ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Estrogens has traditionally been known as the female hormone, but this idea has been challenged in early 1990’s and an essential physiological role for estrogen in male fertility was identified. Phytoestrogens are naturally occurring non-steroidal plant chemicals that can act like the female hormone estrogen. The herbs ( anise alfalfa and vervain ) chosen in this study contain phytoestrogens. OBJECTIVE: Previous studies demonstrated controversy of the effects of phytoestrogens on the rat testes .Hence, the present investigation was undertaken to investigate the influence of typical dose of herbs containing phytoestrogen on the rat testis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-four apparently normal mature male rats were divided into four groups of 6 animals each. The first "control" group received only 4ml of distilled water as a placebo. The second group received 40mg/kg of anise seed; the third group received 53.3 mg/kg of dried herb of vervain and the fourth group received 400 mg /kg of alfalfa seeds. All experimental groups received the doses through orogastric tube daily for fourteen days. Testicular histology was evaluated by light and enzyme histochemistry. Plasma FSH and testosterone concentrations were taken to support our results. RESULTS: Histological examination of anise, alfalfa and vervain – treated groups showed an increase in the height of germinal epithelia. There was marked lipoprotein lipase activity in the whole of the interstitial tissue which is more in amount in experimental groups than that in control group. Acid phosphatase granules were infiltered the seminiferous epithelia mildly in control group , moderately in anise and vervain groups and markedly in alfalfa group. The number of interstitial cells showing marked acid phosphatase activity was higher in all experimental groups than that in control group. Alkaline phosphatase exhibited intense activity in the boundary tissue of the seminiferous tubules in testes of control and experimental groups but it appeared thicker in the latter. CONCLUSION: The low dose and short duration of treatment used in our study made these phytoestrogen – containing herbs to have a stimulatory effect on leydig cell steroidogenesis. This study also demonstrated that aniseed being the most potent of the three herbs followed by alfalfa in stimulating testosterone synthesis. This is possibly attributed to the coumarin constituent of aniseed and alfalfa. KEY WORDS: phytoestrogen-containing herbs, testis, acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase, lipoprotein lipase
The traction property is one of the important mechanical properties, especially the rotary parts which are subjected to constant and variable loads There are many methods used to improve this property, and the shoot peening by metal balls is considered the most critical one. the study focuses on this characteristic of steel CK35 used in many engineering applications as the rotating shafts and railway This study shows that the fatigue strength is improved by14% after shoot peening with metal balls. The study includs the rehabilitation of damaged samples as a result of fatigue corrosion. The standard solution adopted was 36% MgCl2 with a 30 days immersion period. These samples has been improved by 6% after it decreased by18% d
... Show MoreThe research aims to study strategic training and its impact on improving the performance of the inspectors general offices in Iraqi ministries, through two variables strategic training Which include Four Dimensions ( Strategic analysis , Formulation of Training Strategy , Implement the Training Strategy , Evaluation ) and Performance included Three dimensions ( Efficiency , Effectiveness , Added-Value).
This research problem is that the Offices of Inspectors rely on pre-made training Programs received from training centers without designing the training programs that provide the employees with the skills and abilities that lead to the implementation of the current and future goals of the orga
... Show MoreThis research study of influence of Chinese thought on porcelain in the tang and song period, the study came into four sections, which are:
* First section contains general framework of the research, which include the problem, which is represented by following of questions:
1- Is there intellectual and ideological dimensions in Chinese porcelain?
2-What are the mechanisms and techniques of Chinese porcelain?
.the importance of this research and the need counted as a study providing cognitive addition into the Chinese arts field, especially ceramics of the Chinese. The aim of the research included of areas of artistic creativity in Chinese pottery and ceramics according to the bases of construction and composition. As the impo
Background and purpose: Animal model helps researchers to evaluate new treatment plan for human and understand pathological mechanism involved in a development of disease. The use of rats as an animal model for Alzheimer's research has become a favorite among researchers. Rats are capable in mimicking Alzheimer disease due to their intelligence and quick adaptation to nature. At present there are several methods that can be used to induce Alzheimer's animals, but each method has advantages and disadvantages. We need to learn other methods that can provide many advantages and few disadvantages. The Amyloid-beta 42 (Aβ-42) and Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) are thought to play an important role in the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease. Th
... Show MoreThe purpose of this research was to investigate the beneficial effects of phosphatidylcholine in reducing changes in both lipid and protein profiles in addition to atherogenic index in adult rats with fructose-induced metabolic syndrome. Thirty-six mature Wistar Albino female rats (Rattus norvegicus) (aged 12-15 weeks and weighing 200±10 g) were divided randomly into four groups (G1, G2, G3, and G4); then variable treatments were orally administered for 62 days as follows: G1 (Control group), received distilled water; G2, treated with phosphatidylcholine (PC) orally (1 g/kg BW); G3 (Fr), orally dosed with 40% fructose and 25% fructose mixed with drinking water; G4 (Fr+PC), were also intubated with 40% fr
... Show MoreBackground: Cigarette smoking (CS) is a periodontal disease risk factor, affecting clinical parameters such as bleeding on probing (BOP), plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI) and proinflammatory cytokines level. This study examines the impact electronic cigarette use on proinflammatory cytokines and periodontal parameters. Methods: In this non-randomized study, ninety participants diagnosed with gingivitis were assigned into three groups. examined the effect of oral hygiene instructions on periodontal parameters and inflammatory biomarkers. Thirty CS (n=30) vaping electronic-cigarettes (e-cig) (n=29), and non-smoker (NS) (n=31) was included. Clinical parameters including PI, BOP, and GI were recorded at baseline and after 3 weeks
... Show MoreIn this study, mesoporous silica (MPS) is made using the sol-gel method from a cheap source (Na2SiO3) using the surfactant hydroxycetyl hydroxyethyl dimonium chloride as a template. The task is the adsorption-based removal of the medication metoprolol (MP) at concentrations between 10 and 50 ppm. Variables such as: contact time, dose of adsorbent, starting concentration of adsorbate, and adsorption temperature were studied which show the equilibrium time and adsorbent dose are 40 min and 0.05 g respectively. The Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, and Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherm models were fitted to the data obtained from the experiments. Comparing the outcomes showed that, of the four investigated isotherm models, the Freundlich equation m
... Show MoreThe synthesis of new substituted cobalt Phthalocyanine (CoPc) was carried out using starting materials Naphthalene-1,4,5, tetracarbonic acid dianhydride (NDI) employing dry process method. Metal oxides (MO) alloy of (60%Ni3O4 40%-Co3O4 ) have been functionalized with multiwall carbon nanotubes (F-MWCNTs) to produce (F-MWCNTs/MO) nanocomposite (E2) and mixed with CoPc to yield (F-MWCNT/CoPc/MO) (E3). These composites were investigated using different analytical and spectrophotometric methods such as 1H-NMR (0-18 ppm), FTIR spectroscopy in the range of (400-4000cm-1), powder X-rays diffraction (PXRD, 2θ o = 10-80), Raman spectroscopy (0-4000 cm-1), and UV-Visib
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