The present study aims to evaluate the effects of methotrexate (MTX) with and without vitamin A (Vit. A) on some biochemical parameters and histological structure in male rabbits liver. Twenty male rabbits weighing 1250-1480 gm were divided into four equal number groups. The first group was given 2 ml distilled water as control group. The second group was given MTX (20 mg/kg), the third group was given Vit. A (5000 IU), while the fourth group was given MTX (20 mg/kg) +Vit. A (5000 IU) in alternative days. Following four weeks of treatment, lipid profile total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), [low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL)]; in addition to thyroid hormones triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxin (T4)] and liver enzymes [glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT) and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT)] were determined in the serum. Also, the histological examination of liver of all the experimental groups were carried out. The results were revealed that the treatment with MTX caused a significant P≤0.05 increases in TC, HDL, LDL, T4, and GPT when compared with the control group. The treatment with Vit. A did not cause any significant P≥0.05 differences in all the studied parameters. The MTX+Vit. A treated group showed a significant P≤0.05 increases only in GPT compared with the control group; while a significant P≤0.05 decreases was found in TC, HDL, T3, T4, and GOT when compared with the MTX treated group. The histological examination of the liver sections showed that MTX administration caused major histological changes in comparison with the control such as inflammatory cell infiltrations, vascular congestion, sinusoidal dilatation and granular degeneration of hepatocytes. Treatment with Vit. A showed a typical structure in liver tissue. While in MTX+Vit. A group, the histological changes were less severe than those in the MTX treated group; these changes were granular degeneration of hepatocytes and sinusoidal dilatation at low levels. The overall results of this study confirmed that administration of Vit. A decreased the side effects of MTX; this protective effect of Vit. A may have clinical applications in chemotherapy.
Diagnosis of cystic echinococcosis is complex and has to be confirmed by the combination of immunological tests and imaging techniques. In this study heat shock proteins were induced and their immunoreactivity was assessed by ELISA.
Sera were collected from 34 hydatid patients who were admitted to the Rizgary Teaching Hospital through October 2013 to July 2017, in addition to 29 healthy donors and 18 non-hydatid cases. For heat shock response, two batches of 25000 protoscoleces (Ps) were incubated separately at 42°C and 45 °C for 4 hours. Heat treated and normal Ps were disrupted and the extracts were divided into two parts. One part was directly used as source of antigens (PE, PE42 and PE45) and the other one was par
... Show MoreIn this work, some mechanical properties of the polymer coating were improved by preparing a hybrid system containing Graphene (GR) of different weight percentages (0.25, 0.5, 1, and 2wt%) with 5wt% carbon fibres (CF) and added to a polymer coating by using casting method. The properties were improved as GR was added with further improvement on adding 5wt% of CF. The impact strength of acrylic polymer with GR increases with increasing weight ratio of GR; maximum value was obtained when the polymer coating was incorporated with 1wt% GR and 5wt% CF. The impact strength of acrylic polymer with GR and GR/CF composites incorporated with GR at 1wt% and CF at 5wt%. Hardness increase with increasing weight ratio of Gr and a significant imp
... Show MoreAnaerobic digestion is a technology widely used for treatment of organic waste for biogas production as a source for clean energy. In this study, poultry house wastes (PHW) material was examined as a source for biogas production. The effects of inoculum addition, pretreatment of the substrate, and temperature on the biogas production were taken into full consideration. Results revealed that the effect of inoculum addition was more significant than the alkaline pretreatment of raw waste materials. The biogas recovery from inoculated waste materials exceeds its production from wastes without inoculation by approximately 70% at mesophilic conditions. Whereby, the increase of biogas recovery from pretreated wastes was by 20% higher than its
... Show MoreDecolorization of red azo dye (Cibacron Red FN-R) from synthetic wastewater has been investigated as a function of solar advanced oxidation process. The photocatalytic activity using ZnO as a photocatalysis has been estimated. Different parameters affected the removal efficiency, including pH of the solution, initial dye concentration and H2O2 concentration were evaluated to find out the optimum value of these parameters. The results proved that the optimal pH value was 8 and the most efficient H2O2 concentration was 100mg/L. Toxicity reduction percent for effluent solution was also monitored to assess the degradation process. This treatment method was able to strongly reduce the color and toxicity of reactive red dye-238 to about (99 an
... Show MoreThe detection of diseases affecting wheat is very important as it relates to the issue of food security, which poses a serious threat to human life. Recently, farmers have heavily relied on modern systems and techniques for the control of the vast agricultural areas. Computer vision and data processing play a key role in detecting diseases that affect plants, depending on the images of their leaves. In this article, Fuzzy- logic based Histogram Equalization (FHE) is proposed to enhance the contrast of images. The fuzzy histogram is applied to divide the histograms into two subparts of histograms, based on the average value of the original image, then equalize them freely and independently to conserve the brightness of the image. The prop
... Show MoreIn this study, the surface of the epoxy/Al composite is treated using a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma in the presence of air. The epoxy composite was prepared by mixing 0.1g and 0.3 g aluminum powder with epoxy resin and its hardener in a ratio of 3:1. The surface epoxy/Al composite as a dielectric barrier layer (DB) is studied at an applied frequency of 8 kHz and at three exposure times 0, 2, and 4 min. The UV degradation process has been studied using UV-Visible spectroscopy, for these polymers. The absorbance intensity in the UV region (200–320 nm) was high. The absorbance level decreased after 2 minutes and increased after 4 min exposure time. Before exposure to plasma, the epoxy/Al composite at 0.1 g Al ha
... Show MoreFor more than a decade, externally bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites successfully utilized in retrofitting reinforced concrete structural elements. The function of CFRP reinforcement in increasing the ductility of reinforced concrete (RC) beam is essential in such members. Flexural and shear behaviors, ductility, and confinement were the main studied properties that used the CFRP as a strengthening material. However, limited attention has been paid to investigate the energy absorption of torsion strengthening of concrete members, especially two-span concrete beams. Hence, the target of this work is to investigate the effectiveness of CFRP-strengthening technique with regard to energy absorption of two-span RC
... Show MoreThis study was aimed to investigate the response surface methodology (RSM) to evaluate the effects of various experimental conditions on the removal of levofloxacin (LVX) from the aqueous solution by means of electrocoagulation (EC) technique with stainless steel electrodes. The EC process was achieved successfully with the efficiency of LVX removal of 90%. The results obtained from the regression analysis, showed that the data of experiential are better fitted to the polynomial model of second-order with the predicted correlation coefficient (pred. R2) of 0.723, adjusted correlation coefficient (Adj. R2) of 0.907 and correlation coefficient values (R2) of 0.952. This shows that the predicted models and experimental values are in go
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