The role of oxymatrine in regulating TGF-ß1 in rats with hepatic fibrosis

Abstract Purpose: To investigate whether oxymatrine (OMT) prevents hepatic fibrosis in rats by regulating liver transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) level. Methods: Hepatic fibrosis was induced in rats by thioacetamide (TAA). Blood was collected at the end of week 12 to determine the levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and glutathione (GSH). Changes in liver tissue were observed after hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining. Results: Fibrosis was confirmed by Masson's collagen staining. Liver TGF-β1 level was determined by ELISA. OMT significantly reduced serum ALT and AST but increased GSH levels in rats with hepatic fibrosis. Moreover, it significantly improved liver histology in rats with TAA-induced hepatic fibrosis. It significantly decreased liver TGF-β1 level compared to that in the untreated group. It also significantly reduced collagen deposition in rats. Conclusion: Oxymatrine is effective in protecting rats from thioacetamide-induced hepatic fibrosis by regulating TGF-β1 expression.

Recent progress in applying network pharmacology to research of Chinese materia medica / 中草药

Chinese materia medica (CMM) has the multi-component, multi-target, and multi-pathway characteristics, which are coincided with the theory of network pharmacology. Therefore, applying network pharmacology to CMM researches will be helpful to explain the effects of CMM in the treatment of complex diseases holistically and systematically. In this paper, the recent progress in the applications of network pharmacology in CMM studies has been reviewed, including prediction and identification of targets and core bioactive components, clarification of the mechanism of action, explanation of the prescription composition rules, development of new indications, discovery of new active compounds and the combined application of network pharmacology and omics technologies, so as to accelerate the extensive applications of this new technology.

A multi-center survey of hypertension and its treatment in patients with maintenance hemodialysis in Shanghai / 中华内科杂志

Objective To study the prevalence,treatment policy and control of hypertension in patients with maintenance hemodialysis, and to analyze the influencing factors of hypertension control.Methods We studied the current status of 1382 patients with maintenance hemodialysis in 11 dialysis centers in Shanghai, among them 809 were male, and 573 were female.Hypertension was defined as systolic blood pressure(SBP) ≥ 140 and/or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) ≥90 mm Hg ( 1 mm Hg = 0.133 kPa).Those who had a history of hypertension and requiring antihypertensive therapy were also diagnosed as hypertension though their blood pressure was within normal range during the survey.Hypertension control was defined as blood pressure ＜ 140/90 mm Hg before each dialysis session.Results The prevalence of hypertension in the hemodialysis patients was 86.3%.The treatment rate and control rate in those patients were 96.8% and 25.5% respectively.More than half (50.4% ) of patients were treated with only one kind of anti-hypertensive drug, and 34.4% with 2 kinds, 14.2% with 3 kinds, 1.0% with 4 kinds or more.Calcium channel blocker (CCB) was the most frequently prescribed drug (61.0%), followed by angiotensin Ⅱ receptor blockers ( 56.4% ), centrally acting anti-hypertensive agent ( 26.4% ), beta blockers and alpha, beta-blockers( 14.0% ).The control rate of hypertension in those hemodialysis people was aggravated by the existence of coronary artery disease.The patients who need more kinds of antihypertensive agents have a poorer control rate of hypertension.The hypertension control rate elevated significantly with the adequate hemodialysis.Conclusions There is a very high prevalence of hypertension in maintenance hemodialysis patients.Although the treatment rate is high, the control rate is unsatisfactory.So the control of hypertension in hemodialysis patient is still a clinical challenge.Appropriate dialysis adequacy, reasonable use of erythropoietin, treatment of heart disease and judicious use of antihypertensive drugs may be helpful to improve the clinical outcome.

Effect of blood pressure management on perihematomal edema in patients with hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage / 国际脑血管病杂志

Objective To investigate the effect of blood pressure management on perihematomai edema in patients with acute hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage. Methods The retrospective research method was used to conduct logistic regression analysis for the factors of age, number of days, antihypertensive drugs, dehydrating agents, and blood pressure in inpatients with hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage from June 2005 to December 2007. Results Multivariate analysis found that both amlodipine (OR = 0. 208, 95% CI 0. 063-0. 684) and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) (OR = 0. 280, 95% CI 0. 085-0. 920) were the protective factors for perihematomal edema; both the course of 10 to 20 days (OR =7.413, 95% CI 1. 362-40. 360) and poorly controlled diastolic blood pressure (OR = 6. 449, 95% CI 1. 011-41. 145) were the risk factors for perihematomal edema. Conclusions Amlodipine and ACEI may lower the risk of perihematomal edema in intracerebral hemorrhage, while the poorly controlled diastolic blood pressure and the course of 10 to 20 days are the risk factors for perihematomal edema.

Application of nanometer artificial bone in the treatment of epipodite comminuted fracture among 12 cases / 中国组织工程研究

There were 12 patients who were all type C1 or C3 epipod comminuted fracture.By means of the internal fixation,all patients were transplanted with the nanometer artificial bones,comprising hydroxyapatite and ?-tricalcium phosphate.The 12 patients used the bacteriophages preoperation,during operation and 3 days postoperation.They were free from pressure dressing and started to take exercises 48 hours postoperatively.Followed up for 6-12 months,all of the 12 patients healed well.So nanometer artificial bone is an effective method for the epipodite comminuted fracture,without any severe toxicity or complications.

Study of acute lung Injury in rats with acute carbon monoxid poisoning(ACOP) / 中华急诊医学杂志

Objective To structure the model of acute carbon monoxid poisoning(ACOP)in rats. Evaluate the effectiveness of the poisoning on the pulmonary function and the significance of carbon monoxide hemoglobin(HbCO)and oxygenation index in diagnosis of acute lung injury(ALI)/acute respiratory distress syndrome(ARDS).Method Eighty healthy adult male Wistar rats were randomized into 4 groups.According to the concentration of CO,poisoning group was randomized into three groups(each group=20),group A,group B,group C.After poisoned,arterial blood was collected rapidly for arterial blood gas analysis.According to the pathological changes,the models were divided into ALI/ARDS group and non-ALI/ARDS group.Results Compared with control group,the incident rate of ALI/ARDS in group B(25%)and group C(55%)were significantly higher(P

MEDICAL IMAGE SEGMENTATION BASED ON A MODIFIED LEVEL SET ALGORITHM / 药物分析学报

Objective To present a novel modified level set algorithm for medical image segmentation. Methods The algorithm is developed by substituting the speed function of level set algorithm with the region and gradient information of the image instead of the conventional gradient information. This new algorithm has been tested by a series of different modality medical images. Results We present various examples and also evaluate and compare the performance of our method with the classical level set method on weak boundaries and noisy images. Conclusion Experimental results show the proposed algorithm is effective and robust.

FULLY AUTOMATIC FRAMEWORK FOR SEGMENTATION OF BRAIN MRI IMAGE / 药物分析学报

Objective To propose an automatic framework for segmentation of brain image in this paper. Methods The brain MRI image segmentation framework consists of three-step segmentation procedures. First, Non-brain structures removal by level set method. Then, the non-uniformity correction method is based on computing estimates of tissue intensity variation. Finally, it uses a statistical model based on Markov random filed for MRI brain image segmentation. The brain tissue can be classified into cerebrospinal fluid, white matter and gray matter. Results To evaluate the proposed our method, we performed two sets of experiments, one on simulated MR and another on real MR brain data. Conclusion The efficacy of the brain MRI image segmentation framework has been demonstrated by the extensive experiments. In the future, we are also planning on a large-scale clinical evaluation of this segmentation framework.