Essential Role of Chinese Medicines in Mesenchymal Stem Cells Transplantation for Treatment of Ischemic Stroke / 中国结合医学杂志

Ischemic stroke accounts for the majority of all strokes and has been primary causes of long-term disability and mortality in worldwide. Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy suggests significantly improved effects on neurological functional outcome, neurogenesis, angiogenesis, blood-brain barrier permeability, inflammatory injury, neuroprotection and so on, following stroke. However, the occurrence of adverse effects results in restriction of the therapy. Chinese medicine accumulates abundant clinical experiences on stroke for over two thousand years, and some formulae and active ingredients of Chinese medicines have presented obvious efficacies in clinical treatment. Therefore, based on Chinese medicine theory, we provide some ideas of screening agents for combination treatment of Chinese medicines and MSC for ischemic stroke, and summarize the potentials of Chinese medicines in MSC treatment and analyze the feasibilities of Chinese medicines against side effects of MSC therapy. Consequently, we propose Chinese medicines combing with MSC should be a promising approach to clinical stroke treatment in future.

Inhibition of silent information regulator-1 in hepatocytes induces lipid metabolism disorders and enhances hepatitis C virus replication / 中华肝脏病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the role of the host-encoded silent information regulator 1 (SIRT1) on hepatocytes' lipid metabolism under conditions of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and assess its potential effects on virus replication in vitro.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The Huh-7.5 human hepatocyte cell line was used as the control group and Huh-7.5 cells stably expressing the HCV replicon (Huh7.5-HCV) were used as the experimental group. Effects of interferon (IFN) treatment and activation of SIRT1 by resveratrol were also observed. The mRNA and protein expression levels of SIRT1 were detected by real time (q)PCR and western blotting. Effects on SIRT1 protein activity were tested by measuring the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+)/beta-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, reduced (NADH) by flow cytometry and chromatometry, and the levels of triacylglycerol (TG), total cholesterol (TC), and fatty acid beta oxidation rate by enzymatic analysis and liquid scintillation counting. Effects on mRNA expression of SIRT1 downstream lipid-metabolism genes were measured by qPCR.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The Huh7.5-HCV cells had a significantly higher level of ROS (3.8+/-0.5 vs. Huh-7.5: 1.0+/-0.2; t = 12.736, P less than 0.01) but significantly lower levels of NAD+/NADH (0.03+/-0.01 vs. 0.12+/-0.03; t = 6.971, P less than 0.01), SIRT1 activity (0.3+/-0.1 vs. 1.0+/-0.2, 0.9+/-0.2, F = 6.766, P less than 0.01), SIRT1 mRNA (0.4+/-0.1 vs. 1.0+/-0.3, 0.9+/-0.2, F = 5.864, P less than 0.01), and SIRT1 protein (0.3+/-0.1 vs. 0.8+/-0.2, 0.9+/-0.2, F = 5.419, P less than 0.01). The lower levels of SIRT1 in Huh7.5-HCV cells accompanied decreased phosphorylation of the forkhead box O1 (FoxO1), which not only up-regulated the downstream genes of SREBP-1c, FAS, ACC, SREBP-2, HMGR and HMGS (which increased fatty acid synthesis) but also down-regulated the downstream genes of PPAR and CPT1A genes (which decreased fatty acid beta oxidation). IFN treatment restored all of the aforementioned changes. Resveratrol-induced SIRT activation improved the perturbations in lipid metabolism pathways, as evidenced by an increase in fatty acid beta oxidation and a decrease in TG and TC synthesis, as well as inhibited HCV replication.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>HCV may decrease the NAD+/NADH ratio in hepatocytes, leading to a down-regulation of SIRT1 activity and expression and perturbing the downstream expression profile of lipid metabolism-related factors, ultimately causing lipid metabolism disorders and establishing a permissive intracellular environment for HCV replication.</p>

Treatment of cerebral ischemia with combination of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells and Chinese medicine / 中国结合医学杂志

Many laboratories have been attempting to integrate Chinese medicine (CM) with the research of stem cells in order to explore this promising frontier. Studies on the combination of CM and bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) have found that some effective components from CM could activate endogenous stem cells and induce stem cells to differentiate into neural-like cells in vitro and promote angiogenesis. This review summarized the latest research findings of BMSCs and their application combined with CM in the treatment of cerebral ischemia.

