It was aimed to understand the interleukin-4 (IL-4) role in etio-pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Two approaches were adopted. In the first one, a quantitative expression of IL4 gene was assessed by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), and such findings were correlated with some demographic, clinical and laboratory parameters, which included gender, duration of disease, disease activity score (DAS-28), rheumatoid factors (RFs), C-reactive protein (CRP) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (ACCP) antibodies. In the second approach, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of IL4 gene (rs2243250) was inspected by DNA sequencing using specific primers. Fifty-one Iraqi RA patients (22 males and 29 females) were enrolled in the study. They were under therapy, which was a single weekly subcutaneous dose of 25 mg of etanercept (Enbrel) for a period of 3-5 years. The results of gene expression (2-??Ct) revealed an increased expression of IL4 mRNA (Mean ± SEM: 8.247 ± 2.442), especially female patients compared to male patients (11.545 ± 3.928 vs. 3.537 ± 1.530; p = 0.03). The expression was also subjected to variations that were related to clinical and laboratory findings. With respect to IL4 gene SNP, allele and genotype frequencies showed no significant differences between RA patients and controls. In addition, the SNP genotypes had no effect on IL4 gene expression. In conclusion, an up-regulation of IL4 gene expression was observed in RA patients, and it was more pronounced in female than male patients by approximately four folds, while no association between the IL4 SNP alleles or genotypes and RA was observed.
Background: Beta thalassemia major (β-TM) is an inheritable condition with many complications, especially in children. The blood-borne viral infection was proposed as a risk factor due to the recurrent blood transfusion regimen (hemotherapy) as human parvovirus B19 (B19V). Objective: This study investigated the B19V seroprevalence, DNA presence, B19V viral load, and B19V genotypes in β-TM patients and blood donors. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study incorporating 180 subjects, segregated into three distinct groups each of 60 patients, namely control, β-TM, and β-TM infected with Hepatitis C Virus (HCV). For the B19V prevalence in the studied group, the ELISA technique and real-time PCR were used. The genotyping was follo
... Show MoreCardiovascular disease is one of the most common comorbidities associated with enlarged extremities, occurring in 60 % of patients with acromegaly. The aim of this study is to evaluate the relationship of growth hormone and insulin such as growth factor-1 with obesity, dyslipidemia, hyperglycemia, and pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-2, IL-6, IL-10), as risk factors for cardiovascular disorder in acromegaly patients. Eighty subjects were included and categorized into two groups: 40 acromegaly patients and 40 of the control group. The results indicated weight excess, hyperglycemia, hypertension, lipid disorder, and elevated levels of interleukins (2, 6, and 10). The correlation of both GH and IGF-1 with each of weight, BMI, systolic blood p
... Show MoreThis study seeks to identify the role that the leadership trend plays in the management of health institutions in Iraq and its impact on improving the quality of the health service provided by analyzing some opinions of affiliates working in the Iraqi health sector where a survey list was used as a main tool for collecting primary data, as it was subjected to this analysis ( 60) of the medical staff, of whom (40) are doctors and (20) are affiliated with the rank of assistant physician, and (60) members of the administrative cadre have undergone their various job ranks and administrative specializations (department manager, auditor, observer, accountant, statistician, secretary). Reliance on statistical software (spss) in data ana
... Show MoreThe research aims to demonstrate the impact of tax techniques on the quality of services provided to income taxpayers by studying the correlational and influencing relationships between the exploited variable (tax techniques) and the dependent variable (the quality of services provided to income taxpayers), and in line with the research objectives, the main hypothesis of the research was formulated (there is a relationship Significance between tax techniques and the quality of services provided to income taxpayers) a number of sub-hypotheses emerged from this hypothesis that were stated in the research methodology, and a number of conclusions were reached, the most important of which were (through the use of the correlation coeff
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The aim of the research is to evaluate the practice of banking departments for strategic foresight represented by its dimensions (environmental scanning, future vision, scenarios, reconfiguration) and its relationship to the organizational brilliance represented by dimensions (brilliance of leadership, brilliance of service and innovation, brilliance of knowledge, brilliance of employees), as the research was applied in A number of private Iraqi commercial banks represented by (Baghdad, Iraqi Investment, Iraqi Middle East Investment, Commercial Gulf, Ashur International Investment, Al Mansour Investment, Via Iraq Invest
... Show MoreSemiotics has been through wide experiences in various human sciences, especially in the fields of poetry, novel and myths. But its interest in the theatre and drama was much less and unique despite the richness of the theatrical connection as it is a probable field for the semiotic investigation which may require the semiotic approach in dealing with the theatrical and dramatic show during the two processes of: structural construction and deconstruction starting from a set of overlapping and interconnected texts inside the show, which can be limited in the text, then it would be difficult to semiotically cover all these complex and tricky texts. The theatre in its structural and aesthetic construction is c
... Show MoreThe present paper aims at investigating the linguistic image portrayed by UNICEF reports on the Iraqi child from a critical discourse analysis perspective during Covid19 pandemic (2020). The paper attempts to fill a gap in research literature concerning the linguistic construction of the Iraqi child by the UNICEF reports during the critical health crisis of Covid19. Van Leeuwen’s (2008) approach of social actor representation has been adopted for this purpose. From Van Leeuwen’s approach, the category of determination (single determination and overdetermination) has been selected to be the main analytical tool for its high compatibility with the set of objectives put forward to figure out how such a globally effective and
... Show MoreThe features of the actor's performance in the ritual theater are of great importance and chief in theatrical work since the first emergence of the theater, as the features of the performance were embodied in all Iraqi theatrical performances, but they took personal privacy in some ritual performances because of their differences and similarities between the ritual theatrical performance and the ritual show Al-Khalis, who wanted the researcher to know the similarities and differences in the features of the ritual performance and in the theatrical performance, despite the many transformations that occurred in the theater and affected the features of the performance, but it remained an important and attractive link between the recipient, t
... Show MoreThis study showed that the lens in baloot muluki fish Chondrostoma regium is transparent, spherical shape, and solid in textures, while in the tree frog Hyla arborea savignyi, freshwater turtles Clemmys caspia caspia, white–eared bulbul Pycnonotus leucotis and brown rat Rattus norvegicus are transparent, soft and biconvex, it is very soft in white–eared bulbul. There are many significant differences have been recorded between the average weight lens and the total concentration of the protein in the lens all studied animals. Electrical migration process for lens proteins showed that there is one bundle of crystalline –? and one bundle also crystalline–? in all studied species, either crystalline–? may represent one bundle character
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