Journal of Environment and Sociobiology

Abhijit Bandyopadhyay ¹, Samar Chakrabarti ¹

Affiliations
1 Cancer Cytogenetics Unit; Zoology Department, Burdwan University, West Bengal, IN

Abstract

Antitumor drugs generally exert toxic side effects on normnl non-target tissues along with their tumoricidal activities. Preassessment of drug toxicity manifested in the form of clastogenicity is of value in monitoring various therapeutic modalities. In this paper an attempt has been made to evaluate the cytotoxic efficacy of a platinated compound, carboplatin on bone marrow (BM) cells of normal (non-tumor) and tumor bearing mice. The objective of the study was to find out the nature and extent of carboplatin cytotoxicity in an in X'ivo system and to explore the role of an antifungal agent in modulating the drug induced cytotoxicity in bone marrow cells of normal and tumor mice. The study was made on a mou.se tumor model, viz., Ehrlich's carcinoma maintained in vivo in random bred (sex and age matched) mice of Swiss albino origin. The cytotoxic potential of the drug was assessed considering chromosome aberrations (CAs) as end point, which only represent double strand- DNA breaks.

The observation made from the metaphase spreads and a comparison of the data with parallel control revealed the high cytotoxic potential of carboplatin on bone marrow cells of the mice (both non-tumor and tumor bearing). Other agent exerted a restricted modulating effect when it was administered simultaneously with the carboplatin injection. The drug-experienced specimens were processed accordingly for studying mitotic index and chromosome aberrations to find out a corelation, if any, between mitotic indices and chromo.some aberrations. The results were compared with the drug vehicle injected control in one hand and with tumor bearing mice on the other. The discussions were made on modulating nature of the different agents and the influence of tumor load in the process.

Keywords

Cytotoxicity, Chromosome Aberrations, Anticancer Drug, Modulation, Antifungal Agent.

Full Text

     

Moumita Das ¹, Abhijit Bandyopadhyay ¹, Ambarish Mukherjee ¹

Affiliations
1 UGC Centre for Advanced Study (Phase II), Department of Botany, The University of Burdwan, Burdwan, West Bengal, IN

Abstract

The present work is an outcome of thorough autecological study of Elephantopus scaber L. which is an exotic element in Indian flora that has turned out to be an ethnomedicinal plant with therapeutic reputation through interactions with the tribal communities dwelling in the forests. The species was found to get well naturalized in Indian forests, especially in the dry deciduous Sal forests. The species is a native of Mexico which might have gained entry into India probably in the form of seeds. Possibly they were inadvertently introduced along with seedy cereal crops like wheat, maize, barley, etc. in the northern part of the country. They had escaped into wilderness of dry deciduous forests in north spreading subsequently in other regions that sustain such type of forest.

Full Text