Objectives: Dickkopf-1 (DKK-1) is WNT/b-catenin pathway antagonist which plays a detrimental role in the development of diabetic retinopathy (DR). This research aimed to assess serum DKK-1 levels in diabetic patients who have and have not developed DR and, compare them with the control subjects finding out whether we can use it as an indicator for DR early diagnosis and to find out which one of the widely used two groups of antidiabetic treatments had the greater effect on this biomarker and hence on the progression of DR. Methods: The study participants were divided into two subgroups: First, 70 patients (36 male, 34 female) with type 2 diabetes mellitus, among them 35 patients diagnosed with DR and 35 with no evidence of DR, and secondly, non-diabetic controls (11 male, 9 female) were selected from the patients attending Ibn AL-Haitham hospital for ophthalmology and a specialized center for endocrinology and diabetes. Venous blood samples of all participants were drawn after an overnight fast, and serum samples were stored at -20ºC until DKK-1 assay. Results: Serum DKK-1 showed significantly lower levels in diabetic patients with (6.1 ± 2 ng/mL) or without DR (14 ± 6.2 ng/mL) when compared to those of controls (34 ± 12.25 ng/mL) (p 0.05). Furthermore, serum DKK-1 levels were lower in the late stage of DR compared to the early stage 5.6 ± 1.7 and 7 ± 1.9 ng/mL, respectively. Furthermore, DPP-4 inhibitors cause a better increment in DKK-1 levels when compared to SU in the NDR group. Conclusions: Reduced serum levels of DKK-1 are related to the existence and worsening of DR and have the prospect to serve as an indicator for this condition.
Abstract\
Dealing economic units at the present time with an industrial environment characterized by competitiveness and the pace of change and its strength as a result of this changing environment shall be on those who made it to adopt strategies that allow them to confront these variables and work in order to meet the market requirements of quality and price appropriate products to suit and the demand for those products and conditions to maintain
its competitive position and its development.
As a result, it became the subject of competitiveness in recent years and enjoys widespread attention at the global level. And in order to keep up
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The present article concerns one of the objects of media sociology under construction. The transformation of the rites in the use of the television contents in the era of digital technologies and media convergence. By an analytic contextual approach, based on the study of the uses, we formulate the following hypothesis: so many changes in the rites of uses are real, in particular at the young people, so, many pieces integer of the everyday life remain impervious to these changes, and it is true under the influence of a slowness of the social and cultural orders, rooted for a long time in the traditional social fabric. We shall then try to bring a sociological look to this societal, cultural, and communicational object that is the pas
Research Summary
This research deals with the history of the founding of one of the most prominent religious schools in Iraqi Kurdistan and its scientific and cognitive contributions that lasted for more than a century, which is the “Biyara” school, where it was a large scientific institution from which distinguished scholars graduated who served Islam and Muslims in Iraq and neighboring countries, and played an important role in teaching Mental and transport sciences and the preservation of the Arabic language in Iraqi Kurdistan. The history of the founding of this school goes back to the year 1037 AH, at the hands of its founder, Sheikh Oma
... Show MoreThe aim of this paper is to construct cyclic subgroups of the projective general linear group over from the companion matrix, and then form caps of various degrees in . Geometric properties of these caps as secant distributions and index distributions are given and determined if they are complete. Also, partitioned of into disjoint lines is discussed.
Resource estimation is an essential part of reservoir evaluation and development planning which highly affects the decision-making process. The available conventional logs for 30 wells in Nasiriyah oilfield were used in this study to model the petrophysical properties of the reservoir and produce a 3D static geological reservoir model that mimics petrophysical properties distribution to estimate the stock tank oil originally in place (STOOIP) for Mishrif reservoir by volumetric method. Computer processed porosity and water saturation and a structural 2D map were utilized to construct the model which was discretized by 537840 grid blocks. These properties were distributed in 3D Space using sequential Gaussian simulation and the variation in
... Show MorePhenomena of an abnormal genitalia was among some specimens of Cicindela aulica Dej.
Collected from Iraq. The fore tarsi of male were asymmetrical having its basal three segments
dilated and clothed beneath with fine bristles as in normal male. While those of the right leg
were found simple as in normal females. Dissection of the genialia of these specimens
showed that they were of two types of both male and female structures.
The present study was carried out on forty eight epididymis of sexually mature dogs to elucidate light microscope features and the presence of testosterone receptors inside epididymis in different seasons. Twenty four dogs aged 3 years were used during the periods from 1/2/2015-1/2/2016. The epididymis were carefully dissected from the testis after orchidectomy operations and fixed, dehydrated, clarified and embedded in paraffin. Sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin and periodic acid schiff. As well as, paraffin embedded cytoimmunochemistry technique was used for detection of testosterone receptors. Muscular coats showed no significant differences during different seasons or among segments. Epithelial heigh
... Show MoreEnglish teachers in Iraq and other countries around the world up to this time use traditional methods to help students memorize new vocabularies. The sense of words or structure is not to be given in either the native tongue or the target language by definition, but is induced by the way the form is used in the situation. Situational Language Teaching (SLT) has recently become the needed method for improving speaking skills. It indicates the application of learning the language in actual and social exchange expressions so as to let learners do as required in classroom and non-classroom circumstances. This pilot study seeks to answer the following questions: Can SLT improve English speaking skills of target learners? How SLT contribute to th
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