Background: osteoporosis is characterized by a reduction in bone mineral density, skeletal microstructure breakdown, increased bone fragility, and fracture susceptibility. Osteopenia is the preceding step to osteoporosis because it causes a decrease in bone mass, osteoporosis reduces a person's quality of life. Periostin (encoded by Postn), its name is derived from the fact that it was first detected in periosteal osteocytes and osteoblasts. Periostin deficiency has been linked to osteoporosis and weak bones. Study objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine periostin levels in serum of Iraqi patients with osteoporosis and osteopenia, and it is also possible to consider periostin as a diagnostic factor to follow the progression o

Adult of dipterous flies were collected monthly from exposed animals carcasses during the period from February 2006 to January 2007 in Baghdad city. The results obtained showed that flies could be collected all over the year with variation of their population density in different seasons. The majority of the collected species were abundant during Spring and late Autumn (at lowest numbers) . In this investigation, nineteen species confined to four families were collected; these families are: Calliphoridae, Muscidae, Sarcophagidae and Fanniidae. The species Musca domestica Linn .was the most abundant followed by Chrysomya megacephala ( Fabricius ) , while Pollenia sp . and Fannia sp . were the least abundant species.

Asthma is a chronic respiratory disorder in which immunological and structural cells play a role. The limits of conventional medicines necessitate the development of innovative therapeutic techniques for asthma. In the present study, we investigated the possible protective effect of cinnamic acid (CA) on ovalbumin-induced asthma in a mouse model. Sixty albino male mice BALB/c type weighing (20-30) grams were chosen at random and divided into five groups each one contains 12 animal: Group I: PBS/liquid paraffin control. Group II: asthma model group. Group III: cinnamic acid control group; mice received cinnamic acid (50 mg/kg) in liquid paraffin orally by gavage. Group IV: asthma model / group of (25 mg / kg) cinnamic acid; mice received

Ursolic acid (UA, 3 ?-hydroxy-urs-12-en-28-oic acid) are isomeric triterpenic acids. The high quantities of pentacyclic triterpenoids in Scabiosa species seems to be obvious and there is an evidence that most of pentacyclic triterpenoids that have been isolated are saponins. This is one of the most important characteristic of the genus Scabiosa, the main aglycones are ursolic acid and oleanolic acid. In the current study, isolation from the aerial part and roots of Scabiosa palaestina L. was performed using Preparative HPLC. Furthermore, detection and quantitation of ursolic acid was performed by high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC). The identification of isolated triterpenoid involves two methods including FT-IR coupl

MRSA is one of the major pathogens in hospitals and the community, which have the ability to produce biofilm as a virulence factor, the impact of chalcone on biofilm formation, the synergism effect of chalcone and antibiotic in both in vitro and in vivo experiments, the gene expression of virulence genes (srtA, fnbA, fnbB) before and after treatment of it on MRSA biofilm cells in vitro, all these were the prime aims of this study. Chalcone at MBIC (20 μg/ml), significantly reduced the biofilm formation to 21.45% and at sub MBIC (15 μg/ml) to 36.58 %. While, Chalcone at MIC(5 μg/ml) reduced MRSA planktonic cells to 49.61%. Susceptibility of MRSA isolates against eight antibiotics showed that all isolates were sensitive to vancomycin and n