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:
The Iraqi economy faces complex economic challenges that threaten the prospects for growth and stability in the short and medium term, The decrease in oil revenues on which Iraq is based in financing its total expenditure, both operational and investment, led to the emergence of a deficit in the government budget, As the global oil price crisis affected the revenues of the Iraqi government negatively, especially as this negative impact coincided with the increase in military spending resulting from Iraq's war against terrorism, Which led to the Iraqi government to implement austerity measures were to reduce public spending on several projects, which are less important compared to projects that a
... Show MoreThe current study is concerned with investigating the difficulties that Iraqi EFL learners of English may face when translating English collective nouns. Such collective nouns as committee, government, , jury , Parliament , etc. are considered singular when the concept of the unity as a group is emphasized , but when the concept of the individuals or numbers is emphasized they are treated as plural. A sample of twenty undergraduate students have been selected randomly to translate certain English collective nouns in some selected political texts in order to find out the difficulties they might face in rendering them into Arabic. It is hypothesized that most of the testees have used the singular form rather than the plural ignoring the
... Show MoreThe measurement of natural radioactivity in a given region or country is essential to provide a reference base-line map to follow up a possible variation in future. In order to perform such measurement, the natural radioactivity was measured in different locations. The locations (50 sites) were distributed over Al-Jabal Al-Gharbi Mountain, starting from the city Al-Azeeziah in the eastern part to Wazen on the Tunisian border in the west. The measurements showed obvious variation from one site to another. The levels were fluctuating from (12.8 counts/minute) in Bir-Ayad to (45.7 counts/minute) in Gherian.
In order to investigate the cause for such variation, samples were collected from (27) sites for detailed study. The levels of natur
Most of the propositions and researches that dealt with fashions in the Middle East, specifically this region from the world, from a historical perspective have not been sufficient, and were characterized by many aspects of immature thinking, in addition, they have been varied in quality. This can be attributed to many factors including: the focus in the field of researches and Middle East studies is on languages, arts, history, and political thinking of the region. Other factors are the information asymmetry, the differences in sources and references, in addition to differences in the scientific value of these sources added to the difficulty of gathering them at the same time especially that these sources are scattered in many places wh
... Show MorePolyaniline films were successfully synthesized in this study using an oxidative polymerization method at temperatures ranging from 0 to 4 ° C. Polyaniline films were deposited using a single step of chemical oxidative polymerization rather than electrochemical polymerization. The polyaniline was examined using FTIR, XRD, SEM, AFM, and Four Point Probe. This result demonstrates that polyaniline synthesized using this method has a uniform morphology, small size (17 to 40) nm, high crystallinity, and high conductivity (9.42 s/cm).
The aim of the study is to diagnose the real level of technology usage in teaching and learning EFL at university from teachers and students’ viewpoints, and see if it is possible to achieve something of the researchers’ dream - accessing top universities. Two questionnaires have been used to measure the range of technology usage in Colleges of Education for Women, Baghdad and Iraqi Universities, and College of Basic Education. The results have shown that the reality of using technology is still away from the dream. The results have been ascribed to two reasons: The first is the little knowledge of using technology in teaching, and the second is that technology is not included in the curriculum.
The importance of kick tolerance in well operations has recently increased due to its implications in well design, in drilling and well control. To study a simple method for the application of kick tolerance concept in an effective way on the basis of field data, this research purpose is to improve knowledge about Kick Tolerance and represents a technical basis for the discussion on revision of standard procedure.
The objective of this work is to review and to present a methodology of determination the kick tolerance parameters using the circulation kicks tolerance concepts.
The proposed method allows to know, to evaluate and to analyze the kick tolerance problem in order to make the drilling exe
... Show MorePluripotent stem cells (PSC) possess unlimited proliferation, self-renewal, and a differentiation capacity spanning all germ layers. Appropriate culture conditions are important for the maintenance of self-renewal, pluripotency, proliferation, differentiation, and epigenetic states. Oxygen concentrations vary across different human tissues depending on precise cell location and proximity to vascularisation. The bulk of PSC culture-based research is performed in a physiologically hyperoxic, air oxygen (21% O2) environment, with numerous reports now detailing the impact of a physiologic normoxia (physoxia), low oxygen culture in the maintenance of stemness, survival, morphology, proliferation, differentiation potential, and epigenetic
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