Effects of yinian jiangya decoction contained serum on endothelial cell proliferation and PPAR gamma mRNA expression in spontaneously hypertensive rat / 中国中西医结合杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the effects of Yinian Jiangya (YNJY) Decoction contained serum on cell proliferation of primary cultured endothelial cells of spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) and the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPAR-gamma) mRNA expression in the cells.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>SD rats were fed with high-lipid diet and different doses (high, medium and low, containing crude drug of 5.2 g/mL, 2.6 g/mL, 1.3 g/mL respectively) of YNJY respectively and the serum contained different doses of YNJY (S-YNJY) was prepared by collecting the rats' serum after 20 days of feeding. The serum obtained from SD rats fed with normal diet, i.e. drug free serum (S-free) was taken for control. Primary cultured endothelial cells of SHR were treated respectively with S-YNJY in different doses (treated groups) and S-free (control group), the cell activity and the mRNA expression of PPAR-gamma in cells of all groups were detected by MTT and RT-PCR respectively at different time points: 2, 4, 8, 16 and 24 h after treatment.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>MTT test showed that at time points of 4 and 8 h, the OD value raised in the treated groups with insignificant difference among them (P>0.05), but was higher than that in the control group (P<0.05); at 16 h, it increased but showed a smaller increment in the medium-dose treated group (P<0.05); at 24 h, it decreased in all groups, but the decrement in the high- and medium-dose treated groups was more remarkable (P<0.05); at 48 h, it decreased continuously, with the decrement more significant in the high-dose group than in the control group (P<0.05). RT-PCR detection showed that at 4 h, the expression of PPAR-gamma mRNA was not changed significantly in all groups (P>0.05); at 8 h, it was remarkably lower in high-dose group than in others (P<0.05); at 16 h, it was higher in the three treated groups than in the control group (P<0.05), with a highest level shown in the high-dose treated group (P<0.01); at 24 h, the expression decreased in all groups, but the level in the low-dose treated group was still higher than that in the control group (P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>YNJY Decoction shows a two-way regulation on endothelial cells proliferation, and which is negatively dose-dependent in the late stage. The regulation is perhaps relevant to the regulating of the PPAR-gamma mRNA expressions. The PPAR-gamma mRNA expression up-regulating and maintaining effects of YNJY Decoction may be one of the mechanisms for its vascular endothelial cell protection and blood pressure suppressing.</p>

Effects of Yinian Jiangya Decoction containing serum on cytokines secretion of vascular endothelium of spontaneously hypertensive rats / 中国结合医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the effects of Yinian Jiangya Decoction (YNJYD) on cytokine secretion in spontaneoulsy hypertensive rats (SHRs) vascular endothelium.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Aortic endothelial cells (ECs) were primarily cultured from SHRs; male SD rats were treated with different doses (high, medium, and low doses) of YNJYD, the blood was collected on the 21st day, and then, the serum was separated. ECs were cocultured with the serum for different time courses, and the culture supernatant concentrations of endothelin (ET)-1, nitric oxide (NO), tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA), and plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1) were determined by ABC-ELISA methods.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>ET-1, NO, t-PA, and PAI-1 levels in endothelial cell culture supernatant were increased in a time-dependent manner; YNJYD could significantly elevate NO and t-PA expressions in ECs, while ET-1 and PAI-1 expressions were dramatically decreased; these effects of YNJYD were in a concentration-dependent manner.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The therapeutic effect of YNJYD on hypertension is attributed to its effect on regulating vessel dilation and blood coagulation, in which ET-1/NO and PAI-1/t-PA are two pairs of pivotal mediators.</p>

The impact of fatty liver and its related factors on the efficacy of antiviral therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C / 中华传染病杂志

Objective To investigate the impact of fatty liver and its related factors on the effi- cacy of antiviral therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C.Methods ninety-eight patients with chronic hepatitis C were treated with 180?g peginterferon?-2a plus ribavirin.Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and fatty liver were detected by ultra sonography.The body mass index (BMI),waist to hip ratio (WHR) and ho- meostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) were calculated.The serum HCV RNA level was determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and serum insulin level was detected by chemiluminescence analysis.The impact of fatty liver and its related factors on the efficacy of antiviral therapy were analyzed by multivariate Logistic regression analysis.Results Of 98 patients with chro- nic hepatitis C,35 (35.7%) were genotype 1,41 (41.8%) were genotype 2,13 (13.3%) were gen- otype 3,9 (9.1%) were undetermined genotype.The incidence of fatty liver in HCV infection of genotype 1,2,3 and undetermined genotype was 11.4%,9.8%,38.5% and 11.1%,respectively (X~2=7.83,P

Standard operating procedure for Astragalus membranaceus / 中国中药杂志

In order to ensure the superior quality and safety of the raw materials of the Chinese herbal medicine, a standard operating procedure for astragalus was established on the base of the GAP of the Chinese herbal medicine as well as practice investigation and experiments. This standard operating procedure provides the technical requirements for astragalus's growing, field management, controlling of the diseases and pests, harvesting, processing, packing, storing, transporting and quality monitoring.

