Using a consensus acupoints regimen to explore the relationship between acupuncture sensation and lumbar spinal postoperative analgesia: A retrospective analysis of prospective clinical cooperation / 中西医结合学报

OBJECTIVE@#This study evaluated the effectiveness of acupuncture treatment on postoperative pain in patients with degenerative lumbar spine disease, and explored the relationship between the postoperative analgesic effect of acupuncture and the sensation of acupuncture experienced by the patients.@*METHODS@#This retrospective study analyzed the medical records of 97 patients who had undergone an operation by the same surgeon due to degenerative lumbar disease. These patients were divided into acupuncture group (n = 32), patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) group (n = 27), and oral analgesia group (n = 38) according to the different postoperative analgesic methods. During their hospitalization, patients completed daily evaluations of their pain using a visual analogue scale (VAS), and injection times of supplemental meperidine were recorded. Also, the Chinese version of the Massachusetts General Hospital Acupuncture Sensation Scale (C-MASS) was used in the acupuncture group.@*RESULTS@#Each of the three treatment groups showed significant reductions in postoperative pain, as shown by reduced VAS scores. The acupuncture group, however, had less rebound pain (P < 0.05) than the other two groups. Both the acupuncture and PCA groups experienced acute analgesic effects that were superior to those in the oral analgesia group. In addition, the higher the C-MASS index on the second day after surgery, the lower the VAS score on the fourth day after surgery. There was also a significant difference in the "dull pain" in the acupuncture sensation.@*CONCLUSION@#The results demonstrated that acupuncture was beneficial for postoperative pain and discomfort after simple surgery for degenerative spinal disease. It is worth noting that there was a disproportionate relevance between the patient's acupuncture sensation and the improvement of pain VAS score.

A Secretive Pichia pastoris Expression Vector for Direct PCR Product Cloning / 中国生物工程杂志

A secretive expression vector of Pichia pastoris system which can be used for the direct cloning of PCR products was constructed,and was verified through the expression of recombinant cellobiohydrolase II in Pichia pastoris.A randomly selected fragment was amplified with properly designed primers by PCR.The XhoI and Eam1105Ⅰ restriction sites were included in the 5'end of the fragment,and the Eam1105Ⅰ and XbaI restriction sites were included in its 3'end.The PCR amplified product was inserted into the P.pastoris expression plasmid pPICZ?A through XhoI and XbaI restriction sites and the resultant plasmid was digested with Eam1105Ⅰ,and lastly the big fragment was recovered,generating the P.pastoris expressive Tvector pPICZ?T.Then the cellobiohydrolase II of T.reesei was successfully expressed in P.pastoris with this expressive Tvector.Such results indicated that the constructed expression Tvector was convenient for PCR product cloning,and was effective for heterologous protein expression in P.pastoris.On the other hand,the application of the expression Tvector avoided the introduction of additional amino acids at the Nterminus of the expressed protein,which generally occurred when normal expression vectors were used in secretive expression system.