Objectives: Dickkopf-1 (DKK-1) is WNT/b-catenin pathway antagonist which plays a detrimental role in the development of diabetic retinopathy (DR). This research aimed to assess serum DKK-1 levels in diabetic patients who have and have not developed DR and, compare them with the control subjects finding out whether we can use it as an indicator for DR early diagnosis and to find out which one of the widely used two groups of antidiabetic treatments had the greater effect on this biomarker and hence on the progression of DR. Methods: The study participants were divided into two subgroups: First, 70 patients (36 male, 34 female) with type 2 diabetes mellitus, among them 35 patients diagnosed with DR and 35 with no evidence of DR, and secondly, non-diabetic controls (11 male, 9 female) were selected from the patients attending Ibn AL-Haitham hospital for ophthalmology and a specialized center for endocrinology and diabetes. Venous blood samples of all participants were drawn after an overnight fast, and serum samples were stored at -20ºC until DKK-1 assay. Results: Serum DKK-1 showed significantly lower levels in diabetic patients with (6.1 ± 2 ng/mL) or without DR (14 ± 6.2 ng/mL) when compared to those of controls (34 ± 12.25 ng/mL) (p 0.05). Furthermore, serum DKK-1 levels were lower in the late stage of DR compared to the early stage 5.6 ± 1.7 and 7 ± 1.9 ng/mL, respectively. Furthermore, DPP-4 inhibitors cause a better increment in DKK-1 levels when compared to SU in the NDR group. Conclusions: Reduced serum levels of DKK-1 are related to the existence and worsening of DR and have the prospect to serve as an indicator for this condition.
Background: Crohn's disease (CD) is an immunological disorder associated with chronic inflammatory process of several unspecific regions of gastrointestinal tract but frequently detected in the terminal Ilium and proximal colon or both. This disease frequently presented with various oral manifestations as a consequence of inflammatory process of the disease, nutritional deficiency or medications side effects. Several therapeutic approaches have been developed for CD management that are targeting the inflammatory process and directed at controlling the host immune response. Immunosuppressants such as Azathioprine and anti-TNF α agents as well as the combination of them have been widely used as an effective therapeutic modality with a bett
... Show Mores The study aims to identify the fairness in the distribution of municipal services between municipal districts and areas, from point of view of municipal chamber staff and from the point of view of the citizen. It also aims to identify factors affecting the fairness of the distribution of municipal services. Municipal services were being studied : hygiene and waste, water supply, sewer, creating gardens, and street paving .Factors which examined its impact on municipal services are: resources available to municipal chamber, the managerial process at municipal chamber, and factors in the external environment surrounding municipal chamber.The results of the study showed that level of the e
... Show MoreThis research aims to shed light on the necessity of establishing an information security management system through which banking security risks are managed in the light of the ISO (IEC 27001) standard, through which bank departments seek to demonstrate the management of their security systems and their controls in accordance with the specifications of the standard to obtain an internationally recognized security certificate And the need for senior management in banks to an independent person with scientific and practical qualification and who has accredited certificates in the field of information technology for the purpose of helping them to verify the level of compatibility between the policies and procedures applied and the p
... Show MoreThe current research aims to find out the role of transformational leadership in decision-making wise, to cope with the decline in some of the banking performance indicators as a result of the absence of the modern concept of the leadership of those so-called B (Transformational Leadership) and preventing benefit from the advantages in the banks, and I test the research on a sample of the Iraqi private banks through applied to a sample (77) Mdermvud and Associate Director and Advisor to the Chairman of the Department, the distributors (7) banks, and used the head of the questionnaire as a tool to collect data and information. For the purpose of access to the results, the research sought to test two hypotheses two main hypotheses sub pop
... Show MoreThis study aimed to find relationship between thymidine kinase-1 (TK-1) as tumor marker and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in Iraqi children patients with thrombocytopenia and with thrombocytosis. The present study conducted 60 children patients (30 patients with idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura (ITP) and 30 patients with thrombocytosis caused by leukemia) attending the Children Fever Hospital in the Medical City / Baghdad, and 30 healthy children as a control group. All study groups were with range ages (1-15) years, and they were diagnosed by assay of platelet count, Prothrombin Time (PT), and partial Thromboplastin Time (PTT). The results shown elevation in plasma TK-1 and TAC values in children patients with thrombocytopenia and w
... Show MoreThis study was conducted at the Poultry Research Station of the Agricultural Research Department/Ministry of Agriculture in Abu Ghraib for the period from 25/2/2019 to 7/4/2019 (42 days) with the aim of using several levels of Spirulina (SP)
Background: Health education was put as one of the components of primary health care elements and was recognized as a fundamental tool to the attainment of health for all
Objective: To evaluate the Knowledge, attitude regarding health education & to find out if there is any association between the gathered data and certain variables (age, gender, educational level, occupation). Methods: A Cross-sectional study done at Al Mustansyryia Primary Health Care Center from the 1st of January to 1st of May 2016. All patients attending the Primary Health Care Centers who were above 18 years of age and willing to participate in the research (303) were included in t
... Show MoreThis study was attempted to determine optimum conditions, for Glutathione s-Transferase enzyme, in sera of three groups diabetic patients type1 depending on duration of disease without complications compared with control group. The aim of this study was to find optimum conditions were determined such as (pH, Substrate Concentration, Temperature, Incubation time, Enzyme concentration, and effect of(0.15M)(0.25M) of mono divalent compounds). And to find the kinetics parameters in the three groups of diabetic patients when compared with control. It was found optimum pH(8.5,4.5,2.5,6.5).Temperatures(20cº,40cº,50cº,30cº). Incubation times (7min, 4min, 4min, 5min) substrate concentrations (12µl, 10µl, 5µl, 10µl) enzyme concentra
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