earthworms are an important part of food chain in soil ecosystem. in polluted soils, heavy metals are consumed by earthworms and transferred to other organisms through food chain, resulting in many adverse health impacts. due to the benefits of earthworms for soil fertility, it is important to assess the effects of soil pollution on population, biomass and functions of earthworms. to determine ...

background: mammography is the primary imaging technique for detection and diagnosis of breast cancer; however, the contrast of a mammogram image is often poor, especially for dense and glandular tissues. in these cases the radiologist may miss some diagnostically important microcalcifications. in order to improve diagnosis of cancer correctly, image enhancement technology is often used to enha...

results at high concentrations (40 and 100 μm), apoptosis was demonstrated and it was clearly more prominent in hepatocytes exposed to celecoxib loaded liposomes. conclusions our results showed that celecoxib loaded liposomes robustly induced apoptosis, an action that can potentially make it more relevant than the usual form for chemopreventive strategies and also may raise concerns about its t...

the discovery of the antifertility activity of gossypol led scientists and researchers to the development of compounds with antifertility activity that can be used as male contraceptives. these studies resulted in discovery of the antifertility activity of several classes of compounds which have been reported in the literature. this article deals with the synthesis of four new analogues of pyri...

background: human cripto-1, a member of the egf-cfc family, is involved in embryonic development, embryonic stem cell maintenance, and tumor progression. it also participates in multiple cell signaling pathways including wnt, notch, and tgf-β. remarkably, it is expressed in cancer stem cell (csc) compartments, boosting tumor cell migration, invasion, and angiogenesis. although cripto-1 is overe...

drug abuse is considered as the most common poisoning in the world. stimulants agent especially amphetamines and methamphetamines are among important abused substances. different types of neurologic, psychiatric, respiratory, gastrointestinal, and cardiogenic complications have been reported to be related to methamphetamine consumption. some of these substances could cause dysrhythmias which is...

background: elevated level of plasma homocysteine has been related to various diseases. patients with hyperhomocysteinemia can develop hepatic steatosis and fibrosis. we hypothesized that oxidative stress induced by homocysteine might play an important role in pathogenesis of liver injury. also, the cellular response designed to combat oxidative stress is primarily controlled by the transcripti...

human wharton’s jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hwj-mscs) are easily available cells without transplant rejection problems or ethical concerns compared to bone-marrow-derived mscs for prospective clinical applications. these cells display immunosuppressive properties and may be able to play an important role in autoimmune disorders. regulatory t-cells (treg) are important to prevent autoi...

litter size is one of the most important economical traits in sheep breeding industry. in addition to minor genes, litter size is under the influence of major genes. bone morphogenetic protein 15 (bmp-15), a member of the transforming growth factor beta (tgf-ß) superfamily, which is specifically expressed in oocytes, plays a dramatic role in sheep prolificacy. reported mutations in this gene ca...