Objective: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a serious endocrine disorder. In the present study, we investigated the therapeutic effects of erdosteine in letrozole-induced PCOS in rats. Methods: Thirty-two Wistar albino female rats were grouped as control group (C), PCOS group (PCOS), PCOS-metformin group (PCOS+MET), and PCOS-erdosteine group (PCOS+Erd). PCOS was induced by administering letrozole; such rats presented with sex hormone disorder, abnormal estrous cycles determined by daily vaginal smear, large cystic follicles, and increasing fasting insulin levels. After induction of PCOS, metformin (500 mg/kg/day) and erdosteine (100 mg/kg/day) were given orally to the treatment groups for 30 days. Serum concentrations of glucose, total cholesterol, low- and high-density lipoprotein, triglyceride, as well as the total oxidant and antioxidant status, oxidative stress index, circulating estrone (E1), estradiol (E2), testosterone, and androstenedione were evaluated. The ovaries were graded histologically. Results: Weights of ovarian tissues (p < 0.05) and the number of atretic follicles (p < 0.001) and cystic follicles (p < 0.01) decreased in the PCOS+Erd group; the corpus luteum number was significantly higher in the PCOS+Erd group (p < 0.01) as compared with the PCOS group. Lipid parameters (total-C, LDL-C, and TG), E1 (estrone), E1/E2 ratio, testosterone, and androstenedione significantly decreased, while HDL-C and E2 (estradiol) significantly increased in the PCOS+Erd group as compared with the PCOS group. Moreover glucose, insulin, and HOMA-IR were reduced with treatment of erdosteine (p > 0.05, p < 0.001, and p < 0.001, respectively). Conclusion: It is suggested that erdosteine may be used in the treatment of PCOS as an alternative to metformin. It appears that our findings might be supported by clinical and molecular studies.

The educators have underlined the importance of lecture attendance for decades. Nowadays, students have ample online educational sources, which began a debate on the necessity of in-class lectures. In the present study, we investigated the influence of lecture attendance on the exam success. To this aim, we adopted a novel approach and matched second-year medicine students' answers in three interim exams with the lectures related to those questions. Thereby, we were able to evaluate if attending lectures increases the chance of giving a correct answer to the exam question generated from the attended lecture. Furthermore, we examined students who had never taken the course before (first-time takers) and students who had failed and repeated the course (repeat takers) separately, since repeat takers may have attended a lecture previously. We found that first-time takers attended more lectures and gained higher total scores than repeat takers. Lecture-matched correct answers were significantly higher for attended lectures than for skipped lectures in all interim exams. Moreover, the correlation analyses revealed that the number of correct answers increases by lecture attendance in both first-time and repeat takers. These results indicate that in-class lectures still should be considered as an essential part of the medical physiology education, even in the internet era.

Polyphenols and omega-3 fatty acids are thought to have beneficial effects in Alzheimer's disease, the most common cause of dementia. Seeds of chia (Salvia hispanica L.) are highly rich in these nutrients, and thus, the present study investigated the effects of chia seeds on behavior and cognition in an aluminum-induced Alzheimer's disease model in rats. Experimental animals received chia supplementation either during the generation of the model (i.e., pretreatment) or after the model was established (i.e., treatment). A battery of behavioral and cognitive tests were performed, including open-field, elevated plus maze, Porsolt's forced swim, and Morris' water maze, to evaluate anxiety-and depression-like behaviors, and learning and memory. Results showed that chia supplementation was ineffective against Alzheimer's-related anxiety, whereas depression-like behaviors were attenuated with both pretreatment and treatment. There was no improvement in learning and memory with chia treatment. Rather, cognitive performance in chia-pretreated animals was remarkably worse as compared to their non-treated disease-induced counterparts. Hippocampal concentrations of amyloid-β42, amyloid precursor protein, and total tau protein were similarly increased in all disease-induced animals (despite chia supplementation), as compared to the controls. Based on these findings, chia supplementation during the progression of Alzheimer's disease may exacerbate the disease. Although the results presented here emerge from an experimental/ preclinical study, we suggest cautious and careful use of chia, especially in early-stage Alzheimer's patients, until future research in different experimental settings is conducted.

Although depression and Alzheimer' s disease fundamentally result from distinct pathophysiological events, their coincidence is far from a rare occurrence. In addition to the difficulty in the diagnosis of depression in the patients with a cognitive impairment, care givers and even physicians are mostly unaware that depression and Alzheimer' s disease can coexist. While depression has already a devastating impact on quality of life by itself, coinciding depression and Alzheimer' s disease may advance to a cataclysmic magnitude. This chapter underlines obstacles in the recognition of depression in the Alzheimer' s patients following a brief introduction to the concept of depression. Depression and Alzheimer' s disease appear to intersect in the cholinergic and serotonergic systems which may engender an exquisite strategy in the treatment of both disorders. Therefore, potential cholinergic and serotonergic targets are also emphasized.

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