The medical ethnobotanical knowledge propagated over generations in the coastal regions of the Eastern Mediterranean, including Lebanon, is one that has built on several ancient cultures and civilizations of these regions. Recent interest in medical ethnobotany and the use of medicinal herbs in treating or preventing ailments has rejuvenated interest in folk medicine practices, especially those transcendent across generations. According to Eastern Mediterranean folk medicine practices, herbal remedies that treat many inflammation-related ailments were typically based on plant bioactive water extracts or decoctions. Studies have shown that active anti-inflammatory ingredients in water extracts include many natural chemicals such as phenols, alkaloids, glycosides, and carbohydrates. The intent of this manuscript is twofold: first, to review the literature that describes anti-inflammatory bioactivities in plant extracts of different plant genera; and second, to evaluate indigenous folk remedies used by folk doctors to treat inflammatory ailments in this region of the world. For this aim, the reported literature of five plant genera assumed to possess anti-inflammatory bioactivities and typically prescribed by folk doctors to treat inflammation-related ailments is reviewed.
Ca(2+) is the universal signal for egg activation at fertilization in all sexually reproducing species. The Ca(2+) signal at fertilization is necessary for egg activation and exhibits specialized spatial and temporal dynamics. Eggs acquire the ability to produce the fertilization-specific Ca(2+) signal during oocyte maturation. However, the mechanisms regulating Ca(2+) signaling differentiation during oocyte maturation remain largely unknown. At fertilization, Xenopus eggs produce a cytoplasmic Ca(2+) (Ca(2+)(cyt)) rise that lasts for several minutes, and is required for egg activation. Here, we show that during oocyte maturation Ca(2+) transport effectors are tightly modulated. The plasma membrane Ca(2+) ATPase (PMCA) is completely internalized during maturation, and is therefore unable to extrude Ca(2+) out of the cell. Furthermore, IP(3)-dependent Ca(2+) release is required for the sustained Ca(2+)(cyt) rise in eggs, showing that Ca(2+) that is pumped into the ER leaks back out through IP(3) receptors. This apparent futile cycle allows eggs to maintain elevated cytoplasmic Ca(2+) despite the limited available Ca(2+) in intracellular stores. Therefore, Ca(2+) signaling differentiates in a highly orchestrated fashion during Xenopus oocyte maturation endowing the egg with the capacity to produce a sustained Ca(2+)(cyt) transient at fertilization, which defines the egg's competence to activate and initiate embryonic development.
Primary cilia are sensory organelles that transmit extracellular signals into intracellular biochemical responses. Structural and functional defects in primary cilia are associated with a group of human diseases, known as ciliopathies, with phenotypes ranging from cystic kidney and obesity to blindness and mental retardation. Primary cilia mediate mechano- and chemosensation in many cell types. The mechanosensory function of the primary cilia requires the atypical G-protein-coupled receptor polycystin-1 and the calcium-permeable nonselective cation channel polycystin-2. Mechanical stimulations such as fluid-shear stress of the primary cilia initiate intracellular calcium rise, nitric oxide release, and protein modifications. In this review, we describe a set of protocols for cell culture to promote ciliation, mechanical stimulations of the primary cilia, and measurements of calcium rise and nitric oxide release induced by fluid shear stress.
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