putative activity of hydroalcoholic and aqueous infusion extracts of echium amoenum l. was investigated in mice using the rotarod model of motor coordination and the elevated plus maze model of anxiety. the extracts were administered intraperitonealy (i.p.) once, one hour before performing the tests. preliminary phytochemical study of the plant, with standard procedures, showed that it contains...

these experiments examined the effects of pre-test intra dorsal hippocampus (intra-ca1) administration of gabaa receptor agonist and antagonist, muscimol and bicuculline respectively, on state-dependent learning induced by lithium. male nmri mice were trained in a one-trial step-down inhibitory avoidance task, and immediately after training they received ip injections of either saline (10 ml/kg...

introduction: sildenafil, a phosphodiesterase-5 (pde5) inhibitor, may have various effects on the central nervous system via the nitric oxide (no)-cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cgmp) pathway. preclinical studies have shown the controversial effect of sildenafil on anxiety-like behavior in animals. this study was undertaken to investigate the acute effect of sildenafil on anxiety-like behavior...

introduction: stem cell biology has been the subject of much recent discussion. embryonic stem (es) cells, derived from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst stage of early mammalian embryos are expected to become a powerful tool in future regenerative medicine and developmental biology due to their capacity of self-renewal and pluripotency. in the present study, the ultrastructural development...

introduction: among the components of the extracellular matrix (ecm) and basement membrane (bm), laminitis heterotrimeric glycoprotein (laminin) and collagen type iv are the most important. in a previous study we have examined the role of collagen type iv in the developing lens capsule. the present study aims to determine the appearance and distribution of laminin in the bm and ecm of lenses du...

background: gonadotropin-releasing hormone (gnrh) is a reproductive key hormone. the gnrh analogues are widely used in in vitro fertilization and treatment of sex hormone-depended cancers induced by the materials used in chemotherapeutic agents. objective: the aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of cyclophosphamide and decapeptyl (analogues of gnrh) on histomorphometry and stereology o...

background: the interaction between follicular cells and oocyte leads to a change in gene expression involved in oocyte maturation processes. objective: the purpose of this study was to quantify the expression of more common genes involved in follicular growth and oocyte developmental competence. materials and methods: in this experimental study, the expression of genes was evaluated with qrt-p...

background: leishmaniasis is a complex disease which presents as visceral, cutaneous and mucocutaneous forms. the current treatment options for this infection are very limited and the immunological state of the host appears to play an important role in the efficacy of the treatment. immunostimulation through immune response activating agents such as imiquimod is another rational approach for th...

background: the ovariectomized animals are good models to evaluate the effect of different steroid hormone treatments on implantation events and the pattern of integrin expression. therefore, this study was performed to compare the expression of integrins and osteopontin (opn) in correlation with pinopode development in ovariectomized mice endometrium which was subjected to steroid hormones. me...

traditionally, lactuca sativa (lettuce) has been recommended for its hypnotic property.the present study was planned to investigate sleep-prolonging effect of this plant. the hydroalcoholicextract (hae) of lettuce and its water fraction (wf), ethyl acetate fraction (eaf),and n-butanol fraction (nbf) were administrated (ip) to mice 30 min before the pentobarbitalinjection. moreover, both in-vivo...