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Background: Modern society is full of stress. Immobilization stress is a model used in animals to study its effects. Vitamin E is an antioxidant that protects biological membranes from oxidative stress. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effects of immobilization stress on the adrenal cortex of rats and the ameliorative effect of vitamin E. Materials and Methods: Forty adult male rats were used in this study and were divided equally into 4 groups. Group I: were divided equally into negative and positive controls. Group II: rats received vitamin E at a dose of 40 I.U/kg by gastric tube for 30 days. Group III: rats subjected to immobilization stress 2 hours /day for 30 days. Group IV: rats subjected to immobilization stress 2 hours /day and received 40 I.U/kg of vitamin E for 30 days. Adrenal sections were histologically prepared and examined. Results: Group II was comparable to group IA. Group III revealed zona glomerulosa (ZG) with loss of normal architecture, zona fasciculata (ZF) with multiple cells containing cytoplasmic vacuolations and darkly stained nuclei. By EM ZG cells appeared with accumulations of lipid droplets and lysosomes, irregular nuclear envelopes and chromatin condensation. ZF cells showed numerous lipid droplets and irregular nuclear envelopes. There were significant increases in the mean area of collagen fibers and mean serum cortisol level. Group IV revealed regression of these changes and increase in the mean count of CD44 +ve cells. Conclusions: Immobilization stress exerted deleterious suprarenal cortical changes and vitamin E had an ameliorative effect.

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Background: Ethanol is the most commonly used and abused xenobiotic in the world. Royal jelly (RJ) has been considered as an antioxidant that protects against different agents. Aim of the work: This study aimed to investigate the effect of ethanol on the rat tongue and the possible protective role of royal jelly. Material and methods: Twenty five adult male rats were used in this study and were divided into 4 groups. Group I: 10 rats were divided equally into negative and positive controls. Group II: 5 rats received RJ at a dose of 100 mg/kg body weight by gastric tube daily for 30 days. Group III: 5 rats received ethanol at a dose of 10 ml/kg body weight from 30% v/v ethanol solution in distilled water by a gastric tube daily for 30 days. Group IV: 5 rats received both RJ and ethanol as the same previous doses by gastric tube for 30 days. Tongue sections were histologically prepared and examined. Results:The results revealed that group II was nearly as group I. Group III revealed by LM dorsal surface of the tongue was covered by irregularly arranged, short and long lingual papillae. Some papillae were thin, with blunted tips and others were completely absent. The epithelial lining of the ventral surface also showed an apparent reduction in thickness. The keratin layer of the ventral surfaces of the tongue appeared in some regions discontinuous and detached. Some skeletal muscle fibers revealed separations and vacuolations. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) examination revealed a noticeable atrophy of lingual papillae from being short to being absent in focal areas. They were irregularly arranged in different directions. Group IV revealed amelioration of these changes. Conclusion: Ethanol has damaging effects on the lingual papillae and muscles and royal jelly has a protective role for these effects.

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a major health problem associated with high morbidity and mortality rates. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have revealed advantages for therapeutic use in medical practice. Microvesicles (MVs) are membranous, cell-derived vesicles released by MSCs into their microenvironment. The conditioned medium (CM) is the medium surrounding MSCs. Aim of the Work: This study aimed to investigate the therapeutic potential of MSCs, their CM and microvesicles (MVs) on experimentally induced acute kidney injury in rats. Materials and Methods: Fifty-five rats were divided into five groups: Group I (control group). Group II: given glycerol intramuscularly. Group III: given glycerol then MSCs. Group IV: given glycerol then CM. Group V: given glycerol then MVs. Kidney specimens were processed for H&E and Ki-67 staining and EM studies. Results: Subgroup IIA revealed vacuolation of the cytoplasm, flattening of the epithelial lining the tubules, extrusion of cytoplasm and nuclei into luminal spaces, deeply stained nuclei, and hyaline material in tubular lumina. EM examination of proximal and distal convoluted tubules showed multiple vacuoles, lysosomes, loss of continuity of apical cell membrane, presence of debris in the lumina and vacuolated mitochondria. Group IIB revealed poor improvement with persistence of most lesions. Groups III, VI and V showed amelioration of most of these lesions, and decrease in blood urea and serum creatinine levels. Conclusion: Mesenchymal stem cells, CM and MVs ameliorate induced AKI and with little differences in their effectiveness. CM and MVs can be used in treating diseases.Mesenchymal stem cells have showed many advantages for therapeutic usage such as strong immunosuppressive effects, capability to migrate to the tissue injury sites, lack of ethical issues and better safety of allogeneic MSCs after infusion. However, several problems can occur such as the unwanted differentiation of mesenchymal lineages, high risk of cancer transformation of MSCs and their targeted differentiation may be suboptimal [5] .

