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
Laser etching may be an alternative to acid etching of enamel and dentin. Several characteristics of irradiated dental hard tissues have been considered advantageous, microscopically rough surfaces without demineralization, open dentinal tubules without smear layer production and dentin surface sterilization. The aim of this study is to determine and compare histology the microleakage in class V cavity restored with a light cured composite after conditioning the samples(tooth surface) with 1-acid etching, 2-Q-switched Nd:YAG Laser etching and finally 3- acid and laser etching. Materials and methods: Twenty four non carious human extracted teeth were used in this study. The samples were equally grouped into four groups of six teeth each.
... Show More؛ ١٨his study male and female albino mice werdministr^d doses of alkaloid and phenolic extracts of Allium cepa at doses of( 25 ,50,100, 200) mg / kg of( body weight). males and females were divided into four groups and each croup comprised mice were injected intra^ritonially daily for one week and orally ٢٠٢ one month . After which animals were killed and the serum was separated for biochemical analysis (total blood suger, total protein , otal cholesterol). Results showed significant decrease ( p< 0,05) in the total blood suger and total cholesterol on the serum of both males and females and significant increase( p< 0,05) in the total serum protein of both males and females of the two types of injection and oral administr
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The aim of this study was to determine the effect of different dietary fat on carcass traits in Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica). A total of 168 7-week-old Japanese quail (48 males and 120 females) were used in this study. They were evenly distributed into 4 treatment groups, with 3 replicates per group containing 4 males and 10 females each. The birds were fed a basal diet with different fats (sunflower, flax, corn, and fish oils) at a 3% level for 13 weeks. On the last day of the experiment, 12 birds were randomly selected from each treatment group (6 males and 6 females) and slaughtered to determine carcass characteristics included in this study, which were carcass weight, dressing percentage with or without giblets, and the r
... Show MoreOne of the most essential components of asphalt pavements is the filler. It serves two purposes. First, this fine-grained material (diameter less than 0.075 mm) improves the cohesiveness of aggregate with bitumen. Second, produce a dense mixture by filling the voids between the particles. Aluminum dross (AD), which is a by-product of aluminum re-melting, is formed all over the world. This material causes damage to humans and the environment; stockpiling AD in landfills is not the best solution. This research studies the possibility of replacing part of the conventional filler with aluminum dross. Three percent of dross was used, 10, 20, and 30% by filler weight. The MarshallMix design method was adopted to obtain the op
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The surface finish of the machining part is the mostly important characteristics of products quality and its indispensable customers’ requirement. Taguchi robust parameters designs for optimizing for surface finish in turning of 7025 AL-Alloy using carbide cutting tool has been utilized in this paper. Three machining variables namely; the machining speeds (1600, 1900, and 2200) rpm, depth of cut (0.25, 0.50, 0.75) mm and the feed rates (0.12, 0.18, 0.24) mm/min utilized in the experiments. The other variables were considered as constants. The mean surface finish was utilized as a measuring of surface quality. The results clarified that increasing the speeds reduce the surface roughness, while it rises with increasing the depths and fee
... Show MoreIn this work, two graphene oxide (GO) samples were prepared using the Hummers method with graphite (g) and KMnO4 (g) ratios of 1:3 (GO3) and 1:6 (GO6). The effect of oxidation degree on the structural, electrical, and dielectric properties of the GO samples was investigated. The structures of the GO samples were studied using various techniques, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS). XRD analysis revealed an increase in the interlayer spacing and a decrease in the number of layers of the samples with increasing oxidant content. The two GO samples have giant permittivity values of ~105 in the low-frequency
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