Background: The menopause is physiological changes in women that give rise to adaptive changes at both systemic and oral level. During menopause, ovarian function declines and the production of sex steroid hormones reduces significantly affecting the oral tissues and periodontal structures leading to chronic inflammation of the gingiva, increased risk of tooth loss. Aim of study: The present study was designed to estimate the oral hygiene status in relation to salivary estradiol level among pre and post-menopausal women. Materials and Methods: Ninety women aged 48-52 years old, the control group consisted of 45 pre-menopausal women and the study group consisted of 45 post-menopause were examined for gingival index, plaque index and calcu

Background: The genetic polymorphisms of vitamin D receptor (VDR) have an association with thalassemia development, additionally to the environmental elements that elicited the disorder in the genetically predisposed individuals. As well, VDR functions responsible for the regulation of bone metabolism, such its part in immunity. Aim: The sitting study intended to inspect the association between thalassemia disease and the genetic polymorphisms of VDR among the Iraqi population then compared these findings to other findings of thalassemia patients in other different ethnic populations. Materials and methods: The restriction enzymes Bsm-I and Fok-I were applied to determine the genetic polymorphisms frequencies of VDR by a Polymerase Chain Re

FLI1 is a member of ETS family of transcription factors that regulate a variety of normal biologic activities including cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. The expression of FLI1 and its correlation with well-known breast cancer prognostic markers (ER, PR and HER2) was determined in primary breast tumors as well as four breast cancer lines including: MCF-7, T47D, MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-468 using RT-qPCR with either 18S rRNA or ACTB (β-actin) for normalization of data. FLI1 mRNA level was decreased in the breast cancer cell lines under study compared to the normal breast tissue; however, Jurkat cells, which were used as a positive control, showed overexpression compared to the normal breast. Regarding primary breast carcinoma

Optical losses represent one of the primary obstacles to increasing the efficiency of silicon solar cells. The recommended solution to minimize optical losses is the use of plasmonic metal nanoparticles; however, they act as recombination centers within the solar cell construction, leading to a decrease in performance. The goal of this article is to introduce cobalt/graphene nanoparticles into the solar cell to minimize the optical losses. An ultra-thin film silicon PIN solar cell of dimensions (400 ×400 ×900) nm3 with ring metal contact shape was designed and numerically investigated using COMSOL Multiphysics software version 6.2 by the finite element method (FEM). Core/shell cobalt-graphene (Co/Gr) nanoparticles are periodically int

Background: Invasion in oral cancer involves alterations in cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions that accompanied by loss of cell adhesion. Catenins stabilize cellular adherence junctions by binding to E-cadherin, which further mediates cell-cell adhesion and regulates proliferation and differentiation of epithelial cells. The Wnt/β-catenin pathway is one of the major signaling pathways in cell proliferation, oncogenesis, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Aims of the study: to detect immunohistochemical distribution pattern and different subcellular localization of β-catenin in oral squamous cell carcinoma and relate such expression to Bryne’s invasive grading system. Materials and Methods: This study included 30 paraffi

Background: Obesity is a serious public health concern that has reached epidemic proportions; the prevalence, as well as the severity of obesity in adolescents is increasing at an alarming rate. A close relationship was found between weight status and dental caries. Thus this research aimed to assess the prevalence and severity of dental caries among overweight adolescent females in relation to physicochemical characteristics of stimulated whole saliva in comparison with normal weight adolescent females. Materials and methods: The total sample involved for nutritional status assessment is composed of 2678 females aged 13-15 years. This was performed using Body Mass Index specific for age and gender according to CDC growth chart (2000). The