Pharmacological Effects of the Lipidosterolic Extract from Fruits in Experimental Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Induced by Testosterone in Sprague Dawley Rats.

Background: The use of phytotherapics is very frequent in men with prostatic diseases, sexual disorders and infertility, and many associations are commercially available. Various vegetable products used as drugs or nutraceuticals are attributed to possess the capacity to exert benefic effects on the reproductive system, and most of these drugs have a rich and varied lipidosterolic fraction, primarily responsible for the effects related to the male genital sphere. (Lam.

The selection of serum-independent PC12 cells for a more-reliable manganese cytotoxicity test.

A major issue concerning the protocols of heavy metal cytotoxicity tests with PC12 cells was the hypothesis that serum in the culture medium might sequester the metal, thus altering the results obtained. However, serum withdrawal impairs the viability of PC12 cells themselves, thus impeding cytotoxicity testing in the absence of serum. In this study, we repeatedly selected undifferentiated, totally non-adherent PC12 cells in Petri dishes.