Background and aims. Melatonin is a circulating hormone that is mainly released from the pineal gland. It possesses antioxidant, free-radical scavenging, and immune-enhancing properties. A growing number of studies reveal a complex role for melatonin in influencing various diseases, including diabetes and periodontal diseases. The aim of this study was to examine the possible links between sali...

Melatonin is known as a potent scavenger of reactive oxygen species. Zinc has also been reported to be involved in tissue regeneration. This activity has been suggested partly as its gastroprotective mechanism. The digestive system has been estimated to produce about 400 times of this neurohormone than the pineal gland. In this study, we report the role of gastric anti-oxidant enzymes, luminal ...

Very little information is available to delineate the role of melatonin during the complex process of gestation in seasonally breeding mammals. The present study was aimed at understanding the physiology of gestation and fetal growth in relation to maternal hormonal levels, including melatonin, of a tropical seasonal breeder, Funambulus pennanti. Through assessment of the vaginal smear during b...

The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) is a dominant player in several cardiovascular pathologies. This study investigated whether alterations induced by l-NAME, (NLG)-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester, a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, and the protective effect of melatonin are associated with changes in the RAAS. Four groups of 3-month-old male Wistar rats (n = 10) were treated as follo...

AIM To investigate the change of nitric oxide (NO) in rat colitis and its inhibition by melatonin in vivo and in vitro. METHODS In vivo, rat colitis was established intracolonically with trinitrobenzenesulphonic acid (TNBS) and ethanol. The animals were randomised into five groups: control group, model group, melatonin group (2.5, 5.0, 10.0 mg/kg), and treated intracolonically with saline, sa...

A major mechanism through which melatonin reduces the development of breast cancer is based on its anti-estrogenic actions by interfering at different levels with the estrogen-signalling pathways. Melatonin inhibits both aromatase activity and expression in vitro (MCF-7 cells) as well as in vivo, thus behaving as a selective estrogen enzyme modulator. The objective of this study was to study th...

Because epidemiological studies report clinical disorders (mainly neurobehavioral alterations and/or cancer) that may be related to diminished melatonin secretion or to changes in its circadian rhythm in subjects living or working in environments exposed to magnetic fields, research on the effects of these fields in humans is particularly important. In this study, we examine the circadian rhyth...

AIM To determine adiponectin expression in colonic tissue of murine colitis and systemic cytokine expression after melatonin treatments and sleep deprivation. METHODS The following five groups of C57BL/6 mice were used in this study: (1) group I, control; (2) group II, 2% DSS induced colitis for 7 d; (3) group III, 2% DSS induced colitis and melatonin treatment; (4) group IV, 2% DSS induced c...