Objective: Zinc is an important trace element in terms of children being able to grow and develop normally and to be protected from diseases and it is also essential for most of the enzymes to be able to function normally. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the serum zinc status of children who admitted to our hospital.
Natural products originating from plants have been used for many years in the treatment of various diseases, including cancer. Centaurea solstitialis subsp. solstitialis is used in Turkish folk medicine. This study was the first to determine the in vitro biological effects of ethanolic extract from the flowering parts of C. solstitialis L. subsp. solstitialis collected from Muğla Province.The cytotoxic effect was evaluated against Daudi, A549, and HeLa cancer cells and one normal BEAS-2B cell line using the MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5- dipenyltetrazolium bromide) assay. Flow cytometric analysis and the caspase-3 activity assay were performed to detect apoptotic cell death. Angiogenic factor [vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)] secretion and the release of interleukin (IL)-1α, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α by cells treated with the extract were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.The extract exhibited cytotoxic effects against all the cancer cell lines used but HeLa and Daudi were the most sensitive cells, with IC50 values of 63.18 μg/mL and 69.27 μg/mL, respectively. Selective cytotoxicity was observed between the HeLa and normal BEAS-2B cell lines. The extract arrested the cell cycle at the S and G2 phases. In addition, apoptotic cell death was detected in HeLa and A549 cells. Moreover, the plant extract caused a significant decrease in VEGF secretion in A549 cells and a fluctuation in IL-1α, IL-6, and TNF-α secretion in A549 and Daudi cells.These observations suggest that the flowering parts of C. solstitialis may be a potential source in the development of natural drugs for the treatment of cancer and modulation of cytokine secretion.
Plants continue to be a good source for developing effective anticancer agents. In this study, in vitro various biological effects of crude ethanolic extract from flowering parts of Urospermum picroides collected from the Muğla province of Turkey were investigated for the first time. Daudi, A549 and HeLa cancer cell lines and BEAS-2B normal cell line were used to identify the cytotoxic effect of the extract using MTT assay. The effect of the extract on cell cycle progression was detected by flow cytometric analysis. The level of VEGF, IL-1α, IL-6 and TNF-α secretion in the cells treated with the extract were measured using ELISA The extract caused a higher cytotoxic effect on Daudi cells with an IC50 value of 85.64 µg/mL than the other cells tested. The IC50 values in HeLa and A549 cells were determined to be 135.35 and 234.8 µg/ mL, respectively. The selective cytotoxicity was considered between Daudi and BEAS-2B (109.80 µg/mL) cell lines. In addition, the effect of the extract on cell cycle progression changes according to cell line used. Moreover, the extract decreased the level of secreted VEGF in treated A549 cells by 31%. In addition, the extract resulted in a significant decrease in the secretion of IL-1α, IL-6 and TNF-α cytokines in A549 and Daudi cells compared to the untreated cells. These findings suggest that the flowering parts of U. picroides may be a potential source for anticancer agents.
To screen industrially important extracellular enzymes from the newly isolated alkalophilic bacilli and to characterize them by phenotypic and 16S-internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rDNA restriction pattern analysis.Three different environmental samples, soil, leather and horse faeces, were collected within the province of Izmir. Isolates grown on Horikoshi-I medium for 24 h at 37 degrees C were screened for extracellular enzyme activity by using eight different substrates: birchwood xylan, carboxymethylcellulose, casein, citrus pectin, polygalacturonic acid, soluble starch, and Tween 20 and 80. In total, 115 extracellular enzyme-producing bacilli were obtained. Casein was hydrolysed by 78%, soluble starch by 67%, citrus pectin by 63%, polygalacturonic acid by 62%, Tween 20 by 34%, birchwood xylan by 16%, Tween 80 by 12%, and carboxymethylcellulose by 3% of the isolates. The isolates were differentiated into 19 distinct homology groups by the 16S-ITS rDNA restriction pattern analysis.Eight different extracellular enzyme activities were determined in 115 endospore forming bacilli. The largest 16S-ITS rDNA homology group (HT1) included 36% of the isolates, 98% of which degraded casein, polygalacturonic acid, pectin and starch.This study is the first report on the characterization of the industrial enzyme-producing alkalophilic bacilli by 16S-ITS rDNA restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). Restriction profiles of 64% of the isolates were found to be different from those of five reference strains used.
Abstract. Tumour metastasis occurs as a result of a cascade of events including alterations in the expression of various genes. The identification of such genes is essential to understanding formation of metastasis. In a previous study, highly metastatic (LN4.D6) and poorly metastatic (CAb.D5) cell lines were obtained from the rat mammary adenocarcinoma cell line R3230AC. Subtractive hybridization was used to identify differentially expressed genes between these two cell lines. We identified eight cDNA clones in CAb.D5 and six cDNA clones in LN4.D6 that were differentially expressed. One of the cDNA clones in each cell line had no homology with known sequences. Expression patterns of these differentially expressed genes were examined in a pair of rat mammary and prostate adenocarcinoma cell lines. Compared with cell lines examined, cDNA FF‐10 was only expressed in CAb.D5; however, cDNA RB‐8, RE‐1, RF‐5 were only expressed in the highly metastatic LN4.D6. No correlation was observed between expression patterns of the differentially expressed genes and metastatic potential of these cells. However, differential expression of genes, especially cytokeratins (CK8 and CK5) and collagens (III and IV) between highly metastatic and low metastatic rat mammary adenocarcinoma cell lines might initiate further investigation of these genes in metastatic process.