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Background and aim Metabolic disease encompasses most contemporary non-communicable diseases, especially cardiovascular and fatty liver disease. Mulberry fruits of Morus alba L. are a favoured food and a traditional medicine. While they are anti-atherosclerotic and reduce hyperlipidemic risk factors, studies need wider scope that include ameliorating cardiovascular and liver pathologies if they are to become clinically effective treatments. Therefore, the present study sought to show that freshly dried mulberry fruits (dMF) might counteract the metabolic/cardiovascular pathologies in mice made hyperlipidemic by high-fat diet (HF). Experimental procedure C57BL/6J mice were fed for 3 months with either: i) control diet, ii) HF, iii) HF+100 mg/kg dMF, or iv) HF+300 mg/kg dMF. Body weight gain, food intake, visceral fat accumulation, fasting blood glucose, plasma lipids, and aortic, heart, and liver histopathologies were evaluated. Adipocyte lipid accumulation, autophagy, and bile acid binding were also investigated. Results and conclusion HF increased food intake, body weight, visceral fat, plasma total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL), TC/HDL ratio, blood glucose, aortic collagen, arterial and cardiac wall thickness, and liver lipid. Both dMF doses prevented hyperphagia, body weight gain, and visceral fat accumulation, lowered blood glucose, plasma TG and unfavourable TC/HDL and elevated plasma HDL beyond baseline. Arterial and cardiac wall hypertrophy, aortic collagen fibre accumulation and liver lipid deposition ameliorated in dMF-fed mice. Clinical trials on dMF are worthwhile but outcomes should be holistic commensurate with the constellation of disease risks. Here, dMF should supplement the switch to nutrient-rich from current energy-dense diets that are progressively crippling national health systems., Graphical abstract Image 1, Highlights • Uses modest amounts of whole unextracted mulberries as in traditional medicine. • Studies important pathologies found in metabolic syndrome, the number one challenge to modern medicine. • dMF reduces risk factors associated with dyslipidemia. • dMF prevents weight gain, visceral fat and hepatic fat accumulation with fatty diets. • dMF ameliorates vascular fibrosis and cardiac hypertrophy, thereby preventing myocardial infarction risk.

SUMMARY: The auriculotemporal nerve (ATN) is an important structure lying within a limited area of an infratemporal region (ITR). The ATN is originated from the posterior branch of the mandibular division of the trigeminal nerve (V3). The ATN conveys somatosensory, secretomotor, and parasympathetic fibres of the V3 and gustatory nerve (CN IX). In literature, the most common pattern of the ATN is composed of 2 roots that encloses the middle meningeal artery (MMA). However, in many studies, it has been reported that there are many variations in ATN pattern formation. To study the variation of ATN pattern formation in Thai cadavers, 73 hemifaces from 39 Thai embalmed cadavers were dissected and the relations of the ATN to the MMA were recorded. This study concluded that there were 4 patterns observed in Thai cadavers. The common pattern is 2 roots (67.1 %), 3 roots (15.1 %), 1 root (9.6 %), and 4 roots (8.2 %). Knowledge of this variation in the ATN may be useful in understanding the symptoms of temporo-orofacial pain, paresthesia of temporomandibular joint (TMJ), possible side effects from the TMJ surgery and the efficiency of auriculotemporal nerve block for regional anesthesia of the temporomandibular joint in Thai people.

In order to investigate the involvement of the IER3/ PP2A-B56γ/ERK-positive feedback loop, which leads to sustained phosphorylation/activation of ERK in carcinogenesis, we immunohistochemically examined the expression of IER3 and phosphorylated ERK in lung tumor tissues. IER3 was overexpressed in all cases of adenocarcinomas examined, but was not overexpressed in squamous cell carcinomas. Phosphorylated ERK (pERK) was also overexpressed in almost all adenocarcinomas. EGFR and RAS, whose gene product is located upstream of ERK, were sequenced. Activating mutation of EGFR, which is a possible cause of overexpression of IER3 and pERK, was found only in 5 adenocarcinomas (42%). No mutation of RAS was found. We further examined the sequences of all exons of B56γ gene (PPP2R5C) and IER3, but no mutation was found. Using a single nucleotide insertion in intron 1 of PPP2R5C, which was found in the process of sequencing, allelic deletion of PPP2R5C was examined. Eight cases were informative (67%), and the deletion was found in 4 of them (50%). Three cases having deletion of PPP2R5C did not have EGFR mutation. Finally, PPP2R5C deletion or EGFR mutation that could be responsible for IER3/pERK overexpression was found in at least 8 cases (67% or more). This is the first report of a high incidence of deletion of PPP2R5C in human carcinomas., Embargo Period 12 months

