature of biofabricated zinc oxide nanoparticles from Sida rhombifolia linn

Phyto-assisted synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) has gained importance because of their stable and eco-friendly nature with significant biological properties compared to chemically synthesized NPs. In the present study biofabrication of ZnO-NPs were carried out using aqueous leaf extract of Sida rhombifolia Linn. The biofabricated ZnO-NPs showed an absorption peak at 307 nm and bandgap energy of 3.51 eV with an average size of similar to 30 nm. The XRD analysis revealed stiff narrow peaks confirming the particles were of no impurities, which were in agreement with EDS analysis. The biofabricated ZnO-NPs exhibited significant antibacterial activity with a MIC of 0.25 mg mL(-1) against E. coli, while it was 0.5 mg mL(-1) against B. subtilis and S. typhi. The live and dead cell analysis of the nanoparticles confirmed that the antibacterial activity was due to damage in the cell walls of the test pathogens. Further, the nanoparticles also offered significant antioxidant and genotoxic properties with an IC50 of 974.5 mu g mL(-1) and 548.4 mu g mL(-1), respectively

Bacteriology of Acute Respiratory Infections in Children

Bacteriological investigations were carried out on 151 children (80 males and 71 females) suffering from acute respiratory infections (ARI) to And out bacteria associated with ARI. Fifty one children presenting with upper respiratory infections (URI) and 100 with lower respiratory infections (LRI) seen at the outpatient department of the Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children, Madras, were included in this study. In all, 56% of the children yielded any one or a mixture of bacteria that could be potential or probable pathogens of ARI. Nonfermenting gram negative bacilli (NFGNB) were the predominant organisms isolated (27%) followed by non-typable ampicillin resistant Haemophilus influenzae (13%) and b. haemolytic streptococci groups C and G (11%). The other bacteria isolated in this study were Klebsiella pneumoniae (7%), Streptococcus pneumoniae (3%), Neisseria sps. pure (3%) and Staphylococcus aureus (1%). The isolation rate of NFGNB was maximum (47%) when the duration of illness exceeded 7 days. Mixed infections of potential or probable pathogens were observed in 11 patients which included NFGNB + K. pneumoniae (2); H. influenzae + NFGNB (2); b- haemolytic streptococci + H. influenzae (2); b- haemolytic streptococci + K. pneumoniae (1) ; S. aureus + K. pneumoniae (1) ; Neisseria sp. + K. pneumoniae (2) and NFGNB + b- haemolytic streptococci + H. influenzae (1)

Pharmacokinetics of isoniazid and rifampicin in patients with renal failure undergoing continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) Running Head : Pharmacokinetic of INH & RMP in renal failure (CAPD)

The pharmacokinetics of isoniazid (INH) and rifampicin (RMP) was determined in 22 renal failure patients, 11 each with low and high membrane permeabilities (LMP and HMP) undergoing Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD). Blood samples were collected at different time points following oral administration of INH and RMP. Estimations of INH and RMP in blood were carried out by standard procedures and certain pharmacokinetic variables were calculated based on their concentrations in blood. The INH inactivation status was determined based on salivary levels of INH. The pharmacokinetic variables of INH and RMP did not differ significantly between LMP and HMP groups. The study results suggest that renal failure patients on CAPD may not require reduction in the dosage of RMP or INH in rapid acetylators. Slow acetylators might require dose reduction of INH. Determination of INH inactivation status is important when patients with renal failure and tuberculosis are treated with INH-containing regimens

A new common functional coding variant at the DDC gene change renal enzyme activity and modify renal dopamine function.

The intra-renal dopamine (DA) system is highly expressed in the proximal tubule and contributes to Na+ and blood pressure homeostasis, as well as to the development of nephropathy. In the kidney, the enzyme DOPA Decarboxylase (DDC) originating from the circulation. We used a twin/family study design, followed by polymorphism association analysis at DDC locus to elucidate heritable influences on renal DA production. Dense single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping across the DDC locus on chromosome 7p12 was analyzed by re-sequencing guided by trait-associated genetic markers to discover the responsible genetic variation. We also characterized kinetics of the expressed DDC mutant enzyme. Systematic polymorphism screening across the 15-Exon DDC locus revealed a single coding variant in Exon-14 that was associated with DA excretion and multiple other renal traits indicating pleiotropy. When expressed and characterized in eukaryotic cells, the 462Gln variant displayed lower Vmax (maximal rate of product formation by an enzyme) (21.3 versus 44.9 nmol/min/mg) and lower Km (substrate concentration at which half-maximal product formation is achieved by an enzyme.)(36.2 versus 46.8 μM) than the wild-type (Arg462) allele. The highly heritable DA excretion trait is substantially influenced by a previously uncharacterized common coding variant (Arg462Gln) at the DDC gene that affects multiple renal tubular and glomerular traits, and predicts accelerated functional decline in chronic kidney disease