Recent progress in alternative medicine has highlighted the benefits of olive as an integral part of therapeutic diet to
promote healthy living. Among the thirty different phenolic compounds of olive known to date; oleocanthal, oleuropein,
tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol are being increasingly investigated for their potential in prevention and healing of several
major forms of neurological dysfunctions and disorders. A considerable amount of literature suggests the neuroprotective
effects of olive and its phenolic compounds are owing to their roles as anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic
agents. At preclinical level, olive attenuated cognitive dysfunctions and the functional outcomes in spinal cord injury,
delayed the progression of amyloid beta pathology, improved motor and mitochondrial dysfunctions in Parkinson’s
disease, reversed diabetic-related neurological complications and also ameliorated cerebral pathologies in stroke. In this
paper, we aim to review the neuroprotective role of olive and its phenolic derivatives in the following diseases or deficits
of the nervous system that include cognitive dysfunction, neurodegenerative diseases, stroke, peripheral neuropathy and
spinal cord injury.
Primary cells have a limited proliferative capacity with a finite number of times as compared with cell line which can grow indefinitely. Therefore, this study was carried out to identify the proliferative capacity of primary mononucleated cells from mouse and human. The mononucleated cells were isolated from mouse and human peripheral blood by density gradient centrifugation using Ficoll-Paque™ Plus. The two types of cells i.e. suspension and adherent forms were obtained after culturing the isolated mononucleated cells for 4 days in the complete medium consists of Alpha Minimal Essential Medium, 10% newborn calf serum and 2% penicillin/streptomycin. The cells were then cultured for another 10 days to observe cell viability using trypan blue exclusion assay (suspension form) and MTT assay (adherent form). NSO and MC3T3-E1 cell lines were selected as control cell for suspension and adherent cells, respectively. Our results showed that the proliferation rate of mouse suspension mononucleated cells increased from 1.31 ± 0.24 cells/day (day 5) to 2.69 ± 0.42 cells/day (day 10) whilst, for human suspension cells, the proliferation rate slightly increased
from 0.56 ± 0.20 cells/day (day 5) to 0.76 ± 0.29 cells/day (day 10). However, the proliferation rate of mouse adherent mononucleated cells decreased from 0.23 ± 0.02 cells/day (day 5) to 0.17 ± 0.01 cells/day (day 10). Meanwhile, human adherent cells maintained proliferation rate at approximately 0.67 ± 0.18 cells/day. In conclusion, adherent primary mononucleated cells from both mouse and human have limited capacity to generate more cells in vitro as compared with suspension mononucleated cells.
Air liur berpotensi menjadi punca DNA yang mudah diambil bagi kajian klinikal kerana tidak invasif berbanding sampel darah. Kajian ini dijalankan untuk memencilkan dan menulenkan DNA genom daripada sampel air liur manusia serta mengkaji kesan penyimpanan terhadap kualiti DNA genom. Sampel air liur (n=5) disimpan dalam penimbal Tris-NaCl EDTA (TNE) pada suhu bilik (25°C) mengikut tempoh masa yang ditetapkan iaitu, segar (tanpa penyimpanan), 1,2,3 dan 4 bulan. Pemencilan dan penulenan DNA dilakukan menggunakan kaedah fenol-kloroform. Seterusnya, PCR telah dijalankan untuk mengetahui ketulenan DNA yang diekstrak menggunakan amplifikasi pada kawasan jujukan beta-globin dan mengenal pasti kehadiran bakteria melalui jujukan yang mengekod 16S rDNA. Keputusan menunjukkan fragmen DNA gen beta-globin manusia hanya berjaya diamplifikasi daripada sampel segar. Sampel air liur yang disimpan dalam penimbal TNE pada suhu bilik tidak mampu menstabilkan DNA genom manusia untuk jangka masa lama dan hanya berkesan untuk tempoh yang singkat iaitu, kurang daripada 1 bulan. Kesimpulannya, hanya sampel air liur segar sahaja yang berupaya memencil DNA genom.