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Copyright of Biologie Aujourd'hui is the property of EDP Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Acrylamide is a water-soluble compound that forms during the hightemperature cooking of starchy foods and has carcinogenic, neurotoxic, and genotoxic properties. Also, short-term exposure to acrylamide has been shown to cause significant hepatic injury in laboratory animals, along with disruption of antioxidant defense mechanisms due to excessive ROS production. Therefore, dietary antioxidants are believed to be useful in combating the negative effects of acrylamide. Corchorus olitoris L., also known as molokhia in Arabic, is a leafy vegetable which is shown to possess potent antioxidant and organ oprotective properties. In this study, rats were administered with an aqueous extract of molokhia leaves to see if it could protect them against acrylamide-induced hepatic damage. Hepatic injury markers included serum total protein, total bilirubin, ALT, AST, and ALP, while oxidative stress markers included MDA, GSH, CAT, and SOD after dosing with three levels of extract (100, 250, and 500 mg/kg) for 21 days. Results indicated that the extracts substantially reduced elevated levels of bilirubin, ALT, AST, ALP, and MDA to normal levels at all doses. The extracts also brought serum protein, GSH, CAT, and SOD levels back to normal. Although the restoration of serum hepatic enzyme levels was dose dependent, no specific dose dependent relationship was found for serum proteins, MDA, GSH, CAT, or SOD activities. The study's findings show that molokhia leaves extract protects against acrylamide-induced hepatic damage by virtue of its good radical scavenging and anti-lipiperoxidative properties conferred by phenolics, flavonoids, and alkaloids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue Francaise d'Allergologie is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: Pharmacological studies were conducted with the aqueous extract of the bark of the stem of Ximenia americana Linne (Olacaceae) on experimental animals, evaluating the analgesic activities. In the analgesic test, the aqueous extract elicited an inhibitory intensity on the acetic acid-induced writhing response and on the late phase of the formalin test, but possessed only a weak effect on the tail-flick response and on the early phase of the formalin test. To cite this article: T.Y. Soro et al., C. R. Biologies 332 (2009). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Résumé: Objectif: Décrire une observation inhabituelle de syndrome de la queue de cheval dû à un liposarcome pléiomorphe primitif du rachis lombaire. Observation: Un homme de 35 ans a consulté pour des rachialgies évoluant depuis deux mois et accompagnées d’une diminution progressive de la force musculaire aux membres inférieurs, sans troubles sphinctériens. Il avait un antécédent de laminectomie trois ans plus tôt pour une lésion considérée à l’époque comme une hernie discale. Une récidive de hernie et une fibrose postopératoire étaient les deux principaux diagnostics évoqués. Toutefois, l’imagerie par résonance magnétique et la tomodensitométrie du rachis lombaire ont mis en évidence une atteinte diffuse des corps de L4 et L5, ainsi qu’une masse intradurale entourant les racines de la queue de cheval. La tumeur remplissait presque complètement le canal médullaire dans le sens transversal. Un plasmocytome ou une métastase a été jugée probable et une intervention chirurgicale a donc été réalisée en urgence par voie postérieure large. L’histologie a permis de porter le diagnostic de liposarcome. Une radiothérapie a été administrée, mais le malade est décédé trois mois après l’intervention. Conclusion: Bien que le liposarcome pléiomorphe ne siège que rarement au rachis, il faut l’évoquer dans le diagnostic différentiel des tumeurs rachidiennes primitives. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Copyright of Sociologie du Travail is the property of Association pour le Developpement de la Sociologie du Travail and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper intends to open a debate about scientific experimentation on animals. First, we argue that animals can be the subjects of moral concerns. Therefore biologists cannot do every things with laboratory animals, because they are not tools. Scientific experiments on animals require an ethical evaluation. Then, we carry out a critical survey of ethical theories applied to experimentation on animals. According to kantism, we can have duties towards animals, but they have no rights. So it is right to experiment on animals, but not to hurt them: it is contrary to human dignity. An other theory relies on the concept of animals rights, drawn from Tom Regan''s argumentation, according to which some animals are “subjects-of-a-life”, and therefore have an “inherent value”, which we are obliged to respect. Then we examine how utilitarianism can be extended to all sensible beings, and, according to Peter Singer, what are the consequences of such a position upon scientific experimentation. Assuming that animals are feeling beings, but turning down utilitarian consequentialism, Joel Feinberg argues that animals, which are endowed with a “conative life” have “interests”. And so rights capable of protecting those “interests” in well-being are justified. Finally, we study biologist researchers'' spontaneous ethical ideas: tinkering between kantism (exprimenting is always justified) and utilitarianism (no useless sufferings) prompts them to make an ethical assesment of experiments by a kind of costs/benefits account. But it seems that laboratories'' assistants can be more sensitive to animals'' sufferings: more often than not they contest the costs/benefits assesments of researchers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]