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Background: Transparency in providing information in higher education became a very important and basic matter especially after internationalization of medical education. The Egyptian Society for Medical Education (ESME) aspires that Egyptian medical schools would work more towards transparency and openness for greater effective feedback. Literature review revealed almost zero results related to the transparency situation in Egyptian medical schools. Methods: This study was carried out to estimate the transparency of medical schools’ websites information concerning their accreditation process through reviewing forty Egyptian medical schools’ official websites, as well as through the National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Education (NAQAAE) website searching for two major transparency criteria. Each criterion was further subdivided into several information elements. Data were registered and analyzed using the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap). Authors excluded, from data analysis, the newly established schools that are less than five years which were not obliged to apply for accreditation yet. Results: Research results showed that only thirteen colleges recorded being accredited on their websites; however very limited amount of data was available about the process, dates, and documents. The accreditation information of these thirteen schools was confirmed by information on NAQAAE website. Other information concerning other important elements such as accountability and future plans were almost completely missing. Conclusion: Authors concluded that due to lack of essential information on the Egyptian medical schools' websites about their institutional accreditation situation, serious steps should be taken from both the medical schools and the national accrediting body to encourage the openness and to ensure the transparency towards the accreditation process and results in Egypt.

Background: The adrenal glands are small flattened glands closely applied to the upper pole of each kidney. The adrenal cortex consists of three layers that vary primarily in the arrangement of the secretory cells comprising each layer. The gland adapts to various forms of acute and chronic stress. Nitric oxide (NO) is an important endogenous biological modulator, produced by various cell types in different tissues and has diverse physiological actions, including the modulations of vascular resistance, tissue perfusion, blood pressure, and cell proliferation. L-arginine is one of the most metabolically versatile amino acids. In addition to its role in the synthesis of nitric oxide, L-arginine serves as a precursor for the synthesis of polyamines, proline, glutamate, creatine, agmatine and urea. Aim of work: To study the microscopic changes that might occur in the suprarenal gland of adult male albino rats in response to recurrent episodes of acute restraint stress and the role of L-arginine in relieving or blocking these changes. Material and Methods: Thirty adult male Albino rats, 200-250 gm body weight each, were used in the present study. The rats were divided into three groups (ten rats/group). Group I: Control group: were not exposed to stress and allowed to move freely. Group II: Rats subjected to recurrent episodes of acute restraint stress: rats were exposed to immobilization stress. The fore limbs and hind limbs of rats were tied separately and then together securing them with adhesive tape thereby immobilizing them for 2 hours daily for 7 days. Group III: Rats treated with L-arginine and subjected to recurrent episodes of acute restraint stress: rats were administered L-arginine by gastric gavage, at a dose of 300 mg/kg/day. At the end of the experiment, the rats were anaesthetized and their adrenals were extracted and processed for light microscopic examination, immunohistochemical studies and quantitative image analysis. Results: Exposure of adult male rats to recurrent episodes of acute restraint stress resulted in diffuse vacuolar degeneration within the three zones of suprarenal cortex, with distortion of cellular cords, widened intercellular spaces and localized hemorrhage in suprarenal medulla. Acute restraint stress also caused statistically highly significant increase in the distribution of iNOS in both cortex and medulla within nerve cells and nerve fibers compared to the control group. On the other hand, concomitant treatment with L-arginine caused an apparent improved cellular architecture with marked decrease in the extent of vacuolar degeneration within all the three zones of suprarenal cortex, but areas of hyperemia within the cortex and congested blood capillaries in the medulla could be observed. Moreover, treatment with L-arginine resulted in statistically highly significant decrease in the distribution of iNOS within suprarenal gland with shift of activity of iNOS from suprarenal medulla to suprarenal cortex compared to the stress group. Still, there were, statistically, highly signif...

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