Research progress on the effective components of traditional Chinese medicine for improving AD-related cognitive impairment / 药学学报

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other aging-related diseases have become an important public health issue in China. However, current clinical drugs have failed to reverse the pathological process of AD. The holistic approach of traditional Chinese medicine offers advantages in improving cognitive function in AD through multiple molecular pathways, and may have potential for preventing AD. This paper summarizes the effects of classical traditional Chinese medicine and its active components in the improvement of AD-related cognitive dysfunction and describes the functional targets and related molecular mechanisms. This may have significance for the prevention and treatment of AD through multi-target intervention.

Experimental study on the effect of moxibustion at Shenque (CV 8) for long-term exercise-induced fatigue / 针灸推拿医学（英文版）

Objective: To investigate the effect of moxibustion at Shenque (CV 8) on fatigue in rats with chronic exercise-induced exhaustion. Methods: Thirty male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into a blank group, a model group and a moxibustion group, 10 rats in each group. Except rats in the blank group, the remaining rats were subjected to create long-term exhaustion models by repeated swimming. After successful modeling, rats in the moxibustion group received mild moxibustion at Shenque (CV 8) for 15 min, once every other day with a total of 10 times. Rats in the model group and the blank group did not receive moxibustion. At the end of the treatment, the exhausted times, and the body weight of rats before and after the experiment were compared among groups. The levels of blood malondialdehyde (MDA) and urea nitrogen (BUN), as well as the activities of aspartate transarninase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were also measured by the automatic biochemical analyzer, 24 h after the exhausting excise. Results: The 10th swimming time was significantly longer in the moxibustion group than that in the model group (P<0.01). The increase rate of the body weight was lower in the rats of the moxibustion group than that in the model group before the 7th and the 10th exhausting excise (P<0.05, P<0.01). The levels of serum MDA and BUN, as well as the activities of AST, ALT and LDH in the model group were higher than those in the blank group (all P<0.01). The levels of serum MDA and BUN, as well as the activities of AST, ALT and LDH in the moxibustion group were lower than those in the model group (P<0.01). Conclusion: Moxibustion at Shenque (CV 8) can decrease the serum levels of MDA and BUN, as well as activities of AST, ALT and LDH in the long-term fatigue rats, thus to improve the symptoms of fatigue.

The effect of small ubiquitin-like modifier-1 modification on the formation of Lewy body-like inclusions in cytoplasm and apoptosis of HEK293 cell induced by overexpression and mutation of alpha-synuclein / 中华医学遗传学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effect of small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO-1) modification on the formation of Lewy body like inclusions in cytoplasm and apoptosis of HEK293 cell induced by overexpression and mutation of alpha-synuclein.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>cDNA encoding the human alpha-synuclein without the stop codon was cloned into a pGEM T-easy vector. Restriction enzyme mapping and DNA sequencing were performed to analyze the plasmid, which was then subcloned into a pEGFP-N1 vector. The recombinant plasmid alpha-synuclein-pEGFP was transfected into HEK293 cells by lipofectamin method. Inclusions in the cultured cells were identified with HE staining. Apoptosis of the HEK293 cell was measured by Hoechst 33258 staining, MTT and Annexin V-PE flow cytometry.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The Lewy-body like inclusions were found in cytoplasm of cultured cells. Hoechst staining showed that the nuclei of cells were enlarged in the wild-type and A53T mutation groups 48 h after transfection, chromatin were accumulated and appeared spot-like. The nucleus stain was equitable in the K96R and K96R-A53T groups. MTT assay showed that the viability of cells transfected with empty plasmid was 96.2%, but it dropped to 53.4% and 56.1% in cells transfected with wild-type alpha-synuclein-pEGFP and A53T mutant group, respectively. The viability was 72.3% and 69.8% in cells transfected with K96R and K96R-A53T, respectively (P<0.05). Forty eight hours after transfection, the apoptosis rate was 3.9% in empty plasmid group, 32.2% and 34.1% in cells transfected with wild-type and mutant alpha-synuclein-pEGFP, 19.4% and 20.3% in the K96R and K96R-A53T transfected cells. There was significant difference between the two groups (P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>SUMO-1 modification did not have influence on the Lewy body-like inclusions formation in cytoplasm of HEK293 cell in vitro, but had a toxic effect which could increase the apoptosis induced by wild type overexpression and mutation of alpha-synuclein.</p>

Clinical factors related to bone metastases from breast cancer / 中华核医学杂志

Objective To study the clinical and imaging features of patients with bone metastases from breast cancer and identify the factors related to the incidence of bone metastases. Methods Three hundred and thirty-four patients with breast cancer were recruited into this study. Whole-body 99Tcm-methylene disphosphonate (MDP) bone scan, clinical staging, pathological, immunohistochemical and serological test results were analyzed retrospectively. χ2 test was used for statistical analysis. Results The incidence rate of bone metastases for patients with and without lymph node metastases was 71% (152/214) and 22. 5% (27/120), respectively (χ2 =72.80, P =0.000). The incidence rate of bone metastases from infiltrated non-specified and specified breast cancer was 69% (203/294) and 41.7% (5/12), respectively (χ2 =3. 97, P=0.046). Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) was elevated in 28.5% (51/179) and 14.9%(11/74) of patients with and without bone metastases, respectively (χ2 = 5. 25, P = 0.022 ). Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen (CA) 15-3, CA125, CA19-9 increased in 68.7% ( 123/179) and 27.0% (20/74) of patients with and without bone metastases, respectively (χ2 = 37. 03, P =0. 000). Conclusions The incidence of bone metastases from breast cancer is correlated to pathological types of primary tumor and lymph node metastases. Bone metastases occurs more frequently in patients with infiltrated, non-specified, primary cancer and with lymph node metastases. Serum ALP, CEA, CA15-3,CA125, CA19-9 might be the tumor makers for early diagnosis of bone metastases from breast cancer.

