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
The aim of the present research is to study different protein fractions in sera of children and adolescent with β –thalassemia major and minor and to compare the results with that of healthy control.One hundred fifty children and adolescents were enrolled in this study,including 50 patients with β- thalassemia major , 50 patients with β- thalassemia minor as pathological control group and another apparently 50 healthy individuals as a control group. The age of all studied groups ranged from (4-18)years.Total protein, albumin and immunoglobulins were estimated in sera of all subjects. A Significant decrease was found in the total protein and albumin&nb
... Show MoreThe increase in the use of thyme in Iraq and neighboring countries, which may
be result in serious side effects necessitate the demand for testing different
concentrations of thyme extract (500,750,1000) mg/kg of body weight on rats to be
given either by injection or feeding grinded dried thyme leaves added to pellets
(50,100,150) g /kg of pellet in of different periods , (10,20,30) days for injection
and feeding 2 times weekly. Thyme extracts leaves effects on RBCs, WBCs and
Differential WBCs counts were measured. statistical analysis showed significance
increase difference (P≤0.05) in RBCs, WBCs and Lymphocyte, Nutrophile and
Monocyte counts and decrease in Eosinphil counts in rats treated with 1000 mg of
t
A histological study was conducted to examine the structure of optic tectum in Hemidactylus flaviviridis. The results showed that the optic tectum consists of fourteen strata organized in three zones. The deep zone which extends from the first stratum (around optic ventricle) to the fifth stratum. The medium zone comprises the sixth & seventh strata, which represent the center of optic tectum. The superficial zone which extends from the eighth stratum to the fourteenth stratum and forms the retino recipient region. The strata of deep zone are called the Stratum Griseum et Periventricular ( SGAP ) , the sixth stratum is called the Stratum Album Central ( SAC ) and 
... Show MoreIn the present study, histological study was carried out on adult chickens to shed light on the effects of GH and IGF-1 on the heart, liver, and gizzard. The microscopic examination had shown that GH and IGF1 promote protein synthesis in the heart tissue. The herein work referred to the presence of a considerable amount of adipose tissue among the bundles of cardiac muscles, which is related to the metabolic process. The results also revealed that GH and IGF-1 promote both protein synthesis and Mitosis in the tissues of the liver and gizzard Moreover, the above hormones stimulate apoptosis, regeneration and secretory activity in gizzard secretory glands
In this work, synthesis of conducting polymeric films namely, PVC thin films was carried out containing Schiff base (L) with Cu2+, Cr3+, Ni2+, Co2+, in addition to inspecting the possibilities of measuring energy gap values of PVC-L-M with variety metal ions. These new polymeric films (PVC-L-M) were characterized by FTIR spectrophotometry, energy gap and surface morphology. The optical data recorded that the band gap values are influenced by the type of metals. All modified films have a red shift in optical properties in the ultraviolet region. The PVC-L-Co(II) was the lowest value of the optical band gap, 3.1 eV.
Background and aim: Pomegranate is a medicinal herb that can promote healing of periodontal tissue through differentiation of mesenchymal cells both in vivo and in vitro. Therefore, this study is to investigate the effect of oral supplementation of Punicagranatum L. peel extract on bone defect in rabbit. Methods: Forty five male rabbits were divided into 3 groups; group 1; baseline group(5 rabbits) left without bone defect. Group 2; study group (20 rabbits) with bone defect model that received daily 1ml of oral supplementation of pomegranate peel extract (PoPx). Group 3; control group (20 rabbits) with bone defect model that received distilled water. Bone defect was done into facial plate of lower right central incisor. Blood biopsies by
... Show MoreThirty females' albino mice with average body weight of 25-30gm and 10-14 weeks old were used to investigate the toxicity of the oral administration of ampiroxicam on liver. The animals were given (single dose) of drug and were divided into three groups (10mice / group), control group were given distilled water, the two remaining groups ( treated group2 were administered by 20 mg/kg of ampiroxicam for one month and treated group3 were administrated by20 mg/kg of ampiroxicam for tow month). The results showed that the changes in of tissue of liver in treated animals include: degeneration of hepatocyte and hepatic sinusoidal dilation, also lymphocyte infiltration, necrosis, dead cell, detachment of basement membranes and hypertrophy while
... Show MoreThioacetamide (TAA) is a thiono-sulfur containing compound with a wide manufacturing application. Humans and animals exposure to TAA may occur in different ways and may cause nephrotoxicity. So, in this study serum creatinine concentration and urea, in addition to renal pathological changes, were examined in mice treated with TAA/P (100 mg/kg B.W). One hundred twenty male albino (BALB/c) mice were used. They were randomly divided into 2 main groups. In the control group 30 mice were fed water only and normal mice pellet.The other TAA-treated group of mice were divided into 3 subgroups as follow: 1st group (G1) was injectsed with TAA for 2 months (injected twice a month), while the 2nd(G2) and 3rd
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