Flavonoids have been shown to have antioxidant factors and effective against hepatotoxicity. This in vivo study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of flavonoids rich extracts in a model of chemicalinduced liver cell injury. Materials and Methods: Flavonoids were extracted from leaves and flowers of Arbutus pavarii using Microwave assisted extraction method. Different concentrations of extracted flavonoids (200, 500, 1000, 2000 and 5000mg/kg bw) were evaluated up to two weeks on mice model. The hepatoprotective effects of the extracts were examined using mice pretreated orally with 200 and 400 mg/kg bw of flavonoids extracted from leaves and flowers as well as their combination (200 mg/kg; 1:1) for 28 days. At day 28, the mice were received orally a single dose of 1ml/kg CCl4 in corn oil. Forty-eight hours after Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) treatment, the animals were sacrificed and their liver and blood samples were collected for determination of biochemical parameters (Alkaline phosphatase (ALT), Aspartate-aminotransferase (AST) and Alanine-aminotransferase (ALP)), histopathological investigation and antioxidant status. Results: Treatment of the mice with a daily dose of flavonoids extracts up to 5 g/kg bw did not cause mortality and did not show hepatotoxicity. Pretreatment with extracts decreased the increased serum levels of ALT, AST, and ALP, decreased lipid peroxidation and maintained the levels of glutathione and antioxidant enzymes status in the CCl4 treated mice, especially in the group treated with combined extracts. The hepato-protcitve effects were confirmed by histopathological examinations. Conclusion: The results shown by the extracted flavonoids need further investigation.
Rabia Alghazeer, Sana Elgahmasi, Abdul Hakim Elnfati, Mohamed Elhensheri, Mohamed A. Al-Griw, Nuri Awayn, Mariuma El- Nami(3-2018)

Exposure to chemicals has been shown to adversely affect CNS health in rodents and humans. The objective was to evaluate, in-vivo, the effects of trichloroethane (TCE), a ubiquitous environmental contaminant, on the integrity of neural cells. A group of albino mice was injected intraperitoneally twice weekly for three weeks with TCE (100 and 400 µg/kg). Animals were followed up for signs of toxicity and death. Alterations in neural tissues have also been investigated by histopathology The results showed a large number of degenerative neural cells (pyknosis of nuclei, DNA fragmentation, chromatin condensation) in the 100 and 400 µg/kg TCE-treated groups comparing to controls. Although there were no significant effect on the neural cell counts, the pattern of increased degenerative cells in TCE-treated groups was higher compared to controls. The results also showed that TCE led to a significant increase in the percent of degenerative neurons. There was also a significant reduction in the percent of neurons. These results correlated with the increase in the percent of glia. This study indicates that TCE exposure had detrimental impact on neural cells, and that neurons are more vulnerable to TCE than glia in this in-vivo mouse model.
Mohamed A. Al-Griw, Naser M. Salama, Soad A. Treesh, Lubna N. Algadi, Abdul hakim Elnfati(7-2015)

Background: Thiopurine S-methyltransferase (TPMT) is a cytosolic enzyme that catalyses the S-methylation of 6-mercaptopurine and azathioprine. Low activity phenotypes are correlated with polymorphism in the TPMT gene. Patients with low or undetectable TMPT activity could develop severe myelosuppression when they are treated with standard doses of thiopurine drugs. Since ethnic differences in the TPMT gene polymorphism have been demonstrated worldwide, assessing it in the Libyan population is worthwhile. Methods: We investigated TPMT gene polymorphism in a total of 246 Libyan healthy adult blood donors from three different Libyan regions (Tripoli, Yefren, and Tawargha) and 50 children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). We used polymerase chain reaction restriction length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and allele-specific PCR-based assays to analyse the TPMT gene for the variants* 2 c. 238 G> C,* 3A (c. 460 G> A and c. 719 A> G),* 3B (c. 460 G> A), and* 3C (c. 719 A> G). Results: Our results show that the TPMT variants associated with low enzymatic activity were detected in 3.25%(8 in 246) of adult Libyan individuals and the frequency of total mutant alleles was 1.63%. Heterozygous genotypes were TPMT* 3A in three subjects (0.61%) and TPMT* 3C in five subjects (1.02%). No TPMT* 2 and TPMT* 3B allelic variants and no homozygous or compound heterozygous mutant alleles were detected. The normal allele (wild-type) was found in 98.4% of the adult individuals studied. No mutant alleles were detected among the 50 children who had ALL. arabic 10 English 74
Hamza Ben Zeglam, Abdulla Bashein, (1-2015)