Electroacupuncture of Multiple Acupoints Is Significantly Superior to That of Single Acupoint in Improving Sleep by Regulating Serum Sleep-promoting and Awakening-promoting Factors in Insomnia Rats / 针刺研究

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) stimulation of single and multiple acupoints on sleep and concentrations of interlukin-1 β(IL-1 β), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), prostaglandin D2(PGD2) and melatonin (MLT, sleep-promoting factors) and corticosterone (CORT, awakening-promoting factor) in the serum in insomnia rats, so as to explore its efficacy difference and the mechanism underlying improving sleep. METHODS: Fifty-four male SD rats were randomly divided into control, model, EA-Baihui (GV 20), EA-Shenmen (HT 7), EA-Sanyinjiao (SP 6) and EA-GV 20＋HT 7＋SP 6 groups (n＝9 rats in each group). The insomnia model was established by intraperitoneal injection of para-chlorophenylalanine (PCPA, 300 mg/kg) once daily for 2 days. In the EA-GV 20, EA-HT 7, EA-SP 6 and EA-GV 20＋HT 7＋SP 6 groups, EA stimulation was administrated for 30 min, once a day for 4 days. The sleep onset latency and sleep duration were measured after intraperitoneal injection of pentobarbital sodium (35 mg/kg). The concentrations of IL-1 β， BDNF, MLT, PGD2and CORT in the serum were detected by ELISA. RESULTS: After EA stimulation of GV 20, HT 7, SP 6 and GV 20＋HT 7＋SP 6, the sleep latency was significantly shortened (P<0.05, P<0.01, except SP 6), and the sleep duration was remarkably prolonged in comparison with the model group (P<0.05, P<0.01), and the therapeutic effects of EA-GV 20＋HT 7＋SP 6 were significantly superior to those of EA-GV 20, EA-HT 7 and EA-SP 6 in shortening the sleep latency and lengthening the sleep duration (P<0.05). Following modeling, the concentrations of IL-1 β， BDNF, PGD2 and MLT were significantly down-regulated, and the CORT level was markedly up-regulated in the model group relevant to the control group (P<0.05). Following EA，modeling induced dramatic decrease of serum IL-1 β， BDNF, PGD2 and MLT was considerably up-regulated, and the increased CORT level markedly down-regulated in the EA-GV 20, EA-HT 7, EA-SP 6 and EA-GV 20＋HT 7＋SP 6 groups (P<0.05). The effects of EA-GV 20＋HT 7＋SP 6 were evidently superior to those of EA-GV 20 and EA-SP 6 in up-regulating serum IL-1 β， BDNF and PGD2levels, and to those of HT 7, GV 20 and SP 6 in up-regulating serum MLT level, and significantly superior to those of EA-ST 7 and EA-SP 6 in down-regulating serum CORT (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: EA stimulation of HT 7, GV 20, SP 6 and GV 20＋HT 7＋ SP 6 can significantly improve the sleep in insomnia rats, which is closely associated with its effects in regulating serum sleep-promoting factors and awakening-promoting factor. Joint administration of EA of GV 20＋HT 7＋ SP 6 has a better effect than the single acupoint mentioned above.

A study on perceptions about eye health care and promoting factors for eye donation among medical students from a tertiary care teaching hospital.

Background: Voluntary eye donation depends on the awareness levels of various stakeholders in the community. Today’s medical students are tomorrow’s stakeholders of the community. Medical professionals can enhance eye donation rates by educating and motivating the relatives in case of patient's death. Aim: Hence the present study was undertaken with an objective of assessing the promoting factors for eye donation among medical students. Material and methods: The present descriptive cross sectional study was carried out among undergraduate students of a medical college in western Uttar Pradesh in the month of February 2014 using pretested self administered questionnaire. Results: 77% students knew about eye donation. 51% of them were willing to donate their eyes. Only 39% students knew that the ideal time for eye donation is within 6 hours of death. 64% had knowledge about vitamin A’s important role in prevention of childhood blindness. TV, newspaper or other media were the most important channels of getting information for majority (60%) of the students. Regarding perceived promoting factors for eye donation by them, noble cause (57%), pleasure to help the blind (51%) and inspired by advertisement on television (42%) were 3 top most promoting factors. Conclusion: Inclusion of different preventive and promotive aspects of corneal blindness along with basic eye health care into the course curriculum is the need of the hour.

Rate of breastfeeding for 4 months and promoting factors: A cohort study of mothers of preterm infants at Siriraj Hospital.

