The protective potential of Nitraria retusa on penconazole-induced hepatic injury in adult rats

The protective effect of Nitraria retusa fruit extract against hepatotoxicity induced by penconazole at a dose of 67 mg/kg body weight given intraperitoneally every two days to male Wistar rats was investigated. Penconazole exposure increased malondialdehyde, hydrogen peroxide, and advanced oxidation protein product levels. Hepatic biomarkers as well as enzymatic (catalase, superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase) and nonenzymatic (vitamin C, non-protein thiols and metallothioneins) antioxidant status were also altered. Treatment with N. retusa extract improved all parameters cited above. Liver histological studies confirmed the biochemical parameters. These results provide a scientific basis for the use of N. retusa fruit against hepatotoxicity.     

Locomotion performance of green turtle hatchlings from the Heron Island Rookery,Great Barrier Reef

Locomotion performance plays a vital role in determining hatchling green turtle Chelonia mydas survival in the first few hours after emerging from their nests as hatchlings crawl and swim the gauntlet of predators before reaching the relative safety of the open ocean. Previous laboratory based constant incubation experiments found incubation temperature to influence the size and swimming performance of hatchling green turtles. Here we examine the morphology and crawling and swimming performance of hatchling green turtles as they emerge from nests on Heron Island rookery in the southern Great Barrier Reef to test the hypothesis that nest temperature in the field can influence these attributes. We found inter-nest differences in hatchling mass and dimensions, and that hatchling mass was not correlated with nest temperature. However, hatchlings from warmer nests had smaller carapace dimensions than hatchlings from cool nests suggesting that more yolk was converted to hatchling tissue during embryonic development in cool nests. There was considerable intra- and inter-nest variation in both crawling and swimming performance of hatchlings. Hatchlings from cool nests tended to be faster crawlers than hatchlings from warm nests, but the thrust produced during swimming was not correlated with nest temperature. During the 4 h swimming trial, hatchlings swimming effort decreased significantly during the first 3 h but swimming effort remained relatively constant for the last 1 h. Individual hatchling crawling and swimming performances were not correlated with each other. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.