Brown alga Ecklonia cava attenuates type 1 diabetes by activating AMPK and Akt signaling pathways.

The antidiabetic therapeutic effect of Ecklonia cava, a brown alga, was investigated using streptozotocin-induced type 1 diabetes mellitus rats and C2C12 myoblasts. The methanol extract of E. cava (ECM), having a strong radical scavenging activity, significantly reduced plasma glucose level and increased insulin concentration in type 1 diabetes mellitus rats.

Acute effects of fast neutron irradiation on mouse liver.

Until now, the multiple biological effects of ionizing radiation on liver have been reported. However, there has not been any reports of fast neutron-mediated liver injuries including liver regeneration or fibrosis. Here, we described the biological effects of acute fast neutron irradiation on the liver.

Kinetics of MMP-1 and MMP-3 produced by mast cells and macrophages in liver fibrogenesis of rat.

Background: The involvement of whether macrophages and mast cells in the kinetics of matrix metalloproteinases-1 (MMP-1), MMP-3 and MMP-9, tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases-1 (TIMP-1) and TIMP-2 in hepatic fibrosis/cirrhosis was examined.

Materials And Methods: The MMPs and TIMPs were examined by histopathology, immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting using carbon tetrachloride-induced fibrotic rat liver.

Results: MMP-1 increased in proportion to the development of fibrosis and reached maximum at week 14.

Effects of bio-active ceramic resources in cutaneous wound healing and the role of TGF-beta signaling.

The wound healing process is a highly orchestrated process, which includes inflammation, re-epithelialization, granulation tissue formation, matrix formation and re-modeling. In this paper, we attempt to determine if bio-active ceramic resource powder particles had an effect on cutaneous wound healing. Furthermore, we investigated its related mechanism and the expression of Smads of cutaneous wound healing, which can be accelerated by bio-active ceramic ointment.

Up-regulation of Metabotropic glutamate receptor 3 (mGluR3) in rat fibrosis and cirrhosis model of persistent hypoxic condition.

Glutamate is the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system, and evidence for peripheral glutamatergic fibers in mammals is still lacking. However, glutamate receptors have been identified in peripheral organs, including taste buds, myenteric plexus, and pancreatic islet cell. Protection against anoxic damage could also be explained by mechanisms mediated by postsynaptic mGluR2 or mGluR3, such as the inhibition of membrane excitability resulting from a reduction of cAMP formation by a G-protein-dependent modulation of ion channels.

Role of apoptosis in the pathogenesis of Asian and South American foot-and-mouth disease viruses in swine.

In this study, we performed experiments to evaluate the extend of the process of apoptotic cell death by foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). Apoptosis can also occur in some virus-infected cells, and ability of viruses to either inhibit or promote apoptosis may influence the pathologic outcome of infection. In this study, to determine if apoptosis plays a role in the outcome of FMDV infection in swine, we evaluated apoptosis in diseased tissues collected from pigs inoculated with two different stains of FMDV (O1 Campos and O Taiwan).

Alcohol-induced bone degradation and its early detection in the alcohol-fed castrated rats.

The objective of this study was to examine alcohol-induced changes of bone in hormone-deficient males using the developed method. In the process of bone resorption, type I collagen crosslinking molecules, pyridinoline (PYD), are released into the circulation and cleared by the kidneys. (2)H(2)O as a tracer has been applied to measure the synthesis rates of slow-turnover proteins and successfully applied to bone collagen synthesis in our hormone deficiency rats.