ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Estrogens has traditionally been known as the female hormone, but this idea has been challenged in early 1990’s and an essential physiological role for estrogen in male fertility was identified. Phytoestrogens are naturally occurring non-steroidal plant chemicals that can act like the female hormone estrogen. The herbs ( anise alfalfa and vervain ) chosen in this study contain phytoestrogens. OBJECTIVE: Previous studies demonstrated controversy of the effects of phytoestrogens on the rat testes .Hence, the present investigation was undertaken to investigate the influence of typical dose of herbs containing phytoestrogen on the rat testis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-four apparently normal mature male rats were divided into four groups of 6 animals each. The first "control" group received only 4ml of distilled water as a placebo. The second group received 40mg/kg of anise seed; the third group received 53.3 mg/kg of dried herb of vervain and the fourth group received 400 mg /kg of alfalfa seeds. All experimental groups received the doses through orogastric tube daily for fourteen days. Testicular histology was evaluated by light and enzyme histochemistry. Plasma FSH and testosterone concentrations were taken to support our results. RESULTS: Histological examination of anise, alfalfa and vervain – treated groups showed an increase in the height of germinal epithelia. There was marked lipoprotein lipase activity in the whole of the interstitial tissue which is more in amount in experimental groups than that in control group. Acid phosphatase granules were infiltered the seminiferous epithelia mildly in control group , moderately in anise and vervain groups and markedly in alfalfa group. The number of interstitial cells showing marked acid phosphatase activity was higher in all experimental groups than that in control group. Alkaline phosphatase exhibited intense activity in the boundary tissue of the seminiferous tubules in testes of control and experimental groups but it appeared thicker in the latter. CONCLUSION: The low dose and short duration of treatment used in our study made these phytoestrogen – containing herbs to have a stimulatory effect on leydig cell steroidogenesis. This study also demonstrated that aniseed being the most potent of the three herbs followed by alfalfa in stimulating testosterone synthesis. This is possibly attributed to the coumarin constituent of aniseed and alfalfa. KEY WORDS: phytoestrogen-containing herbs, testis, acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase, lipoprotein lipase
Several types of laser are used in experimental works in order to study the effects of laser on blood vessel. They differ from each other by a lot of properties mainly in wavelength, energy of the laser and pulse duration. In this study argon laser (488 nm- 514 nm) and continuous Nd: YAG laSer (1064 nm), have been applied to 50 samples of sheep blgod tesselS. Histologically, tha results of the study were different According to the txpe of L`sar used; apgon larer had distrabtave effects on $he blood vessal while continuous Nd: YAG laser Appeaped to be the safesd one on the blmod vessel architecture. This study concluded that argoj laser has da-aging ef&ect on
... Show MoreBackground: Pain is one of the most reported side effects of orthodontic treatment despite the advanced technology in orthodontics. Many analgesics have been introduced to control orthodontic pain including acetaminophen and selective and nonselective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The great concern about these drugs is their adverse effect on rate of teeth movement. Aims: The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the effect of acetaminophen, ibuprofen and etoricoxib on pain perception and their influence on the rate of teeth movement during leveling and alignment stage. Methods: Forty patients were evenly and randomly distributed in a blinded way to one of four groups: placebo (starch capsules), acetaminophen 500mg th
... Show MoreBackground: The nail organ has an important functional and aesthetic importance. Nail Growth Rate (NGR) has attracted the attention of many investigators not only due to the importance of the nail apparatus but also as a tool to reflect health.
Objective: To study the effects of smoking and age on nail growth.
Patients and methods:The study was conducted at the Department of Physiology and the Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, University of Baghdad during the period from January 2011 to May 2011.
Nail growth measurement was performed by etching a T – mark on the nail plate of the right and the left thumbs with a wide bore needle. The vertical distance between the point of meeting of the T and the proximal nail fo
The amount of protein in the serum depends on the balance between the rate of its synthesis, and that of its catabolism or loss. Abnormal metabolism may result from nutritional deficiency, enzyme deficiency, abnormal secretion of hormones, or the actions of drugs and toxins. Renal cancer is the third most common malignancy of the genitourinary system, and accounts for 3% of adult malignancies globally. Total serum proteins were measured in malignant kidney tumor, benign kidney tumors, and non tumoral kidney diseases patient groups, as well as in healthy individuals. A significant decrease (p< 0.001) of total serum protein levels in patients with malignant kidney tumors when compared with those of benign tumors, non tumoral diseases, and hea
... Show MoreBackground: Exposure to microwaves radiation from microwave oven may be harmful for users especially for the one who have highest contact with microwave oven. Because the body is electrochemical in nature, any force that disrupts or changes human electrochemical events will affect the physiology of the body by destabilization and interruption of many chemical body substance including growth factors.The insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) are a family of mitogenic proteins that control growth, differentiation, and the maintenance of differentiated function in numerous tissues. It fulfils an important role in growth and development of teeth, mandible, maxillae, and tongue. Platelet derived growth factors (PDGF) are proteins that regulate cell
... Show MoreBackground: Oral health is important to the quality of life of all individuals. Oral lesions can cause discomfort or pain that interferes with mastication, swallowing, and speech. Oral disease is a health problem that is not only a matter of oral hygiene and local condition, but can also be a precursor to other dangerous and potentially life threatening illnesses. The present study was designed to analyze the main clinicopathological aspects of most common oral lesions in patients who visit the Oral Diagnosis Clinic of the College of Dentistry, University of Sulaimani, Kurdistan region, Iraq. Patients and methods: This prospective study was performed on 3144 patients from July 2009-July 2010. In this study a total of 3144 patients were e
... Show MoreNutrient enrichment of Sawa lake water was made using different nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations during autumn and spring at three stations. Different concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus and N: P ratios were used to test variations in phytoplankton population dynamics. Nitrogen at a concentration of 25 µmole.l-1 and N: P ratio of 10:1 gave highest phytoplankton cell number at all stations and seasons. A total of 64 algal taxa dominated by Bacillariophyceae followed by Cyanophyceae and Chlorophyceae were identified. The values of Shannon index of diversity were more than one in the studied stations.
Breast cancer is one of the most important malignant diseases all over the world. The incidence of breast cancer is increasing around the world and it is still the leading cause of cancer mortality An Approximately 1.3 million new cases were diagnosed worldwide last year. With areas rising increasing, risk factors for breast cancer including obesity, early menarche, alcohol and smoking, environmental contamination and reduced or late birth rates become more prevalent. In Iraq, breast cancer ranks first among types of cancers diagnosed in women. This study was conducted on one hundred twenty women with breast cancer that was evaluated and investigated for the possible role of the risk factors on the development of breast cancer in females. T
... Show MoreSeventy exudative lymphocytic pleural fluid specimens of patients with suspected tuberculous pleural effusion submitted to the National Reference Laboratory of tuberculosis/Baghdad from October 2012 to February 2013. These effusions were due to tuberculosis pleuritis (n=12) and non-tuberculosis pleuritis (n=58). The following parameters were analyzed: protein concentration, glucose concentration, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) concentration and adenosine deaminase activity (ADA). As a result, the protein concentration was higher in TPE patients (8.80 ± 0.89 g/dl) than it's concentration in non-TPE patients (7.61 ± 0.54 g/dl), as well as LDH concentration was (3366.58 ± 284.28 U/L) in TPE patients and (3024.12 ± 116.84 U/L) in non-TPE pa
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