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.
Abstract Exotoxin A is the most lethal virulence factor produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It inhibits elongation factor-2 by ADP-ribosylation of EF2. This causes stop of the elongation of polypeptides. In recent study, the effect of low concentration of exotoxin A on some important internal organs of mice was studied. Four groups white mice were injected intraperitonialy with pure exotoxin A in the following manner 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 ng\ animals. One mouse receives normal saline inrtaperitonialy as a control. After 72 hours the mice were killed and four organs were taken, liver, spleen, lung and heart from each killed mice. Histological sections were made from each organ and stained with hematoxylin and eosin stain then examined under mic
... Show MoreAIM: To analyse our experiences in the management of traumatic retroperitoneal hematoma (RPH), highlighting the various challenges faced and to report on the outcome of these patients. METHODS: From May 2014 to May 2017, all patients with traumatic RPH who underwent surgical treatment were retrospectively analysed. The kind of injury, intraoperative findings, sites of hematoma, postoperative morbidity and the overall outcomes were recorded. RESULTS: Ninety-six patients; 53 with blunt trauma and 43 with penetrating injury, were included in this study. The centre-medial hematoma was observed in 24 (25%) patients, lateral hematoma in 46 (47.9%) patients, pelvic hematoma in 19 (19.8%) patients, and multiple zone hematomas in
... Show MoreIn Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) the non-linear data projection provided by a one hidden layer Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), trained to recognize phonemes, and has previous experiments to provide feature enhancement substantially increased ASR performance, especially in noise. Previous attempts to apply an analogous approach to speaker identification have not succeeded in improving performance, except by combining MLP processed features with other features. We present test results for the TIMIT database which show that the advantage of MLP preprocessing for open set speaker identification increases with the number of speakers used to train the MLP and that improved identification is obtained as this number increases beyond sixty.
... Show MoreThe study aimed to compare the expression of miR-126-3p and miR-423-5p in patients and normal subjects, and correlate their expression with response to induction therapy. Circulating miR-126-3p and miR-423-5p were measured in the plasma of 43 adult AML patients and 35 age- and sex-matched controls by real time PCR. The foldchange in differential expression for each gene was calculated using the comparative cycle threshold (CT) method (also known as the 2−CT method). For statistical purposes, the fold change was calculated using DDCT (or 2–∆∆Ct) method to find the relative expression of miRNAs. The expression fold change of miR-126-3p was 1.73-fold increase in patients than controls (p= 0.010). The expression fold change of miR-423-5
... Show MoreAbstract Background: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) results from sequential genetic alterations in a normal hematopoietic stem cell or its progenitors giving rise to an autonomous clone that dominates the bone marrow leading to marrow failure. MicroRNAs are short non-coding nucleic acid sequences that regulate post-transcriptional gene expression by base-pairing with their target mRNAs. MiRNAs can be secreted into extracellular fluids and carried to target cells by vesicles or bound to proteins. Intracellular and circulating miRNAs are believed to be useful markers in the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of various cancers. Practically, circulating miRNAs are more stable at room temperatures and extreme conditions. Purpose: This study aim
... Show MoreTo overcome the problems which associated with the standard multiple daily doses (MDD)
of aminoglycosides (AGs) like high incidence of toxicity(nephrotoxicity, ototoxicity)(5-25%) and high cost, an alternative approach was developed which was single daily dose (SDD).This new regimen was designed to maximize bacterial killing by optimizing the peak concentration/minimum inhibitory concentration(MIC)ratio and to reduce the potential for toxicity. The study includes 75 patients selected randomly, 50 of them received SDD regimen of age range of 17-79 years and the remaining received MDD regimen of age range of 13-71 years. The study was designed to evaluate the safety of SDD regim
... Show MoreAn update of our research is the first to develop and reform the agricultural sector . and promoting production and productivity of this sector multi-sources , which is the management and beekeeping one source . Been applied to the style of beekeeping mobile promiscuous includes twentieth cell in the Iraqe project of mussiab . in which there exist a variety of crops and trees .
Experiment had proved successful and led to raise the level of npoduction of single Dell of the honey to 49 kg over the previous year and surpassed the average production percell in the province of Babylon , which the amount of 13.945 kg , another
... Show MoreThe importance of the research lies in preparing an experimental curriculum according to a scientific method that will contribute to the development of the special strength(endurance the strength of arms) in order to contribute to the attempt to develop the basic skills of the national team players with the goal ball for the blind As for the research problem, it lies in the weakness of the strength endurance of the national team players with the goal ball for the blind, as the research problem is clearly evident in the last minutes of the match, as well as the former studies in the field of goal ball game for the blind at the country level The research aims to prepare special exercises for endurance of strength as well as t
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