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
To assess the effects of dietary oil sources on productive and reproductive traits, sunflower oil, flax oil, corn oil, or fish oil were induced in quail diets. One hundred and sixty-eight 7-week-old Japanese quail were randomly assigned to 4 groups (12 males and 30 females each) with 3 replicates per group containing 4 males and 10 females each and fed for 13 weeks (including one week as an adaptation period) on a commercial diet supplemented with 3% of sunflower oil (T1), flax oil (T2), corn oil (T3), or fish oil (T4). The birds received water and were fed ad libitum during the study. The results of the experiment revealed that dietary supplementation with different sources of oil had no significant effect on male body weight, female body
... Show MoreIntroduction The pathophysiology of appendicitis likely stems from obstruction of the appendiceal orifice leading to an increase in intraluminal and intramural pressure, resulting in small vessel occlusion and lymphatic stasis. Organ supplied by an end artery, such as the appendix, are more prone to the deleterious effects of arterial occlusion. The continuous cigarette smoking might be associated with a greater risk for developing atherosclerosis.
Objectives The aim is to evaluate the effect of cigarette smoking on the incidence of complications of acute appendicitis.
Methods Patients suffered from symptoms and signs suggesting a
Construction joints are stopping places in the process of placing concrete, and they are required because in many structures it is impractical to place concrete in one continuous operation. The amount of concrete that can be placed at one time is governed by the batching and mixing capacity and by the strength of the formwork. A good construction joint should provide adequate flexural and shear continuity through the interface.
In this study, the effect of location of construction joints on the performance of reinforced concrete structural elements is experimentally investigated.
Nineteen beam specimens with dimensions of 200×200×950 mm were tested. The variables investigated are the location of the construction joints
... Show MoreTow results are proved. The first gives necessary and ullicient
conditions for a permutation group to have the prope1ty that each of its rational - valued character can be written as (integral) linear combination of characters induced from the principal characters of certain subgroup. The mher presents that this property is extendable to direct product of groups.
Examples give.
This research has studied the effect of addition glass fibers (woven and chopped)
and Zirconium oxide Nano-particles (ZrO2) with different weight percent to the
conventional poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). The prepared Nano-crystalline
ZrO2 powder with particle size of about 95nm was syntheses directly by sol-gel
method. The gel dried at 100oC for 1 hour and annelid at 400oC for 3 hours.
The conventional acrylic resin prepared with 2:1 powder to liquid ratio to prepare
pure sample, composite samples prepared by reinforcing PMMA with woven or
chopped glass fiber (8, 12) wt.%, and reinforcing by (1,2,3) wt.% of prepared ZrO2
Nano-powder.
The structural tests include: (XRD, AFM, and FTIR). The crystallized phas
Permanent magnets of different intensities were used to investigate the effect of a magnetic field in the process of preventing deposits of calcium carbonate. The magnets were fixed on the water line from the tap outside. Then heating a sample of this water in flasks and measuring the amount of sediment in a manner weighted differences. These experiments comprise to the change of the velocity of water flow, which amounted to (0.5, 0.75, 1) m/sec through the magnetic fields that are of magnetic strength (2200, 6000, 9250, 11000) Gauss, and conduct measurements, tests and compare them with those obtained from the use of ordinary water.The results showed the effectiveness of magnetic treatment in reducing the rate of deposition of calcium carb
... Show MorePorous silicon (P-Si) has been produced in this work by photoelectrochemical (PEC) etching process. The irradiation has been achieved using diode laser of (2 W) power and 810 nm wavelength. The influence of various irradiation times on the properties of P-Si material such as P-Si layer thickness, surface aspect, pore diameter and the thickness of walls between pores as well as porosity and etching rate was investigated by depending on the scanning electron micrograph (SEM) technique and gravimetric measurements.
The following question was raised by L.Fuchs: "what are the subgroups of an abelian group G that can be represented as intersections of pure subgroups of G ? . Fuchs also added that “One of my main aims is to give the answers to the above question". In this paper, we shall define new subgroups which are a family of the pure subgroups. Then we shall answer problem 2 of L.Fuchs by these semi-pure subgroups which can be represented as the intersections of pure subgroups.
The aim of this study was intended to study the effect of rifadin drug on lipids metabolism in the blood of the rabbits .Eight rabbits were used in the experiment ,they were divided into two groups ,first group(control group ) was administrated with 15mg/ml /day normal saline for 35 days ,while the second group (treated group )was administrated with (15/mg /kg/day) for 35 days of rifadin( capsule 300mg/kg).This study examined the influences of rifadin drug on the concentration of cholesterol , triglycerides , HDL ,LDL and VLDL in rabbits sera .The result showed that there were no significant increased (p>0.05) in cholesterol concentration in rifadin treated group compared with control group ,and th
... Show MoreThe rheological and fusion behavior of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) compounds plays a dominant role in
the processing operations and in the development of physical properties in the processed material. A
comprehensive study was made in this work to evaluate the effect of shear and thermal history on stability, mechanical and rheological properties of rigid PVC compounds. Different samples of Rigid Poly vinyl chloride including dry blend powder, granules, and bottles molded from both were examined. A study was also made on recycled RPVC where 25% of reclaimed material was continuously blended with fresh dry blend and processed for 15 cycles. Results showed that compaction of the PVC material took place in the brabender plastograph at co