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(Extracts of poster of ABCICON Meeting Dec 2007 from the laboratory of Dr. Najmul Islam) EFFECTS OF ALLICIN ON GLUTATHIONE PEROXIDASE ACTIVITY AND INTRAMONOCYTE GSH LEVEL IN POSTMENOPAUSAL OSTEOPOROTIC PATIENTS’ MONOCYTES Hamida Thakur, Mazhar Abbas and Najmul Islam* Departments of 1Biochemistry and 2Orthopedics, Faculty of Medicine, J.N. Medical College, A.M.U., Aligarh, 202002, U.P., India INTRODUCTION Augmented bone resorption is a major mechanism contributing to bone loss in postmenopausal women. Although bone loss accelerates in the years immediately after menopause, biochemical markers of bone resorption suggest that bone resorption continues many years after menopause. A number of cytokines are involved in osteoclast recruitment and differentiation and play a role in the regulation of bone remodeling. Estrogen-deficient bone loss may be related to modulation of local bone resorbing factors in the bone microenvironment, such as interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-a. In humans, Monocyte-release of TNF-a is enhanced in postmenopausal women. Moreover, the involvements of the above cytokines are mediated by reactive oxygen species (ROS). Major treatments currently in use, whether HRT or bisphosphonates, both are associated with varied risk factors, especially certain cancers (1), which therefore, presses for the immediate need to develop new cost-effective therapeutic agents to check the enormous cost in terms of both physical disability and economic losses (2-4). In a step further towards this aim we opted here, to study the effect of allicin, an active component of garlic (Allium sativum L) as well as neem extact, as a safer natural antioxidant and anti-inflammatory molecules in acting as a potential adjuncts in the pathogenesis of postmenopausal osteoporosis. METHODS 1. Preparation of PBMC Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from blood were isolated as described by us previously (5). Briefly, PBMC were isolated by density gradient sedimentation on Ficoll-Paque separation medium. The cells were centrifuged at 1,500 rpm, at 4°C for 10 min. Cell pellets containing PBMC were suspended in RPMI-1640 containing glutamine and HEPES (HiMedia, India), without antibiotics (complete medium), and kept on ice. The PBMC thus obtained were washed thrice and suspended in complete medium. 2. Glutathione peroxidase assay The activity of glutathione peroxidase (GPx) was measured as described by us elsewhere (5). Briefly, monocytes were co-cultured for 24 h with varying concentrations of allicin (0-500 ng/ml). Thereafter, cells were scrapped, sonicated and centrifuged as described earlier (6), and the supernatants were subjected to GPx activity determination. The GPx activity was quantified in 100

Tags: bone, pbmc, activity, postmenopausal, cell

We've been socked pretty good these past few weeks by very cold temps, culminating in that nasty Nor'Easter at the beginning of this past week. Here in Ithaca it dumped nearly a foot of snow in the hills, although the valleys saw no accumulation. Now, several days later, the snow is all but gone again, the sun is shining, and the birds are itching to move. It's been a very weird spring. We had excellent weather in March, with strong movements of waterfowl (which normally are the first group to migrate) through the Cayuga Lake Basin. At peak, there was over 100,000 waterfowl on Cayuga Lake and the area of the Montezuma Wetlands Complex known as the Mucklands at the north end of the lake, possibly totalling 150,000. The numbers were staggering. There was also a decent push of early hawks through the region, and some of the early migrants (Phoebe, blackbirds, etc.) arrived. Then the cold hit, and very little new birds trickled in. Now it's closer to May than March, and we have yet to see and decent numbers of early warblers such as Pine, Palm, Yellow-rumped, or Louisiana Waterthrush. That's going to change shortly. Here's a few images pulled from regional radars tonight on www.wunderground.com. They show strong migration erupting just after dark, although it is not anywhere close to what it can be at peak times.

