ORGANOMETRIC CHANGES IN THYMUS UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF PROPYLENE GLYCOL

The scientific interest in the influence of xenobiotics on the human body is due to the fact that immune organs are characterized by a pronounced response to the influence of endogenous and exogenous factors. Recently, the immunological impairment, as a manifestation of reactions to ecopathogenic conditions, suggests a major pathogenesis role in the development of cardiovascular, neuropsychiatric diseases, as well as diffuse diseases of connective tissue. Objectives - experiment was designed to elucidate the organometric changes in thymus of male rats due to impact of propylene glycol. 40 WAG matured male rats were divided randomly into two groups. The first group served as a control and constituted 8 animals. The second group of 32 rats, 8 rodents in each, were treated via gavage by aqueous solutions of propylene glycol in doze 1/10 LD50 in conversion to 26,38 g/kg during 7, 15, 30, 45 days. All animals were sacrificed on the term defined by experimental design. Thymus specimens were dissected out, and linear dimensions (length, width, height) using digital caliper were measured, along with mass and volume of the thymus. Limits of the thymus morphometric indices' variability in intact and experimental groups were calculated. The research indicates that exposure to propylene glycol caused marked organometric changes in rats' thymus. However, more pronounced changes were observed on 7th and 30th days. Were established the following limits of variability indices oscillations: IndHL of the experimental group thymus ranged from min=12.57 to max=47.54, the mean value was from 24.67 to 28.02; IndHW of the experimental group thymus ranged from min=11.96 to max=88.73, the mean value was from 36.78 to 41.41; IndT of the experimental group ranged from min = 38.17 to max=141.3, the mean value was from 71.1 to 86.52. The study of the morphometric parameters of the thymus in the experimental group of rats has established a significant reduction of all parameters and their deviation from the parameters of the control group, that shows active reaction of thymus on induced xenobiotic.

ANTIOXIDANT PROTECTION STATUS AND LIPOPEROXIDATION PROCESSES IN WOMEN WITH PREMATURE BIRTH IN DIFFERENT TERMS OF GESTATION

The purpose of the study is examination the dynamics of antioxidant defense indicators and lipoperoxidation processes in women with pregnancy termination different periods. 227 pregnant women were examined, 190 of them had clinical signs of premature birth in the gestation period of 23-36 weeks. Formation of clinical groups was carried out depending on the term of pregnancy in the form of premature and timely birth. 48 women with early pregnancy termination were included in group I, which ended in childbirth in the period from 23 to 27 weeks. All pregnant women with risk of early pregnancy termination had the following distribution depending on the gestational period: 23-25 weeks - 23 pregnant women (Ia subgroup); 26-27 weeks - 25 pregnant women (Ib subgroup). 142 women were included in group II with late term pregnancy termination in the period from 28 to 36 weeks, which depending on the term of premature birth were divided into subgroups: IIa - 38 people, 28-30 weeks; IIb - 48 people, 31-33 weeks; IIс - 56 people, 34-36 weeks. The III (control) group included 37 women with a physiological course of pregnancy, which ended in childbirth without complications at the time of 38-41 weeks. The criteria for including women into groups were: young reproductive age, single-pregnancy, absence of gestosis, acute and chronic gynecological and somatic diseases. Diagnosis of preterm labor was carried out in the presence of abdominal pain syndrome and structural changes in the cervix. The research was carried out in compliance with the bioethics principles. In women with pregnancy termination in the period of 23-36 weeks in relation to women with the physiological course of pregnancy, which ended with childbirth without complications in the period of 38-41 weeks, there is an imbalance in the work of first and second lines antioxidants of antioxidant defense, which provokes the generation of oxygen excessive amounts active forms, initiating processes of lipoperoxidation with the essential malonic dialdehyde formation. In women with termination of pregnancy in the early stages of 23-27 weeks in relation to women with the physiological course of pregnancy there is a tension in antioxidant defense with a significant increase in lipoperoxidation, which is confirmed by a decrease in the activity of superoxide dismutase (34%), an increase in the level of ceruloplasmin (87%), diene (30%), malonic dialdehyde (by 178%), Schiff bases (by 28%) with an ambiguous change in the activity of catalase - an increase of 28% in the period of 23-25 weeks, a decrease by 16% in the period of 26-27 weeks. In women with termination of pregnancy in late periods of 28-36 weeks in relation to women with the physiological course of pregnancy, the inclusion of compensatory reactions of antioxidant defense against the background of lipoproxidation increase is observed, which is confirmed by an increase in the activity of SOD (17%), glutathione peroxidase (24% ), CP (117%), diethine (by 55%), MDA (by 106%), and SBs (by 18%) with a decrease in catalase activity (by 45%). The antioxidant protection imbalance of the body and the intensification of lipoperoxidation processes is one of the components of pregnancy termination pathogenesis and may contribute in combination with other complications.

