Vol. 14 Issue 2
H. Elhag, A. Gohar, M. M. El-Olemy and J. S. Mossa
Hairy roots were induced by inoculation of sterile plantlets of Datura innoxia with Agrobacterium rhizogenes. The hairy roots were separated and maintained on hormone-free liquid MS medium. They proliferated 30 fold, based on the initial fresh weight, after 4 weeks of subculturing. Some segments of the hairy roots proliferated into undifferentiated callus (transgenic callus), which in turn differentiated into transgenic shoots, upon transfer to the light on the same basal MS medium. The shoots were rooted by subculturing on either hormone-free medium or on MS medium supplemented with 0.3 mg/l IAA to yield transgenic plantlets. Genetic transformation into hairy roots, transgenic callus and plantlets was confirmed by chromatographic detection of opines in these tissues. The hairy roots gave the highest total alkaloids and hyoscyamine contents and was second to the normal plant in scopolamine production. The alkaloid content of the normal plant was higher than that of the tested transgenic plants, transgenic callus and normal callus.
F.M. Abou-Tarboush
Normal adult inbred CBA mice were used to investigate the teratogenic and other possible toxic effects of indomethacin on both dams and their foetuses. The dams were treated with various doses of the drug once each day from day 7 to day 12 of pregnancy. Treatments at 3, 4, or 6 mg/kg body weights significantly increased the foetal mortality rate and decreased the mean number of live foetuses. At a dose of 4 mg/kg body weight, the live foetal body weight was also significantly decreased. None of the doses used induced any foetal malformations, but higher ones (4 and 6 mg/kg body weight) were toxic to the dams.
Othman A. Al-Dokhi
Several aspects of spermiogenesis in the sand skink Scincus mitranus (Anderson 1871) were Ultrastructurally investigated by transmission electron microscope. The ultrastructure of early spermatid, the development of the acrosomal vesicle and of the acrosomal granules were revealed. The nuclear changes including chromatin condensation and the roles of the microtubular manchette surrounding the nucleus and of the Golgi bodies were discussed.
Djilali Larbaoui
The anthropometric data collected in this study were used to determine general nutritional status for 362 female students population aged from 19 to 26 years, to test the statistical characteristics and correlations of various BMIs reported in the literature. BMI that is independent of stature (r=0) and still highly correlated to weight (r=0.96) was found in this study to be W/S2. This BMI was also highly correlated to measured and calculated estimates of body composition including arm muscle area, arm fat area (r=0.96) and arm circumference (r=0.81). When we used this BMI to evaluate the general nutritional status for this samples, we noticed that 12.43% suffered from undernutrition and 66.03% had normal weight, but with decreased arm muscle area, and 21.54% appeared increased in the weight. The chief reason of this is an unsaturated increase of arm far area in the body.