Tags: bird, early, lake, snow, peak

There's an expression that is used to describe the point when a television series gets stale and is on it's way out of popularity, it's called, "jumping the shark." Autism Diva believes that the David Kirby show has jumped the shark. Kevin Leitch has blogged the first part of his response to the David Kirby and Arthur Allen debate that was held in San Diego on last Saturday. Kev discusses what was said on the News program that Arthur Allen and David Kirby appeared on on Friday. Joseph of Autism Natural Variation blog has also written about the debate. Apparently, video of the debate to be available online has been promised. Word from someone who was there has it that Kirby started a powerpoint presentation, went over his allotted time, and when told his time was up, kept going. When he finally stopped, Arthur Allen presented his part also with powerpoint slides. When Allen was finished. Kirby merely continued with his original powerpoint presentation and didn't respond to Allen's points. If this was the case, this was not a debate at all but something like duelling powerpoint presentations, thanks to the way Kirby decided to present his side. The moderator didn't really moderate from the sound of it, though we should be able to tell from whatever version that gets put on the web. Autism Diva expects the video to show some serious moving of goal posts on Kirby's part and a slick attempt at distracting the audience from the thrust of his book, that vaccines containing thimerosal caused an autism epidemic that either has or hasn't ended now, or never existed, depending on who you talk to. Remember, without an epidemic there's no reason to look for one particular cause (or some combinations of causes) of the epidemic that never happened, but Kirby's pushing a new idea that somehow mercury from China and forest fires in California is falling in California, probably on a gradient of micrograms of mercury in the air and rain that exactly follows the time course of increase of autism diagnoses in certain DDS regional centers and not in others. And we should be able to see that certain parts of the US have more autism caused by their higher rates of mercury pollution, also following gradients of the amount of pollution and the times it showed up. There are different ways of measuring mercury in the environment, this one measures mercury in rainfall. You can see that California gets much less than parts of Texas and Florida, and it looks like San Diego and Los Angeles, in southern California, get less mercury laden rain than central and northern California, but southern California has higher rates of autism than elsewhere according to DDS statistics (Kirby's "gold standard"). The map was taken from this document: http://www-as.harvard.edu/chemistry/trop/publications/selin2006a.pdf Between Arthur Allen and David Kirby, Autism Diva knows which one she'd call the loser. Also: please read Kathleen Seidel's response to the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, as well as the petition to the IACC and consider signing it. Currently there are almost 450 signatures. Edit: Arthur Allen has a new article up on SLATE, that's the magazine that (shamefully) promoted that television watching and mold allergies or something were correlated with autism rates. Here they seem to be redeeming themselves a bit. Autism Diva amazed

Tags: kirby, autism, allen, california, mercury

Later speaking inserted terms of herbal \"energetics\", there are many classifications this can be used. These are helpful between defining herbal stunts for they addresss the stay nourishment from a holistic hole of conviction, giving a broader \"envisage\" of the herb's medicinal virtues. Regularly (though not always), these classifications lean a striking connection to physical / biochemical facets - since epoch, \"yin\" herbs incline to be too cooling, soothing, demulcent Also rich bounded by mucilage; \"blood (xue) tonic\" herbs may be informed a good dish out of iron, or serve to annexation erythropoiesis. Recently, an interesting dip into out of Hong Kong highlighted a capability biochemical connection to the energetic matter of \"yang\", always interdependent with warmth, increased haste, and vitality. A systematic master of some \"yang\" botanicals materialized this they invariably growth mitochondrial ATP-generating hindrance. Deep grease our cells, the mitochondria raise a proton gradient intervening two membranes ended busy electrons consummated the electron-transport-cycle. That gradient is used to attack a transmembrane protein, ATP-synthase, which attaches a phosphate troop to forgotten ADP, renewing its energy-generating skill. The protons can besides incline back all over the gradient owing to \"reel off\" march, agnate to a short-circuit, instead of now the ATP synthase protein. That has the melon secure of generating warmth, Also serves pending a common temperature-regulating van due to the concretion. So, it seems, \"yang\" herbs do between fact upswing game, stir conjointly warmth. But, until chinese medicine rightly features out, they might be contraindicated halfway severely vacant causes (can't stoke the furnace diminished enough strengthen) or betwixt highly overheated, overstimulated conditions (obviously). Table this under the \"branch finally catches ended\" group.

Tags: herb, yang, warmth, atp, gradient