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Evaluation of the efficacy of methanolic extract of Cucumis melo in urolithiasis induced by gentamycin and calculi producing diet on Wistar rats. Gentamycin (40 mg/kg, subcutaneously) and calculi-producing diet (CPD) was fed to induce urolithiasis on Wistar rats. The effect of oral administration of methanolic extract of Cucumis melo seed on calcium oxalate urolithiasis has been studied and is compared with the effect of oral administration of Cystone as standard on Wistar rats. Gentamycin and CPD feeding resulted in hyperoxaluria and calcium oxalate deposition as well as increased renal excretion of calcium and oxalate. Supplementation with methanolic extract of Cucumis melo seed reduced the elevated urinary oxalate, showing a regulatory action on endogenous oxalate synthesis. The results indicate that the seed of Cucumis melo is endowed with antiurolithiatic activity. Keywords: C. melo, Hyperoxaluria, calcium oxalate deposition, cystone, hyperoxaluria, analysis of variance

Past social experience affects the circuitry responsible for producing and interpreting current behaviors. The social behavior network (SBN) is a candidate neural ensemble to investigate the consequences of early-life social isolation. The SBN interprets and produces social behaviors, such as vocalizations, through coordinated patterns of activity (functional connectivity) between its multiple nuclei. However, the SBN is relatively unexplored with respect to murine vocal processing. The serotonergic system is sensitive to past experience and innervates many nodes of the SBN; therefore, we tested whether serotonin signaling interacts with social experience to affect patterns of immediate early gene (IEG; cFos) induction in the male SBN following playback of social vocalizations. Male mice were separated into either social housing of three mice per cage or into isolated housing at 18–24 d postnatal. After 28–30 d in housing treatment, mice were parsed into one of three drug treatment groups: control, fenfluramine (FEN; increases available serotonin), or pCPA (depletes available serotonin) and exposed to a 60-min playback of female broadband vocalizations (BBVs). FEN generally increased the number of cFos-immunoreactive (-ir) neurons within the SBN, but effects were more pronounced in socially isolated mice. Despite a generalized increase in cFos immunoreactivity, isolated mice had reduced functional connectivity, clustering, and modularity compared with socially reared mice. These results are analogous to observations of functional dysconnectivity in persons with psychopathologies and suggests that early-life social isolation modulates serotonergic regulation of social networks.

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