To study the different effects of soy extract on pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced seizures in the presence and absence of ovarian hormones in rats, and the gender-dependent differences in the effects of phytoestrogens on behavior.

The emergence of regenerative medicine has raised the hope of treating an extraordinary range of disease and serious injuries. Understanding the processes of cell proliferation, differentiation and pattern formation in regenerative organisms could help find ways to enhance the poor regenerative abilities shown by many other animals, including humans. Recently, planarians have emerged as an attractive model in which to study regeneration. These animals are considering as in vivo plate, during which we can study the behavior and characristics of stem cells in their own niche. A variety of characteristic such as: simplicity, easy to manipulate experimentally, the existence of more than 100 years of literature, makes these animals an extraordinary model for regenerative medicine researches. Among planarians free-living freshwater hermaphrodite Schmidtea mediterranea has emerged as a suitable model system because it displays robust regenerative properties and, unlike most other planarians, it is a stable diploid with a genome size of about 4.8x108 base pairs, nearly half that of other common planarians. Planarian regeneration involves two highly flexible systems: pluripotent neoblasts that can generate any new cell type and muscle cells that provide positional instructions for the regeneration of anybody region. neoblasts represent roughly 25~30 percent of all planarian cells and are scattered broadly through the parenchyma, being absent only from the animal head tips and the pharynx. Two models for neo-blast specification have been proposed; the naive model posits that all neoblasts are stem cells with the same potential and are a largely homogeneous population.
Animals ; Base Pairing ; Cell Proliferation ; Diploidy ; Fresh Water ; Genome Size ; Head ; Hope ; Humans ; Muscle Cells ; Pharynx ; Planarians* ; Regeneration ; Regenerative Medicine* ; Stem Cells

Objective: To investigate the effects of soy extract on pentylenetetrazol (PTZ)-induced seizures in ovariectomized (OVX) rats. Methods: Female Wistar rats were randomly divided into 4 groups (n=15 in each group) as follows: sham-operated, OVX, low-dose soy (LDS) and high-dose soy (HDS). The rats in each group were divided into two subgroups and received daily injection of a low dose of PTZ (40 mg/kg body weight, intraperitoneally, n=7 in each subgroup) for 14 d or a single injection of a high dose of PTZ (90 mg/kg body weight, intraperitoneally, n=8 in each subgroup). The rats of LDS and HDS groups were injected with 20 and 60 mg/kg body weight of soy extract intraperitoneally, respectively, just 30 min before each PTZ injection. The rats of the sham-operated and the OVX groups received saline instead of soy extract. After treatment, the rats were placed in a plexiglas cage and their behaviors were observed for 60 min. Results: The results of repeated injection of low dose of PTZ during 14 d showed that the seizure score of the rats of OVX group on days 3, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 13 was lower than that of the sham-operated group (P<0.05 or P<0.01). However, the rats of both LDS and HDS groups had higher score compared with the OVX group on the mentioned days (P<0.05 or P<0.01). The results of a single injection of a high dose of PTZ showed a significant increase (P<0.01) in the generalized tonic-clonic seizure (GTCS), but not the minimal clonic seizure (MCS) in the OVX rats compared with the sham-operated rats. Treatment with both low and high doses of soy extract significantly decreased the GTCS and MCS latencies compared with the OVX group (P<0.01). Conclusion: Female hormones affect seizure severity induced by PTZ, and phytoestrogens of soy mimic this effects. However, more investigations need to be done in the future.

Background: and Purpose Acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE) is a rare neurological disorder that is often associated with viral infections. Since the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a few COVID-19-associated ANE cases have been reported. Since very little is known about ANE, the present study aimed to determine the clinical, biochemical, and radiological characteristics of affected patients. Methods: A search was conducted on PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Web of Science databases for articles published up to August 30, 2022 using relevant keywords. Case reports and series in the English language that reported ANE in adult patients with COVID-19 confirmed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction were included in this study. Data on the demographic, clinical, laboratory, and radiological characteristics of patients were extracted and analyzed using the SPSS software (version 26). Results: The study included 30 patients (18 males) with COVID-19 and ANE who were aged 49.87±18.68 years (mean±standard deviation). Fever was the most-prevalent symptom at presentation (66.7%). Elevated C-reactive protein was observed in the laboratory assessments of 13 patients. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging were the most-common radiological modalities used for brain assessments. The most commonly prescribed medications were methylprednisolone (30%) and remdesivir (26.7%). Sixteen patients died prior to discharge. Conclusions The diagnosis of COVID-19-associated ANE requires a thorough knowledge of the disease. Since the clinical presentations of ANE are neither sensitive nor specific, further laboratory and brain radiological evaluations will be needed to confirm the diagnosis. The suspicion of ANE should be raised among patients with COVID-19 who present with progressive neurological symptoms.