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
Backgound: Varicoceles defined as abnormally dilated testicular veins (pampiniform plexus) of in the scrotum and it is found in approximately 15% of the general population and associated with adverse effects on the seminal fluid and fertility. According to size of that blood vessels; the varicocele is divided into clinical that are discovered in physical examination and subclinical that are only discovered by Doppler examination. It is well known that clinical varicocele affect the seminal fluid and always treated surgically as a part of treatment of infertility or because of pain or cosmetic purpose but the controversy is about the cases of subclinical varicocele and the indication of surgery and its outcome.
Objective: To assess the
Cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanocrystalline thin films have been prepared by chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique on commercial glass substrates at 70ºC temperature. Cadmium chloride (CdCl2) as a source of cadmium (Cd), thiourea (CS(NH2)2) as a source of sulfur and ammonia solution (NH4OH) were added to maintain the pH value of the solution at 10. The characterization of thin films was carried out through the structural and optical properties by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and UV-VIS spectroscopy. A UV-VIS optical spectroscopy study was carried out to determine the band gap of the nanocrystalline CdS thin film and it showed a blue shift with respect to the bulk value (from 3.9 - 2.4eV). In present w
... Show MoreGames engagement has become one of the main concerns in game industry. Early study revealed that Malaysian digital traditional games are suffering with the same issue due to several factors. One of it is the lack of the game itself. Although many Malaysian traditional games have been digitized, none of them has incorporated rewards despite its importance in games engagement. Realizing the importance of rewards in games engagement, one of Malaysian traditional Congkak has been chosen to be enhanced by incorporating rewards. Experiments have been conducted among 50 gamers among the Millennials. Prior interview, game demo and human test are conducted. Experiments focused on the influence of rewards on games flow, games challenge, and its ef
... Show MoreTraditional programs and the tedious and financially costly processes they require are no longer the best choice for content makers. The continuous development and development have led to the emergence of competitive software that offers capabilities that are more suitable for aesthetic needs, as it breaks down stereotypical frameworks from the familiar to the unfamiliar to be more suitable for graphic subjects in terms of dealing with the requirements of the digital content industry. Video for communication platforms, as it has more advantages than traditional software and the flexibility and high quality it offers at the level of the final product, All of this contributed to supplementing the image with aesthetic employments with data
... Show MoreBackground: Implant stability is a mandatory factor for dental implant (DI) osseointegration and long-term success. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of implant length, diameter, and recipient jaw on the pre- and post-functional loading stability. Materials and methods: This study included 17 healthy patients with an age range of 24-61 years. Twenty-two DI were inserted into healed extraction sockets to replace missing tooth/ teeth in premolar and molar regions in upper and lower jaws. Implant stability was measured for each implant and was recorded as implant stability quotient (ISQ) immediately (ISQ0), and at 8 (ISQ8) and 12 (ISQ12) weeks postoperatively, as well as post-functional loading (ISQPFL). The pattern of implant
... Show MoreBuilding natural period, T, is a key character in building response for wind and seismic induced forces. In design practice, the period, T, is either estimated from empirical relations proposed by the design codes or determined from analytical or numerical models. The effect of the soil-structure interaction is usually neglected in the design practice and analysis models. This paper uses a sophisticated finite element simulation to investigate the effect of soil-structure modeling on the fundamental period of RC buildings subjected to wind and seismic induced forces. A typical interior building frame has been imitated using the frame element for beams and columns with constrains to mo
Watermelon is known to be infested by multiple insect pests both simultaneously and in sequence. Interactions by pests have been shown to have positive or negative, additive or non additive, compensatory or over compensatory effects on yields. Hardly has this sort of relationship been defined for watermelon vis-à-vis insect herbivores. A 2-year, 2-season (4 trials) field experiments were laid in the Research Farm of Federal University Wukari, to investigate the interactive effects of key insect pests of watermelon on fruit yield of Watermelon in 2016 and 2017 using natural infestations. The relationship between the dominant insect pests and fruit yield were determined by correlation (r) and linear regression (simple and multiple) analys
... Show MoreFlexible pipes, such as GRP pipes, serve as effective underground infrastructure especially as sewer pipeline. This study is an attempt for understanding the effects of bedding types on the behavior of large diameter GRP flexible sewer pipes using three dimensional finite element approaches. Theoretical and numerical analyses were performed using both BS EN 1295-1 approach and finite element method (ABAQUS software). The effects of different parameters are studied such as, depth of backfill, bedding compaction, and backfill compaction. Due to compaction, an increase in the bedding compaction modulus (E’1) results in a reduction of both stresses and displacements of the pipe, especially, for well compacted ba
... Show MoreA new Schiff base [I] was prepared by refluxing Amoxicillin trihydrate and 4-Hydroxy- 3,5-dimethoxybenzaldehyde in aqueous methanol solution using glacial acetic acid as a catalyst. The new 1,3-oxazepine derivative [II] was obtained by Diels- Alder reaction of Schiff base [I] with phthalic anhydride in dry benzene. The reaction of Schiff base [I] with thioglycolic acid in dry benzene led to the formation of thiazolidin-4-one derivative [III]. While the imidazolidin-4-one [IV] derivative was produced by reacting the mentioned Schiff base [I] with glycine and triethylamine in ethanol for 9 hrs. Tetrazole derivative [V] was synthesized by refluxing Schiff base [I] with sodium azide in dimethylformamid DMF. The structure of synthesized compound
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