Purpose: To investigate the relationship between BMI and selected ocular parameters. Subjects and methods: Fifty-three left eyes of normal weight subjects and 67 age-sex matched overweight subjects were studied. Inclusion criteria for the normal weight and overweight groups included BMI between 18.5–22.9 and 23.0–29.9 kg/m 2 , respectively. Subjects with a history of systemic disease, ocular disease or surgery, or disability were excluded. All subjects underwent a medical history interview, arterial blood pressure, height, weight, waist circumference and hip circumference measurements, and BMI and waist-hip ratio calculation. The intraocular pressure (IOP) and anterior corneal curvature were measured by non-contact tonometry and corneal topography, respectively. Measurement of anterior and posterior segment parameters of the eye, including central corneal thickness, anterior chamber depth (ACD), anterior chamber angle, macular thickness (MT), ganglion cell thickness (GCT), retinal nerve fiber layer thickness, cup to disc ratio, and choroidal thickness was performed by enhanced depth-imaging optical coherence tomography. Results: There was a positive correlation between ACD and BMI (Univariate analysis; β =0.198, P =0.030, Multivariate analysis; β =0.410, P =0.005) and between BMI and IOP (Univariate analysis; β =0.269, P =0.003). The IOP of the overweight group was found to be significantly higher than of the normal weight group (12.80±3.40 and 11.86±2.12 mm Hg, respectively, P =0.002). Also, there was a significant difference found between the GCT and the MT of the two groups ( P =0.036 and 0.009, respectively). Conclusion: It was found that BMI strongly correlated with ACD and IOP. Also, the degree of obesity was found to be a significant factor; therefore, the relationship between these ocular parameters and the severity of obesity should be further investigated.

Intravenous infusion of either camboginol or morelloflavone from Garcinia dulcis (GD) exerted diuretic, hypotensive, and vasorelaxant effects in either normotensive or hypertensive rats. This study aims to investigate the effects of GD flower extract on arterial blood pressure (ABP) and renal excretory functions. Male Wistar rats (8-weekold) were divided into 4 groups (group I-IV, n = 6 each) in both acute and sub-chronic protocols. The GD extract was orally administrated to group II-IV at the dose of 50, 100, or 200 mg/kg, respectively, while group I served as vehicle control. The oral administration was performed before the experiment in acute protocol and daily for 2 weeks in the sub-chronic protocol. The ABP and renal excretory functions were measured in the anesthetized rats. The levels of fasting blood glucose (FBG), plasma lipid profiles, and liver enzymes were evaluated in the sub-chronic experiment along with liver histology. The results showed that acute administration of GD extract significantly decreased ABP but increased renal blood flow, glomerular filtration rate, urine flow rate, osmolar clearance, and negative free water clearance when compared with the control. In the sub-chronic protocol, the GD extract significantly decreased ABP but did not alter the renal excretory functions. The plasma levels of FBG, lipid profiles, liver enzymes, and the histology of liver were not changed. It is concluded that acute oral administration of GD extract possessed hypotensive and diuretic effects whereas the sub-chronic treatment of GD showed hypotensive effect and no alterations in liver function, FBG, and plasma lipid profiles.

Morelloflavone, a biflavonoid from Southeast Asian folk medical plant Garcinia dulcis, possesses powerful antioxidant activity both in vivo and in vitro. We aimed to evaluate the hypotensive and diuretic effect of morelloflavone in two-kidneysone-clip (2K1C)

The hexane insoluble fraction of the Garcinia dulcis (GD) flower extract comprises mainly camboginol and morelloflavone which possess potent in vivo and in vitro antioxidant properties. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of 4-week oral administration of GD flower extract on the arterial blood pressure (ABP) and the excretory function of the kidney in the 2-kidneys-1-clip (2K1C) renovascular hypertensive rats (total=12) compared to sham operated (SO) normotensive Wistar rats (total=12). Four weeks after hypertensive-induced surgery, either 50 mg/kg BW GD flower extract or vehicle was orally administered to the 2K1C or SO groups (n=6/group) daily for four weeks. ABP and the renal excretory function were studied in anesthetized rats, and expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) mRNA in the isolated thoracic aorta were measured. In the 2K1C rats, GD flower extract significantly decreased ABP while increased significantly eNOS mRNA levels. GD flower extract did not exert a diuretic effect in either SO and 2K1C rats since there was no change in observed urine excretion, but it did tend to attenuated the renal tubular damage caused by renovascular hypertension. GD flower extract was anti-hypertensive in this model of renovascular hypertension and problably acts via the endothelial nitric oxide signaling pathway.