Background: Breast milk is widely accepted as the best nutrition for all newborn infants. Preterm infants probably gain more benefits from breast milk than term infants because they are at higher risk for having several morbidities. Objective: To determine the rate of 4-month exclusive or predominant breastfeeding and partial breastfeeding in preterm infants, and to determine the promoting factors of successful breastfeeding. Methods: This was a cohort study in mothers of preterm infants with gestational age ≤ 34 weeks and birth weight ≤ 2000 grams. The mother-infant dyads were followed until 4 months of age. Results: The study period was between 1 March 2009 and 28 February 2010. There were 90 mothers recruited. Data of 74 mothers with complete follow up were analyzed. The mean maternal age was 29.67 ± 7.43 years old. The median gestational age at delivery was 31 (interquartile range 4) weeks. Mean infants birth weight was 1412.71 ± 339.18 grams. The rates of exclusive or predominant and partial breastfeeding were 32.4% and 29.7%, respectively. Mother works at home, maternity leave, mothers stay with infants during hospitalization and exclusive breastfeeding in the last 24 hours before discharge were associated with 4-month exclusive or predominant breastfeeding. After multiple logistic regression analysis, factors significantly associated with successful exclusive breastfeeding were mothers work at home (adjusted OR 6.77, 95%CI 1.80-25.55), previous breastfeeding experience (5.09, 95%CI 1.39-18.65), mothers stay with infants during hospitalization (4.22, 1.17-15.22) and exclusive breastfeeding in the last 24 hours before discharge (4.70, 1.17-18.89). Conclusion: Exclusive breastfeeding in preterm infants is possible. Mothers stay with their infants during long hospitalization and exclusive breastfeeding during the last 24 hours before discharge are significant promoting factors that should be supported by health personnel. Mother works at home is the other significant promoting factor of successful 4-months exclusive or predominant breastfeeding.

Curative Efficacy of Hepatocyte Growth-promoting Factors plus Wuji Baifeng Pills for Liver Cirrhosis:Observation of 65 Cases / 中国药房

OBJECTIVE:To observe the clinical efficacy of Hepatocyte growth-promoting factors(PHGF) combined with Wuji baifeng pills for liver cirrhosis. METHODS:A total of 97 patients with liver cirrhosis were randomly assigned to either control group(n=32,conventional therapy) or treatment group(n=65,PHGF plus Wuji baifeng pills in addition to routine treatment).The course of treatment was 3 months for both groups. Clinical data including cardinal symptoms and signs,hepatic function,blood clotting function,hepatic fibrosis parameters,the inner-diameter of the portal vein and splenic vein(PVD,SVD),spleen thickness(SPT) measured by the color Doppler ultrasonography were monitored before and after treatment. RESULTS:After treatment,the symptoms and signs of the treatment group had better improvement than in the control group,with a markedly higher total effective rate than in the control group(84.62% vs.59.38%,P

Study on the Feasibility of Bacterial Endotoxin Test for Hepatocyte Growth-promoting Factors Injection / 中国药房

OBJECTIVE:To study the feasibility of bacterial endotoxin test for hepatocyte growth-promoting factors injection as a substitution for pyrogen test METHODS:According to China Pharmacopoeia(second part,2000),interference test was carried on endotoxin detection of hepatocyte growth-promoting factors injection with limulus lysate test agents produced by two different factories RESULTS:There was no interference with the reaction between bacterial endotoxin and limulus lysate test agent in hepatocyte growth-promoting factors injection in 10-fold dilution CONCLUSION:It is feasible to use the gelatine method in bacterial endotoxin test

Growth Promoting Factors Which Affect Final Adult Height / 대한소아내분비학회지

PURPOSE:Factors influencing postnatal growth are innumerable. It is known that genetic factors such as parental height and environmental factors such as nutrition, economic status and hormonal effects are important factors. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors affecting final adult height in normal children. METHODS:753 high school students (513 boys, 240 girls) who live in Seoul were studied. Height and body weight were measured and questionaires about sexual development were examined. We included the subjects who reached fianl adult height. The criteria of final adult height was as following: ages over 17 years in the boys and over 15 years in the girls and growth velocity was less than 1 cm per year. They had no systemic diseases and height standard deviation scores were more than -2.5. RESULTS: 1)Final adult heights were 173.1+/-.1cm in boys and 160.9+/-.7cm in girls. 2)Final adult height significantly correlated with father height(r=0.13, p<0.01), mother height(r=0.25, p<0.01), midparental height(r=0.25 p<0.01) and birth weight (r=0.16, p<0.01). 3)In short final adult height groups, birth weight and midparental height were significantly lower(p<0.05), but puberty onset age, body mass index and economic status were similar to normal stature groups. 4)Final adult height significantly correlated with target height.(r=0.43, p<0.01). In boys, the final adult height was 1.7cm taller than target height on the average. In girls, final adult height was 1.6cm taller than target height on the average. 5)In the group in which final adult height is less than target height, birth weights were significantly lower than those of the groups in which final height is greater than target height. CONCLUSIONS:Among factors affecting final adult height, parent height and birth weight were important. To predict final adult height, target height can be used simply and target height showed significant correlation with final adult height. In the case of showing differences between final adult height and target height, many factors including birth weight will influence the outcome.

