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Introduction: Osteoarthritis is the most frequent knee joint disorder among old generation where it causes serious motion limitation. The objective of present study is investigating the effects of a diet containing soybean meal ingestion on relative treatment effect on knee articular cartilage in osteoarthritis induced mice.
 
Material & methods: Fifty immature female NMRI mice were accidentally divided into five groups. Control group received tap water and normal diet for three months. Sham group, as induced osteoarthritis model, received Ciprofloxacin by stomach Gavage method over two weeks, 20 Mg/kg of their body weight daily. First experimental group were osteoarthritis induced over two weeks and then received null soybean meal diet by three months. The second experimental group, were fed with designed diet based on %15 soybean meal during these three months. The third experimental group was ingested with the designed diet after osteoarthritis induction. After the experimental period, values of cartilage thickness at the middle part of tibial plateau, concentration of the extracellular matrix, and concentration of alkaline phosphatase in blood serum were determined among the groups.
 
Findings: Comparison between the groups showed that among the groups which were fed with the diet based on %15 soybean meal either with or without osteoarthritis induction, not only the cartilage thickness at the middle part of tibial plateau but also the concentration of the glycoproteins in extracellular matrix was significantly higher than those of the groups which received the normal diet (p<0.05). Furthermore, in those groups which received the designed diet either with or without osteoarthritis induction, more concentration of alkaline phosphatase in blood serum was measured. This difference, however, was not significant.
 
Discussion & conclusions: Regarding the positive effects of the designed diet based on soybean meal on cartilage, addition of soybean meal in regimen in order to decrease the incidence of articular disorders can be recommended.
 

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Introduction: Aspartame is one of the synthetic sweeteners widely used in the food industry as a sugar substitute in recent decades. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of different doses of aspartame on histological and histomorphometric changes in the stomach in BALB/C mice.
Material & Methods: In this study, 24 BALB/C mice aged three weeks were selected and divided into three experimental groups that received 0.3 ml aspartame solution at doses of 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg body weight, and a control group that received drinking water with the same condition up to nine weeks of age. Eventually, some tissue sections were prepared from the stomachs and stained using the hematoxylin-eosin method. After histological evaluation, the necessary images were prepared and the histomorphometric examination was conducted using an optical microscope equipped with Axiovision software. The thickness of mucosa, submucosa, musculature, and depth of pits was measured and the frequency of parietal cells was calculated in the dimensions of 6.25 × 104 μm2.
(Ethic code: 7506001/6/7)  
Findings: Histological results indicated destruction and disruption of the mucosal epithelium and gastric pits and atrophy of gastric glands including glandular cells. In the histomorphometric examination of the non-glandular part, only the thickness of the mucosa had a significant difference in the group receiving the highest dose of aspartame compared to the control group (P<0.05). However, in the evaluation of the glandular part, mucosal and muscle thickness in all three experimental groups and the submucosa thickness in the glandular and non-glandular parts in the experimental group (400 mg body weight) showed a significant increase compared to the control group (P<0.05). Moreover, the depth of gastric pits increased significantly and the frequency of parietal cells had a significant decrease in the experimental groups compared to the control group (P<0.05).
Discussion & Conclusion: Although aspartame may partially play a protective role by decreasing parietal cells, it should be noted that higher doses of aspartame could induce tissue changes in different layers of the stomach. Therefore, it is recommended to use it with more caution.