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AIM The human papilloma virus (HPV) type 16 and 18 causes nearly 70% of uterine cervical cancers. Oral administration of live Salmonella typhi Ty21a, expressing major capsid proteins (L1) of HPV 16 and 18 is a potential choice for immunization in adolescent girls under low resource settings. Present study aimed to assess the nonclinical safety of recombinant S. typhi expressing HPV 16 and 18 (rStHPV) proteins. METHODOLOGY The acute toxicity of rStHPV was tested by intranasal single dose administration, of 10 and 50 folds higher than clinical prophylactic dose, in mice and rat followed by monitoring their survival for 14 days. Sub-chronic toxicity was evaluated in rats and rabbits with prophylactic and 5 times (average) to clinical prophylactic dosages on scheduled days (1st, 3rd & 5th day) through oral and intranasal routes. The immune/allergic response of rStHPV was assessed in mice through intranasal and intra-peritoneal routes. Experimental animals were daily monitored for live phase, and clinical chemistry, haematology, immunotoxicology, immunogenic response and histopathological examination of vital organs on 15th, 29th and 93rd days. RESULTS No abnormal changes were noticed in live phase activity, clinical chemistry and haematology profile. The gross necropsy, organ weights and histopathology were found to be normal. No immunotoxicity was recorded as evaluated by tier I tests. Allergic immune response, as evaluated with IgE levels was also negative irrespective of test routes. On the other hand, a significant (P

Objective To explore the effect of letrozole as an ovulation inducing agent on oocyte and embryo quality in mice model. Design Prospective study. Setting Institute of Reproductive Medicine, Kolkata, India. Animal(s) Sixty-nine sexually mature female Swiss Albino mice 6–7 weeks old. Intervention(s) Metaphase II (MII) oocytes from two groups of mice, one group injected with letrozole and the other with rFSH. Main Outcome Measure(s) Number of MII oocytes, number of oocytes with meiotic spindle (MS), different angles of MS relative to the polar body (PB), spindle characteristics, and fertilization outcome. Result(s) The MS was present in 84% and 71.2% of the oocytes in the letrozole and rFSH group, respectively. In the letrozole group, 73% of the oocytes had a 0° spindle position compared with 35.7% in the rFSH group. With letrozole, 19% of the oocytes had 0° > MS 90°, compared with 46.1% oocytes with 0° > MS 90° with rFSH. Mean spindle area retardance, spindle dimensions, and 4–8-cell embryo formation rate were significantly higher with letrozole compared with rFSH. Two-cell and blastocyst formation rates were similar in both groups. Conclusion(s) Robust birefringent spindles were obtained in mice on superovulation with letrozole. Letrozole does not appear to increase the risk of spindle assembly and preimplantation developmental arrest in mouse oocytes.

Probiotic supplementation during critical windows of gestation might have a significant influence on the infant’s immune phenotype. Swiss albino mice (F0 generation) aged 31 days were supplemented orally with probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG); and the supplementation was continued throughout mating, gestation and lactation. The pups (F1 generation) born to them were separated post weaning and received either the same probiotic supplementation as their mothers or were denied supplementation postnatally. Neutrophil phagocytic ability, splenocyte proliferation, immunoglobulins and cytokines were determined in both F0 and F1 pups. In addition, antibody response against hepatitis-B surface antigen (HBsAg) was determined in F1 pups. Probiotic supplementation had no effect on the neutrophil phagocytic ability and splenocyte proliferation index. The serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) and secretory IgA (s-IgA) among the probiotic supplemented group of F0 generation were significantly (P

Miscellaneous statistical approaches were applied to illustrate the influence exerted by different zooplankton groups on the survival and distributional status of autochthonous Vibrio cholerae in two diverse marine environments, Veli and Kochi, former with low nutrient loading and later with high nutrient loading. The data set has been factorised using principal component analysis (PCA) for extracting linear relationships existing among a set of variables. Box plots were derived from the PCA data and were graphically represented. Vibrio cholerae (VC) showed strong positive correlation to zooplanktons especially with crustacean copepods under low nutrient conditions which confirmed a clear association between VC and zooplanktons for its surveillance and distribution under low nutrient concentration, while under high nutrient loading VC rely only on the available nutrients.