Mahmoud S. Metwaly

Liver response of rabbits to Eimeria coecicola infections

Intestinal coccidiosis of rabbits induced by E. coecicola causes enormous economic losses in rabbit farms. Here, we investigate the effect of E. coecicola on the liver of the rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus. On day 7 p.i., fecal expulsion of E. coecicola oocysts is maximal and rabbits have lost approximately 25% of their weight. The liver, though not targeted by parasites, exhibits several signs of moderate inflammations, i.e., inflammatory cellular infiltrations around the central vein, dilatated blood sinusoids, increase in vacuolated hepatocytes, hypertrophic Kupffer cells, and lipid peroxidation as well as decreases in catalase and superoxide dismutase activities. Liver injuries are also indicated by an increase in blood plasma, by an increase in liver enzymes such as alanine transaminase, aspartate transaminase, alkaline phosphatase, and gamma glutamyl transferase, and a decrease in total protein and albumin. Circulating neutrophils have increased from 61% on day 0 p.i. to 71.3% on day 7 p.i., while lymphocytes are decreased from 37% to 26%. Agilent two-color oligo microarray technology, in combination with quantitative PCR, reveals that the expressions of 56 genes are upregulated and that of 22 genes are downregulated in the liver. The genes are largely involved in metabolism, calcium homeostasis, transport, and diverse signaling processes in the liver. In addition, numerous genes encoding for different regions of T-cell receptor as well as IgM, IgG, and IgA antibodies are both up- and downregulated in the liver by E. coecicola infections. The latter data suggest that the liver is not only ‘passively’ inflamed by intestinal infections with E. coecicola but rather is actively involved in the host defense against the intestinal Eimeria parasites.

Biotin amelioration of nephrotoxicity in streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice

The current study was carried out to investigate the protective role of biotin in kidney injury and oxidative stress in diabetic mice type 1. Male Swiss albino mice were randomly divided into 3 groups. Control group received saline. Diabetes type 1 was induced in second and third groups by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin as a single dose (150 mg/kg). Second group remained as the untreated diabetic group and the third group received 15 mg/kg daily oral dose of biotin for 12 successive days. Biochemical results showed significant elevation in blood glucose and urea levels in both diabetic groups. Also, there is an increase in glomerular areas and decrease in glomerular cellularity in both diabetic groups. Histopathological results showed severe alterations in the untreated diabetic group represented by distorted glomeruli, inflammatory cells, and giant macrophages. In addition, there was an intense immune-reaction response toward acrolein indicator of oxidative damage. Upon biotin administration of diabetic mice, the above mentioned histopathological changes were reduced and also acroline reaction of oxidative damage was diminished. Our findings prove that biotin has a protective role against streptozotocin-induced oxidative damage in kidneys of laboratory mice.

Anti-coccidial and anti-apoptotic activities of palm pollen grains on Eimeria papillata-induced infection in mice

The present work aimed to study the effect of palm pollen extract (PPE) as an anticoccidial and anti-apoptotic modulator during the course of murine intestinal Eimeria papillata infection. The fact that PPE has an anticoccidial efficacy against intestinal E. papillata infection in mice has been clarified by the reduction of faecal output of oocysts on day five post infection from 49.5 × 103 to 34 × 103 oocyst/g. Moreover, the number of intracellular eimerian stages of zygots and developing oocysts decreased by about 89% and that of schizonts and gamonts to 42% and 72%, respectively. E. papillata infection also induced an increase in the number of apoptotic cells from 17.5 to 122.8 apoptotic nuclei/10 villous crypt units (VCU). In addition, it caused a state of systemic inflammatory response as revealed by an elevation in levels of the pro-inflammatory biomarkers, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOs) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) from 5.3 and 78.3 to 33 pmol ml−1 and 96.3 pg ml−1 in blood, respectively, with concurrent duplication in the total leucocytic number. Upon treatment of infected mice with the aqueous PPE, the activity of iNOs was reduced by 55% and the level of TNF-α was decreased by 30%. Moreover, the total leucocytic count was significantly reduced from 9.05 × 103 to 7.8 × 103 cells/mm3. Based on our results, PPE showed both anti-coccidial, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic activities. So it can be used in developing new herbal medicine against animal coccidiosis and may be suitable agent for treating eimeriosis associated inflammatory response.

Renal tissue damage due to Eimeria coecicola infection in rabbits

Coccidiosis causes considerable economic loss in the poultry industry. The study was designed to investigate the induced damage in renal tissue of rabbits infected with Eimeria coecicola sporulated oocysts. Animals were divided into two groups. The first group acted as the non-infected control group while the second group was infected with 50,000 E. coecicola sporulated oocysts. Infection which induced a weight loss and rabbits output were approximately 1.2 billion oocysts/g faeces on day 7 postinfection. Histological examinations revealed that the renal tissues of the infected animals were damaged, where the urinary space appeared wider, and some kidney tubule cells were vacuolated and the nuclei appeared to be slightly swollen than normal. Both carbohydrates and protein content in the infected renal tissue were reduced. Also, the level of both of urea and glucose in blood plasma were elevated due to infection with E. coecicola sporulated oocysts and reached 25.7 ± 1.1 and 143.8 ± 7.1 mg/dl, respectively. The results obtained from this study suggest that E. coecicola infection induced renal tissue damage.

Berberine improves the intestinal antioxidant status of laboratory mice, Mus musculus

Oral administration of berberine chloride to mice induced an obvious enhancement in jejunal health status as expressed by the significant reduction of apoptotic cells within the intestinal villi from 15.5 to 8.3 apoptotic cell/10 VCU. In addition, jejunal antioxidant biomarkers were significantly improved as revealed by the increase in the activities of catalase and glutathione peroxidase enzymes with a concurrent increase in reduced glutathione levels and total antioxidant capacity. Also, it was associated with a significant decrease in oxidative damage biomarkers of hydrogen peroxides, malondialdehyde, nitrite/nitrate, inducible nitric oxide synthase and protein carbonyl content. Moreover, BBR treatment induced a reduction in the pro-inflammatory cytokine, TNF-α by about 40%. It is highly recommended to use berberine as food supplements or as natural drug therapy to enhance the antioxidant status within the intestinal tissue.