A lysed crude secretory granule fraction from rat islets of Langerhans was shown to process endogenous proinsulin to insulin with a pH optimum of 5.0--6.0. The converting activity in the lysed fraction was not inhibited by serine protease inhibitors (diisopropyl fluorophosphate, soybean trypsin inhibitor, and aprotinin) or metalloprotease inhibitors (EDTA and o-phenanthroline) but was inhibited...

Primula auriculata (Tootia) is one of the most important local medicinal plants in Hamedan district, Iran. To investigate cytotoxicity and apoptosis induction of crude methanolic extract and different fraction of it, we compared several methods on HT-29 human colon Adenocarcinoma cells. Cancer cell proliferation was measured by 3-(4, 5‑dimethylthiazolyl)2, 5‑diphenyl‑tetrazolium bromide (MTT) a...

alkaloids of the aerial parts of chelidonium were extracted in the salt form, and their aqueous solutions were prepared in different concentrations. rat hepatocytes were obtained by liver perfusion. the alkaloidal solutions were added to suspensions of hepatocytes in petri dishes and the mixtures were incubated. two types of controls have been used in one type. no alkaloidal extract was added t...

The species Cordia curassavica (Boraginaceae), known popularly as "erva baleeira", is used in folk medicine for the treatment of several inflammatory processes and as a healing agent. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the antiedematogenic activity of crude dichloromethane extracts of Cordia curassavica and of the artemetin-enriched fraction. The crude extract and artemetin frac...

Bidens pilosa is a plant used by Amazonian and Asian folks for some hepatopathies. The hydroethanol crude extract and three fractions were assessed for antioxidant and hepatoprotective effects. Higher levels of scavenger activity on the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical, inhibition of deoxyribose oxidation and lipid peroxidation in vitro were detected for the ethyl acetate fraction (IC(50)~...