Cadmium (Cd) and nickel (Ni) are two of the most toxic metals, wreaking havoc on human health and agricultural output. Furthermore, high levels of Cd and Ni in the soil environment, particularly in the root zone, may slow plant development, resulting in lower plant biomass. On the other hand, endophytic bacteria offer great promise for reducing Cd and Ni. Moreover, they boost plants’ resistance to heavy metal stress. Different bacterium strains were isolated from tomato roots. These isolates were identified as Micrococcus luteus and Enterobacter cloacae using 16SrDNA and were utilized to investigate their involvement in mitigating the detrimental effects of heavy metal stress. The two bacterial strains can solubilize phosphorus and create phytohormones as well as siderophores. Therefore, the objective of this study was to see how endophytic bacteria (Micrococcus luteus and Enterobactercloacae) affected the mitigation of stress from Cd and Ni in tomato plants grown in 50 μM Cd or Ni-contaminated soil. According to the findings, Cd and Ni considerably lowered growth, biomass, chlorophyll (Chl) content, and photosynthetic properties. Furthermore, the content of proline, phenol, malondialdehyde (MDA), H2O2, OH, O2, the antioxidant defense system, and heavy metal (HM) contents were significantly raised under HM-stress conditions. However, endophytic bacteria greatly improved the resistance of tomato plants to HM stress by boosting enzymatic antioxidant defenses (i.e., catalase, peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione reductase, ascorbate peroxidase, lipoxygenase activity, and nitrate reductase), antioxidant, non-enzymatic defenses, and osmolyte substances such as proline, mineral content, and specific regulatory defense genes. Moreover, the plants treated had a higher value for bioconcentration factor (BCF) and translocation factor (TF) due to more extensive loss of Cd and Ni content from the soil. To summarize, the promotion of endophytic bacterium-induced HM resistance in tomato plants is essentially dependent on the influence of endophytic bacteria on antioxidant capacity and osmoregulation.

Rats were fed on diets containing rapeseed oil, either containing low or high erucic acid content as well as the hydrogenated ones for 6 weeks. Body weight gain, biochemical and pathological parameters were investigated. The data showed high body weight gain for rats fed diets containing low erucic rape oil (LERo) compared with those fed either the high erucic rape oil (HERo), the hydrogenated or the partially hydrogenated oil diets. All rats showed non significant changes for total lipids, total cholesterol, GPT and GOT, except the partially hydrogenated rape oil diet which showed significant decrease for total cholesterol. Alkaline phosphatase however showed a significant decrease, while plasma phospholipids showed significant increase in rats fed on the hydrogenated oil diet. Triglycerides indicated non significant increase except in the group that received low erucic rape oil diet. Histopathological study showed changes in all tissues examined (liver and kidney).

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A rapid increase in the prevalence of hyperlipidemia was recorded recently. The link between consumption of milk or dairy products with higher risk for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and liver disorders particularly in those individuals with hyperlipidemia is still controversial. The present study was conducted to show the relationship between increased consumption of milk and yogurt either of cow or buffalo origin and the risk for cardiovascular diseases and liver disorders in hyperlipidemic rats. An animal experiment was conducted on six groups each comprising six rats after a period of eight weeks for induction of hyperlipidemia. Then, four groups of the hyperlipidemic rats were fed on 30% of milk (either buffalo or cow) or yogurt (either buffalo or cow) for another 8 weeks in addition to control negative and control positive groups. Results for the hyperlipidemic groups which received milk or yogurt revealed a reduction in most of serum lipid parameters, atherogenic index, malondialdehyde while increased HDL-C concentration. Also, a reduced activity of liver enzymes ALT, AST and LDH-5 and the cardiac enzyme CPK was noticed for the same groups in comparison with the group of control positive. Histopathological examination for liver and aorta confirmed the aforementioned biochemical changes. Thus, it can be concluded that increased milk or yogurt consumption did not increase the risk for cardiovascular diseases or liver disorders in hyperlipidemic rats. On the contrary, it improves the enzyme activity of both liver and heart and the atherogenic index, also it improves the disturbed serum lipid parameters of hyperlipidemic rats.

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