Effects Of Alcohol Research Articles

Determining the possibility of using cold plasma for the oxidation of atmospheric nitrogen into nitrogen oxides and the influence of activating substances on the process

The process of oxidation of molecular nitrogen by high-energy oxidants, such as nitric acid vapor, products of the thermolysis of nitric acid, and hydrogen peroxide, in a cold plasma stream was studied. To implement the process of obtaining nitric acid from atmospheric air using reproductive technology (Zakharov's method), the design of a reactor for obtaining nitrogen oxides by direct oxidation of nitrogen in a cold plasma stream is proposed. At the same time, it was proposed to use the effect of obtaining nitrogen oxides in an air mixture with nitric acid vapors (the Karavaev effect) and during the thermal decomposition of hydrogen peroxide with atmospheric nitrogen (the Nagiev effect). The effectiveness of the use of cold plasma for the oxidation of atmospheric nitrogen was established, which is confirmed by the obtained dependences. It is shown that the amount of nitrogen oxides that are formed depends on the efficiency of the formation of a stable flow of OH- radicals in the plasma flow. It was also found that the amount of nitrogen oxides depends on the parameters of the plasma generator, the composition of the liquid used in the burner, and the amount of air supplied. The effect of nitric acid, hydrogen peroxide, and alcohols as activators of atmospheric nitrogen oxidation in a high-energy field was revealed. It was determined that when comparing three activator substances, which are able to form OH- radicals during their decomposition, it is hydrogen peroxide that is the most promising activator substance for carrying out the process of atmospheric nitrogen oxidation in the plasma flow. The amount of nitrogen oxides formed in the cold plasma region is almost independent of the flow rate of the reaction mixture through the reactor and remains almost unchanged in a wide range of changes in flow rates from 30 to 3000 l/h

The impact of alcohol consumption on implicit racial bias.

Researchers and theorists studying intergroup relations have been interested in the impact of alcohol on interracial responding. Theories predict that alcohol will exacerbate expressions of racial bias by increasing reliance on stereotypes and/or by decreasing controlled processing and self-monitoring. Prior studies testing these theories have often examined alcohol's effects on implicit (i.e., indirect) measures of racial bias with inconsistent results. However, previous research in this area has suffered from several methodological limitations, including small sample sizes and doses of alcohol that may have been too low to induce substantial intoxication. Here, in more than triple the number of alcohol participants than the largest prior study, we tested whether an intoxicating dose of alcohol (target breath alcohol concentration of .08%) exacerbated implicit racial bias. Young adults who identified as races other than Black or African American (N = 207) were randomly assigned to consume an alcoholic or placebo beverage and completed the race-based Implicit Association Test (race IAT) testing implicit preference for White (vs. Black) individuals [or, conversely, bias against Black (vs. White) individuals]. All participants demonstrated an implicit racial bias (i.e., linking traditionally Black names with negative/unpleasant words), with no difference in this implicit racial bias across beverage conditions. Specifically, there were no differences between alcohol participants' race IAT D scores (M = 0.55, SD = 0.39), and placebo participants' race IAT D scores (M = 0.59, SD = 0.35), b = 0.05, 95%CI [-0.07, 0.18], p = .422. These findings challenge theories and prior studies suggesting that alcohol increases implicit racial bias. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Unraveling the Molecular Mechanisms of Alcohol-Mediated Skin Permeation Enhancement: Insights from Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

The application of alcohols as permeation enhancers in pharmaceutical and cosmetic formulations has attracted considerable attention, owing to their skin permeation-enhancing effect. Nonetheless, the elucidation of the fundamental mechanisms underlying the skin permeation-enhancing effect remains elusive. In this study, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were employed to investigate the effect of 1,2-propanediol (1,2-PDO), 1,2-butanediol (1,2-BDO), and ethanol (EtOH) on the stratum corneum (SC) model membrane. The results showed that the effect of alcohols on the SC model membrane displayed a concentration-dependent nature. The alcohols can interact with SC lipids and exhibit a remarkable ability to selectively extract free fatty acid (FFA) molecules from the SC model membrane and make the SC looser. Meanwhile, 1,2-BDO and EtOH can penetrate into SC lipid bilayers at higher concentrations, leading to the formation of continuous hydrophilic defects in SC. The FFA extraction and the formation of continuous hydrophilic defects induced ceramide (CER) tail chains to become more disordered and fluid and also weakened the hydrogen bonding (H-bonding) network among SC lipids. Both the FFA extraction and the continuous hydrophilic defect formation endowed alcohols with the permeation-enhancing effect. The constrained simulations revealed that the free energy barriers decreased for the permeation of the hydrophilic model molecule (COL) across the SC model membranes containing alcohols, particularly for 1,2-BDO and EtOH. The possible permeation-enhancing mechanisms of alcohols were proposed correspondingly. This work not only provided a deep understanding of the transdermal permeation-enhancing behavior of alcohols at the molecular level but also provided necessary reference information for designing effective transdermal drug delivery systems in applications.

