Programmed cell death induced by drought stress in sprout tumble of Pinellia ternata / 中国中药杂志

To further study the mechanism of sprout tumble caused by drought,drought stress was simulating with 30% PEG 6000,physiological,and then the morphological changes of Pinellia ternata cells at different treatment time were detected. The results indicated that,along with the period of drought stress continued,the contents of chlorophyll and water potential were decreased,relative electrical conductivity,contents of soluble sugar and MDA increased. Sprout tumble of P. ternata first occurred on the fourth day during drought stress,large scale of sprout tumble appeared on the eighth day with about 73% of tumble rate. The nuclei exposed to drought stress for 2 days were flattened,lobed,invalidated or irregular in shape and significant showed the apoptotic morphological characteristics. Adenylate transferase( ANT) gene expressions were inhibited by drought,with the rapid increase of Caspase-3 enzyme activity,the cell death rate increased. All this proves that the essence of sprout tumble caused by drought is programmed cell death,which may be a self dormancy protection mechanism of P. ternata against adverse environment.

Effects of shading on key enzyme genesexpression and accumulation of saponins in Panax japonicus var. major / 中国中药杂志

To explore the effects of shading and the expression of key enzyme genes on the synthesis and accumulation of Panax japonicus var. major saponins, different shading treatments (0%, 30%,50%) of potted P. japonicus var. major were used as test materials, the expression of three key enzyme genes(CAS,DS,-AS) of leaves and rhizomes in different growth periods of P. japonicus var. major was determined by real-time quantitative PCR, the content of total saponins was determined by ultraviolet spectrophotometry. The results indicated that, in flowering stage, CAS,DS,-AS were highly expressed in the aerial parts of P. japonicus var. major, 30% shading treatment significantly inhibited the expression of CAS in leaves and promoted the expression of DS and -AS in stems, leaves and flowers, it was speculated that the main part of saponin synthesis was leaf in this stage. Both the expression levels of DS and -AS and changes in the content of total saponins in leaves showed a tendency of low-high-low throughout the growth cycle, correlation coefficient analysis showed that there was a positive correlation between them. Compared with control, the expression levels of DS and -AS and the content of total saponins were greatly enhanced under shading treatment, 30% shading treatment significantly promoted the accumulation of total saponins. Therefore, it is suggested that 30% shading treatment should be applied to the artificial cultivation of P. japonicus var. major, which is beneficial to the accumulation and quality improvement of saponins.

Flavor and meridian tropism classification analysis of Callianthemum taipaicum / 中国中药杂志

To explore the flavor and meridian tropism classification of Callianthemum taipaicum by principal components analysis(PCA) and partial least square analysis(PLS). Meanwhile,to establish a high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry(HPLC-ESI-MS) method for the simultaneous determination of 55 active components from 13 kinds of Ranunculaceae of Chinese traditional herbs. Samples were separated on HPLC system by Agilent 5 TC-C₁₈（2）（4.6 mm×250 mm，5 μm）column and eluted with acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid at the flow rate of 0.6 mL·min⁻¹. The data were performed by HPLC-ESI-MS with multiple reaction monitoring（MRM）scanning mode under positive and negative ion modes and quantified by external standards. The data from 13 Ranunculaceae herbs were analyzed by the PLS-tree and cooman's prediction of PCA and PLS to evaluate the similarities and differences of C. taipaicum in flavor and meridian tropism. The results showed that calibration curves of 55 components all showed good linearity, >0.99,with good precision, repeatability and stability. After compared to other 12 herbs,PCA and PLS results revealed that the C. taipaicum belonged to lung and bladder meridians while its flavor attributive to pungent,warm in nature. In conclusion,the analysis approach of chemometric calculation combined with multi-components quantification is suitable for the classification of meridian tropism and flavor of Chinese traditional medicine,which can be used for alternative research of rare herbs.

Inhibitory effect of chloroquine on airway hyperresponsiveness in asthmatic mice / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effect of chloroquine on airway hyperresponsiveness in asthmatic mice and explore the possible mechanism.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Balb/c mouse models of asthma established using OVA received intraperitoneal injections of chloroquine, dexamethasone, or both prior to OVA challenge. Within 24 h after the final challenge, airway hyper- responsiveness (AHR) of the mice was assessed, and the total cell count and the counts of different cell populations in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were determined under light microscopy. The severity of lung inflammation was evaluated using HE staining, and the concentrations of IL-6 and PGF2α in the BALF were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Chloroquine pretreatment significantly decreased AHR (P<0.001) in the asthmatic mice and reduced the total cell count (P<0.01), eosinophils (P<0.001), neutrophils (P<0.01), and PGF2α levels in the BALF. Chloroquine combined with low-dose dexamethasone significantly lessened inflammations around the bronchioles (P<0.05) and blood vessels (P<0.01) in the lung tissue, and obviously lowered IL-6 (P<0.05) and PGF2α (P<0.001) in the BALF in the asthmatic mice.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Chloroquine can inhibit AHR in asthmatic mice and produce better anti-inflammatory effect when combined with dexamethasone for treatment of neutrophilic asthma.</p>

Effects of puerarin on proliferation and differentiation of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells into osteoblasts in vitro / 药学学报

This study is to investigate the effects of puerarin on the proliferation and differentiation of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into osteoblasts. Umbilical cord MSCs were cultured by tissue adherence and the third passage of cells was used in the experiment. The effect of puerarin on proliferation of umbilical cord MSCs was measured with MTT. The effects of puerarin on umbilical cord MSCs were evaluated by ALP immunohistochemisty and von kossa staining. The OD value decreased with the increase of puerarin concentration. On 7th day, ALP expression of puerarin group was higher than that of control group. On 14th day, ALP staining showed that the positive rate of puerarin group was higher than that of control group. Von kossa staining showed the quantity of calcium nodules was higher in puerarin group than that of control group. Puerarin can promote the umbilical cord MSCs to differentiate into osteoblasts and has an effect on the proliferation of umbilical cord MSCs.