Clinical study on treatment of atopic dermatitis by integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine / 中国中西医结合杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the clinical effects and explore the mechanism of the integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine in treating atopic dermatitis (AD).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Forty-seven patients with AD were randomly assigned to two groups, the control group and the treated group, they were treated with conventional Western medicine (10 mg Loratadine tablet, once daily) and with integrated medicine additionally given modified Jiawei Danggui Decection besides Western medicine respectively for 4 weeks. Double-sandwich ELISA was used to detect the levels of interleukin- 4, -10 and -12 (IL-4, IL-10 and IL-12) before and after treatment.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The total effective rate in the treated group was 56% (14/25 cases), better than that in the control group (22.7%, 5/22 cases), showing significant difference between the two groups (X2 = 5.38, P < 0.05). Before treatment the serum levels of IL-4, IL-10 were significantly higher and level of IL-12 was lower in AD patients as compared with those in healthy persons (P < 0.01); they all restored to normal in the treated group after treatment but unchanged in the control group, showing significant difference between the two groups (P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The clinical effect of integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine is ascertainable, its mechanism might be associated with the regulation on related cytokines.</p>

Effect of fumigation therapy with yinxieling on T-bet and GATA-3 protein expression in the peripheral blood monocyte of patients with psoriasis vulgaris / 中国中西医结合杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the effect of fumigating with Yinxieling (YXL) in treating patients with psoriasis vulgaris and its influence on T-bet and GATA-3 protein expressions in peripheral blood monocyte (PBMC).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Western blot method was employed to detect the T-bet and GATA-3 protein expressions in PBMC of 30 psoriasis vulgaris patients before and after they received fumigation therapy with YXL, also in 25 healthy persons for controls. The therapeutic efficacy was observed and the relationship between PASI scores and levels of T-bet and GATA-3 analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>After treatment, 12 out of the 30 patients were cured, 9 were markedly effective, 8 effective and 1 unchanged, the cure rate being 40.0% and the effective rate 96.7%. Level of T-bet expression in PBMC of patients was 1.7917 +/- 0.3840, which was higher than that of healthy persons (0.8860 +/- 0.1486, P < 0.01), but the GATA3 expression was lower than that in control (0.8777 +/- 0.3114 vs. 1.2384 +/- 0.1783, P < 0.01). However, the two indexes were restored after fumigation to 1.3410 +/- 0.3642 and 1.0883 +/- 0.2435 respectively, showing significant difference to those before fumigation (P < 0.01). Correlation analysis showed that PASI score was positively correlated with level of T-bet expression (r = 0.7448, P < 0.01) and negatively correlated with level of GATA-3 expression (r = -0.8291, P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Fumigation therapy is effective in treating psoriasis vulgaris, its mechanism is possibly by way of modulating the equilibrium of the transcription factors T-bet and GATA-3 protein expressions in PBMC, and rectifying the immune abnormality of Th1/Th2 subsets imbalance.</p>

Effects of neuropeptide Y on ion channels in ventricular myocytes / 生理学报

Neuropeptide Y (NPY) co-exists with norepinephrine (NE) in sympathetic terminals, and is the most abundant neuropeptide in myocardium. Many studies have focused on the effects of NE on ion channels in cardiac myocytes and its physiological significance has been elucidated relatively profoundly. There have been few investigations, however, on the physiological significance of NPY in myocardium. The effects of NPY on L-type Ca2+ channel currents (I(Ca-L)) were evaluated in some studies and different results were presented, which might be attributed to the different species of animal tested and different methods used. It is necessary, therefore, to study the effects of NPY on ion channels in cardiac myocytes systematically and further to discuss the biological significance of their coexistence with NE in sympathetic terminals. The single ventricular myocytes from adult rat or guinea pig (only for measuring I(K)) were prepared using enzymatic dispersion. I(Ca-L), I(to), I(Na/Ca), I(Na) and I(K) in the cellular membrane were observed using whole cell voltage-clamp recording. In the present study, NPY from 1.0 to 100 nmol/L dose-dependently inhibited I(Ca-L) (P<0.01, n=5). The maximal rate of inhibition in this study reached 39% and IC(50) was 1.86 nmol/L. NPY had no effect on the voltage-dependence of calcium current amplitude and on the voltage-dependence of the steady-state gating variables. I(Ca-L) was activated at -30 mV, reaching the maximum at 0 mV. When both NE and NPY were applied with a concentration ratio of 500:1, 10 nmol/L NPY inhibited I(Ca-L) that had been increased by 5 mumol/L NE, which was consistent with the effect of NPY only on I(Ca-L). NPY also inhibited I(Na/Ca). At a concentration of 10 nmol/L, NPY inhibited inward and outward I(Na/Ca) from (0.27+/-0.11) pA/pF and (0.45+/-0.12) pA/pF to (0.06+/-0.01) pA/pF and (0.27+/-0.09) pA/pF, respectively (P<0.05, n=4). NPY at 10 nmol/L increased I(to) from (12.5+/-0.70) pA/pF to (14.7+/-0.59) pA/pF(P<0.05, n=4). NPY at 10 nmol/L did not affect I(Na) in rat myocytes and I(K) in guinea pig myocytes. NPY increased the speed of action potential depolarization and reduced action potential duration of I(Ca-L), I(Na/Ca) and I(to), which contributed to the reduction of contraction. These results indicate that the effects of NPY are opposite to the effects of NE on ion channels of cardiac myocytes.

The Toxic Effects of the Extracellular Active Components from One Algae-lysing Bacteria on Chlorella Pyrenoidosa / 微生物学通报

Toxic effects of L7 lyophilized powder of extracellular active components (L7-LPEAC), extracted from the Algae-lysing bacteria L7, on Chlorella pyrenoidosa were studied according to the changes of effective photosynthesis rate (EPR), the protein content, the chlorophyll a content and the MDA content of algae. The results showed that the growth of alga was promoted at low concentrations of L7-LPEAC (0.80 g/L, 1.25 g/L). The 96 h-EC50 and 120 h-EC50 upon Chlorella pyrenoidosa are 5.75 g/L and 2.55 g/L, respec tively. The chlorophyll a content increased firstly and then decreased at high concentrations of L7-LPEAC (≥2 g/L), so did the protein content. Compared with the control group, there is a significant statistics diff erence (P