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: Stress urinary incontinence is a frequent urological disease in women; it has a great influence on an individual’s wellbeing and places a significant economic strain on any health service. The placement of urodynamic diagnostic tests in the evaluation route is an important clinical research concern in this field.
Objective: to find out whether the duration of stress urinary incontinence is associated with the finding of bladder outlet obstruction in urodynamic study or not.
Subjects and Methods: A descriptive study. With enrolled female patients had symptomatic Stress urinary incontinence as their primary complain. All the included patients w
... Show MorePurpose: To determine the impact of service encounter in stimulating voluntary customer behaviors.
- Approach / methodology: It was selected a sample of customers Bank Iraqi Trade (TBI) was (105) individual, using a questionnaire designed in the light of previous studies, was drafted scale and tested in the light of a group of statistical methods developed (reliability coefficient, reliability coefficient composite, convergence). Then test hypotheses through structural equation modeling.
- Results: The behaviors and characteristics of the service provider in effect urged bank customers to perform voluntary extra, as the service environment service encounter
Designing machines and equipment for post-harvest operations of agricultural products requires information about their physical properties. The aim of the work was to evaluate the possibility of introducing a new approach to predict the moisture content in bean and corn seeds based on measuring their dimensions using image analysis using artificial neural networks (ANN). Experimental tests were carried out at three levels of wet basis moisture content of seeds: 9, 13 and 17%. The analysis of the results showed a direct relationship between the wet basis moisture content and the main dimensions of the seeds. Based on the statistical analysis of the seed material, it was shown that the characteristics
Violence is one of the most serious threats facing societies because it affects their internal structure and threatens the security and stability of society. It is classified as one of the types of security crises that are emerging in Arab and Islamic societies in particular, and in most countries of the world in general.
The threat of this crisis is increasing. Terrorism is considered as one of the most serious aspects of that all the countries of the world, currently, suffer from. The terrorism has begun to penetrate deep into society in one way or another starting from the Second World War, which led to the emergence of leftist movements in Western Europe, Japan, France, Italy and other countries as a result of emerging ideas
... Show MoreThe aim of the research is to measure the relationship and effect of the application of total production maintenance TPM in the operational strategy, as it is considered one of the most important strategies for the process of restoring production losses because of inefficient equipment. Competitive edge in the global market by upgrading the operational strategies of OS in the application of TPM in those institutions that apply both H-OS-oriented and P-OS-oriented strategies where the strategy has been identified as a critical success factor. The aim of this study is to attempt to consider the application of comprehensive productive maintenance in industrial establishments
The research aims to identify the factors affecting the customer and their impact desire for market share in a competitive market National Insurance Company, where he was after the tremendous developments that have taken place in the insurance sector, crowded markets, private companies and the intensified competition among those companies on one side and public sector companies, including national insurance company on the other hand, increased attention and study in a big way the customer and the factors influencing the desire. As the national insurance company ascertains its targets once the sale of insurance documents only, but by knowing the tendencies and aspirations of current and prospective customers a way that helps to strengthen
... Show MoreBackground: Lack of durability of the bond of the dental adhesive systems to tooth structure is one of the most important problems in tooth colored restorative work. This in vitro study was performed to evaluate the effect of 2% chlorhexidine gluconate(CHX) on dentin bond strength by using total etch adhesive system at twenty-four hours and three months of water storage. Material and methods:A flat dentin surface was prepared for forty sound human maxillary premolar teeth which were acid etched with 36% phosphoric acid gel after being divided randomly into four groups of ten teeth each according to storage time and CHX application, theCHX was applied for 60 seconds before adhesive application for groups I and III which were tested after twe
... Show MoreIt is shown that pure and 3% boron doped a-Si0.1Ge0.9:H and a-Si0.1Ge0.9:N thin films
could be prepared by flash evaporation processes. The hydrogenation and nitrogenation
are very successful in situ after depositing the films. The FT-IR analysis gave all the
known absorbing bonds of hydrogen and nitrogen with Si and Ge.
Our data showed a considerable effect of annealing temperature on the structural and
optical properties of the prepared films. The optical energy gap (Eopt.) of a-Si0.1Ge0.9
samples showed to have significant increase with annealing temperature (Ta) also the
refractive index and the real part of dielectric constant increases with Ta, however the
extinction coefficient and imaginary part of dielect
Positron annihilation lifetime has been utilized for the first time to investigate the free - volume hole properties in thermolumenscent dosimeter ( TLD ) as a function of gamma-dosc . The hole volume, free volume fraction determined form orthopsitronium lifetime are found to be ?lamatically increase to large values , and then to minimum values as a function ofgamma-dose . The free - volume holes size is found to be 0.163nm’ and to have maximum of 0.166nm^ at the gamma-dose of 0.1 and 0.8 Gy, respectively-