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Introduction: Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TNPs) have a wide range of applications in industry, medicine and environmental technology. Nowadays, TNPs have raised researcher's concerns on their toxicity. Lycopene is a dietary carotenoid having a potent antioxidant effect. Aim: To evaluate the effect of TNPs on the structure of renal cortex of rats and to assess the possible protective effect of lycopene against TNPs nephrotoxicity. Material and methods: Forty five adult male rats were divided into four groups. Group I (the control group) included 20 rats, which were divided equally into 4 subgroups. Subgroup IA was the negative control, Subgroup IB given one ml corn oil by gastric tube, Subgroup IC given one ml distilled water intraperitoneally (i.p) and Subgroup ID given one ml corn oil by gastric tube and one ml distilled water (i.p). Group II included 5 rats received a daily dose of 10 mg/kg body weight (BW) of lycopene by gastric tube for 4 weeks. Group III included 10 rats injected with 150 mg/kg BW (i.p.) of TNPs daily for 4 weeks. Group IV included 10 rats received both TNPs and lycopene at the same aforementioned doses for 4 weeks. Kidney specimens were prepared and sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin and Masson's trichrome. Immunohistochemical detection of desmin, anti-proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and caspase-3 was done. Results: Our results revealed that group II had similar findings nearly as group I. Group III showed congested dilated glomerular capillaries. The convoluted tubules showed exfoliation of some lining epithelial cells and degenerative changes. There were interstitial haemorrhage, mononuclear cell infiltration and increase in collagen fibers around degenerated convoluted tubules and glomeruli. A significant increase in desmin-expression in the glomerular cells was observed. Besides, there were significant increases of PCNA positive nuclear and caspase-3 cytoplasmic reactions in renal tubular cells. Group IV revealed amelioration of these changes. Conclusion: Lycopene protected rat's renal cortex against TNPs nephrotoxicity.

Treatment of AIDS (HIV) and hepatitis C virus needs protease inhibitors (PI) to prevent viral replication. Uses of PI in therapy are usually associated with a decrease in body weight and dyslipidemia. Acylation stimulating protein (ASP) is a protein synthesized in adipocytes to increase triglycerides biosynthesis, for that the relation of PI and ASP to adipogenesis is tested in this work. ASP expression was increased during 3T3-L1 differentiation and reached a peak at day 8 with cell maturation. Addition of PI during adipocytes differentiation dose dependently and significantly (p < 0.5) inhibited the degree of triglycerides (TG) accumulation. Moreover, presence of ASP (450 ng/mL) in media significantly (p < 0.5) stimulated the degree of TG accumulation and there was additive stimulation for ASP when added with insulin (10 µg/mL). Finally, when ASP in different doses (Low, 16.7; Medium, 45 and High, 450 ng/mL) incubated with a dose of ×150 PI, ASP partially inhibited the PI-inhibited adipogenesis and TG accumulation. The results in this study show that PI inhibit lipids accumulation and confirm role of ASP in TG biosynthesis and adipogenesis.