Epidemiological data suggest that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs prevent colon cancer. The evidence for other types of tumour is less conclusive, though animal and in vitro studies indicate that they may be effective against mammary cancer cells. We assessed the effect of dietary acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid against dimethylbenzanthracene-induced rat tumours.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn an in vivo rat model of liver ischemia followed by reperfusion a consistent appearance of necrosis and activation of biochemical pathways of apoptosis was reproduced and monitored after 30 minutes reperfusion. Preconditioning by application of a short cycle of ischemia-reperfusion (10 minutes + 10 minutes) positively conditioned recovery of the organ at reperfusion, attenuating both necrotic and apoptotic events. Preconditioning at least halved cell oxidative damage occurring early at reperfusion, and as a major consequence, the increase of cytolysis and apoptosis occurring at reperfusion was about 50% less.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSquamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity continues to be a major clinical problem, with about 100,000 new deaths each year worldwide. There is therefore a need to search for new tools to aid oral cancer treatment. We tested the inhibitory activity on chemical carcinogenesis of the three principal protein fractions of about 50, 14, and 8.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnscheduled DNA synthesis refers to DNA synthesis not followed by cell division. Previous studies have suggested that this phenomenon may occur in neurons from peripheral myenteric ganglia in conditions of functional hyperstimulation. In order to verify these observations, we have carried on an immunohistochemical study on myenteric neurons from the hypertrophic intestinal loops upstream from a partial obstruction (an experimental condition that induces a relevant increase of the neuronal workload) after labelling with two different markers: the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), that is specifically expressed in cell nuclei during the S-phase, and the protein gene product 9.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSilver impregnation studies in chick embryos have shown that, by the 2nd day of incubation, the earliest neurofibrillar differentiation occurred in neuroblasts located at the diencephalic-mesencephalic junction and in the rhombencephalon; some of these neuroblasts were believed to become reticular neurons. Since calretinin, a cytosolic calcium-binding protein of the "E-F hand" family, occurs in reticular neurons, the present study investigated immunohistochemically whether the early differentiating reticular neurons are also the first neurons to express this marker during chick embryo development. The first calretinin-immunoreactive neuroblasts appeared at stage 11 (40-45 h of incubation according to the series of Hamburger and Hamilton), and were located in the basal plate of the diencephalic-mesencephalic junction and of rhombomeres adjacent to the otic placode and in the alar plate and intermediate zone of the cervical spinal cord.
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