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
Chronic Hepatitis B(CHB) is a serious sequel after Hepatitis B Virus infection, although the rate of chronicity is inverse with age but it may be associated with a significant proportion of deaths related to cirrhosis and liver cancer. HBV serology and measurement of hepatocytic enzymes with viral load can predict disease prognosis and response to treatment. HBeAg refers to a high viral replication and associated with more infectivity to others. This study aimed to determine the impact of HBeAg status in chronically infected patients on various baseline tests. A total of 90 patients with CHB infection who were included in this study. Several standardized measures used for liver function tests, viral load and hepatitis B serological
... Show MoreThis study offers additional evidence for the occurrence of oil residues within fractures of the basement rocks in the Upper Benue Trough, Nigeria. The data suggests that the observed oil residues were originally generated as light oils, which were later biodegraded into heavy oils. These Upper Benue Trough's oil stains are a valuable tool for hydrocarbon exploration in the region as they indicate the existence of a petroleum system in the basin. We find a strong similarity to the proportions of C27, C28, and C29 regular steranes of oils found in the sandstones and shales of the Bima Formation in the Upper Benue Trough when we plot the relative quantities of these steranes of the investigated basement rock oil types on a ternary gra
... Show MorePolycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most common endocrine disorder. To determine the metabolic disorders in women with PCOS, (25) women with PCOS ages (15 - 47) years have been investigated and compared with (20) healthy individuals. All the studied groups were carried out to measure fasting blood sugar, (anti-GAD Ab, anti ?-islet cell Ab by IFAT) and measured insulin level by ELISA. There was significant elevation in the concentration of fasting blood sugar than in control groups (p ? 0.05) and there was negative results for anti-GAD Ab and anti ?-islet cell Ab by IFAT test for serum of women with PCOS, while there was significant differences in the insulin level for women with PCOS compared with control groups (p ? 0.05), these
... Show MorePre-eclampsia is the most common medical complication of pregnancy associated with increased maternal and infant mortality and morbidity. Its exact etiology is not known, although several evidences indicate that various elements might play an important role in pre-eclampsia. This study was carried out to analyze and to compare the concentration of calcium, in mild pre-eclampsia and in normal pregnant women , and to determine the effect of oral supplementation with calcium on mild pre-eclampsia , and whether this effect is related to the change in the level of serum calcium. Forty- five women in the third trimester of pregnancy were selected to participate in this study and divided into: fifteen apparently healthy, normo
... Show MoreThe aim of this research is to study the optical properties of carbon-magnesium plasma resulting from arc discharge with explosive wire technique, where the energy gap of each of carbon and magnesium and the carbon-magnesium bond for three values of the wire exploding current (50,75,100 amperes) was studied. It was found that the energy gap for each of carbon and magnesium decreases with increasing the current, the X-ray diffraction of magnesium and the carbon-magnesium suspension was studied, and FTIR of the carbon-magnesium suspended carbon was studied for three values of the exploding current (50, 75, 100 amperes) and the type of bonds for carbon and magnesium was determined. To ob
This study aims to deliver the woman’s image and to unveil on how to be introduced in the TV series. The research is based on the survey method-using content analysis tool. The research sample represented in the TV series produced by the IMN, which were displayed in 2014 and used the pattern of Margaret Gallagher to analyze the content of the series in accordance with the frame analysis theory.
The study came up with declination of the woman’s representation compared with man in Iraqi TV drama, also the study finds that the series introduced the woman according to the personal, social, political, and economic frames in a standardizing method. It focuses on the characteristics always attributed to it as showing her obedient of the
A Tonido cloud server provides a private cloud storage solution and synchronizes customers and employees with the required cloud services over the enterprise. Generally, access to any cloud services by users is via the Internet connection, which can face some problems, and then users may encounter in accessing these services due to a weak Internet connection or heavy load sometimes especially with live video streaming applications overcloud. In this work, flexible and inexpensive proposed accessing methods are submitted and implemented concerning real-time applications that enable users to access cloud services locally and regionally. Practically, to simulate our network connection, we proposed to use the Raspberry-pi3 m
... Show MoreThis work aimed to investigate the prevalence of pathogenic fungi and evaluate the antifungal activity of Trichoderma orientale FMR12486 crude extract against pathogenic fungi isolated from patients attending the National Center for Thoracic and Respiratory Diseases (having a history of tuberculosis) and consultant of Dermatology of Baghdad hospital, Iraq. A total of 80 clinical specimens were collected: 20 skin scrapings specimens and 60 sputum specimens. The results of direct examination by KOH 10% and culture showed that 11 (55%) cases from 20 skin specimens were positive for fungal infections, while in the sputum specimens, 28 (47%) cases from 60 were positive. Candida albicans represented the most common fungal infection isolat
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