Morphological and histological study was conducted to examine the structure of prosencephalon (Cerebrum) in Columba oenas (Linnaeus, 1758). Thirteen animals of C. oenas were used in the present study. The brains were excised, fixed and recessed for the preparation of microscope slides and used hematoxylin-eosin stain, methylene blue and Bielschowsky’s stain. The result of morphological study showed that the cerebrum is apportion of the prosencephalon and the largest part of the brain and the dorsal surface was smooth and convex and composed of two cerebral hemispheres. The cerebral hemisphere contains the cavity which called lateral ventricle. The hemispheres were connected by the anterior commissure. Histologyically the cerebral hemisphe

Toxicity with advanced glycation end products (AGEs) is a major problem in uremic patients. Treatment with peritoneal dialysis (PD) exacerbates AGE formation as a result of bioincompatibility of the conventional peritoneal dialysis fluid (PDF). The presence of glucose degradation products (GDPs) in PDF is the main cause of its bioincompatibility. Carnosine is an endogenous dipeptide with a powerful antiglycation/antioxidant activity. In an attempt to improve PDF biocompatibility, we evaluated the effect of carnosine in human peritoneal mesothelial cells (HPMC) incubated with PDF or GDPs in vitro. Methods: HPMC were incubated for short or prolonged time with PDF in the presence or absence of carnosine. Similarly, HPMC were incubated in the s

The research aims to study Sabkha mineralogy to determine the mineral types, the nature of the precipitation, and the patterns of salt crystallization. Two Sabkhas in Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, were studied. It was found that the Sabkhas were formed in flat ponds from saturated solutions in a semi-arid to arid climate. Halite predominates, followed by anhydrite and gypsum as evaporite minerals. As for the minerals of the Sabkha soil, it consisted of feldspar, calcite, quartz, and dolomite, in addition to the clay minerals represented by kaolinite, illite, and chlorite. Needle forms, hopper shapes, dendritic crystals, and polygon shapes are the main crystallization patterns dominantly found in the Sabkhas. All these types of crysta

The embryonic development of the Mosquito fish(Gambusia affinis) eye lens was investigated using light microscopy .The results indicated that the embryonic development of the lens does not correspond to that of the non spherical lenses of terrestrial vertebrates .This study showed that a very small cavity in the lens vesicle appears during development ,but it differs from that of the mammalian lens. The most important aspect in this study is that ,the posterior edge of the simple cuboidal epithelium which covers the anterior half of the surface of the lens is situated well beyond the equatorial region of the lens .As a result , the germinal and transitional zones became closer to the posterior pole rather than the anterior pole of the le

Abdominal fat synthesizes a variety of adipokines, including vaspin and chemerin, that affect the resistance to insulin. This research was conducted to demonstrate the effect of pioglitazone, one insulin sensitizer used to decrease insulin resistance, on these adipokines in   obese patients with polycystic ovary (PCOS). Twenty-five obese women with PCOS were treated with pioglitazone 15mg/bid for 12 weeks. Modifications in fasting blood glucose (FBG), serum fasting insulin (FSI), chemerin and vaspin serum levels, follicle stimulation hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), testosterone (T), and in baseline and post-therapy were assessed. Body mass index decreased without any substantial variance after 12 weeks of piogl

Uropathogenic specific protein is a genotoxic protein targeting the DNA, leading to mutations and modifications in the normal cell's DNA and subsequently, cancer development. This study aims to determine the prevalence of the usp gene in Uropathogenic Escherichia coli isolated from females with urinary tract infections and study its correlation with biofilm formation. One hundred and five urine specimens were collected from female patients (20 to 55 years old) with urinary tract infections attending hospitals. Traditional laboratory methods using selective and differential culture media were used for initial bacterial isolation and identification, and molecular techniques that targeted a segment of the 16SrRNA gene with a specific primer pa

Pseudomonas aeruginosa has variety of virulence factors that contribute to its pathogenicity. Therefore, rapid detection with high accuracy and specificity is very important in the control of this pathogenic bacterium. To evaluate the accuracy and specificity of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assay, ETA and gyrB genes were targeted to detect pathogenic strains of P. aeruginosa. Seventy swab samples were taken from patients with infected wounds and burns in two hospitals in Erbil and Koya cities in Iraq. The isolates were traditionally identified using phenotypic methods, and DNA was extracted from the positive samples, to apply PCR using the species specific primers targeting ETA, the gene encoding for exotoxin A, and gyrB gene. The res

Background and objective: Viral Hepatitis Type B&C is serious public health challenge throughout the world.Hepatitis B and C viruses still remain to be the major causes of chronic hepatitis.It is estimated that around 350-400 million people in the world are chronic carriers of HBV, which represents approximately 7% of the total populationwhereas infection with HCV is found in approximately 3% of the world population, which represents 160 million people. Hepatitis B infection has a wide range of seroprevalence in the Mediterranean countries ranging from intermediate (=>2% ) to high prevalence ( =>7%). World Health Organization estimated a prevalence rate for HCV infection of about 4.6% in Eastern Mediterranean in 1999. During the eightieths