Anatomical Sciences Journal
Volume:10 Issue: 4, Autumn 2013

The inability to have a child is a baleful event for millions of couples in their life, and a large percentage of them have a personal frustration. The problem of infertility in couples is distributed equitably between the two sexes. Among different methods, medicinal plants have been used in many Nations to treat male infertility problems. These medicinal herbs are used to treat sperm disorders, dysfunctioning of the libido, 2 sexual asthenia and erection. Herbs provide a therapeutic option, which is affordable and available for infertile couples, and herbalism is the main form of treatment in our health system. So in this review, we have summarized most of the data dealing with the positive effects of plant extracts on mammalian reproductive system.

Infertility is a common phenomenon in modern societies. Today, use of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) for treatment of infertility is common, and cryopreservation is one of these technologies. Cryopreservation has impact on the function and percentage of fertility of human sperm. In this study, motility, viability, nitric oxide, and DNA apoptosis were assessed before and after cryopreservation process of human semen samples in normozoospermic men. We divided 20 semen samples of normozoospermic men into 2 groups: fresh group as a control and frozen–thawed group. Each semen sample has been aliquoted to 4 parts in cryotube for assessment of viability by eosin and negrosin staining, motility by invert microscope, nitric oxide and DNA apoptosis content by flow cytometry. Normozoospermic men frozen–thawed semen samples showed significant (p<0.05) difference in viability, motility, nitric oxide and DNA apoptosis compared with fresh semen samples. cryopreservation process has impact on viability, motility, intracellular nitric oxide and DNA apoptosis content in fertile human semen samples.

In the recent years, the use of several drugs such as cocaine and morphine has reduced, but the use of «club drugs» has increased in many countries. 3, 4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) which has known as ‘ecstasy’ among people has many harmful effects on serotonergic system in the brain. This system is responsible for learning and memory. In this study, we tested sub-acute and chronic effects of MDMA on spatial memory in the Morris water maze (MWM) task and passive avoidance tasks. 18 Adult male wistar rats (200-250 g) were given single or multiple injections of MDMA (10 mg/kg, IP). Learning and spatial memory functions were assessed using passive avoidance and Morris water maze (MWM) tasks, respectively. Data was analyzed by SPSS 16 software and one- way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. The results showed that sub-acute and chronic administration of MDMA have adverse effects on escape latency, traveled distance and avoidance learning in the rats. The changes were more significant in sub-acute group. These data suggest that MDMA treatment impairs learning and memory performances that are more extensive in sub-acute group.

Alteration of terminal sugars of Glycoconjugates is one of the important aspects of neoplasia. The aim of the present study was to identify GalNac and GlcNac containing glycoconjugates in different grades of neoplastic cells in adenocarcinoma of colon. Histological sections prepared from paraffin blocks belong to 30 patient of colon adenocarcinoma obtained from Khatam-Al-Anbia hospital in Zahedan, Iran and stained by H-E, PAS, WGA and SBA/Alcian blue lectins. Histologic slides were graded histochemically (0-3) according to staining intensity, and collected data were analyzed by SPSS software. Statistical analysis showed only a significant difference in staining intensity for SBA lectin P<0.001). Furthermore with increasing the histopathological grades, the frequency of positivity of neoplastic cells for GalNac and GluNac was also increased. The pattern of staining of neoplastic cells to WGA and SBA lectins were changed with increasing of histopathological grades.

Nowadays, there is special interest in finding a new contraceptive drug with high safety and fewer side effects. Investigations have shown that dill (Anethum graveolens L.) can be used either as a menstrual cycle regulator or contraceptive. Since cell surface terminal sugars have crucial roles in oocyte maturation, fertilization and implantation, in this study we investigated the effects of ether fraction of dill seed extracts on ovarian and uterine cell surface glycoconjugates. Adult Wistar female rats were divided into 6 groups: control, sham, low (0.5 g/kg) and high (5 g/kg) doses of ether fraction of dill seed aqueous extract and low (0.045 g/kg) and high (0.45 g/kg) doses of ether fraction of dill seed ethanol extracts and treated for 10 days. Histological sections of uterus and ovary were prepared and stained by Con A, DBA, SBA, UEA, and PNA lectins. Intensity of reactions of uterine and glycoconjugates of ovarian cell surfaces was measured by Image-Java software. The intensity of reactions of endometrial epithelial cells (P=0.01 and P =0.00) and myometrial cells (P=0.02 and P=0.03) after Con A and DBA staining were significantly lower in the high-dose aqueous extract treated group than in the control group. Corpus luteum granulosa cell reactions in low doses of aqueous extract (P =0.01) and corpus luteum granulosa cell and oocytes in high doses of aqueous extract (P =0.02 and P =0.04) were decreased compared to the control group. Ether fraction of dill extracts, especially in the form of aqueous extract, could affect cell surface terminal sugar.

Infants of diabetic mothers are significantly at higher risk for major congenital malformations, with cardiovascular anomalies that is the most frequent. In this study, we presented a rare case of dextrocardia and situs inversus totalis (mirror-image dextrocardia) with multiple congenital heart anomalies who was born from a diabetic mother.

We observed a rare variant case of Poland syndrome in a 55-year-old male cadaver in gross anatomy dissection room at department of Anatomy school of Medicine. His past and family history was not remarkable. The outward appearance of anterior thoracic wall, deltoid and shoulder regions revealed obvious abnormalities. Upon dissection, the following features were observed: (1) On the right side, the pectoralis major and minor were completely absent and deltoid muscle was hypotrophied; therefore, the deltoid region in the right side was seen weaker in comparison with the opposite side. (2) A thick fatty layer about 3 cm was replaced instead of both the pectoralis major and minor muscles. (3) The distance between the neck and the upper part of deltoid region was seemed shorter on affected side (right side); in other words, the right clavicle bone was seemed a little shorter than the left clavicle bone. (4) The fingers of the right hand show webbing. Due to the absence of the pectoralis major and minor muscle that were accompanied with webbing and shortening in fingers of the hand of same side, the presented case was a rare variant of the Poland syndrome.