RESUMO
The present study aimed to evaluate the antioxidant activity of essential oils obtained from branchlets of male and female trees as well as fruits of Juniperus foetidissima Willd., Cupressaceae, from Iran. For this purpose, essential oils of J. foetidissima were phytochemically analyzed and different concentrations of them were tested in five oxidative systems: 1) low-density lipoprotein oxidation; 2) linoleic acid peroxidation; 3) red blood cell hemolysis; 4) hemoglobin glycation; and 5) insulin glycation assays. In all employed systems, antioxidant effects were observed from the three tested oils though in varying degrees. The most promising activities of the oils were observed against hemoglobin and insulin glycation. Antioxidant activities of the oils did not appear to be dose-dependent. In addition, no consistent superiority in antioxidant effects was observed from a single oil in different assays. In view of the current results, J. foetidissima branchlet and fruit oils could be regarded as effective natural products with anti-glycation activity.
RESUMO
In this report we have analysed the peripheral blood lymphocyte of several patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection with flow cytometry. Based on the presence and absence of the HBeAb, patients were divided into two groups. In both, all the patients were HBsAg positive with normal range of serum alanine aminotranferase (23.9 +/- 17.8). We have found that the immunophenotypic profiles of patients were different from healthy donors with significant decrease in CD(3)(+) T cells, specially CD(8)(+) T cells and a significant increase in the CD(19)(+) B cells. The differences were seen in other subset of T cells (CD(4)(+)) or NK cells (CD(56)(+)/CD(16)(+)) and HLA-DR markers were not significant. When the phenotypic profiles of both groups were compared with each other, such changes were more dominant in group II, with HBeAb positive than in group I, with HBeAb negative. Also, we have seen a correlation between the increase of CD(19)(+) B cells and the decrease of CD CD(3)(+) T cells. No such correlation was observed with other cells.