Gastrulation-stage alcohol exposure induces similar rates of craniofacial malformations in male and female C57BL/6J mice.

Prenatal alcohol exposure during gastrulation (embryonic day [E] 7 in mice, ~3rd week of human pregnancy) impairs eye, facial, and cortical development, recapitulating birth defects characteristic of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). However, it is not known whether the prevalence or severity of craniofacial features associated with FAS is affected by biological sex. The current study administered either alcohol (2.9 g/kg, two i.p. doses, 4 hr apart) or vehicle to pregnant C57BL/6J females on E7, prior to gonadal sex differentiation, and assessed fetal morphology at E17. Whereas sex did not affect fetal size in controls, alcohol-exposed females were smaller than both control females and alcohol-treated males. Alcohol exposure increased the incidence of eye defects to a similar degree in males and females. Together, these data suggest that females might be more sensitive to the general developmental effects of alcohol, but not effects specific to the craniofacies. Whole transcriptomic analysis of untreated E7 embryos found 214 differentially expressed genes in females vs. males, including those in pathways related to cilia and mitochondria, histone demethylase activity, and pluripotency. Gastrulation-stage alcohol induces craniofacial malformations in male and female mouse fetuses at similar rates and severity, though growth deficits are more prevalent females. These findings support the investigation of biological sex as a contributing factor in prenatal alcohol studies.

Wine quality analysis by the structural causal model (SCM)

Bayes network modelling for structural causal analysis between wine physicochemical data and quantitative human quality blind assessments is applied. The large dataset of white and red "Vinho Verde'' wine samples from Portugal, which was available from an open data repository for machine learning at the University of California at Irving, was analysed. The dataset contains 4898 white and 1599 red samples evaluated by blind tastes by a minimum of 3 sensory assessors and 12 physicochemical properties. The casual effects of wine analytic data on human quality evaluations are evaluated numerically by Bayes neural networks for adjusted sets of the covariates as marginal distributions and presented graphically as partial dependence plots. Structural causal analysis revealed important differences between the most important variables for quality predictions and the individual causal effects. Bayes neural network models of the partial dependencies show more pronounced nonlinear effects for red wines compared to white wine quality. The artificial intelligence models with boosted random decision tree forests for untrained wine samples yield a 5% relative standard error of predictions compared to 12% for the linear models and ordinary least squares estimation. For red wine, the most important direct causal quality effects are caused by alcohol, volatile acidity, and sulphates. Alcohol improves quality with a maximum plateau at 14%, while volatile acidity has a strong proportional negative effect. The effect of sulphates is highly nonlinear with maximum positive effect at a concentration of 1 g/L of K2SO4. For the white wine samples causal effects are linear with positive effects of alcohol and negative effects of volatile and fixed acidity. The developed structural causal model enables evaluation of targeted wine production interventions, named as “doing x, do(x) models”, as restructured adjusted Bayes networks. It leads to potential applications of artificial intelligence in wine production technology and process quality control.

Alcohol reduces choosiness and relaxes mate preferences in female Drosophila simulans

Abstract Alcohol can alter sexual behaviour. However, our understanding of alcohol’s effects on sexual interactions is limited because males are usually the focus of nonhuman studies. Alcohol could in theory alter female mate-choice and, in turn, affect sexual selection, a major mechanism of evolution. Here we tested whether alcohol exposure affected female mate-preference, choosiness, and copulation duration in the fly Drosophila simulans, while simultaneously testing for genetic variation in these effects. We found that alcohol exposure did not affect copulation duration, but did weaken mate-preference, as females copulated with a broader range of males after exposure, and it tended to reduce female choosiness as females mated more quickly. Although female genotype significantly affected copulation duration and choosiness, the effects of alcohol appeared to be reasonably consistent across genotypes, but this depended on the analysis employed. Nonetheless, alcohol reduced female choosiness and weakened mate-preference, and may therefore reduce the strength of sexual selection. Testing whether these changes impact female fitness is now required.