Observation of clinical efficacy of preventing liver injury of lamivudine on hepatitis B virus carriers with anti-tuberculosis drugs / 中华传染病杂志

Objective To evaluate the clinical efficacy of lamivudine in preventing liver injury induced by anti-tuberculosis drugs in hepatitis B virus(HBV)carriers.Methods One hundred and ten HBV carriers treated with anti-tuberculosis drugs were randomly divided into lamivudine group and control group.Patients in both groups were treated with conventional anti-tuberculosis drugs (isoniazid,rifampicin,pyrazinamide,streptomycin or ethambutol)for 6-8 months.However, patients in lamivudine group were treated with lamivudine 100 mg orally dairy concomitantly.Before and after treatment,the clinical manifestation,liver function and serum HBV DNA level of patients were evaluated.Statistical analysis was performed using t test and x~2 test.Results During 6-8 months of treatment,the incidence rate of liver injury was 9.1% in lamivudine group,while it was 38.2% in control group(P0.05).Conclusion Lamivudine is effective and safe in reducing liver injury induced by anti-tuberculosis drugs in HBV carriers.

Retrospective analysis of epidemiological and clinical features of 86 patients with acute brucellosis / 中华传染病杂志

Objective To investigate epidemiological and clinical features of patients with acute brucellosis.Methods The epidemiological,clinical,laboratory and treatment data of patients diagnosed as acute brucellosis during 2002 to 2004 in our hospital were retrospectively analyzed. Results Fifty-one patients had a history of close contact with sheep or cows with brucellsis.Twenty- seven patients had drunk milk or eaten instant boiled mutton.The transmission routes were unknown in 8 patients.All the patients had fever and most had low-grade fever.Fifty-five patients had irregu- lar fever and 20 patients had intermittent fever.The most common manifestations were fever(86/86), fatigue(63/86),sweating(43/86),arthralgia(68/86),orchiditis(7/86),hepatomegaly(8/86),sple- nomegaly(7/86)and headache(18/86).Forty-seven patients had liver dysfunction and 17 patients had thrombocytopenia.Eighty patients recovered and 6 patients relapsed after combination therapy with rifampicin,sulfamethoxazole and quinolone.Conclusion The changes in epidemiological and clinical features of patients with acute brucellosis should be noticed.

Plasma exchange treatment using MELD scoring system improve the prognosis of fulminant Hepatitis in Chinese patients / 中华传染病杂志

Objective To study prognosis of patients with fulminant hepatitis after plasma ex- change treatment using model for end-stage liver disease(MELD)scoring system.Methods 160 pa- tients were randomly divided into plasma exchange group and control group,and MELD score was calculated according to the original formula for each patient.The efficacy of plasma exchange was as- sessed by mortality and improvement in biochemical parameters and MELD score.Results The levels of total bilirubin(TBIL),INR and MELD score of patients whose MELD scores were between 30 and 40[TBIL,(379.4?40.4)?mol/L; INR,2.5?0.2; MELD,30.8?3.8]were lower than before PE treatment[TBIL,(509.7?64.6)?mol/L;INR,3.5?0.3;MELD,37.3?3.5].The levels of TBIL and INR and MELD score of patients whose MELD scores were higher than 40 [TBIL,(595.6?61.5)?mol/L;INR,3.8?0.4;MELD,39.8?3.5]were lower than before PE treatmem [TBIL, (650.4?66.3)?mol/L;INR,4.4?0.6;MELD,45.2?4.2].The mortality of patients in PE group with MELD score from 30 and 40 was 50.0%,while it was 86.7% in control group,showing significant differ- ence between PE group and control group(P＜0.01).The mortality of patients with MELD scores higher than 40 was 91.2% in PE group and 100% in control group,showing no significant difference between these two groups(P＞0.05).Conclusions Plasma exchange treatment can decrease the serum TBIL level, INR and MELD score of patients with fulminant hepatitis and improve liver function.Compared with the control group,plasma exchange can significantly decrease the mortality of patients in PE group with MELD score from 30 to 40,but no effect on patients with MELD score higher than 40.