263 Tuberculosis of the Bile Duct: A Rare Cause of Obstructive Jaundice

Tuberculosis (TB) is a very rare cause of biliary stricture that is difficult to diagnose and usually requires surgical intervention in order to rule out underlying malignant etiology. A 28-years old woman with obstructive jaundice, who was originally thought to have cholangio-carcinoma. Diagnosis of tuberculosis was made on PCR testing of bile. Patient was started on antitubercular treatment, and she responded well. This case presented a rare case of common bile duct stricture due to biliary tuberculosis. This is an important condition to diagnose because early recognition with prompt treatment results in complete resolution. Even though biliary tuberculosis is a rare cause of obstructive jaundice, in endemic areas, it should be considered as a differential diagnosis and investigated, as it can be potentially curable.

Comparative effect of IL-2 and IL-6 on morphology of cultured hippocampal neurons from fetal rat brain

It has become increasingly clear that immune cytokines have an effect on growth and differentiation in the nervous system as well as in the immune system. We have previously reported that interleukin-2 (IL-2) promotes survival of primary cultured neurons from fetal rat brain. In the present study, we investigated the effects of IL-2 as well as IL-6, one of the neurotrophic cytokines, on neuronal morphology and regeneration after damage in primary cultured hippocampal neurons. For neuronal morphology, IL-2 significantly promoted the elongation and branching of neurites, but IL-6 enhanced only the elongation. The neurite-elongating effect of IL-2 was different from that of IL-6 in terms of both effective concentration and maximal effect. In laser beam-damaged neurons, IL-2 significantly increased both the number and the length of branches emerging from the proximal part of damaged neurite. IL-2 also increased the length and the number of non-damaged neurites. IL-6, however, did not affect any of these parameters in damaged neurons. These results suggest that IL-2 and IL-6 modulate neuronal morphology through distinct mechanisms.

Interleukin-2 promotes survival and neurite extension of cultured neurons from fetal rat brain

We investigated the effects of interleukin-2 (IL-2) on the survival and morphology of primary cultured neurons from fetal rat brain. Addition of recombinant human IL-2 significantly supported the survival of brain neurons in high cell density culture, but did not show any effect on the neuronal survival in low cell density culture. In addition, IL-2 significantly promoted the neurite elongation and branching of hippocampal neurons in low cell density culture. These results suggest that IL-2 supports neuronal survival indirectly and promotes neuritogenesis by directly acting on brain neurons.

Antibacterial Activity of the Crude Ethanolic Extract of Xylocarpus granatum Stem Barks

Antimicrobial effect of the crude organic extract of Xylocarpus granatum stem barks was studied in the Department of Pharmacology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh, during the period from October to December 2003. Disc diffusion method has been adopted in this study and petri dishes (120 mm in diameter) containing nutrient agar medium seeded with the test organism was used for antimicrobial screening. Test materials diffuse from the discs to the surrounding medium of the plate. The plates are then kept in an incubator (37º) for 18 hours to allow the growth of the microorganisms. The antibacterial activity of the test agent is determined by measuring the diameter of the zone of inhibition in term of millimeter. Antimicrobial screening showed that the crude ethanol extract and other partially extracted fraction of the barks of Xylocarpus granatum possess antimicrobial activity against most of the test organisms depending upon the nature of their active ingredients in the extract and capacity of diffusion into the agar medium. Among the test organisms, the extract showed significant antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus epidermis, Staphylococcus aureus, Shigella boydii, and Proteus spp. and moderate activity against Escherichia coli, Streptococcus pyogenes, and no activity against Shigella dysentery, Enterococci, Salmonella typhi. Key words : Antibacterial activity, Xylocarpus granatum, kanamycin, disc diffusion doi:10.3329/bjvm.v4i1.1529 Bangl. J. Vet. Med. (2006). 4 (1): 69-72