Synthesis and Characterization of Hydroxyapatite-Ag Nanocomposites Using Areca Nut Peel Bioreductors (Areca catechu L.) for Antibacterial Applications

Calcium Hydroxyapatite (HAp, Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2) is an important material utilized in bone, tooth enamel, and dentin. In this study, areca nut peel bioreductors (Areca catechu L.) were used to synthesize HAp-Ag nanocomposites using green synthesis method. The effect of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) amount on the structure and morphologies of the synthesized HAp-Ag nanocomposites were investigated. The XRD showed that the crystal size of synthesized HAp-Ag nanocomposites is 1-100 nm with a degree of crystallinity above 60%. SEM images showed that the particles of HAp-Ag nanocomposites were nano-sized with uneven spherical shape. The antibacterial activity test was carried out against Staphylococcusaureus and Escherichia coli using the disc diffusion test. The result showed that AgNPs incorporated in modified HAp inhibited Gram-negative bacteria more efficiently than Gram-Positive bacteria. Based on the antibacterial test results, the hydroxyapatites were effective against all tested microorganisms. Therefore, it can be considered as an antimicrobial biomaterial that can be used in implant and reconstructive surgery applications.

The association between neuropsychiatric effects of substance use and occurrence of endoplasmic reticulum and unfolded protein response: A systematic review

IntroductionThis systematic review aimed to assess the association between neuropsychiatric effects of substance use and occurrence of ER stress and unfolded protein response (UPR) through comprehensive electronic search of existing literature and review of their findings. MethodsA comprehensive electronic literature search was carried out on research articles published between 1950 to July 2023 through major databases, such as Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, PubMed, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Medline and Cochrane Library. ResultsA total of 21 research articles were selected for review, which were comprised of sixteen animal studies, four human studies and one study on postmortem human brain samples. The selected studies revealed that alcohol, methamphetamine, cocaine, opioid and kratom exposures contributed to neuropsychiatric effects: such as decline in learning and memory function, executive dysfunction, alcohol, methamphetamine, opioid, and kratom dependence. These effects were associated with activation and persistent of ER stress and UPR with elevation of BiP and CHOP expression and the direction of ER stress is progressing towards the PERK-eIF2α-ATF4-CHOP pathway and neuronal apoptosis and neurodegeneration at various regions of the brain. In addition, regular kratom use in humans also contributed to elevation of p-JNK expression, denoting progress of ER stress towards the IRE1-ASK1-JNK-p-JNK pathway which was linked to kratom use disorder. However, treatment with certain compounds or biological agents could reverse the activation of ER stress. ConclusionsThe neuropsychiatric effects of alcohol, methamphetamine, cocaine, opioid and kratom use may be associated with persistent ER stress and UPR.

Retracted: Therapeutic Effect and Mechanism of Cinnamyl Alcohol on Myocardial Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury.

[This retracts the article DOI: 10.1155/2022/5107948.].

Social epidemiology of early adolescent alcohol expectancies

PurposeTo determine the sociodemographic correlates of alcohol expectancies (i.e., beliefs regarding positive or negative effects of alcohol) in a national (U.S.) cohort of early adolescents 10–14 years old. A second aim was to determine associations between alcohol sipping and alcohol expectancies.MethodsWe analyzed cross-sectional data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (N = 11,868; Year 2). Linear regression analyses were conducted to estimate associations between sociodemographic factors (sex, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, household income, parental education, parent marital status, religiosity) and positive (e.g., stress reduction) and negative (e.g., loss of motor coordination) alcohol expectancies. Additional linear regression analyses determined associations between alcohol sipping and alcohol expectancies, adjusting for sociodemographic factors.ResultsOverall, 48.8% of the participants were female and 47.6% racial/ethnic minorities, with a mean age of 12.02 (SD 0.67) years. Older age among the early adolescent sample, male sex, and sexual minority identification were associated with more positive and negative alcohol expectancies. Black and Latino/Hispanic adolescents reported less positive and negative alcohol expectancies compared to White non-Latino/Hispanic adolescents. Having parents with a college education or greater and a household income of $200,000 and greater were associated with higher positive and negative alcohol expectancies. Alcohol sipping was associated with higher positive alcohol expectancies.ConclusionsOlder age, White non-Latino/Hispanic race, male sex, sexual minority status, higher parental education, and higher household income were associated with higher positive and negative alcohol expectancies. Future research should examine the mechanisms linking these specific sociodemographic factors to alcohol expectancies to inform future prevention and intervention efforts.

Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial of RealConsent2.0: a web-based intervention to promote prosocial alcohol-involved bystander behavior in young men

BackgroundSexual violence (SV) is a significant, global public health problem, particularly among young adults. Promising interventions exist, including prosocial bystander intervention programs that train bystanders to intervene in situations at-risk for SV. However, these programs suffer from critical weaknesses: (1) they do not address the proximal effect of alcohol use on bystander decision-making and (2) they rely on self-report measures to evaluate outcomes. To overcome these limitations, we integrate new content specific to alcohol use within the context of prosocial bystander intervention into an existing, evidence-based program, RealConsent1.0. The resulting program, RealConsent2.0, aims to facilitate bystander behavior among sober and intoxicated bystanders and uses a virtual reality (VR) environment to assess bystander behavior in the context of acute alcohol use.MethodsThis protocol paper presents the design of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in which we evaluate RealConsent2.0 for efficacy in increasing alcohol- and non-alcohol-involved bystander behavior compared to RealConsent1.0 or to an attention-control program (“Taking Charge”). The RCT is being implemented in Atlanta, GA, and Lincoln, NE. Participants will be 605, healthy men aged 21–25 years recruited through social media, community-based flyers, and university email lists. Eligible participants who provide informed consent and complete the baseline survey, which includes self-reported bystander behavior, are then randomized to one of six conditions: RealConsent2.0/alcohol, RealConsent2.0/placebo, RealConsent1.0/alcohol, RealConsent1.0/placebo, Taking Charge/alcohol, or Taking Charge/placebo. After completing their assigned program, participants complete a laboratory session in which they consume an alcohol (target BrAC: .08%) or placebo beverage and then engage in the Bystanders in Sexual Assault Virtual Environments (BSAVE), a virtual house party comprising situations in which participants have opportunities to intervene. Self-reported bystander behavior across alcohol and non-alcohol contexts is also assessed at 6- and 12-months post-intervention. Secondary outcomes include attitudes toward, outcome expectancies for, and self-efficacy for bystander behavior via self-report.DiscussionRealConsent2.0 is the first web-based intervention for young men that encourages and teaches skills to engage in prosocial bystander behavior to prevent SV while intoxicated. This is also the first study to assess the proximal effect of alcohol on bystander behavior via a VR environment.Trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov, NCT04912492. Registered on 05 February 2021

The mechanisms underlying alcohol-induced decreased splenic size: A network meta-analysis study.

Organ weight change is widely accepted as a measure of toxicologic pathology. We and other groups have shown that excessive alcohol exposure leads to decreased spleen weight in rodents. This study explores the mechanisms underlying alcohol-induced splenic injury through a network meta-analysis. QIAGEN Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) and Mammalian Phenotype (MP) Ontology were used to identify alcohol-related molecules associated with the small spleen phenotype. Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins (STRING) and IPA bioinformatics tools were then used to analyze the biologic processes and enriched signaling pathways engaging these molecules. In addition, the "downstream effects analysis" algorithm was used to quantify alcohol's effects. IPA identified 623 molecules affected by alcohol and a Venn diagram revealed that 26 of these molecules overlapped with those associated with the MP Ontology of small spleen. The 26 molecules are TGFB1, CASP8, MTOR, ESR1, CXCR4, CAMK4, NFKBIA, DRD2, BCL2, FAS, PEBP1, TRAF2, ATM, IGHM, EDNRB, MDM2, GLRA1, PRF1, TLR7, IFNG, ALOX5, FOXO1, IL15, APOE, IKBKG, and RORA. Some of the 26 molecules were also associated with the MP Ontology of abnormal white pulp and red pulp morphology of the spleen, abnormal splenic cell ratio, decreased splenocyte number, abnormal spleen physiology, increased splenocyte apoptosis, and reduced splenocyte proliferation. STRING and IPA "Core Analysis" showed that these molecules were mainly involved in pathways related to cell apoptosis, proliferation, migration, and immune responses. IPA's "Molecular Activity Predictor" tool showed that concurrent effects of activation and inhibition of these molecules led to decreased spleen size by modulating apoptosis, proliferation, and migration of splenocytes. Our network meta-analysis revealed that excessive alcohol exposure can damage the spleen through a variety of molecular mechanisms, thereby affecting immune function and human health. We found that alcohol-mediated splenic atrophy is largely mediated by increased apoptosis signaling, migration of cells, and inhibition of splenocyte proliferation.