Non-viral transfection of goat germline stem cells by nucleofection results in production of transgenic sperm after germ cell transplantation

Germline stem cells (GSCs) can be used for large animal transgenesis, in which GSCs that are genetically manipulated in vitro are transplanted into a recipient testis to generate donor-derived transgenic sperm. The objectives of this study were to explore a non-viral approach for transgene delivery into goat GSCs and to investigate the efficiency of nucleofection in producing transgenic sperm. Four recipient goats received fractionated irradiation at 8 weeks of age to deplete endogenous GSCs. Germ cell transplantations were performed 8-9 weeks post-irradiation. Donor cells were collected from testes of 9-week-old goats, enriched for GSCs by Staput velocity sedimentation, and transfected by nucleofection with a transgene construct harboring the human growth hormone gene under the control of the goat beta-casein promoter (GBC) and a chicken beta-globin insulator (CBGI) sequence upstream of the promoter. For each recipient, transfected cells from 10 nucleofection reactions were pooled, mixed with non-transfected cells to a total of 1.5 × 10(8) cells in 3 ml, and transplanted into one testis (n = 4 recipients) by ultrasound-guided cannulation of the rete testis. The second testis of each recipient was removed. Semen was collected, starting at 9 months after transplantation, for a period of over a year (a total of 62 ejaculates from four recipients). Nested genomic PCR for hGH and CBGI sequences demonstrated that 31.3% ± 12.6% of ejaculates were positive for both hGH and CBGI. This study provides proof-of-concept that non-viral transfection (nucleofection) of primary goat germ cells followed by germ cell transplantation results in transgene transmission to sperm in recipient goats.

Establishment of goat embryonic stem cells from in vivo produced blastocyst-stage embryos

Embryonic stem (ES) cells with the capacity for germ line transmission have only been verified in mouse and rat. Methods for derivation, propagation, and differentiation of ES cells from domestic animals have not been fully established. Here, we describe derivation of ES cells from goat embryos. In vivo-derived embryos were cultured on goat fetal fibroblast feeders. Embryos either attached to the feeder layer or remained floating and expanded in culture. Embryos that attached showed a prominent inner cell mass (ICM) and those that remained floating formed structures resembling ICM disks surrounded by trophectodermal cells. ICM cells and embryonic disks were isolated mechanically, cultured on feeder cells in the presence of hLIF, and outgrown into ES-like colonies. Two cell lines were cultured for 25 passages and stained positive for alkaline phosphatase, POU5F1, NANOG, SOX2, SSEA-1, and SSEA-4. Embryoid bodies formed in suspension culture without hLIF. One cell line was cultured for 2 years (over 120 passages). This cell line differentiated in vitro into epithelia and neuronal cells, and could be stably transfected and selected for expression of a fluorescent marker. When cells were injected into SCID mice, teratomas were identified 5-6 weeks after transplantation. Expression of known ES cell markers, maintenance in vitro for 2 years in an undifferentiated state, differentiation in vitro, and formation of teratomas in immunodeficient mice provide evidence that the established cell line represents goat ES cells. This also is the first report of teratoma formation from large animal ES cells.