Serum immunoglobulins in patients with carcinoma of the oral cavity,uterine cervix and breast

Summary Serum immunoglobulin levels (IgG, IgA, IgM, IgD and IgE) were estimated in 196 patients with carcinoma of the oral cavity, 172 patients with cervical cancer and 166 patients with breast cancer. The values were compared with those of 50 patients with benign lesions of the breast and cervix and 100 healthy adult controls. Only the serum IgE levels were found to be elevated in the benign group. Serum IgA, IgD and IgE levels were found to be elevated in all the three types of cancers and the levels were found to increase with clinical stage. In carcinoma of uterine cervix IgG levels were also found to be elevated. Immunoglobulins A and D returned to normal after clinical cure whereas IgE remained slightly elevated. IgD and IgE remained high in patients who had residual cancer.     

Desynapsis in Alocasia indica Schott

In a culture of Alocasia indica (2n=28), one plant was found to be desynaptic. At pachytene, pairing apparently was complete, but at diakinesis and metaphase I on the average only 2.36 and 1.53 bivalents respectively were found. Desynapsis is of the medium-strong type according to Prakken. Later meiotic stages were irregular and pollen sterility was 95%. The origin must have been spontaneous mutation.     

New Strategies of LIBS-Based Validation of Glycemic Elements for Diabetes Management

Antidiabetic efficacy of medicinal plant cannot be ignored in order to develop drugs without toxicity and side effects. Trace elements present in plant material is responsible for their medicinal nature and hence it is necessary to know the major and minor constituents of the plant material. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a very efficient and powerful analytical tool to monitor the elements present in sample. The present study deals with the LIBS-based validation of glycemic elements present in Withania coagulans and Cajanus cajan medicinal herbs. The decreasing blood glucose level and improving glucose tolerance test significantly showed that the higher content of Mg and Ca in W. coagulans in comparison to C. cajan is responsible for its significant role in diabetes management, whereas the concentration of other elements are nearly the same in both extracts.     

Modifying effect of iron on lead-induced clastogenicity in mouse bone marrow cells

Essential trace elements such as iron (Fe) are known to interact with nonessential metals like lead (Pb), influencing its metabolism. Ferric chloride and lead nitrate were administered intraperitoneally to Swiss albino miceMus musculus singly and successively, with or without a time gap of 1 h, to study the degree of protection, if any, afforded by iron against the clastogenic effects induced by Pb in bone marrow cells. A decrease in the frequency of lead-induced chromosomal aberrations was observed when Fe was given together with or prior to Pb administration.     

Fungi in Porites lutea: association with healthy and diseased corals.

Healthy and diseased scleractinian corals have been reported to harbour fungi. However, the species of fungi occurring in them and their prevalence in terms of biomass have not been determined and their role in coral diseases is not clear. We have found fungi to occur regularly in healthy, partially dead, bleached and pink-line syndrome (PLS)-affected scleractinian coral, Porites lutea, in the reefs of Lakshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea. Mostly terrestrial species of fungi were isolated in culture from these corals. Hyaline and dark, non-sporulating fungi were the most dominant forms. Fungal hyphae extended up to 3 cm within the corals. Immunofluorescence detection using polyclonal immunological probes for a dark, initially non-sporulating isolate (isolate # 98-N28) and for a hyaline, non-sporulating fungus (isolate # 98-N18) revealed high frequencies of these in PLS-affected, dead and healthy colonies of P. lutea. Total fungal biomass accounted for 0.04 to 0.05% of the weight of corals in bleached corals and was higher than in PLS-affected and healthy colonies. Scanning electron microscopy revealed the presence of fungi within the carbonate skeleton and around polyps. Fungi appear to be a regular component of healthy, partially dead and diseased coral skeleton.     

High activity xylanase from Aspergillus sydowii MG49 during growth on jute stalk lignocellulose

Aspergillus sydowil MG49 produced 33.0 U mg^-1 of extracellular xylanase activity when grown in liquid state fermeniation (LSF) with 1% ground jute stalk as the sole carbon source compared to 56.0 U mg^-1 when pure xylan was used. Optimum time-course and pH for maximum enzyme production were 144 h and 4.0 respectively. The culture filtrate was devoid of any cellulase and β-xylosidase activity. The xylanase exhibited optimum activity at 60°C and pH 5.5. Partially-fermented jute stalk could be recycled at least twice for xylanase production, exhibiting 25.8 and 17.4 U mg^-1 activity in two later consecutive cycles respectively.