College Student Alcohol Use: Understanding the Role of Alcohol Expectancies, Social Anxiety, Social Connectedness, and Need to Belong

Objective College students consume more alcohol and engage in binge drinking more frequently than their non-college attending peers, and prevalence of alcohol-related consequences (e.g., drinking and driving; taking avoidable risks) has not decreased proportionally with decreases in consumption. Social anxiety and alcohol expectancies, or beliefs about the effects of alcohol, have been found to be significantly related to alcohol use and account for significant variance in alcohol use and related consequences. Few studies, however, have examined how other social variables such as need to belong and social connectedness may fit into existing models of increased and risky alcohol use. Methods: Students at a large state university (n = 1,278) completed an online survey measuring alcohol expectancies, need to belong, social anxiety, and social connectedness. Mean age of participants was 19.65 years, and 59.5% self-identified as female, 39.8% male, and 0.7% identified as transgender. Structural equation modeling supported hypothesized relationships between need to belong, social anxiety, social connectedness, alcohol expectancies, and alcohol use, a mean centered variable that included binge drinking, drinking frequency, and amount of consumption. Results: Positive alcohol expectancies related to tension reduction, sociability, and sexuality, were positively related to drinking, such that increased alcohol expectancies were associated with increased drinking. Alcohol expectancies mediated the relationship between need to belong and increased alcohol use, as well as social connectedness and increased alcohol use. Similarly, social anxiety also mediated these relationships. No direct relationships were found between need to belong or social connectedness and alcohol use, suggesting previous research exploring these relationships may have excluded control variables (e.g., biological sex, race/ethnicity) that better explain the impact of need to belong and social connectedness on alcohol use. Conclusion: Prevention and intervention efforts might be more effective in reducing alcohol use if social factors are more broadly targeted.

Smoking and Alcohol Consumption and Risk of Incident Diverticulitis in Women

Much of what is known about the effects of alcohol and tobacco use on diverticular disease derives from studies of asymptomatic diverticulosis or complicated diverticulitis. We examined smoking and alcohol consumption and risk of incident diverticulitis in a large cohort of women. We conducted a prospective study of 84,232 women in the Nurses' Health Study II (NHS II) who were 39-52 years old and without known diverticulitis at baseline in 2003. Smoking was ascertained every 2 years and alcohol use every 4 years. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to estimate multivariable-adjusted hazards ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). During 1,139,660 person-years of follow up, we identified 3018 incident cases of diverticulitis. After adjustment for other risk factors, current (HR, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.04-1.39) and past smoking (HR, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.11-1.30) were associated with increased risk of diverticulitis when compared with never smokers. Women who consumed ≥30 g/d of alcohol had a multivariate HR of 1.26 (95% CI, 1.05-1.50) when compared with women who did not drink. A joint analysis of smoking and alcohol found that individuals who ever smoked and consumed ≥15 g/d of alcohol were at highest risk of diverticulitis (multivariate HR, 1.60; 95% CI, 1.16-2.21), compared with participants who never smoked and reported no alcohol use. In this large prospective study of women, smoking and alcohol consumption were associated with an increased risk of incident diverticulitis. These data highlight additional modifiable risk factors for diverticulitis that may aid in prevention.

Acetaldehyde-mediated increase in glutamatergic and N-acetylaspartate neurometabolite levels in the midcingulate cortex of ALDH2*1/*2 heterozygous young adults.

