Immunomodulatory effects by oral contraceptives in normal and cholestatic female rats: role of cytokines.

Oral contraceptives (OC) may cause intrahepatic cholestasis or increase a pre-established liver damage. OC effects on hepatic injury biochemical markers remain contradictory and the role of cytokines in those processes is fairly unknown. Two doses, simple or double, of the OC combination ethinylestradiol/norgestrel were administered during 14 or 28 days to normal and cholestatic female rats.

Membrane potential differences and GABAA receptor expression in hepatic tumor and non-tumor stem cells.

The ability to differentiate tumor initiating stem cells (TISCs) from healthy, normal stem cells (NSCs) could have important diagnostic and therapeutic implications for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The aim of this study was to document and compare cell membrane potentials (PDs) and GABAA receptor subunit expression in hepatic TISCs and NSCs. PD values were determined in CD133(+) Huh-7 TISCs and CD133(+) WBF344 NSCs by single channel microelectrode impalement.

Protective effect of N,N'-dialkylated analogs of 4,4'-diaminodiphenylsulfone in a model of intrastriatal quinolinic acid induced-excitotoxicity.

The bacteriostatic agent 4,4'-diaminodiphenylsulfone or dapsone (DDS) and some of its N,N'-dialkylated analogs have shown anticonvulsant and neuroprotective properties in different experimental models. In this study, we tested the ability of five DDS analogs (N,N'-dimethyldapsone, N,N'-diethyldapsone, N,N'-dipropyldapsone, N,N'-dibutyldapsone and N,N'-ditosyldapsone) to attenuate quinolinic acid-induced toxicity in vivo. Male Wistar rats were treated with either DDS or analogs (12.

A novel fluorinated stilbene exerts hepatoprotective properties in CCl(4)-induced acute liver damage.

There has been a recently increase in the development of novel stilbene-based compounds with in vitro anti-inflamatory properties. For this study, we synthesized and evaluated the anti-inflammatory properties of 2 fluorinated stilbenes on carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄)-induced acute liver damage. To achieve this, CCl₄ (4 g·kg(-1), per os) was administered to male Wistar rats, followed by either 2-fluoro-4'-methoxystilbene (FME) or 2,3-difluoro-4'-methoxystilbene (DFME) (10 mg·kg(-1), per os).