HBV and HCV are the major causes of chronic liver diseases throughout the world, and constitute a major global health risk. There is accumulated evidence that the imbalance of proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokine production may play an important role in the pathogenesis of viral hepatic infections and may influence the clinical outcome and disease progression. This study was undertaken to analyze the circulating levels of Tumor Necrotic Factor (TNF-α) and Th2 cytokine IL-10 in patients infected with Hepatitis B and C virus. The study population consisted of 30 patients with chronic HBV, in addition to other 30 patients with chronic HCV infection were recruited on their first examination at the Al-Kindy General Hospital in Baghdad city. Another 12 healthy individuals with negative hepatitis serology as normal controls were observed. TNF-α level was significantly increased in chronic HBV infected patients compared with normal controls (6.81± 1.25 vs. 5.62± 1.71 pg/ml, p= 0.001). Similarly, the levels of the TNF-α was significantly elevated in HCV patients (8.62± 0.79 pg/ml) after comparison with its level in HBV patients (p= 0.023). Serum levels of Th2 cytokines IL-10 were also elevated in chronic HBV infected patients (25.05± 3.90 pg/ml) and in HCV infected patients (28.07± 3.35 pg/ml)
The goal of this study was to investigate the protein peroxidation role by measuring serum levels of advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP) in type 2 diabetic patients with or without retinopathy and comparing them to controls to see if circulating AOPP levels can be used as a detection biomarker for DR. And see which of the two widely used antidiabetic treatment groups had the most impact on this oxidative stress marker. The groups were divided into two subgroups: 1) 70 type 2 diabetic patients (36 male, 34 female), 35 with diabetic retinopathy (DR) and 35 with no evidence of DR, and 2) non-diabetic controls (11 male, 9 female) were chosen from Ibn AL-Haitham Hospital for Ophthalmology and a Specialized Center for Endocrinology and Dia
... Show MoreThe purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of corrosive environment (corrosive ferric chloride of 1, 2, 5, 6% wt. at room temperature), immersion period of (48, 72, 96, 120, 144 hours), and surface roughness on pitting corrosion characteristics and use the data to build an artificial neural network and test its ability to predict the depth and intensity of pitting corrosion in a variety of conditions. Pit density and depth were calculated using a pitting corrosion test on carbon steel (C-4130). Pitting corrosion experimental tests were used to develop artificial neural network (ANN) models for predicting pitting corrosion characteristics. It was found that artificial neural network models were shown to be
... Show MoreBreast cancer is the commonest cause of cancer related death in women worldwide. Amplification or over-expression of the ERBB2 (HER/neu) gene occurs in approximately 15-30% of breast cancer cases and it is strongly associated with an increased disease recurrence and a poor prognosis. Determination of HER2/neu status is crucial in the treatment plan as that positive cases will respond to trastuzumab therapy. It has been used to test for HER2/neu by immunohistochemistry as a first step and then to study only the equivocal positive cases (score 2+) by in situ hybridization technique. The aim of our study is to compare between immunohistochemistry and silver in situ hybridization (SISH) in assessment of human epidermal growth factor (HER2/neu)
... Show MoreStudies from our laboratory have shown that Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), an ingredient found in marijuana plant Cannabis sativa, can attenuate acute lung injury induced by Staphylococcus enterotoxin B (SEB). In the current study, we investigated the role of THC on the metabolism of SEB-activated lymphocytes. To this end, we determined metabolic potential of SEB-activated lymphocytes treated with vehicle or THC by performing the Cell Mito Stress Test. The oxygen consumption rate (OCR) in THC-treated cells was decreased when compared to vehicle-treated group whereas the extracellular acidification rate (ECAR) was similar in both the groups. Specifically, electron transport chain inhi
This work studies the role of serum apelin-36 and Glutathione S-transferases (GST) activity in association with the hormonal, metabolic profiles and their link to the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in healthy and patients' ladies with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). A total of fifty-four (PCOS) patients and thirty-one healthy woman as a control have been studied. The PCOS patients were subdivided on the basis of body-mass-index (BMI), into 2-subgroups (the first group was obese-PCOS with BMI ≥ 30 and the second group was non-obese PCOS MBI<30). Fasting-insulin-levels and Lipid-profile, Homeostatic-model assessment-of-insulin-resistance (HOMA-IR), follicle-stimulating-hormone (FSH), luteinizing-hormone (LH), testosterone and
... Show MoreIn study carried out in the cold storage in college of Agric./Univ. of Baghdad at 8 ? C. shows that Alternaria , Pencillium , Rhizoctonia , Mucor , are the fungi that causes tomato fruits decay. This is the first record of Rhizoctonia and Mucor as a Tomato fruits rot under 8º c in Iraq. There is no fungal infection on cucumber fruits under 8 ? C. . Waxing tomato fruits reduced the severity of the fungi infection and gave shelflife (19 days) under 8 ? C. There is an infection with Mucor was found in tomato fruits kept in perforated polyethylene bages with 16 bores prevent the infection and the lowest severity and frequency of infection was found in waxed tomato fruits. Part of M.Sc thesis of the Second author.
The present study evaluates the effects of Ginkgo biloba extract as monotherapy on the glycemic status, insulin resistance (IR), body mass index (BMI), and visceral adiposity index (VAI), in addition to the inflammatory markers, oxidative status and leptin level in patients with metabolic syndrome in comparison with metformin.
The study is a randomized, double-blind pilot study conducted during the period May to September, 2020. Fifty patients were recruited in the study and they were allocated into two groups (25 per each group): Ginkgo biloba and Metformin groups, they received (120 mg Ginkgo biloba extract/ capsule) and (500 mg Metformin/ capsule) respectively; orally as a single dose for 90 days. Blood samples were taken at z
... Show MoreThis study concluded detection of Toxoplasma gondii in milk, immunologically by using Elisa and nested PCR)nPCR (based on B1 gene, also to investigate the effect of toxoplasmosis, parity, breed and flock on some milk composition in the Iraqi local and Shami goats in the middle of Iraq. A total of 80 milk samples of the lactating goats were collected. Results of this study showed the prevalence of Toxoplasmosis was 21.25% and 28.75% by Elisa and nPCR respectively without significant differences. The sensitivity of Elisa was a low (30.43%) whereas the specificity was a high (82.45%). The degree of agreement estimated by Kappa coefficient revealed a slight agreement (0.14) between two methods. The results indicated that goats infected
... Show MoreStable isotopes 18O/16O and 13C/12C in the carbonate rocks of the Mishrif Formation are examined here to define the depositional characters in the basin includes paleo temperatures and paleo depth. The Mishrif formation (Cenomanian – Early Turonian) has extensive distribution in Iraq and Middle East. Mishrif Formation composed of organic detrital limestone. Four boreholes in four oilfields, Noor – well (11), Amarah – well (14), Buzurgan – well (24), Halfaya – well (8), in south east of Iraq have been studied. The studied samples have negative δ18O isotope values studied well, with Average (-4.11‰), (-4.47‰), (-4.48‰), (-4.18‰) in the studied wells res
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