Hypertension or prehypertension are the diseases which affect entire body. Many times there would have been organ damage even before the diagnosis of hypertension. So it becomes very essential to diagnose hypertension or rather prehypertension at an early stage so that the preventive measures can be employed. Heart rate variability (HRV) proves to be the best tool to diagnose prehypertension at...

Effects of pre- and post-natal undernutrition on learning and memory parameters were studied in albino rats. Prenatal undernutrition was induced in rat pups by restricting the mother's diet by 50% during the entire gestation period, whereas postnatal undernutrition was induced in rat pups by restriction of their diet by rotating them between lactating and non-lactating maternalised females for ...

Background: Because the immature spinal cord was nerve growth permissive, we examined glial reactions that influence regeneration of the spinal cord in a fetal rat spinal cord injury model. Methods: Three, 7, 21, and 35 days after intrauterine surgery, offsprings were killed and the thoracic and lumbar spinal cords were carefully removed from the spinal column and then cut into 10 μm longitudin...

Proopiomelanocortin (POMC) is a precursor gene of the neuropeptide β-endorphin in the hypothalamus and is known to regulate various physiological functions including stress response. Several recent reports showed that fetal alcohol exposure programs the hypothalamus to produce lower levels of POMC gene transcripts and to elevate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response to stressfu...

Ventricular septal defects (VSDs) are common congenital abnormalities which have been reported to be associated with maternal fever and various environmental factors. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of prenatal exposure to cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibitors on heart defects. A retrospective statistical analysis was performed using data collected in our laboratory during var...

INTRODUCTION Diabetes mellitus is associated with nervous system alterations in both human and animal models. This study was done to determine the effect of gestational diabetes on the Purkinje and granular cells in the cerebellum of rat offspring. METHODS 10 Wistar rats Dams were randomly allocated in control and diabetic group. The experimental group received 40 mg/kg/body weight of strepto...

Melamine incident, linked to nephrotoxicity and kidney stone in infants previously exposed to melamine-contaminated milk products, was unprecedentedly grave in China in 2008 as little was known about the mechanistic process leading to renal dysfunction in affected children. This study investigates whether neonatal ingestion of melamine leads to renal and vascular dysfunction in adulthood; and w...

Autism spectrum disorders are severe neurodevelopmental disorders, marked by impairments in reciprocal social interaction, delays in early language and communication and the presence of restrictive, repetitive and stereotyped behaviors. Depend on the statistic, 1child from each 68 children face with ASD. This statistic shows that probably, the environmental factors play the important role in AS...

Diet during pregnancy and lactation influences the offspring's health in the long-term. Indeed, human epidemiological studies and animal experiments suggest that different type of fatty acids consumption during pregnancy affect offspring development and susceptibility to metabolic disorders. Epigenetic changes are thought to be elicited by dietary factors during critical timing of development. ...

OBJECTIVE(S) As far as we know, there has been no report regarding the effects of opium addiction or dependency of both parents on the learning and memory process in offspring. The aim of this study was to examine the learning and memory changes of adult male offspring whose mothers, fathers and/or both parents had dependency to opium before and during pregnancy. Materials and Methods : All exp...