Background: To elucidate the possible role of human cytomegalovirus in pregnancy loss through induction of certain pro-inflammatory adhesion molecules.
Methods: Paraffin embedded sections of curate samples were obtained from 34 women had spontaneous abortion, and 5 women had elective termination of pregnancy (as control), and then subjected for immunohistochemistry analysis to detect human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) early protein and VCAM-1 molecule.
Results: Nine out of 34 women with spontaneous abortion were positive for HCMV early protein, with a
significantly higher expression of VCAM-1 in HCMV positive cases as compared with HCMV negative and the control groups (p = 0.05, 0.001 respectively).
Conclusion: HCMV infection may p

Single-photon detection concept is the most crucial factor that determines the performance of quantum key distribution (QKD) systems. In this paper, a simulator with time domain visualizers and configurable parameters using continuous time simulation approach is presented for modeling and investigating the performance of single-photon detectors operating in Gieger mode at the wavelength of 830 nm. The widely used C30921S silicon avalanche photodiode was modeled in terms of avalanche pulse, the effect of experiment conditions such as excess voltage, temperature and average photon number on the photon detection efficiency, dark count rate and afterpulse probability. This work shows a general repeatable modeling process for significant perform

This study was conducted to assess the hydrocarbon degradation abilities of Sphingomonas paucimobilis, Pentoae species, Staphylococcus aureus, and Enterobacter cloacae, which isolated from diesel contaminated soil samples. Single strains and mixed bacterial consortia have been investigated their ability to degrade 1.0 % (v/v) of diesel oil in Bushnell- Haas medium as sole.carbon.and.energy.source. At temperature 30^∘C, the individual.bacterial.isolates exhibited low growth and low degradation.than did the.mixed. bacterial.culture. After 28 days.of incubation the.combination.of four isolates degraded.an upper limit.of diesel  88.4%. This was. continued.by 85.1% by S. paucimobilis, 84 % by Pentoae sp., 79% by S.aureus, and

Leishmaniasis is a widespread parasitic disease caused by Leishmania parasite, this disease considers a major health problem among worldwide. Treatments available are expensive or with cytotoxic side effect. This study was aimed to investigate the effect of an herbal new compound, called artemisinin, derived from a Chinese plant called Artemisia annua. Various concentrations were studied in vitro against L. tropica amastigotes by chamber counting to investigate its effect on the proliferation of promastigotes. Three incubation periods were adopted (24, 48, 72) hours. The results showed a significant decrease in surviving promastigotes, in parallel with the normal parasite count of untreated promastigotes, along the periods studied. Th

Leishmaniasis is a widespread parasitic disease caused by Leishmania parasite, this disease considers a major health problem among worldwide. Treatments available are expensive or with cytotoxic side effect. This study was aimed to investigate the effect of an herbal new compound, called artemisinin, derived from a Chinese plant called Artemisia annua. Various concentrations were studied in vitro against L. tropica amastigotes by chamber counting to investigate its effect on the proliferation of promastigotes. Three incubation periods were adopted (24, 48, 72) hours. The results showed a significant decrease in surviving promastigotes, in parallel with the normal parasite count of untreated promastigotes, along the periods studied. This stu

Enterotoxin of Vibrio cholerae was extracted by cooling centrifuge at 6.000 rpm for 30 minntes. and filtrated by using milipore filter (0.22 ?m). The effect of crude enterotoxin on phagocytosis was studied by measuring the phagocytic index for 20 blood sample which were collected from healthy people and treated with enterotoxin in addition to control samples. From the results we found that phagocytic index of blood sample which were treated with enterotoxin was 42.9% while the phagocytic index of control blood samples was 64%. This means that there is a negative effect for the enterotoxin resulted from vibrio choleaa on the activity of phagocytic index.

: Cigarette smoking is a lifestyle behavior that causes significant adverse health effects. Cigarette smoke contains chemicals, many of which are lead to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can lead to apoptosis and autophagy. To estimate the association of Cigarette smoking with the autophagy and immunity, technology of real time polymerase chain reaction (RTPCR) for gene expression of (LC3A, LC3B, LC3C, myd88) was used. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique was utilized to measurement the amount of TNF-α protein. The ratios of LC3A/LC3B and LC3B/LC3C were calculated to estimate the autophagy flux. The results indicate the expression of LC3B, LC3C and Myd88 genes in smokers is increased significantly (p

The current work aims to evaluate the association between genetic mutations in thymidylate synthetase (TYMS gene in exon1 and partial regions of promotor and intron 1 [877 bp, 657,220–658,096 bp]) and the therapeutic outcomes for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) Iraqi patients. An observational cross-sectional study involving 95 RA patients with established RA patients based on their methotrexate treatment responsiveness. Genetic sequencing of the TYMS gene was performed for all patients according to the instruction manuals of the sequencing company (Macrogen Inc. Geumchen, South Korea). Four polymorphisms were identified by sequencing 95 randomly selected patients in the noncoding region of TYMS