Fasciola gigantica, a giant liver fluke, causes tremendous loss to the livestock economy in several regions throughout the world. The situation of drug resistance has been emerging increasingly; therefore, novel drugs and drug targets need to be discovered. The adult F. gigantica inhabits the major bile ducts where bile salts accumulate—these are steroid-like molecules that mediate several physiological processes in organisms through interacting with their specific nuclear receptors. However, the molecular mechanism of the interaction in the parasitic organisms have not been clearly understood. In this study, putative nuclear receptor subfamily 1 of F. gigantica (FgNR1) was identified. Nucleotide and amino acid sequences of the FgNR1 homolog were obtained from the transcriptome of F. gigantica and predicted for properties and functions using bioinformatics. The full-length cDNA was cloned and expressed in the bacterial expression system and then used for immunization. Western analysis and immunolocalization suggested that FgNR1 could be detected in the crude worm antigens and was highly expressed in the caeca and testes of the adult parasite. Moreover, the bile could significantly activate the expression of FgNR1 in cultured parasites. Our results indicated that FgNR1 has high potential for the development of a novel anthelminthic drug in the future.

Angiotensin II acts via two main receptors within the central nervous system, with the type 1A receptor (ATR) most widely expressed in adult neurons. Activation of the ATR in the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS), the principal nucleus receiving central synapses of viscerosensory afferents, modulates cardiovascular reflexes. Expression of the ATR occurs in high density within the NTS of most mammals, including humans, but the fundamental electrophysiological and neurochemical characteristics of the ATR-expressing NTS neurons are not known. To address this, we have used a transgenic mouse, in which the ATR promoter drives expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP). Approximately one-third of ATR-expressing neurons express the catecholamine-synthetic enzyme tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), and a subpopulation of these stained for the transcription factor paired-like homeobox 2b (Phox2b). A third group, comprising approximately two-thirds of the ATR-expressing NTS neurons, showed Phox2b immunoreactivity alone. A fourth group in the ventral subnucleus expressed neither TH nor Phox2b. In whole cell recordings from slices in vitro, ATR-GFP neurons exhibited voltage-activated potassium currents, including the transient outward current and the M-type potassium current. In two different mouse strains, both ATR-GFP neurons and TH-GFP neurons showed similar ATR-mediated depolarizing responses to superfusion with angiotensin II. These data provide a comprehensive description of ATR-expressing neurons in the NTS and increase our understanding of the complex actions of this neuropeptide in the modulation of viscerosensory processing.

Garcinia dulcis (GD) extract has been found to have anti-hypertensive properties in animal studies. GD can also alter the colonic microbiota of rats. However, the effects of GD on changes in the gut microbiota and metabolomic profiles of normotensive and hypertensive rats are currently unknown. The purpose of this study was to evaluate changes in the gut microbiota and metabolomic profiles of 2-kidneys-1 clip (2K1C) hypertensive rats after feeding with GD flower extract. Rats were randomly divided into the following 4 groups: sham operation (SO) receiving corn oil (CO) (SO + CO), SO receiving GD (SO + GD), 2K1C receiving corn oil (2K1C + CO) and 2K1C receiving GD (2K1C + GD). Body weight (BW) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) were measured weekly throughout the study. Gut microbiota and fecal metabolites were measured from fresh fecal contents. Alpha diversity results demonstrated a similar microbial richness and diversity between groups. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) effect size (LEfSe) suggested that GD treatment affected gut microbial community structure in both hypertensive and normotensive rats. Feeding rats with GD caused metabolic alterations that rendered 2K1C + GD rats similar to SO + CO and SO + GD rats. Findings suggest that the impact of GD on gut microbiota and metabolite profiles may be related to its anti-hypertensive properties.

Garcinia is a significant medicinal plant with many beneficial phytoconstituents, including garcinol. This study investigated the anti-inflammatory effect of garcinol isolated from Garcinia dulcis fruit in LPS-activated THP-1 and Raw 264.7 macrophages. The results demonstrated that the low concentration of garcinol did not alter cell viability. Furthermore, co-incubation of garcinol with LPS inhibited the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including TNF-α, IL-8, IL-6, IL-1β, and pro-inflammatory mediators, including iNOS and COX-2 at the mRNA and protein expression levels. Garcinol also decreased the secretion of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, PGE2, and NO. Moreover, the anti-inflammatory effects involved an alteration in the NF-κB signaling pathway. Downregulation of pIKKα/β, pIκBα, and pNF-κB was observed, hence reducing the translocation of pNF-κB from the cytosol into the nucleus, which subsequently decreased the production of pro-inflammatory molecules. Therefore, garcinol isolated from Garcinia dulcis is a potential candidate as an anti-inflammatory agent for inflammation-related disease treatment.