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
Background: Ovulation is the central event in ovarian physiology, and ovulatory dysfunction is a relevant cause of female infertility, (NSAIDs) are consistently inhibit ovulation, likely due to the inhibition of cyclooxygenase that is the rate limiting enzyme in prostaglandin (PG) synthesis.
Objectives: The present study was designed to find out the possible restraining influence of some COX-1 and COX-2 drugs on ovulation in women at the child-bearing age and to warn physician of prescribing them to women who want to conceive.
Patients and methods:The present study employed in women[52 patients plus 12 controls] attending Baghdad teaching hospital department of rheumatology to assess the influences of some COX-1 and COX-2 NSAIDs [c
This study has investigated the effect of jaundice on some
hematological and biochemical paramenters in male and female. The results have shown significant decrease in Hemoglobin concentration, packed cell volume, white blood cell count and platelet count. The biochemical parameters results have shown significant increase in prothrombine time, level of total bilirubin, Aspartale transminase and Alanin trans aminase in the serum of male and femal.
Type 2 diabetes mellitus is often characterized by hyperglycemia as a result of increased insulin resistance in hepatic/peripheral tissues and pancreactic B-cell dysfunction. Approximately 92% of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus demonstrate insulin resistance, however hyperglycemia is always a consequence of insulin deficiency. This study was done on 120 patients newly diagnosed diabetes type 2 characterized by dyslipidemia that is increased triglycerides and decreased HDL. Hypoglycemia and weight gain are common problem with oral sulfonyl urea drugs. In this work three different oral hypoglycemic drugs repaglinide and glibenclamide (insulin secretagogues) and rosiglitazone (insulin sensitizer) were used for treatment of patients w
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This work evaluated the effect of Alpha, Gamma irradiation and Nd:YAG, He-Ne laser on Staphylococcus epidermidis and Leishmania tropica in vitro. The experiment included five replicate of S. epidermidis , L. tropica in vitro exposed to effect of Alpha , Gamma irradiation by 241Am isotopes , in two doses
Kaolin ceramic compacts sintered at various temperatures are investigated to correlate their microstructure with their acoustic parameters. Pulse velocity , attenuation coefficient, and quality factor values are ducts from ultrasonic attenuation measurements, moreover, the dynamical mechanics parameters( Young and shear modules) exhibited an explicit relationship with the acoustic quality factor.inturn are related to the microstructure which is heavily affected by the sintering mechanism.
The present research was carried out to assess the toxic effect of oral administration of the aqueous extract of Nerium oleander leaves and flowers daily at doses of (25) mg/kg body weight for four weeks in mice. The toxicity of this plant parts was determined after two and four weeks by measuring the parameters of cytogenetic (mitotic index, micronucleus %), and serum levels of the hematological (RBC, Hb, WBC) and biochemical (GOT, GPT, ALT, AST) indexes in comparison with that of the control (normal saline), also clinical signs were determined. The results showed a significant decrease in mitotic index while an obvious raise was seen in micronucleus percentage in comparison with that of the control after the two periods of admini
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The present study aimed to demonstrate the extent to which the activity of a number of enzymes and genetic variation of β-globin genes were affected in the blood of 65 children with β - thalassemia major of both sexes. The patients, with an age range of 2 – 15 years, were registered in the Thalassemia Center at Ibn Al-Atheer Teaching Hospital for Children in the city of Mosul / Iraq. They were under continuous treatment after being diagnosed by specialist doctors. The study also involved 30 healthy children of both sexes with the same age range who were considered as a control group.
The results showed significant increases (p≤0.05) in the activities of alanine transaminase (ALT), aspart
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Recent developments in two main phases of cumulus cloud studies are discussed; first the relations between the clouds and their energy sources in the subcloud layer and second, the interaction between the clouds and their environment in the cloud layer. Under the first heading, the various originating impulses for cumulus formation are mentionitd. and how the character of this impulse affects the spacing, scale and temperature structure of the clouds. The possible origins of trade cumuli are considered.