This study aims to investigate the effect of oral administration and the direct action of ginger extract or [6]-gingerol on small intestinal contractility. The direct effect of 10 minutes preincubation of ginger ethanolic extract (10, 100 and 300 μg/mL) or [6]-gingerol (1, 30, and 100 μM) on 0.01 to 30 μM ACh-induced contractions of all parts of the small intestine isolated from normal rats was investigated using the organ bath technique. For in vivo study, the rats were orally administered with extract (10, 20, and 100 mg/kg/d) or [6]-gingerol (2 mg/kg/d) for 7 days, followed by determining the contractile responses to ACh of rat isolated duodenum, jejunum, and ileum and their histology were assessed. Direct application of the extract or [6]-gingerol attenuated ACh-induced contractions in each small intestinal segment, Emax was reduced by 40% to 80%, while EC50 increased 3- to 8-fold from control. Similarly, in the in vivo study ACh-induced contractions were reduced in all parts of the small intestine isolated from rats orally treated with ginger extract (20 and 100 mg/kg/d) or [6]-gingerol (2 mg/kg/d). Emax decreased 15% to 30%, while EC50 increased 1- to 3-fold compared to control. No discernable changes in the histology of intestinal segments were detectable. Thus, the results support the clinical application of ginger for disorders of gastrointestinal motility.

Un conocimiento exhaustivo de los patrones vasculares del higado, asi como sus posibles variaciones anatomicas son importantes en la planificacion y realizacion de todos los procedimientos quirurgicos hepaticos para evitar comprometer la vascularizacion y posible necrosis del parenquima despues de la cirugia. El tronco celiaco, por lo general, proporciona tres ramas: gastrica izquierda, esplenica y arteria hepatica comun. Las arterias hepaticas izquierda y derecha en general derivan de la arteria hepatica propia, que es una rama de la arteria hepatica comun. El objetivo de este trabajo fue estudiar la incidencia de distribucion del tronco celiaco mediante la documentacion de patrones de ramificacion en 23 cadaveres de Tailandia (17 hombres y 6 mujeres). El estudio se efectuo durante la diseccion de rutina realizada por los estudiantes de medicina en el Departamento de Anatomia de la Facultad de Ciencias Medicas, Universidad de Naresuan, Tailandia. Se observaron las variaciones clinicamente importantes del tronco celiaco. Los resultados mostraron que todos los troncos celiacos surgieron desde la aorta a nivel de la vertebra T12 (17,39%, 4 casos), a nivel del disco intervertebral entre T12 y L1 vertebra (78,26%, 18 casos) y a nivel del tercio superior de la vertebra L1 (4,35%, 1 caso). Encontramos un 95,65% (22 casos) de troncos celiacos normales, es decir, con trifurcacion; mientras que un 4,35% (1 caso) era anormal, con 4 ramos terminales. La arteria hepatica accesoria (AHA) se presento como una rama accesoria del tronco celiaco, ya que existia un patron convencional de las arterias hepaticas izquierda y derecha. Este hallazgo representa una de las raras variaciones anatomicas informada en la literatura. El conocimiento del tronco celiaco y sus ramas aberrantes son importantes en procedimientos como el trasplante hepatico, la anastomosis y una ligadura vascular adecuada.

GRIN1 is a gene that encodes the N-methyl-d aspartate (NMDA) receptor subunit1 (NR1). Variations of GRIN1 have been identified as a risk factor for schizophrenia and drug dependence, supporting hypotheses of glutamatergic dysfunction in these disorders. Methamphetamine (METH) is a psychostimulant drug which can induce psychotic symptoms reminiscent of those found in schizophrenia; thus GRIN1 is a candidate gene for vulnerability to METH dependence or METH-dependent psychosis. The present study examined two polymorphisms of GRIN1, rs11146020 (G1001C) and rs1126442 (G2108A), in 100 male Thai METH-dependent patients and 103 healthy controls using PCR-RFLP techniques. Neither polymorphism was significantly associated with METH dependence, although rs1126442 was highly significantly associated with METH-dependent psychosis, in which the A allele showed reduced frequency (P0.00001). The present findings indicate that the rs1126442 of GRIN1 contributes to the genetic vulnerability to psychosis in METH-dependent subjects in the Thai population.