Many researchers have advocated in recent times that antiseptic use in healing wounds should be discouraged. Antiseptics have been found to retard healing of wounds. Innocuous solutions like normal saline and tap water are being considered as better alternatives to antiseptics. Chlorhexidine, a commonly used antiseptic, is known to be less toxic on granulation cells. We decided to compare the effect of chlorhexidine, normal saline and tap water on healing wounds. Three groups of wistar rats had 2 by 2cm full thickness wounds made on their right dorsolateral flanks. The wounds were dressed with either chlorhexidine, normal saline or tap water. Wounds were examined at three-day intervals and measurements of area covered were taken on the first day of study and the ninth day. Wound contraction on the ninth day and number of days for healing to take place in the different groups was taken and statistical analysis using student t-test was done to compare the values. Gross morphology of the wounds was also observed. The result showed an inhibitory effect of chlorhexidine on healing wounds. The wound contraction in the antiseptic group was less than the tap water and saline group on day nine. The average number of days for wound healing to be completed in the antiseptic group was more than the other two. These results were statistically significant when compared with the other two groups. There was no statistical difference in the wound contraction values and rate of healing of the saline and tap water dressed wounds. Grossly, all the wounds dressed with antiseptic also had greenish exudates on their surface by day nine with pale looking granulation tissue, and there was greater mortality in this group.
Kola nut (from Cola nitida) is popular in Nigeria and West Africa and is commonly consumed by pregnant women during the first trimester to alleviate morning sickness and dizziness. There is, however, a dearth of information on its effects on the developing brain. This study, therefore, investigated the potential effects of kola nut on the structure of the developing neonatal and juvenile cerebellum in the rat. Pregnant Wistar rats were administered water (as control) or crude (aqueous) kola nut extract at 400, 600, and 800 mg/kg body weight orally, from pregnancy to day 21 after birth. On postnatal days 1, 7, 14, 21 and 28, the pups were weighed, anaesthetised, sacrificed and perfused with neutral buffered formalin. Their brains were dissected out, weighed and the cerebellum preserved in 10% buffered formalin. Paraffin sections of the cerebellum were stained with haematoxylin and eosin for cerebellar cytoarchitecture, cresyl violet stain for Purkinje cell count, Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP) immunohistochemistry (IHC) for estimation of gliosis, and B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) IHC for apoptosis induction. The kola nut-treated rats exhibited initial reduction in body and brain weights, persistent external granular layer, increased molecular layer thickness, and loss of Bergmann glia. Their Purkinje cells showed reduction in density, loss of dendrites and multiple layering, and their white matter showed neurodegeneration (spongiosis) and GFAP and Bcl-2 over-expression, with evidence of reactive astrogliosis. This study, therefore, demonstrates that kola nut, administered repeatedly at certain doses to pregnant dams, could disrupt normal postnatal cerebellar development in their pups. The findings suggest potential deleterious effects of excessive kola nut consumption on human brain and thus warrant further studies to understand the wider implications for human brain development.
SUMMARY: Developmental pathologies may result from endogenous or xenobiotic-enhanced formation of reacting oxygen species (ROS), which oxidatively damage cellular macromolecules and/or alter signal transduction, and that the embryonic processes regulating the balance of ROS formation, oxidative DNA damage and repair, and ROS-mediated signal transduction may be important determinants of teratological risk. ROS can oxidize molecular targets such as DNA, protein, lipid in a process called oxidative stress resulting in cellular dysfunction and in utero death or teratogenicity. This review, consisting of literature search of journals and chapters in books aims at highlighting the importance of the cerebellum in controlling various motor activities in the body, as well as substances affecting cerebellar development with a view of providing an insight to the role antioxidants play in cerebellar development. It is interesting to note that the developing brain (especially the cerebellum, cerebrum and hippocampus) is highly vulnerable to the deleterious effects of ROS. Studies have shown that exposure to oxidants in the first trimester is associated with an increased risk of major congenital anomalies, as most vital organs in the body develop and some become functional within this period in offspring. Antioxidants may prevent oxidative damage in degenerative diseases including ageing, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, stroke and Parkinson's disease as such play a critical role in wellness and health maintenance. INTRODUCTIONThe consumption of some drugs and chemical substances at various doses could cause malformations in certain developing body organs especially when used during critical periods of development. Such malformations could reflect in the gross and microscopic appearances of affected organs in the mature organisms (Moore & Persaud, 1998). The critical stages of development at which such malformations occur in mammals correspond to the pre-natal and early postnatal lives. In the former circumstance, these substances when consumed by the mother, affect the embryos or foetus only if they cross the blood placental barrier. In the latter circumstance, the substances need to have been administered directly to the neonates or suckled in the breast milk in early post-natal life for them to affect development (Moore & Persaud).The cerebellum is a highly organized structure in which the Purkinje cells (Pc) are the sole output of the cerebellar cortex (Altman, 1969(Altman, , 1972a(Altman, , 1972b(Altman, , 1972c, and it is one of the first structure of the brain to differentiate, however, it achieves its mature configuration many months after birth (Wang & Zoghbi, 2001;Bouet et al., 2005). For this reason, the cerebellum is especially vulnerable to developmental irregularities on exposure to oxidants which generate free radicals resulting in oxidative stress (Wang & Zoghbi;Kern & Jones, 2006). Oxidative stress occurs due to an imbalance in pro-oxidant and antioxidant levels. Scientific evidence sugg...
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