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
Adenosine deaminase (ADA; Ec: 3.5.4.4), 5´- Nucleotidase (5´– NT; Ec: 3.1.3.5), and AMP – amino hydrolase (AMP – deaminase AMPDA; Ec: 3.5.4.6) activities were measured in sera of ovarian cancer patients before surgery, and after chemotherapy. The results indicated that ADA specific activity increased significantly (P<0.05), while 5´-NT and AMPDA specific activity decreased significantly (P<0.05) in ovarian cancer patients before surgery in comparison with those of their corresponding control women and benign tumors groups. When the activities of these enzymes were measured after chemotherapy, a significant decrease (P<0.05) in ADA activity, and a significant increase (P<0.05) in 5´- NT and AMPDA activities w
... Show MoreAntibiotic resistance is the major growing threat facing the pharmacological treatment of bacterial infections. Therefore, bioprospecting the medicinal plants could provide potential sources for antimicrobial agents. Mimusops, the biggest and widely distributed plant genus of family Sapotaceae, is used in traditional medicines due to its promising pharmacological activities. This study was conducted to elucidate the antimicrobial effect of three unexplored Mimusops spp. (M. kummel, M. laurifolia and M. zeyheri). Furthermore, the mechanisms underlying such antibacterial activity were studied. The Mimusops leaf extracts revealed significant antibacterial activities against the five tested bacter
... Show MoreBackground: The marginal adaptation has a key role in the success and longevity of the fixed dental restoration, which is affected by the impression and the fabrication techniques .The objective of this in vitro study was to evaluate and compare the marginal fitness of lithium disilicate crowns using two different digital impression techniques (direct and indirect techniques) and two different fabrication techniques (CAD/CAM and Press techniques). Materials and Methods: Thirty two sound upper first premolar teeth of comparable size extracted for orthodontic reason were selected in this study .Standardized preparation of all teeth samples were carried out with modified dental surveyor to receive all ceramic crown restoration with 1 mm deep
... Show MoreThe purpose of this study is to examine the effect of human resource diversity management practices on achieving entrepreneurship in Jordanian public universities. To achieve the aims of the study, a well-designed questionnaire was used for collecting data. The population of the study was (7433) faculty members (including different ranks such as professors, associate professors, assistant professors and lecturers) in Jordanian public universities. The study sample was selected through the use of a random sample, the questionnaire is distributed to a sample (of 400 with the percentage of 5%) selected by using a random sampling (350) copies of the questionnaire were collected, reaching about (87.5%) out of the sum total of the dist
... Show MoreDiabetes mellitus can be defined as a metabolic disorder disease .Complication of diabetes are due to diabetic nephropathy .This study was done in vitro to study the effect of different concentrations of erlotinib inhibitor ( tyrosine kinase inhibitor) on electrolyte levels (MgâºÂ²,CaâºÂ²,Naâº) in sera of Iraqi patients with newly diagnosis type2 diabetes and diabetic nephropathy in addition to find the best percentage inhibition for utilizing different concentrations from erlotinib (6.97x10â»â·, 9.30x10â»â· ,1.16x10â»â¶,1.39x10â»â¶ ,1.62x10â»âµ )molar on electrolyte levels . This study was conducted in The National Diabetes Ce
... Show MoreLaportea aestuans L. (Chew), Commelina virginica (L.) and Sida rhombifolia (L.) are common wild plants used in treating several ailments including diarrhea, dysentery, hernia, oedema, ulcers and many more in traditional African medicine especially, Nigeria. The potentials of Random Amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers in delimiting intra-specific variation in L. aestuans, C. virginica and S. rhombifolia was assessed using three RAPD primers. Plant and soil samples were collected from 19 local government areas in Lagos State and assessed for genetic and biochemical relationships. A total of 56 bands were produced of which 44 were polymorphic. Maximum number of bands (21) was produced by OPY
... Show MoreIn this present paper , a special model was built to govern the equations of two dimensional peristaltic transport to nanofluid flow of a heat source in a tapered considered in an asymmetric channel. The equations of dimensionless temperature concentration are analytical solve under assumption slow Reynolds number and long wave length. Furthermore, the results that receive by expressing the maximum pressure rise communicates increased in case of non-Newtonian fluid when equated with Newtonian fluid. Finally, MATHEMATICA 11 program has been used to solve such system after obtaining the initial conditions. Most of the results of drawing for many are obtained via above program .
The current study included measuring the percent of protein in the extract of nematode Ascaridia galli that infect chickens, it was 1.157% and equivalent to 11.570 mg /L., as well as the amino acid analysis in the nematode A.galli by using a high-performance liquid chromatography technique (HPLC), as was detect five types for amino acids in this extract Leucine, Threonin, Serine, Methionine and Valine as the amount of these amino acids in the extract was as follows 132.973, 26.994, 10.453, 2.243 and 1.888 mg /L., respectively, and other amino acids which Glutamic, Histidine and Tyrosin did not exist in the nematode A.galli.
The current study was designed to investigate the histological structure of the cerebellum in the Iraqi frog