Mohamed Refai أ.د. محمد كمال رفاعي

We tested the hypothesis that weight training would be an effective modality in maintaining or increasing bone mineral density (BMD) at the lumbar spine, femoral neck, and bone mineral content (BMC) at the distal wrist in early postmenopausal women. A total of 17 women completed a 9 month weight-training program, and 9 women served as a control group. Resistance training occurred three times per week using exercises designed to increase muscular strength. Mean change in lumbar BMD in the weight-trained group (1.6 ± 1.2%, mean ± SEM) was significantly different from the change in the control group (-3.6 ± 1.5%, p < 0.01) over the 9 month period. No significant weight-training effect was detected at the femoral neck or distal wrist site. We conclude that weight training may be a useful exercise modality for maintaining lumbar BMD in early postmenopausal women.

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Egypt has hot dry climatic conditions, temperature reaches its highest degrees at summer months (June, July, and August), the mean maximum temperature for summer months is 41 oC; consequently, there is a great gap between summer temperatures and the upper critical temperature for lactating dairy cows (25 oC), which causes great losses in milk production.

One hundred and sixty weaned New-Zealand White rabbits (NZW) at 5 weeks of age weighting about 653 g on the average were used in this study. The animals were randomly divided into eight groups, twenty animals/each. The first group received basal diet and served as control group, while groups 2,3,4 received diet supplemented with sodium gluconate(SG), mannan oligosaccharide(MOS) or potassium diformate(KDF) 4g/kg diet,lg/kg diet and 4.5g/kg diet respectively. Whereas, Rabbits of group 5, 6, 7 and 8 received diet with supplemented a combination of (SG+MOS), (SG+KDF), (KDF+MOS) and (SG+MOS+KDF) respectively with the same previous dose for each compound to study role of these additives on growth performance, blood picture (hematocrit and hemoglobin) liver and kidney functions, cecum parameters (total anaerobic bacteria, E.coli, lactobacilli, pH, ammonia nitrogen concentration and total volatile fatty acids).
The results showed that, role of these additives has a significant effect that. lead to increasing of Hb, albumin and total volatile fatty acids compared to the control groups. No significant effect on hematocrit value, total protein and globulin. Supplementation of SG, MOS or PDF (separately or in a mixture) tended to increase lactic acid bacteria and total volatile fatty acids (VFAs) concentration in the caecum also lead to decrease significantly each of pathogenic microorganisms (total anaerobic bacteria and E.Coli, cecum pH and ammonia concentration which improve cecum environment that minimize disturbance and enteritis. .
Using these additives has a significant effect of economical efficiency of growing rabbits. The highest performance was recorded with rabbits fed diets containing KDF, (SG+MOS), (SG+MOS+KDG) and (KDF+MOS) respectively.
It was concluded that the significant using of SG, MOS, and KDF in diets of weanling rabbits had beneficial effects throughout the growing period and improved hematological parameters, cecum micro flora and productive traits.

Over more than five decades, cancer remains a national and international health problem regardless of the discovery of several dozens of novel anticancer drugs (natural and synthetic). Accordingly, screening of natural products for promising anti cancer activity is very initiative field of studies in several countries with diversity of gardenia. Breast and cervix cancers are of the most common gynecological female solid tumors that represent major health problem. Herein, we have assessed the cytotoxic characteristics of several molecules of natural origin (cerulinin, chrysin, honikiol, limonin, mevinolin, resveratrol, salicin, retinol, ascorbic acid and calciferol) against two different gynecological breast (MCF-7) and Cervix (HeLa) solid tumor cell lines. After exposure to serial concentrations of the test compounds, SRB-u assay was undertaken and viability assessment was performed via fitting to Emax model to identify the cytotoxicity parameters such as, IC50 and resistant fraction (R-value). Tested compounds showed cytotoxic efficacy against both gynecological solid tumor cell lines (MCF-7 and HeLa) with IC50's ranged from 0.61 to 131.1 μg/ml. In MCF-7 breast cancer cell line; cerulinin, honikiol, mevinolin and calciferol showed the highest potency with IC50 less than 5 μg/ml. Chrysin showed moderate potency with IC50 of 7.27 μg/ml. Ascorbic acid and resveratrol showed the weakest cytotoxic activity with IC50 more than 10 μg/ml. In HeLa cervix cancer cell line; cerulinin and mevinolin showed the highest potency with IC50 less than 5 μg/ml. Chrysin, honikiol, resveratrol and calciferol showed moderate potency with IC50 of ranging from 5-10 μg/ml. Ascorbic acid was the weakest cytotoxic molecule with IC50 more than 10 μg/ml. Limonine, salicin and retinol failed to exert any cytotoxic effect against MCF-7 or HeLa cancer cell lines in-vitro. RT-PCR analysis revealed that the cytotoxicity of these products is multi-factorial and not solely dependent on p53 expression. Impressively, molecules of potent and moderate potency (except chrysin) showed low resistant fraction in both gynecological solid tumor cancer cell lines. In conclusion, our data showed wide range of variable efficacy of several molecules of natural origin against two hormone dependent solid tumor cell lines.