مجله زیست شناسی جانوری
سال یازدهم شماره 3 (بهار 1398)

Gastric ulcer or gastritis is a benign disease in the digestive system which is caused by a small ulcer in the inner lining and gastric mucosa. Among gastric ulcer characteristics is the deep ulcer that passes through the gastric mucosa. Almost all benign gastric ulcers are located in the anthrome (the lower stomach area). One of the methods to treat gastric ulcer is the use of medicinal herbs. Among effective medicinal herbs in treating gastric ulcer is Nigella sativa. The most important application of Nigella sativa is in inflammation reduction and wound healing acceleration. Substances such as linoleic oil, thymoquinone and antioxidants are obtained from nigella sativa. The rats were fed using a standard laboratory diet. Prior to surgery, the rats were deprived of food for 48 hours, and no water was given to them two hours before surgery. Gastric ulcer was generated by injecting acetic acid to stomach lining where there were no vessels. The oil at different doses was given to rats through gavage tube one day after gastric ulcer was generated. The rats were killed on days 4, 7, 10, and 14, and their stomachs were removed and the ulcer dimensions were calculated in terms of m2. Moreover, after cutting and providing lam, in order to conduct histological studies, samples were stained using hematoxylin and eosin and were examined by microscope. The obtained results showed that the percentage of wound healing in Nigella sativa at three doses (50, 100, 200 mg/kg) on days 4, 7, 10, and 14 had a significant increase in comparison to sham-operated and control groups (P<5%). Due to the presence of compounds such as terpenes, flavonoids, vitamins A, B, and C, and the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties in Nigella sativa, it facilitates the gastric ulcer healing, protects stomach tissue, and reduces gastric inflammation and ulcer, and has a greater restorative effect on gastric ulcer caused by acetic acid.

Plants are used as pharmaceutical sources in the health system of various countries in the world. Berberis integerrima contains vitamin C and polyphenol. Based on previous studies, vitamin C plays a role in the bronchoconstriction of muscles. Thus, this study attempted to evaluate the effect of this extract on level of tracheal muscle tension. Since the sympathetic nervous system plays a role in the relaxation of tracheal muscles and the substances in this plant are likely to play such a role, the present study investigated the interaction of the effect of extract with the adrenergic system. A number of 14 male rats were kept in an animal room under normal conditions. Each of them was anesthetized by intraperitoneal injection of 1/2 g/kg of urethane, divided into 3 mm rings, and then placed in a tissue floating bath (containing Krebs solution). The tissues were connected to a power transducer which was also connected to a bridge amplifier with the function of amplifying the signal. Then, the data were recorded by a system called Power lab. Ultimately, they were compared using Independent-sample T test. The effective dose of the extract was obtained as 80 mg/kg. This dose was added to the tissues and then epinephrine and propranolol were added respectively. A significant reduction was observed in tracheal rings tension in the presence of the extract in comparison to the control group. Such an effect was fixed even after adding epinephrine as the agonist of the adrenergic system and propranolol as the agonist of β2 receptor. The hydro alcoholic extract of Berberis integerrima affects the tension of tracheal smooth muscle and loosens it. This effect interacts with the adrenergic pathway while such an interaction is not probably through β2 receptors.

Diabetes mellitus can occur due to insulin deficiency or environmental tissues resistance to insulin with the reduction of insulin secretion. The present study aimed to investigate the therapeutic effect of amniotic mesenchymal stem cell transplantation in the treatment of type 1 diabetes.  This study was of experimental type and the animals were divided into four groups including the control or healthy, the diabetic control group, the group receiving cells with the medium, and the group receiving only supernatant soup. Glucose and blood insulin levels and animal weight were studied by ANOVA and t-test during the study. With the first stage of stem cell transplantation, a significant reduction was found in the animal blood glucose of both groups receiving cell and medium (p = 0.004) and the group receiving supernatant soup (p = 0.014) than the control group. Such results were not observed after the second stage. The insulin levels had no statistically significant difference. The present study indicated that the repeated transplantation of Amniotic Mesenchymal stem cells can decrease the blood glucose but increase the blood insulin level and the injection of supernatant soup alone be solely effective as much as the cell transplantation.

The present study aimed to investigate the different levels of Galacto oligosaccharide prebiotic on growth performance and intestinal morphology of Carassius auratus gibelio. A number of 240 baby fish with the mean weight of 4.88 ±0.28 g were divided into four groups. The first group as the control was fed with basic diet (having no Galacto oligosaccharide) while the second, third, and fourth groups were fed with the diets containing 0, 0.5, 1 and 2 % Galacto oligosaccharide for six weeks. At the end of the test, the growth markers were calculated (including final weight, specific growth rate, and food conversion ratio). Then, intestinal biopsy was conducted and the mean length, width, and absorption surface of intestinal villus were measured in each treatment. The results indicated a significant effect of treatment with 2% Galacto oligosaccharide on villus length, width and absorption surface in Carassius auratus gibelio (P<0.05). However, no significant difference was found between treatments in terms of growth parameters. Due to the significant effect of Galactooligosaccharide prebiotic on the increase of absorption surface in Carassius auratus gibelio as well as the relative increase of growth parameters int he fish fed with Galacto oligosaccharide than the control treatment, it seems that this substance can be used as a suitable stimulating factor of growth and feeding in the diets of red ornamental fish.