A Study on Obesity-promoting Factors for the Elementary School Chirdren / 대한지역사회영양학회지

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships among body composition, dietary intake, exercise, and life style in children(M=80, f=102) of the 5th and 6th grades of elementary school. Anthropometry and multifrequency bioelectrical impedance analysis were conducted to estimate body composition. Dietary intake, exercise, and life style were determined by using . When obesity was classified greater than 120% of the ideal body weight, the prevalence rates of obesity were 31.2% for boy and 20.6% for girl. There were significant differences in body composition between nonobese(NO) and obese(OB) groups. Mean fat mass(FM) and lean body mass(LBM) were 8.6 kg and 27.7 kg for NO group and 16.7 kg and 32.3 kg for OB group, respectively. Also a significant difference was found in hydration rate(TBW/body weight)between groups(<0.01). No significant difference was found I total calorie intake and nutrient intakes between groups. No difference was found in the frequency and duration of outdoor exercise and indoor activities. Mean sleeping hours was 8-9hours for 62% of nonobese children and for 59% of obese children. However, calorie intake per body weight was significantly lower inobese children than in nonobese. The present study showed that significant differences existed in their body size and composition between NO and OB groups, while no differences existed in daily calorie intake, excercise, and life style. This may indicate that important obesity-promoting factors of early onset obesity may rely on other factors such as hereditary or environmental factors besides factors considered. Further studies are required to understand obesity-promoting factors in children.

THE NEURITE PROMOTING EFFECTS OF NORMAL AND INJURIED SCIATIC NERVES AND THEIR EXTRACTS ON PC12 CELLS AND SUPERIOR CERVICAL GANGLIA / 解剖学报

On one hand this paper used co-culture method of rat normal or injuried sciatic nerves with newborn rat superior cervical ganglia (SCG) to observe that the neurite outgrowth of SCG induced by the nerve, on the other hand we made normal or injuried sciatic nerve extracts in order to observe their neurite-promoting effects on PC12 cells to various dilutions of nerve extracts. The results show that normal and injuried sciatic nerves contain neurite-promoting factors (NPFs) for SCG sympathetic neurons. However, the NPF activity of injuried nerve is higher than that of normal nerve and has no significant differences from 1-41 days postlesion. We have also observed the neurite-promoting effects of normal or injuried sciatic nerve extracts on PC12 cells. There is a maximal effect with the injuried nerve extract prepared at 4 days post-lesion. The neurite-promoting activity of injuried (12 hours to 42 days post-lesion) nerve extracts remain constant. The rate of neurite elongation in PC12 cells relate to the dilution of nerve extracts. Experimental analysis suggests that the nerve NPFs may be not the single but two or more factors which may be produced and released by Schwann cells.

NEUROTROPHIC ACTIVITY IN BRAIN WOUND TISSUE EXTRACT AND THE ORIGIN OF THE ACTIVE FACTORS / 解剖学报

Bilateral ablation of the cerebral parietal cortex in adult rats was performed. After appropriate days, the tissue surrounding the wound was removed and the brain wound tissue extract (EWTE) was prepared. Newborn rat cerebral cortical neurons were used as a culture model to test the neuronotrophic factors (NTFs) and neuritepromoting factors (NPFs) in EWTE. In order to investigate the origin of above mentioned factors whether related to the macrophages which appeared in the brain wound region at early stage, we designed to culture macrophages and collected the macrophage conditioned medium (M?CM) to measure their NTF and NPF activities for cultured cerebral cortical neurons. On the other hand, we also observed the effect of EWTE and M?CM on PC 12 (phehrmytema) cells and further studied the action of NPFs. Cur experimental results show that EWTE and M?CM contained NTFs and NPFs for cultured cerebral cortical neurons. These factors appeared in EWTE at 4 days post-lesion, with maximal level of their activities reached between 5 and 6 days post-lesion and there was another peak of NPF activity at 9 days post-lesion, until 13 days post-lesion also detected their activities. The NTF activity in M?CM was lower than that in BWTE, in contrast, the NPF activity in M?CM was higher than that in BWTE. There was NPF activity to PC 12 cells in BWTE and M?CM. According to the experimental assays, we suppose that the neurotrophic factors in BWTE mainly come from the macrophages which appear in the lesion site at early stage of injured brain, subsequently, it may relate to the astrocytes. The components of these factors may be complexity and multiplicity that remain to be solved.