Construction of modified rat orthotopic models of renal transplantation / 中国组织工程研究

BACKGROUND: Rat model of renal transplantation is the best way for studying human rejection following renal transplantation. However, the utilization of this model is limited due to refined surgical technique.OBJECTIVE: To explore a microsurgery operation method for constructing a stable, reliable orthotopic renal transplantation model.DESIGN, TIME AND SETTING: The animal observation experiment was performed at the animal laboratory of Tianjin Union Medicine Centre from September to November 2008.MATERIALS: A total of 40 SD rats, weighing 250-300 g, were medially adopted as donators and recipients. METHODS: The renal vessels were separated by blunt separation. The kidneys of donators were infused, removed and conserved at low temperature. To the recipients, the left kidney was removed, and renal blood vessel was anastomosed by ext-ext anastomosis and reconstructed urinary passage by implanting ureter into bladder. 6-point acupuncture was used to suture wound. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The rationality and the authenticity of this operation were evaluated through analyzing the operative time, postoperative death rate and the cause of death.RESULTS: The total time of operation was (150±17) min, with warm ischemia time of (15±2) s and (55±5) min cold ischemia time. Three rats died at the first week after operation, which caused by anesthetic accident, stomatorrhagia and ureterostenoma. The achievement ratio of operation was 85%. At day 8 after operation, exploratory laparotomy of survived rats showed that the transplanted kidney was recovered well without embolism or stenosis at the stoma.CONCLUSION: An orthotopic renal transplantation model of rat is constructed by ext-ext anastomosis and reconstructed urinary passage by implanting ureter into bladder.

A related analysis for alpha, beta fibrinogen gene haplotypes and nucleotide polymorphisms associated with the ischemic stroke in Hainan Han population / 中华医学遗传学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To analyze the association of that the polymorphisms and haplotypes of Taq I site in beta fibrinogen gene and the single nucleotide sites -455 G/A, -249 C/T, -148 C/T, +1689T/G, Bsm A I G/C, 448 G/A, Bcl I G/A, Hinf I A/C in beta-fibrinogen gene are linked up with the ischemic stroke(IS).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Turbidmetric assay was used to measure the plasma fibrinogen level of one hundred and sixty cases with ischemic stroke and one hundred and thirty healthy individuals from Hainanese Han population. The polymorphisms and genotypes were characterized by PCR-RFLP. Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and statistical differences of allelic, genotype and haplotype frequencies were obtained by Chi-square test. Pairwise linkage disequilibrium was calculated and haplotypes of nine or four polymorphisms were estimated by the EH + program.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>There were highly significant differences in genotype frequencies and allelic frequencies of the polymorphisms -455 G/A, -148 C/T, 448 G/A, which happened between the IS group and control subjects (P< 0.01). However, the significant differences of the allelic frequencies in the other six polymorphisms were not found between the IS group and the control (P> 0.05). The odds ratio(OR) with the rare alleles of A -455, T -148 and A 448 is 2.46, 2.30 and 2.08 (95% confidence interval 1.153%-3.924%, 1.429%-3.694% and 1.298%-3.329%) respectively. No definite haplotype block was found by linkage disequilibrium analysis in the control group and the IS group. Association of haplotypes constructed from the nine polymorphisms with IS was not found. Among the haplotypes constructed from four polymorphisms including -455 G/A, -148 C/T, 448 G/A alleles, haplotype differences were found between the control group and the IS group. Haplotypes with G -455, C -148, G448 alleles appeared more frequently in control group(P< or = 0.01), whereas haplotypes with A -455, T -148, A 448 occurred more frequently in the IS group(P< 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The results of multi-allele and haplotype analysis indicated that the polymorphisms -455 G/A, -148 C/T, 448 G/A in beta fibrinogen gene were the possible risk factors associated with the occurrence of ischemic stroke in Hainan Han population.</p>

Effect of Extracorporeal Liver Alloperfusion in Treatment of Acute Liver Failure in Pigs / 中国普外基础与临床杂志

Objective To evaluate the feasibility and curative effect of extracorporeal liver perfusion (ECLP) in treatment of acute liver failure (ALF) in pigs. Methods The experiments were carried out in healthy pigs (weight 20-30 kg) under general anesthesia. All of the pigs were randomly divided into 3 groups. ALF model was established by liver blood supply obstructing and portal-systemic shunting. ALF group (n=5): ALF pigs were killed 8 h after establishing. ALF+ECLP group (n=5): ALF pigs were perfused with ECLP for 4 h and killed 8 h after establishing. Normal liver+ECLP group (n=4): normal pigs were dealt with just as ALF+ECLP group. The data of PT, AST, TNF, blood ammonia were collected in all groups. Pathologic changes in liver and brain were detected. Results The levels of PT, AST, TNF, blood ammonia, RBC and HCT in the ALF+ECLP group were lower than those in the ALF group (P