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of three-month of resistance exercise on dialysis patients’ lipid profile and physical performance. This study was of a quasi-experimental type. A number of 34 dialysis patients participated in the study voluntarily. Blood samples were taken 24 hours after and before the exercise when the participants did not have breakfast. The subjects of the experimental group participated in pre-planned exercise for three months at three 60 to 70-minute sessions per week. The exercises were done during dialysis when the patients were lying down in bed. The exercise program included 5 to 10 minutes of stretching and limbering as warm up. The main exercise involved ten stations including three sets and ten repetitions by 45% maximum repetition. The subjects were received 1 to 1.5-minute break between the sets and 2 to 3-minute between the stations. In addition, the exercise intensity was enhanced by 5 % once in every two weeks and one repetition was added to SPSS software. Independent t test was used for analyzing the findings. The results indicated that resistance exercise decreased the cholesterol significantly but increased HDL and physical performance in comparison to the control group. The results of the study revealed that resistance exercise decreased some cardiovascular risk factors.

The present study aimed to investigate effect of turmeric on the biochemical markers of liver and kidney in Japanese quail. For this purpose, 180 one-day Japanese quails were divided randomly into four groups with three repetitions.  They were grown since one day to 42 days under similar conditions. All groups applied the basic standard diet based on the NRC recommendation. Group 1 received basic diet with 0.5 % turmeric. Group 2 received basic diet with 1% turmeric. Group 3 received basic diet with 0.25 % vitamin E. Group 4 as the control group used basic diet. All quails were slaughtered at the age of 42 days and serum samples were collected for evaluating the cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglyceride, total protein, uric acid and liver enzyme (ALT and AST) levels. The result of the previous study indicated that using turmeric at the level of 0.5 and 1% at the diet of quail is equal to all markers of Triglyceride metabolism, cholesterol and protein as well as the markers related to the evaluation of liver and kidney function by adding vitamin E. In general, a relative improvement was observed in the mentioned markers than the control group. Data comparison showed that using turmeric at the level of 1% had better effects than adding 0.5 % turmeric in most cases. It seems that using turmeric in the diet of quail can improve the markers related to fat metabolism.

Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is the first line of infertile couple treatment for its inexpensive and non-invasive. There is a wide range of indications like infertility with male causes, cervical-associated causes, and unknown causes for intrauterine sperm injection. Meanwhile, the main parameters of sperm such as count, mobility, and morphology of sperm play a key role in the success of this method. One of the significant problems in the quality of sperm is the reduced mobility of sperms. Based on the WHO, the mobility under 50%, concentration over 20 million, and morphology over 4% are considered as Astenoaspermia.  This study was conducted on the effectiveness of mobility on the outcome of pregnancy with IUI among the infertile couples referring to Jahad Daneshgahi infertility center. A number of 215 samples were divided in three groups of mobility over 70% (normospermia), mobility between 50% and 70% (normospermia) and mobility under 50% (astenoaspermia). The sperms were prepared with SU. The studies indicated that on sperm mobility after preparing had significant increase in all groups. Ovarian stimulations were performed based on the international protocol and the prepared suspension sperm was injected slowly into the uterus with Catheter. The results of pregnancy in term of pregnancy rates, abortion rates, and birth rates were evaluated and analyzed statistically. The results indicated that mobility has no contribution in the significant increase of pregnancy outcomes due to intrauterine insemination.

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the molecule encoding the genetic instructions used in the growth and functioning of all living organisms and is very appropriate for biological information storage. Todays, the DNA sequences are regarded as sources for detecting the species and their phylogenetic relationships. Despite the modern technologies including the next generation sequencing and DNA barcoding, there is still a need for a fast, cheap, and reliable method for identifying species particularly in ambiguous morphologically-defined organisms. This study evaluated to see if some biophysical chemistry properties of PCR products like melting point can be used before sequencing to identify the samples of interest. Determining the melting temperature of PCR products is available in most available measurements in molecular biology labs. The present study focused on the potential use of melting temperature related to PCR products of 16S and Cyt b (highly used genes in phylogenetic studies) using a real-time PCR machine to identify different species of snakes from Iran. The preliminary results of these two genes are promising although extra steps are required to improve its sensitivity. The development of this method can be used in a rapid evaluation of species.