Melanin is a ubiquitous biological pigment found in bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals. It has a diverse range of ecological and biochemical functions, including display, evasion, photoprotection, detoxification, and metal scavenging. To date, evidence of melanin in fossil organisms has relied entirely on indirect morphological and chemical analyses. Here, we apply direct chemical techniques ...

The study designed to evaluate the protective effect of Salvia officinalis (SO) water extract against OVAinduced asthma in mice. The OVA-induced asthmatic mice exhibited significant increase in total leukocytes count, IL-4 and IL-5 levels in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and eosinophils count in (BALF), in addition, to the serum total IgE level. Pathological changes in the lung were evalu...

The ontogeny of the lens crystallin antigens throughout development of three marine cephalopod embryos, Loligo vulgaris, Sepia officinalis and Octopus vulgaris has been investigated using the indirect immuno-cytochemical staining against respective homologous anti-total lens protein antiserum. The cellular mechanism of lens development appears to be the same in all species investigated and so d...

The optical and paramagnetic properties of size-controlled ink particles isolated from ink sacs of Sepia officinalis were investigated. Topographic images of atomic force microscopy (AFM) revealed that the average heights of the large and small ink particles were 156 nm and 5.3 nm respectively. The ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS) spectral features of aqueous solutions of ink particles were depende...

During the present study, we aimed at providing a first look at the elemental composition of the early stages of cephalopods as an approach to their elemental requirements in culture. Essential and non-essential elemental profiles of the European cuttlefish Sepia officinalis, the European squid Loligo vulgaris and the common octopus Octopus vulgaris laboratory hatchlings and wild juveniles were...

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Cephalopods have the most sophisticated dynamic skin coloration for rapidly camouflage in nature. Previous studies have suggested that the pair of optic lobes located bilaterally in their brain plays a key role in controlling the expansion of chromatophores for generating diverse body patterns. However, the functional organization of the optic lobes and their neural control of various body patt...

The present study was carried out to evaluate the spermatotoxic effect of ochratoxin and it's amelioration by Emblica officinalis aqueous extract. When male albino mice were treated with ochratoxin (50 and 100 microg/0.2 mL of olive oil/animal/day for 45 days, orally) alterations in various reproductive parameters were observed (sperm count, sperm motility, sperm viability and fertility rate), ...