To elucidate the neurobiology underlying alcohol's effect on the human brain, we examined the acute effects of moderate alcohol administration on levels of glutamatergic neurometabolites and N-acetylaspartate, an amino acid found in neurons, may reflect disordered neuronal integrity. Eighteen healthy Japanese participants (7 males/11 females) aged 20-30 years who were heterozygous for an inactive allele of acetaldehyde dehydrogenase-2 (ALDH/*1/*2) were included. Participants underwent an intravenous alcohol infusion using the clamp method at a target blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.50 mg/mL for 90 min within a range of ±0.05 mg/mL. We examined glutamate + glutamine (Glx) and N-acetylaspartate N-acetylaspartylglutamate (NAA) levels in the midcingulate cortex (MCC) using 3 T 1 H-MRS PRESS at baseline, 90 min, and 180 min (i.e., 90 min after alcohol infusion was finished). A two-way repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to assess longitudinal changes in Glx and NAA levels, with time and sex as within- and between-subject factors, respectively. Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated among neurometabolite levels and BAC or blood acetaldehyde concentration (BAAC). Both Glx (F(2,32) = 8.15, p = 0.004, η2 = 0.15) and NAA (F(2,32) = 5.01, p = 0.04, η2 = 0.07) levels were increased after alcohol injection. There were no sex or time × sex interaction effects observed. NAA levels were positively correlated with BAAC at 90 min (r(13) = 0.77, p = 0.01). There were no associations between neurometabolite levels and BAC. Both Glx and NAA levels in the MCC increased in response to the administration of moderate concentrations of alcohol. Given positive associations between NAA levels and BAAC and the hypothetical glutamate release via dopamine pathways, the effects of drinking on the MCC in the acute phase may be ascribed to acetaldehyde metabolized from alcohol.

ATHEROSCLEROTIC BACKGROUND OF DIGITAL CLUBBING IN SICKLE CELL DISEASES

Background: Sickle cell diseases (SCDs) are inborn and catastrophic processes on vascular endothelium, particularly at the capillaries. Methods: All patients were included. Results: We studied 222 males and 212 females with similar mean ages (30.8 vs 30.3 years, p>0.05, respectively). Beside digital clubbing (14.8% vs 6.6%, p<0.001), smoking (23.8% vs 6.1%, p<0.001), alcohol (4.9% vs 0.4%, p<0.001), transfused red blood cells (RBCs) in their lives (48.1 vs 28.5 units, p=0.000), disseminated teeth losses (5.4% vs 1.4%, p<0.001), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (25.2% vs 7.0%, p<0.001), ileus (7.2% vs 1.4%, p<0.001), cirrhosis (8.1% vs 1.8%, p<0.001), leg ulcers (19.8% vs 7.0%, p<0.001), coronary heart disease (CHD) (18.0% vs 13.2%, p<0.05), chronic renal disease (CRD) (9.9% vs 6.1%, p<0.05), and stroke (12.1% vs 7.5%, p<0.05) were all higher, and autosplenectomy (50.4% vs 53.3%, p<0.05) and mean age of mortality were lower in males, significantly (30.2 vs 33.3 years, p<0.05). Conclusion: The hardened RBCs-induced capillary endothelial damage initiates at birth, and terminates with multiorgan failures even at childhood. Parallel to digital clubbing, all of the atherosclerotic risk factors or consequences including smoking, alcohol, disseminated teeth losses, COPD, ileus, cirrhosis, leg ulcers, CHD, CRD, and stroke were higher, and autosplenectomy and mean age of mortality were lower in males which can not be explained by effects of smoking and alcohol alone at the relatively younger mean age. So autosplenectomy may be a good whereas male gender alone may be a bad prognostic factor, and digital clubbing may have an atherosclerotic background in SCDs. Key words: Sickle cell diseases, hardened red blood cells, capillary endothelial damage, capillary endothelial edema, sudden deaths, atherosclerosis, digital clubbing

