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
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune diseasecharacterized by chronic inflammationthat affects joints and cartilage. Bone complications such asRA-relatedosteoporosis are one of the most extra-articular manifestations. Many inflammatory mediators are released during RA disease pathophysiology; these mediators stimulate osteoclast genesis of bone by direct effects on RANKL and OPG. The study aimedto measure RANKL, OPG in RA patients treated with Etanercept only and other groups treated with Methotrexate onlyat baseline and after three months to evaluate bone state. An observational case-control prospective study was done on 30 RA patients who received MTX, 30 RA patients who received ETN, and 30 healthy,age-matched control groups. The
... Show MoreAn experimental study is carried out on the effect of vortex generators (Circular and square) on the flow and heat transfer at variable locations at (X = 0.5, 1.5, 2.5 cm) ahead of a heat exchanger with Reynolds number ranging from 62000< Re < 125000 and heat flux from 3000 ≤ q ≤ 8000 W/m2 .
In the experimental investigation, an apparatus is set up to measure the velocity and temperatures around the heat exchanger.
The results show that there is an effect for using vortex generators on heat transfer. Also, heat transfer depends on the shape and location. The circular is found t
... Show MoreAim: This study aimed to investigate the impact of rabbit serum on skin wound healing with the help of histological examination. Materials and Methods: A total of ten indigenous rabbits were used in this study. The animals were divided into two groups: control and serum- treated. The histological assessment was done with a paraffin embedding technique and the histological sections were stained with H&E stain. Results: Severe infiltration of polymorphonuclear leukocytes with severe fibrin deposits were seen in serum treated group at 2 days post-injury; at 7 days post-injury the changes revealed moderate fibroplasia, fibrin deposit and severe infiltration of both mononuclear and polymorphonuclear leukocytes; at 14 days post-inju
... Show MoreAllium ampeloprasum extract has the potential to facilitate wound healing due to its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antibacterial properties. In this study, we aimed to investigate the potential wound-healing activity of the methanol extract derived from Allium ampeloprasum. Using 30 healthy male Wester rats; control group: 15 rats; normal saline applied locally instead of plant-extract. Experimental group: 15 rats received a daily local application of 200 mg/kg of the plant extract. Then, for each healing period of 0, 5, or 10 days, each group was divided into three-subgroups: A, B, and C, each with five rats. There was a significant difference in the percentage of wound contraction between the control and experimental groups (p 0.02)
... Show MoreGames engagement has become one of the main concerns in game industry. Early study revealed that Malaysian digital traditional games are suffering with the same issue due to several factors. One of it is the lack of the game itself. Although many Malaysian traditional games have been digitized, none of them has incorporated rewards despite its importance in games engagement. Realizing the importance of rewards in games engagement, one of Malaysian traditional Congkak has been chosen to be enhanced by incorporating rewards. Experiments have been conducted among 50 gamers among the Millennials. Prior interview, game demo and human test are conducted. Experiments focused on the influence of rewards on games flow, games challenge, and its ef
... Show MoreTraditional programs and the tedious and financially costly processes they require are no longer the best choice for content makers. The continuous development and development have led to the emergence of competitive software that offers capabilities that are more suitable for aesthetic needs, as it breaks down stereotypical frameworks from the familiar to the unfamiliar to be more suitable for graphic subjects in terms of dealing with the requirements of the digital content industry. Video for communication platforms, as it has more advantages than traditional software and the flexibility and high quality it offers at the level of the final product, All of this contributed to supplementing the image with aesthetic employments with data
... Show MoreCadmium sulfide (CdS) nanocrystalline thin films have been prepared by chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique on commercial glass substrates at 70ºC temperature. Cadmium chloride (CdCl2) as a source of cadmium (Cd), thiourea (CS(NH2)2) as a source of sulfur and ammonia solution (NH4OH) were added to maintain the pH value of the solution at 10. The characterization of thin films was carried out through the structural and optical properties by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and UV-VIS spectroscopy. A UV-VIS optical spectroscopy study was carried out to determine the band gap of the nanocrystalline CdS thin film and it showed a blue shift with respect to the bulk value (from 3.9 - 2.4eV). In present w
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