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
Epilepsy is considered as one of the common neurological disorders.About 50 million persons have affected by epilepsy .Carbamazepine is one of the common drugs used by pregnant women with epilepsy. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of carbamazepine on the process of brain development during day 13 of pregnancy.Fifty pregnant albino mice have been used. They were divided into two groups. The control group that had been orally drenched with normal saline. The other group was treated group that had been given 15 mgKg of Carbamazepine orally. The fetuses have been collected after killing of the mice. Boun’s solution was selected as fixative. 5-8 µm thick sections from the fetuses were cut to be stained with hematoxyli
... Show MoreThe current study was conducted to investigate Annona fruit pulp effects on the levels of various physiological biomarkers linked with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus after disease induction in mice, as well as indications of oxidative stress and male hormones. The rats were separated into four groups, three of which were given Alloxan (90 mg/kg body weight) to induce diabetes, while the fourth served as a negative control. The first group of diabetic mice received no therapy, the second received metformin (600 mg/kg body weight) and the third received Annona fruit puree. The mice were sacrificed at the end of the experiment, to acquire blood and tissue samples from the liver, kidneys and spleen. The first untreated gro
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This research study experimentally the effect of air flow rate on humidification process
parameters. Experimental data are obtained from air conditioning study unit T110D. Results obtained
from experimental test, calculations and psychometrics software are discussed. The effect of air flow rate
on steam humidification process parameters as a part of air-conditioning processes can be explained
according to obtained results. Results of the steam humidification processes (1,2) with and without
preheating with 5A and 7.5A shows decreasing in dry bulb temperature, humidity ratio, and heat add to
moist air with increasing air flow rate, but humidification load, and total energy of moist air increase with
increasing air flo
The morphological and histological aspects of fore brain (Cerebrum) in quail (Coturnix coturnix) have been investigated, results of the present study revealed that the cerebrum in quail is large size triangular shape, its surface contains folds of shallow grooves. Microscopical examination declears that cerebrum consists of two regions, the first represents pallium which includes the external corticoid area which consist of hyperpallium and the dorsolateral corticoid area, it consists of piriform cortex and hippocampal complex. The second region is the internal corticoid areas dorsal ventricular ridge which contains the mesopallium, nidopallium and archopallium. he large size pyramidal neurons appeared in the nidopall
... Show MoreThe aims of study were identify the Morphological description and histological structure of pancreas gland in the Saw-scaled viper snake, (Echis carinatus scochureki). The study was conducted on 6 snakes collected from the city of Nasiriya in Dhi Qar province, Doped snakes was dissected to isolate the pancreas gland, and the histological slides prepared after samples fixation by fixative solutions, the routine stains Haematoxylin– Eosin were used. Morphological Description study showed that the pancreas gland was compact in type with one lobe, white-pink in colure. The pancreas Located at the level of the Gall bladder associated with it’s caudal side, The spleen is adjacent to pancreas completely in the dorsal side .and duodenum l
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The histological structure of Pycnonotus leucotis was investigated to fill the dearth of information on the histology of mid-brain from available literature and help understand its brain. The brain is wide and short and its length 1.5 cm, and it consists of three regions. The middle region is the mesencephalon. The mesencephalon was divided into optic tectum and tegmentum. The optic tectum consists of six main layers, while the tegmentum contains nuclei of cranial nerves.
The study includes histological structure of pyloric caeca , intestine and rectum of Liza abu , the results show that the pyloric caeca are non-branched fingerlings structures numbering (4) and length rate was (0.5) cm , while the intestine of Liza abu was long narrow tube composed of a number of laps , the anterior part of intestine was wider in diameter than the posterior part , the length of intestine was (32) cm , the rectum was straight tube extends from the end of posterior part of intestine to the anus. The wall of pyloric caeca , intestine and rectum consists of main layers : mucosa , submucosa , muscularis and serosa , lining epithelium of pyloric caeca , intestin
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The study current included histological structure of stomach of Liza abu , anatomical results found that stomach represent the expander non-convoluted part of gastrointestinal tract it is located between the end of the esophagus and the beginning of the intestine , the average length of stomach was (1.5) cm , composed of two parts : cardiac stomach which is represent the anterior part and be thin- walled , the other part was pyloric stomach or gizzard and the walls were thick . The internal surface of cardiac and pyloric stomach contain longitudinal folds numbering (7), folds branching to finger shape structures extend inside the lumen . Histological study showed that stomach wall composed of three main histological layers : mucos
... Show MoreThe study includes histological structure of digestive tract of Liza abu , Anatomical results found that the digestive tract occupied the largest part of abdominal cavity , the mean gut length was (45.5) cm and relative gut length was (2.9) . esophagus was a muscular tube length (1.5) cm , esophagus wall containing longitudinal straight unbranched folds numbering (9) . Histological study results found that the esophagus composed of four tunica : mucosa , submucosa , muscularis and serosa . The results found that the mucosa consists of three layers : epithelium , lamina propria and muscularis mucosa . The epithelial layer was stratified squamous epithelium thickness (139.1) µ containing
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