Atherosclerotic background of cirrhosis in sickle cell diseases

Background: Sickle cell diseases (SCDs) are inborn and catastrophic processes on vascular endothelium, particularly at the capillaries. Methods: All patients were included. Results: We studied 222 males and 212 females with similar mean ages (30.8 vs 30.3 years, p>0.05, respectively). Beside cirrhosis (8.1% vs 1.8%, p<0.001), smoking (23.8% vs 6.1%, p<0.001), alcohol (4.9% vs 0.4%, p<0.001), transfused red blood cells (RBCs) in their lives (48.1 vs 28.5 units, p=0.000), disseminated teeth losses (5.4% vs 1.4%, p<0.001), ileus (7.2% vs 1.4%, p<0.001), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (25.2% vs 7.0%, p<0.001), leg ulcers (19.8% vs 7.0%, p<0.001), digital clubbing (14.8% vs 6.6%, p<0.001), coronary heart disease (CHD) (18.0% vs 13.2%, p<0.05), chronic renal disease (CRD) (9.9% vs 6.1%, p<0.05), and stroke (12.1% vs 7.5%, p<0.05) were all higher, and autosplenectomy (50.4% vs 53.3%, p<0.05) and mean age of mortality were lower in males, significantly (30.2 vs 33.3 years, p<0.05). Conclusion: The hardened RBCs-induced capillary endothelial damage initiates at birth, and terminates with multiorgan failures even at childhood. Parallel to cirrhosis, all of the atherosclerotic risk factors or consequences including smoking, alcohol, disseminated teeth losses, ileus, COPD, leg ulcers, digital clubbing, CHD, CRD, and stroke were higher, and autosplenectomy and mean age of mortality were lower in males which can not be explained by effects of smoking and alcohol alone at the relatively younger mean age. So autosplenectomy may be a good whereas male gender alone may be a bad prognostic factor, and cirrhosis may have an atherosclerotic background in the SCDs. Key words: Sickle cell diseases, hardened red blood cells, capillary endothelial damage, capillary endothelial edema, sudden deaths, atherosclerosis, cirrhosis

Effects of Polyvinyl Alcohol and Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose Combination on Physical Stability and Irritability of Gluthathione Peel-Off Masks

Effects of Polyvinyl Alcohol and Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose Combination on Physical Stability and Irritability of Gluthathione Peel-Off Masks

Effects of Sugars, Alcohols and Antioxidants on the Preparation Goat Milk Tablets Containing Bifidobacterium bifidum BB01

Abstract The development of probiotic products has attracted more and more attention. Products made from goat milk powder and probiotics can combine nutrition and health care functions. In this paper, the effects of different sugars, alcohols and antioxidants on the preparation goat milk tablets containing Bifidobacterium bifidum BB01 were studied by single factor experiment. The results showed that the appropriate addition of sugars, alcohols and antioxidants were as follows: sucrose 5 %, glucose 1.5 %, xylitol 3 %, ascorbic acid 0.03 %, D-sodium ascorbate 0.09 %, sodium ascorbate 0.03 %, microcrystalline cellulose 0.5 %, D-mannitol 0.1 %. According to the formulation, goat milk tablets with high Bifidobacterium activity were developed, and had appropriate hardness, friability and good sensory quality.

Evaluation of Gestational Alcohol Intake on the Hippocampus of an Adult Wistar Rats

AbstractBackgroundChronic consumption of alcohol is a leading cause of death worldwide due to it effect on differs organs of the body. The need to better understand the impact of alcohol intake on Hippocampus was the motivation behind this study.MethodThe study was performed on (20) twenty pregnant wistar rats weighing between 142‐181g which were divided into two (2) groups of ten animals each; A (Control), B (Treated). Group A (control) were administered normal saline orally on a daily basis for seven (7) consecutive days while the Group B (treated) were administered 12% Acetone orally for seven (7) consecutive days. The animals went through neurobehavioral tests for fear and anxiety with the aid of an elevated plus maze. The Hippocampus tissues gotten after the study were determined for histological analysis (H&E, Silver Stains).ResultThere was observable reduction on the body weight on administration of Alcohol and a drastic reduction in the mean cell count and size of animals in group B (treated) compared to group A (control) showing a significant effect of alcohol on the hippocampal cell count of the animals. Histo‐architectural analysis of the hippocampus showed distortion of the dentate gyrus, disorientated molecular layer, scattered granule and glail cells in the treated groups (B) indicating the effect of the administered alcohol.ConclusionMeasure should be taking in reducing the consumption of alcohol if abstinence is not possible