Aim:The present study was performed to investigate acute and subchronic oral toxicity of Ferula assa-foetida gum (28 days) in Sprague Dawley rats.Materials and Methods:Acute oral administration of F. assa-foetida was done as a single bolus dose up to 5 g/kg in mice and subchronic toxicity study for 28 days was done by oral administration at doses of 0 (control) and 250 mg/kg in Sprague Dawley rats.Results:The obtained data revealed that oral administration of F. assa-foetida extract in rats for 28 successive days had no significant changes on body weight, body weight gain, the hematological parameters in rats all over the period of the experiment, and there are no significant increases in the activity of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, creatinine and urea. Liver of treated rats showed mild changes as thrombosis and sinusoidal leukocytosis. It also showed portal infiltration with inflammatory cells, while kidney of treated rat showed an atrophy of glomerular tuft, thickening of parietal layer of Bowman capsule, and focal tubular necrosis. It also showed dilatation and congestion of renal blood vessels.Conclusion:We concluded that F. assa-foetida gum had broad safety and little toxicity for short term use in dose of 250 mg/kg.

BackgroundMultiple sclerosis (MS) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are chronic autoimmune mediated diseases with strong genetic and environmental components. The aim of this study is to evaluate the association of STAT4 gene polymorphism with multiple sclerosis (MS) and juvenile onset systemic lupus erythematosus (JO-SLE) and its relation to disease severity.MethodsGroup 1 consisted of 40 MS patients while group 2 included 40 JO-SLE patients. Forty healthy volunteers (controls) were included in this study. STAT4 genotyping was performed by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP).ResultsThe STAT4 CC genotype and GC genotype frequencies were significantly more detected in MS and JO-SLE patients than in controls. The frequency of the STAT4 C allele was significantly higher in patients with MS and those with JSLE compared to controls. Malar rash, photosensitivity, and hair falling were significantly more detected in CC subtype. Malar rash, photosensitivity, and hair falling were significantly more detected in CC subtype. Increased 24-h protein in urine (mg/24 h) and ANA positivity, anti-ds-DNA, anti Sm antibodies’ detection and decreased C3 and C4 levels showed a significantly difference in CC patients. Meanwhile, only increased 24-h protein in urine (mg/24 h) and ANA positivity were significantly more detected in GC patients. STAT4 CC genotype showed a significant increase in the SLE activity index (SLEAI) score and damage index as compared to the STAT4 GG genotype patients. No significant difference was detected in MS Kurtzke’s Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) comparing different STATE 4 genotypes.ConclusionsSTAT4 polymorphism was significantly associated with MS and JO-SLE. Though homozygous JO-SLE patients are more risky for severe disease manifestations, homozygous MS patients are not risky for severe disease disability.

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The present study aimed to identify the molecular markers as well as the effects of genotype, explant and hormone balance on the ability of shoot regeneration in vitro tomato propagation. Six commercial cultivars (SM, UC97-3, CR, SQ, SSB and RS) and four hybrids (SM×CR, SSB×CR, RS×CR and SQ×CR) were used as different genotypes. Two explant types (shoot tip, eypocotyl) and three media composition [M1 (MS + BA 2 mg/l + Kin1 mg/l.), M2 (MS + BA 0.5mg/l + Kin0.5mg/l.), and M3 (MS + BA1 mg/l + Kin2 mg/l.)] affected shoot regeneration in all the tested genotypes. The three types of media promoted the shoot tip explant to produce shoots. Only M1 medium promoted the eypocotyl explant to produce shoots. Three criteria were measured on all produced plantlets (leaf number, plant height and number of shoots/ explant). Three genotype(SM, UC97-3, CR and RS) showed the highest number of shoots, number of leaves and plant height, respectively as a response to the culture medium M1 (2mg/l BA +1mg/l kin) So, they are good combiners for the production of hybrids. The hybrid (SM×CR) possessed high number of shoots.Ten ISSR primers were individually amplified to allow the differentiation of the materials under study. All ten primers generated 98 DNA bands, with an average of 9.8 per primer and 78 being polymorphic, The profiles generated by primer 17898 B (CA) 6GT contained the highest number of polymorphic bands (12 bands). All primers detected unique bands except HB13and HB10 primers. The two varieties (SM) and UC 97-3 possessed highly shoot regeneration than the other genotypes and they had unique bands may be used as molecular markers for highly shoot regeneration. These molecular markers were 917 bp by primer 17899 A (CA) 6 AG, 365 bp, 333 bp and 291 bp by 17898 A(CA) 6AC and 515 bp and 343 bp by primer 17898 B (CA) 6GT. The evaluation of the dendrogram showed 79% similarity between SSB and UC 97-3 cultivars and they are located in a separate group, and 82% similarity between CR, SQ, RS, SM cultivars. From the results obtained in this study, ISSR markers have a high efficiency to differentiate the tomato cultivars. Three primers i.e., 17899 A (CA) 6 AG, 17898 A(CA) 6AC and 17898 B (CA) 6GT consider as a specific primers in tomato genotypes for discovery of molecular markers to high ability shoot regeneration genotypes.