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
Widely present in the environment, arsenic trioxide has been identified as a genotoxic substance that poses a serious risk to public health. The genotoxic potential of arsenic at low allowable dosage levels is assessed in this study. Four groups of twelve adult rats each were created from the 48 total. Animals in Group I were used as controls Chromosome abnormalities found in bone marrow cells were used to assess the mutagenic potential of arsenic. Hematological parameters were also assessed. At 60 and 90 days, the percentage of microsomal degranulation in the hepatic fraction increased and the amounts of RNA and proteins considerably reduced (P < 0.01) in all three dosages given. was employed in order to assess hematological par
... Show MoreThe purpose of this study was to examine the association of oral administration of Carbamazepine during pregnancy and the histological changes in the ovaries of mice. Timed-pregnant mice were divided into experimental and control groups. 60 mice in the experimental group received daily oral of 15 mg/kg of carbamazepine via intragastric tube on gestational days 0 to 18. 20 mice were used as control group. They received normal saline via the same route. Dams underwent laparotomy on pregnancy days 13, 15, and 18 and the ovaries were collected. Routine histological processing of the ovaries histology of paraffin sections stained with haemotoxylin and eosin, were conducted. The ovary under the effect of the drug, there was signs of degeneration
... Show MoreBackground: Oral health is important to the quality of life of all individuals. Oral lesions can cause discomfort or pain that interferes with mastication, swallowing, and speech. Oral disease is a health problem that is not only a matter of oral hygiene and local condition, but can also be a precursor to other dangerous and potentially life threatening illnesses. The present study was designed to analyze the main clinicopathological aspects of most common oral lesions in patients who visit the Oral Diagnosis Clinic of the College of Dentistry, University of Sulaimani, Kurdistan region, Iraq. Patients and methods: This prospective study was performed on 3144 patients from July 2009-July 2010. In this study a total of 3144 patients were e
... Show MoreBackground: Exposure to microwaves radiation from microwave oven may be harmful for users especially for the one who have highest contact with microwave oven. Because the body is electrochemical in nature, any force that disrupts or changes human electrochemical events will affect the physiology of the body by destabilization and interruption of many chemical body substance including growth factors.The insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) are a family of mitogenic proteins that control growth, differentiation, and the maintenance of differentiated function in numerous tissues. It fulfils an important role in growth and development of teeth, mandible, maxillae, and tongue. Platelet derived growth factors (PDGF) are proteins that regulate cell
... Show MoreFolic acid modulates several disorders in humans, pregnancy mostly because of the mitochondria-rich placenta, is a condition that favors oxidative stress.Transitional metals, especially iron, which are particularly abundant in the placenta, are important in the production of free radicals. Adenosine deaminase (ADA), an enzyme essential for the differentiation of lymphoid cells, has been used for monitoring diseases with altered immunity. In the present study we investigated the effect of regular and irregular administered folic acid in the first and second trimester of pregnancy to be compared with non-pregnant women ,and also the effect of regular and irregular using of folic acid supplement on oxidative stress parameters an
... Show MoreThe problem of divorce from the phenomena that characterized the nature of privacy,
although their impact beyond the individual to include the community as a whole, the parties
to the relationship affected by divorce caused them harm moral and material for a long time,
resulting imbalance in the personal relationship and family and social relations because of the
high divorce rates, particularly in Iraq high rates of 28690 thousand cases in 2004 to 59 515
thousand cases in 2011 and an increase of more than (100%) during the period above, and this
rise caused by aggravation of many of the problems led the reasons for social, economic and
incompatibility spouses, health and lack of reproduction, not spending The wife a
In this work, synthesis of conducting polymeric films namely, PVC thin films was carried out containing Schiff base (L) with Cu2+, Cr3+, Ni2+, Co2+, in addition to inspecting the possibilities of measuring energy gap values of PVC-L-M with variety metal ions. These new polymeric films (PVC-L-M) were characterized by FTIR spectrophotometry, energy gap and surface morphology. The optical data recorded that the band gap values are influenced by the type of metals. All modified films have a red shift in optical properties in the ultraviolet region. The PVC-L-Co(II) was the lowest value of the optical band gap, 3.1 eV.