The leaves and berries of sea buckthorn (SB; Hippophae rhamnoides; family Elaeagnaceae) are medically claimed as having phytoantioxidant, antiinflammatory, and anticancerous properties in humans. This study evaluated the hepatoprotective activity of oil from SB berries against toxicity induced by aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in broiler chickens. The toxicity of AFB1 led to lower total serum proteins and specifically reduced albumin (P < 0.001). Serum aspartate aminotransferase increased from 191.14 ± 11.56 to 218.80 ± 13.68 (P < 0.001). When chickens were simultaneously dosed with AFB1 and an extract of SB berries, subsequent histology of the liver showed a significant reduction of necrosis and fatty formation compared with chickens treated with AFB1 alone. Immunohistochemical results indicated that COX2, Bcl-2, and p53 were highly expressed in the liver of AFB1-treated chickens and their expression was significantly reduced by SB oil supplementation. The levels of AFB1 residues in chickens livers were significantly reduced by SB oil from 460.92 ± 6.2 ng/mL in the AFB1 group to 15.59 ± 6.1 ng/mL in the AFB1 and SB oil group. These findings suggest that SB oil has a potent hepatoprotective activity, reducing the concentration of aflatoxins in liver and diminishing their adverse effects.

The progress of the automated industry has introduced many benefits in our daily life, but it also produces undesired electromagnetic interference (EMI) that distresses the end-users and functionality of electronic devices. This article develops new composites based on a polyetherimide (PEI) matrix and cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) nanofiller (10–50 wt%) by mixing inorganic phase in the poly(amic acid) solution, followed by film casting and controlled heating, to acquire the corresponding imide structure. The composites were designed to contain both electric and magnetic dipole sources by including highly polarizable groups (phenyls, ethers, -CN) in the PEI structure and by loading this matrix with magnetic nanoparticles, respectively. The films exhibited high thermal stability, having the temperature at which decomposition begins in the interval of 450–487 °C. Magnetic analyses indicated a saturation magnetization, coercitive force, and magnetic remanence of 27.9 emu g−1, 705 Oe, and 9.57 emu g−1, respectively, for the PEI/CoFe2O4 50 wt%. Electrical measurements evidenced an increase in the conductivity from 4.42 10−9 S/cm for the neat PEI to 1.70 10−8 S/cm for PEI/CoFe2O4 50 wt% at 1 MHz. The subglass γ- and β-relaxations, primary relaxation, and conductivity relaxation were also examined depending on the nanofiller content. These novel composites are investigated from the point of view of their EMI shielding properties, showing that they are capable of attenuating the electric and magnetic parts of electromagnetic waves.

No abstract

Atomic force microscopy (AFM), a powerful characterization tool widely applied in problems in a large range of disciplines of the natural sciences, including cellular biology, was used to obtain information about the morphological changes induced in the erythrocyte membrane at the patients with epilepsy that undergo a long time treatment that operates upon one or several neuronal ionic channels, comparative with a healthy donor. This technique allowed non-invasive imaging of erythrocyte membrane, revealing details and specific characteristics down to the nanometer level with characterization of surface texture parameters, such as average height, average roughness and coefficient of kurtosis at micrometer/nanometer resolution. For the healthy donor the AFM morphology appears to have all the characteristics of a normal red blood cell membrane. Instead, the closer examination of the erythrocytes membrane surface morphology for the samples collected from the patients diagnosed with epilepsy and treated with specific drugs did not reveal similar structures with those obtained for the healthy donor. The nanostructure of the membrane was drastically damaged, depending on the administrated treatment, and probably in time will affect their functionality. Therefore, the anticomital drugs have influence not only at the neuronal level, but also at the red blood cell level.

The medical field has undergone constant development in recent years, and a segment of this development is occupied by biodegradable alloys. The most common alloys in this field are those based on Mg, their main advantage being the ability to degrade gradually, without affecting the patient, and also their ability to be fully absorbed by the human body. One of their most important conditions is the regeneration and replacement of human tissue. Tissue can be engineered in different ways, one being tissue regeneration in vivo, which can serve as a template. In vivo remodeling aims to restore tissue or organs. The key processes of tissue formation and maturation are: proliferation (sorting and differentiation of cells), proliferation and organization of the extracellular matrix, biodegradation of the scaffold-remodeling, and potential tissue growth. In the present paper, the design of the alloys in the Mg-Ca-Y system is formed from the beginning using high-purity components, Mg-98.5%, master-alloys: Mg-Y (70 wt.%–30 wt.%) and Mg-Ca (85 wt.%–15 wt.%). After 8 weeks of implantation, the degradation of the implanted material is observed, and only small remaining fragments are found. At the site of implantation, no inflammatory reaction is observed, but it is observed that the process of integration and reabsorption, over time, accentuates the prosaic surface of the material. The aim of the work is to test the biocompatibility of magnesium-based alloys on laboratory rats in order to use these alloys in medical applications. The innovative parts of these analyses are the chemical composition of the alloys used and the tests performed on laboratory animals.