SOUTHERN JOURNAL OF SCIENCES

Background: β-thalassemia is a blood disorder in which the body does not make hemoglobin normally. Aim: To assess serum sclerostin in female patients with beta-thalassemia and compare with the healthy controls and to predict its complication associated with the bone pathophysiology, for designed improvement the lifestyle goodliness for these patients. Material and methods: Sixty-nine female beta-thalassemia (βT) patients (54 βT major and 15 βT Intermedia), aged 8-40 years who dependent on transfused blood, and 20 healthy controls were evaluated serum sclerostin, and was examined the relationship with hematological parameters RBC, Hb, PCV, WBC, PLT, BMI, splenic status, iron, and ferritin levels. The information of beta-thalassemia patients was collected and records by the questioner. Results: A significantly increased serum sclerostin level (mean 26.80±0.91) pg/ml was showed in βT patients compared with the healthy controls (10.03±0.68, p  smaller than  0.001) pg/ml. Furthermore, a significant decrease (p smaller than 0.05) of the sclerostin level was observed in β-thalassemia major compared to intermedia β-thalassemia patients. Serum sclerostin level revealed a significant increase in progress age; it is highest in the age group (30-40) year as compared with age group (8-18) and (19-29) year respectively. Sclerostin showed no associations with the RBC, Hb, PCV, and significantly positively correlated (p smaller than 0.05) with serum iron, ferritin levels, WBC, and PLT count. Significantly higher sclerostin levels in splenectomized and underweight groups were observed compared to unsplenectomized and normal-weight groups (p smaller than 0.05) of βT patients. Conclusions: Sclerostin plays an important role in beta-thalassemia patients and can serve as a biomarker associated with the bone pathophysiology and indicator to prevent the continuation of such serious diseases caused by iron overload in these patients.

Today, salinity stress causes extensive damage to crops, and high soil salinity is one of the limiting factors for crop yields. A practical approach to lessen the negative effect of salinity stress is to use mineral nutrition methods such as spraying plants with silicone. To investigate and compare the effect of silicon and silicon nano-chelate on the wheat plant resistance (Shiroodi cultivar) to salinity stress, a factorial experiment was designed and conducted in a completely randomized design with five replications under hydroponic conditions. Experimental treatments included concentrations of 0 and 2 mmol/L silicon, 0 and 0.424 g/L silicon nano-chelate, 0 and 150 mmol/L sodium chloride, and their interaction. The growth and physiological indices showed that salinity stress decreasing effect on shoot dry weight, root fresh weight, catalase activity, and ascorbate peroxidase. These increases indicate the activation of the plant defense system against salinity stress conditions. The results also showed that silicon nano-chelate treatment under salinity stress reduced dry and fresh weights of roots and shoots. These two compounds additionally influenced the content of catalase activity, ascorbate peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase content in shoots. Simultaneously, the silicon and silicon nano-chelate treatment under salinity stress reduced the dry and fresh weight of roots and shoots, catalase activity, and ascorbate peroxidase. Therefore, the results obtained in this study generally showed that silicon under salinity stress increased plant growth and positively affected the activity of its antioxidant system. But silicon nano-chelate not only did not improve plant performance but also reduced its growth.

Background: Diabetes Type 2 is a complex disorder described by an imbalance between insulin resistance and secretion that induce liver glucose output. It has been shown that serum insulin levels are affected by a sperm plasma membrane and acrosome. Therefore, during insulin resistance spermatogenesis changes, diabetic patients detect testicular changes. Aims: This research aims to know the effect of diabetic type 2 on some aspects of fertility in men by studying the characteristics of the semen and some biochemical parameters in seminal plasma. Methods: This study was achieved at the Center for Endocrinology and Diabetes Specialists in Maysan province from February to November 2018 and included 45 men (30 diabetic and 15 healthy in the control group) aged 30 to 59 years. The patients were divided according to age into two groups, the first (30-39) and second (40-59) years, also divided by the duration of diabetes into two groups, the first (1-5) and second (6-10) year. Results: The pH of semen in the second age group (40-49 years) group and first duration (1-5 years) group were significantly decreased (P <0.05) in diabetes compared with the control group. Volume and viscosity did not have significant differences in patients compared to the control following the age and duration of diabetes. Liquefaction only in the first age (30-39 years) group significantly increased (P <0.05) compared to the control. The concentration of sperm, progressive motility, non-progressive and normal morphology decreased (P <0.05) significantly. While the sluggish, dead, and abnormal morphology significantly increased (P <0.05) in all diabetes groups compared with the control. The fructose and alkaline phosphatase values in the seminal plasma were not differing significantly in patients compared with the control. Zinc and glutathione values decreased significantly (P <0.05) compared with control in each age and duration of diabetes. Discussion: Insulin stimulates the Ledying cell function, defect insulin effect on spermatogenesis. Impaired sperm motility in a patient with D.M. might be attributed to many reasons, such as increased ROS level, altered mitochondria DNA, and decreased epididymal products. Conclusion: our measurement indicates that there is an effect of type 2 diabetes mellitus on semen parameters and seminal plasma biochemical parameters.