History and Modern Clinical Application of Classical Formulas Renshen Baidusan / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ObjectiveTo summarize the history and modern clinical application of Renshen Baidusan. MethodThe bibliometric method was used to retrieve the relevant publications of Renshen Baidusan from the ancient book database and China National Knowledge Infrastructure （CNKI）. The publications were screened according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The information of dynasty， book title， function， dosage and so on was extracted， on the basis of which the history， composition， dosage， decocting method， original medicinal plants， processing， and modern clinical application of this prescription were analyzed. ResultRenshen Baidusan was first recorded in the Formulary of the Bureau of Taiping People's Welfare Pharmacy， consisting of Bupleuri Radix， Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma， Platycodonis Radix， Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma， Chuanxiong Rhizoma， Poria， Aurantii Fructus， Peucedani Radix， Notopterygii Rhizoma et Radix， Angelicae Pubescentis Radix， Zingiberis Rhizoma Recens， and Menthae Haplocalycis Herba and with the effect of dispersing cold， removing dampness， reinforcing Qi， and relieving exterior. Later generations of physicians used this prescription on the basis of the record in Formulary of the Bureau of Taiping People's Welfare Pharmacy to treat cold （frequency of 112， 22.63%） and seasonal cold （frequency of 83， 16.77%）. Renshen Baidusan is widely used in modern clinical practice to treat respiratory diseases （frequency of 42， 17.65%）， skin diseases （frequency of 34， 14.29%）， and infectious diseases （frequency of 33， 13.87%）. This prescription is often modified to treat the syndrome of internal deficiency and external contraction， or external contraction of wind， cold and damp pathogens without deficiency of healthy Qi， which fully embodies the concept of treating different diseases with the same method in traditional Chinese medicine. ConclusionThe textual research reveals the key information of the classical prescription Renshen Baidusan， providing a basis for the subsequent development and application of compound preparations.

Renshen Baidusan Regulates Autophagy to Repair Mucosa in Ulcerative Colitis / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ObjectiveTo explore the mechanism of Renshen Baidusan in repairing intestinal mucosa in ulcerative colitis （UC） by regulating autophagy to scavenge peroxides. MethodThe mouse model of UC was induced by free drinking of 3.0% dextran sulphate sodium （DSS） solution. Sixty male C57BL/6J mice were randomized into normal， model， mesalazine （0.3 g·kg-1）， and high-， medium-， and low-dose （12.35， 8.22， 4.11 g·kg-1， respectively） Renshen Baidusan groups （n=10）. The mice were administrated with corresponding drugs by gavage for 7 consecutive days. The colon tissue was stained with hematoxylin-eosin （HE） to reveal the pathological changes， and Alcian blue-Periodic acid Scheff （PAS/AB） staining was employed to observe the goblet cell changes. The fluorescence expression of reactive oxygen species （ROS） in the colon tissue was detected by the immunofluorescence assay. The activity of superoxide dismutase （SOD） and the content of malondialdehyde （MDA） were measured by the biochemical methods. Western blot was employed to determine the expression levels of proliferating cell nuclear antigen （PCNA）， microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 （LC3）， leucine-rich repeat-containing G protein-coupled receptor 5 （LGR5）， and p62. ResultDestroyed mucosal epithelial structure， intestinal gland destruction， loss of goblet cells， and massive infiltration of inflammatory cells appeared in the model group. Compared with the normal group， the model group showed increased tissue damage injury （TDI） score of the colon tissue， decreased SOD activity and LC3Ⅱ/Ⅰ， PCNA value， and elevated levels of p62， MDA， ROS， and LGR5 （P<0.05）. Compared with the model group， different doses of Renshen Baidusan decreased the TDI score， promoted the generation of new goblet cells， elevated the levels of PCNA， LGR5， SOD， and LC3Ⅱ/Ⅰ， and lowered the levels of p62， MDA， and ROS （P<0.05）. Moreover， the low dose group showed the best performance （P<0.05）. ConclusionRenshen Baidusan can promote intestinal epithelial repair by activating intestinal autophagy， alleviating oxidative stress， and promoting intestinal stem cell proliferation and differentiation.

Expression of calcitonin gene-related peptide-receptor component protein in hepatocellular carcinoma and its association with prognosis / 临床肝胆病杂志

