In vivo anti-diarrheal activity of jujube honey on castor oil-induced diarrhea in mice.

Objective: To evaluate the antidiarrheal effect of jujube honey on experimentally castor oil-induced diarrhea in mice by using different testing models (diarrhea, enteropooling and gastrointestinal motility).

Methods: The mice intragastric administration castor oil was post-treated after 30 min with jujube honey, diluted jujube honey and loperamide or vehicles in different experimental groups. The onset and number of wet defecation on the absorbent paper was recorded for each animal for 4 h.

Seasonal changes in plasma testosterone and cortisol suggest an androgen mediated regulation of the pituitary adrenal axis in the Tarabul's gerbil Gerbillus tarabuli (Thomas, 1902).

In the desert gerbil Gerbillus tarabuli (Thomas, 1902), cortisol is the main glucocorticosteroid produced by the adrenal glands. Plasma cortisol concentrations show highest values when testosterone is reduced and lowest values during the breeding season which occurs from early winter to late spring. In order to specify the implication of testicular androgens in these corticosteroid seasonal variations we investigated the effects induced by gonadectomy performed during the breeding season on the pituitary adrenal axis.

Androgen receptor-mediated regulation of adrenocortical activity in the sand rat, Psammomys obesus.

The wild sand rat, Psammomys obesus, displays seasonal variations in adrenocortical activity that parallel those of testicular activity, indicating functional cross-talk between the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal and hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axes. In the present study, we examined androgen receptor (AR)-mediated actions of testicular steroids in the regulation of adrenocortical function in the sand rat. Specifically, we examined the expression of AR in the adrenal cortex, as well as adrenal apoptosis in male sand rats that had been surgically castrated or castrated and supplemented with testosterone; biochemical indices of adrenocortical function and hormone profiles were also measured.