Furthermore, activation of ERK and p38 does not only control inflammation, but also several other cellular functions, such as cell cycle progression for ERK and cell growth and differentiation for may p38, indicating that MAP kinase related cellular control is of high comple ity. Conclusion In conclusion, the results of this study demonstrate that curcumin may become an attractive alternative for the treatment of discogenic back pain when envisaging an intradiscal injection method, which will circumvent the low bioavailability of curcumin. Although we were able to show in a previous study that another anti inflammatory substance, caused pain reducing effects in a rodent model of radiculopathic pain in vivo, the analgetic effect of curcumin first needs to be confirmed before clinical trials are reasonable.

Background Vitamin A is essential for reproduction, and deficiencies and e cesses may result in embryonic loss and or congen ital defects. Retinol is the parent vitamin A compound and metabolites, analogs, and derivatives are known collectively as retinoids. Results from several studies, in a variety of species, have indicated that retinoid administration may function in very early events associated with reproductive success, including fol licular development, oocyte maturation and early embry onic development. Retinol concentration in bovine follicular fluid was shown to be an indicator of follicular quality and was highest in healthy follicles, lowest in atretic follicles and highly correlated with estradiol con centrations.

Retinol or carotene administration has been shown to prevent fetal resorption in rats, increase the number of births in rabbits, and increase litter size in swine. Retinol administration to ewes, in combination with superovulation followed by natural service was shown to improve the competence of resultant 1 4 cell and morula stage embryos, collected from the oviduct and uterus, respectively, to develop to the blasto cyst stage when cultured in vitro. In cattle, retinol injection improved the estimated quality of embryos col lected from superovulated animals but did not increase the number recovered. Retinol is transported systemically and intercellularly bound to retinol binding protein. Cellular retinol binding proteins and cellular retinoic acid bind ing proteins function in intracellular vitamin A transport, metabolism and homeostasis.

All trans and 9 cis retin oic acid are natural cellular metabolites of retinol and mediate biological activity through interaction with nuclear retinoic acid receptors Drug_discovery and retinoid recep tors, respectively. Ligand bound RARs and R Rs influence transcription by interacting with response ele ments in the promoter regions of retinoid regulated genes. Within the ovary, RBP and CRBP are e pressed in thecal and granulosa cells, and facilitate the transport of retinol from the blood into developing follicles.