Objective To investigate the expression level of calcitonin gene-related peptide-receptor component protein (CRCP) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissue and adjacent tissue and its association with the clinicopathological features and prognosis of patients. Methods HCC and adjacent tissue samples were collected from 79 HCC patients who underwent surgical resection in Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Navy Medical University, from June 2003 to September 2009. Tissue microarray was prepared, and immunohistochemistry was used for quantitative analysis. Related proteins were extracted and measured by Western blot, and the expression of CRCP was compared between HCC tissue and adjacent tissue. The chi-square test was used for comparison of categorical data between groups. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to obtain the area under the ROC curve (AUC), and goodness of fit was evaluated. Youden index was used to determine the optimal cut-off value. and the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to analyze the association of CRCP expression with the recurrence and prognosis of HCC, and the log rank test was used for comparison between the two groups. Results Among the 79 HCC patients, there were 67 male patients and 12 female patients, with an age of 10-72 years, and 20 patients had portal vein tumor thrombus. As for pathological grade, 1 had grade 4 HCC, 61 had grade 3 HCC, and 17 had grade 2 HCC; as for BCLC stage, 5 had BCLC stage 0 HCC, 55 had BCLC stage A HCC, 11 had BCLC stage B HCC, and 8 had BCLC stage C HCC. Western blot showed that the expression level of CRCP in HCC tissue was lower than that in adjacent tissue in 4 patients, and immunohistochemistry showed that the expression level of CRCP in HCC tissue was significantly lower than that in adjacent tissue in 75.9% of the patients. Low CRCP expression was associated with CK19 positivity, incomplete tumor capsule, presence of portal vein tumor thrombus, and high pathological grade ( χ 2 =6.410, 4.829, 9.319, and 9.083, all P < 0.05). Compared with the low CRCP expression group, the high CRCP expression group had a significantly longer overall survival time and a significantly lower recurrence rate ( P < 0.001 and P =0.009). Conclusion Patients with low CRCP expression in HCC tissue tend to have a poorer prognosis than those with high CRCP expression, and CRCP may participate in the development, progression, and metastasis of HCC, suggesting that this molecule can be used as a potential biomarker to predict the prognosis of HCC patients.

Advances in the physiological functions of plant lipids in response to stresses / 生物工程学报

Lipids are important components of living organisms that participate in and regulate a variety of life activities. Lipids in plants also play important physiological functions in response to a variety of abiotic stresses (e.g. salt stress, drought stress, temperature stress). However, most research on lipids focused on animal cells and medical fields, while the functions of lipids in plants were overlooked. With the rapid development of "omics" technologies and biotechnology, the lipidomics has received much attention in recent years because it can reveal the composition and function of lipids in a deep and comprehensive way. This review summarizes the recent advances in the functions and classification of lipids, the development of lipidomics technology, and the responses of plant lipids against drought stress, salt stress and temperature stress. In addition, challenges and prospects were proposed for future lipidomics research and further exploration of the physiological functions of lipids in plant stress resistance.

Associations among Genetic Variants and Intracranial Aneurysm in a Chinese Population

PURPOSE: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have revealed that common variants on or near EDNRA, HDAC9, SOX17, RP1, CDKN2B-AS1, and RBBP8 genes are associated with intracranial aneurysm (IA) in European or Japanese populations. However, due to population heterogeneity, whether these loci are associated with IA pathogenesis in Chinese individuals is still unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate associations among GWAS-identified loci and risk of IA in a Chinese population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 765 individuals (including 230 IA patients and 535 controls) were involved in this study. Twelve single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of candidate loci were genotyped using the Sequenom MassARRAY platform. Associations were analyzed using univariate or multivariate logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: SNPs in CDKN2B-AS1 (especially rs10757272) showed significant associations with IA in dominant and additive models [odds ratio (OR), 2.99 and 1.43; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.44–6.24 and 1.10–1.86, respectively]. A SNP near HDAC9 (rs10230207) was associated with IA in the dominant model (OR, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.01–1.99). One SNP near RP1 (rs1072737) showed a protective effect on IA in the dominant model (OR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.46–0.95), while another SNP in RP1 (rs9298506) showed a risk effect on IA in a recessive model (OR, 3.82; 95% CI, 1.84–7.91). No associations were observed among common variants near EDNRA, SOX17, or RBBP8 and IA. CONCLUSION: These data partially confirmed earlier results and showed that variants in CDKN2B-AS1, RP1, and HDAC9 could be genetic susceptibility factors for IA in a Chinese population.

Progress in genetic research on familiar aneurysms / 中南大学学报(医学版)

The subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) caused by ruptured intracranial aneurysms (IAs) is always a lethality. Increasing evidence suggests a familiar aggregation of IA occurrence, which may relate to genetics and there might be an increasing number of IAs in IA families when mutation of disease genes is aggregating. With the progress in the study of familiar intracranial aneurysms (FIAs), a large number of chromosome fragments are found to be related with IAs, such as 1p36, 5q31, 7q11, 14q22, 17cen, 19q13, Xp22. Further studies indicated that mutation of several genes could be the cause of FIAs, including TNFRSF13B, ANRIL, SOX17, ADAMTS15, RNF213 and LOXL2. The independent genetic epidemiologic study on aneurysm families can be used to discover the related genes more effectively, and to explore the mechanism of occurrence of IAs. It's also the precondition for the prevention of disease.

The effects of BMP9 combined with NGF on the osteogenic differentiation of C3H10T1/2 mesenchymal stem cells / 实用口腔医学杂志

Objective:To investigate the effects of BMP9 combined with NGF on the osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs).Methods:Recombinant BMP9 adenovirus was transfected into C3H10T1/2 cells.The cells were treated by GFP,NGF,BMP9 and BMP9 + NGF respectively.The expression level of COL1,RUNX2 was detected by RT-PCR and Western blot,ALP activity was examined by ALP kit 3,12,24,48 hours,3 and 7 days after treatment,respectively.Results:The ALP activity of BMP9 + NGF group was the highest among the 4 groups.The difference in the groups firstly appeared at 3 h after treatment.The highest expression level of RUNX2 and COL1 was detected in BMP9 + NGF group.Conclusion:NGF and BMP9 may synergisticly promote osteogenic differentiation at the early stage of osteogenic induction of C3H10T1/2 cells.