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
Liver is considered as the first target for the toxic effects of toxins and other xenobiotics, and this can be attributed to its role as a site which receive all absorbed xenobiotics from the gastrointestinal tract and its role as a major site for biotransformation of xenobiotics. The present study was designed to evaluate the possible hepatoprotective effect of benfotiamine against CCl4-induced hepatotoxicity in rats. The study was conducted on 48 male albino rats; the animals were allocated into 8 groups (6 rats in each group) and treated as follow: 4 groups treated with oral doses of either normal saline, benfotiamine (100 mg/kg), thiamine (100 mg/kg), N-acetylcystein (400 mg/kg) only without induction of hepatic damage. Th
... Show MoreAzo-Schiff base compounds (L1 and L2) have been synthesized from the reaction of m-hydroxy benzoic acid with 1,5-dimethyl-3-[2-(5-methyl-1H-indol-3-yl)-ethylimino]-2-phenyl-2,3- dihydro-1H-pyrazol-4-ylamine and with 3-[2-(1H-indol-3-yl)-ethylimino]-1,5-dimethyl-2-phenyl- 2,3-dihydro-1H-pyrazol-4-ylamine. The free ligands and their complexes were characterized based on elemental analysis, determination of metal, molar conductivity, (1H, 13C) NMR, UV–vis, FT-IR, mass spectra and thermal analysis (TGA). The molar conductance data revealed that all the complexes are non-electrolytes. The study of complex formation via molar ratio in DMF solution has been investigated and results were consistent to those found in the solid complexes with a rat
... Show MoreBackground: It is still difficult to give a final diagnosis in chronic myeloproliferative disorders (CMPDs) because of the overlap of the common pathological and clinical features of these disorders like bone marrow fibrosis which is considered important because it affects the normal function of the bone marrow. The collagen fibers are of different types, but in the bone marrow, the two main types are: collagen I, which is the most abundant type and collagen III (reticular) which is often associated with type I.
Objectives:To study bone marrow fibrosis (BMF) in samples of bone marrow biopsies (BMB) of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and other chronic myeloproliferative disorders using histochemical stains to establish the grade of fibr
The study was conducted to assess the attitude and awareness of a sample of people regarding the indiscriminate slaughter and its effects on health and the environment compared with slaughtering in a slaughterhouse. The sample consisted of 120 persons from six equal professional groups contacted with the butchery labour (livestock keeper, truck driver, butcher, veterinarian, shopkeeper and consumer). The age ranged 22-76 years old, mean 52±10 years, lived ≥ 5 years in the Baghdad city. The results showed that there is a preference for slaughtering inside the slaughterhouse due to the presence of veterinary examination, slaughtering and preparing meat in a healthy, easy-to-clean places, unlike the indiscriminate sla
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Cyclophosphamide (CP) is a cytotoxic alkylating agent it's used associated with different side effects including lung toxicity. Vitamin B2 and vitamin B12 have lung-protective effects. This study was designed to evaluate lung-protective effects of both vitamins against lung toxicity induced by cyclophosphamide. seventy healthy adult albino male and female rats divided into seven groups each group containing ten rats were used in the present study and treated for seven days. On day eight rats were sacrificed and serum was obtained for glutathione and total antioxidant capacity measurement and lung extracted for immunohistochemical study; both vitamins significantly (P<0.05) increased glutathione and total antioxidant capacity in compar
... Show MoreDesigning Teaching Aids and Their Effects on Learning and Retaining Diving and Cartwheel on Floor Exercises in Women’s’ Artistic Gymnastics
The research aimed at designing teaching aids that develop and help retain diving and cartwheel for third year college of physical education and sport sciences students in women’s artistic gymnastics. In addition to that, the researchers aimed at identifying the effect of these aids on learning and retaining cartwheel and diving in floor exercises. The researchers used the experimental method. The subjects were (20) third year female students from the college of physical education and sport sciences/ university of Baghdad sections K and H. the main experiment lasted for
... Show MoreToday technology using nanoparticle when treatment pathogentic microorganism and we focused on this here. It was found that the species of streptococcus used in present study were sensitive to erythromycin. In present study focusing biofilm formation by Streptococcus spp was evaluated. Species S. mutans was found that highest amount of biofilm compare with the other species. The aim of report effect (SNPs) on ability of biofilm form different species of streptococcus. The anti-biofilm effect of SNPs was in concentration dependent manner. The highest effect of SNP against biofilm formation was found the concentration 160 μg/ml, while the lowest effect was found the lowest used concentration (80 μg/ml) of SNPs. In vivo study revealed that s
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