Protective effects of the total glycosides of Cistanche deserticola Y. C. Ma in alcoholic liver injury in mice / 药学学报

Modern pharmacological studies have shown that Cistanche deserticola (C. deserticola) has a protective effect on the liver, but its active fraction and mechanism are not clear. In order to identify the effective fraction of C. deserticola Y. C. Ma, an acute alcoholic liver injury model in mice was established with 56-proof Erguotou and different fractional extracts of C. deserticola Y. C. Ma (total glycosides, polysaccharides, and oligosaccharides) were administered. After 14 days of oral administration, liver pathology and lipid deposition were measured and the expression of nuclear factor E2-related factor (Nrf-2), kelch-like ECH-associated protein-1 (Keap-1), and plasmalemma vesicle-associated protein-1 (PV1) were measured by immunofluorescence. The levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), endotoxin (ET), diamine oxidase (DAO), and D-lactic acid (D-LA) in serum, and superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), catalase (CAT), and malondialdehyde (MDA) in liver were measured by ELISA. All animal experiments were carried out with approval of the Experimental Animal Welfare Ethics Committee of the Peking University Health Science Center. The results show that the total glycosides of C. deserticola Y. C. Ma (400 mg·kg-1) could decrease liver pathology, decrease serum endotoxin, diamine oxidase, and D-lactic acid, and reduce hepatic lipid deposition. Total glycosides also promoted Nrf-2 transfer into the nucleus and decreased the expression of Keap-1 and PV1. In summary, the total glycosides of C. deserticola Y. C. Ma had a protective effect in acute alcoholic liver injury and the mechanism may be related to the activation of the Nrf-2/Keap-1 pathway, improvement of intestinal wall integrity, and inhibition of the transport of harmful substances into the liver.

Occurrence pattern of musculoskeletal disorders and its influencing factors among manufacturing workers / 北京大学学报(医学版)

OBJECTIVE@#To explore the occurrence pattern and its influencing factors of multi-site work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) of the main affected body sites among manufacturing workers.@*METHODS@#Musculoskeletal disorders questionnaire was adopted to investigate the prevalence of WMSDs and the influencing factors among workers from four manufacturing factories in China. The case of WMSDs was defined as the one who had symptoms such as pain, numbness, discomfort, or limitation of activities in one or more of the nine body sites, including neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist/hand, upper back, lower back, hip/thigh, knee and ankle/foot during the last year, which lasted for more than 24 hours and did not completely relieve after rest. Besides, trauma, disability, other acute injuries or sequelae were excluded. The correlation of WMSDs between different body sites was estimated by the prevalence ratio (PR) calculated by log-binominal model. The influencing factors of multi-site WMSDs of the main affected body sites were analyzed by multinomial logistic regression model.@*RESULTS@#The overall prevalence rate of WMSDs was 79.7% among the manufacturing workers. The main affected body sites were lower back, neck, shoulder and upper back, of which the prevalence rates were 62.3%, 55.7%, 45.6%, and 38.7%, respectively. The PR values of WMSDs among these sites were relatively high. The prevalence of multi-site WMSDs involving these four sites at the same time was 25.2%, and that of three to four sites was 41.4%. Multinomial Logistic regression analysis suggested that influencing factors of multi-site WMSDs in 3-4 sites of neck, shoulder, upper back and lower back involved several aspects. Among these factors, females (OR=2.86, 95%CI 2.38-3.33) and individuals with job tenure of 15-19 years (OR=1.87, 95%CI 1.49-2.34) might have higher risk of disease. Biomechanical factors, such as often bending neck forward or holding neck in a forward position for long periods (OR=2.15, 95%CI 1.86-2.48), often twisting neck or holding neck in a twisted position for long periods (OR=1.64, 95%CI 1.40-1.92) and often twisting trunk heavily (OR=1.40, 95%CI 1.20-1.64) might be risk factors. In the aspect of work organization, doing the same work every day (OR=1.73, 95%CI 1.44-2.08), shortage of workers (OR=1.50, 95%CI 1.31-1.71) and often working overtime (OR=1.38, 95%CI 1.20-1.60) might increase the risk of disease. Factors, such as often standing for long periods at work (OR=0.77, 95%CI 0.65-0.91) and feeling breaks sufficient (OR=0.51, 95%CI 0.44-0.59) were suggested to be protective factors with OR<1.@*CONCLUSION@#The pre-valence rates of WMSDs in neck, shoulder, upper back, and lower back were high among manufacturing workers in this study. The correlation of WMSDs of these four sites was close in this study, and the comorbidity rate of 3-4 sites of these sites was relatively high, suggesting that there might be a multi-site occurrence pattern of WMSDs in "neck-shoulder-upper back-lower back" among manufacturing workers. The main influencing factors of this pattern included individual factors, biomechanical factors and work organization factors.

Research on the reliability and validity of postural workload assessment method and the relation to work-related musculoskeletal disorders of workers / 北京大学学报(医学版)

OBJECTIVE@#To form a new assessment method to evaluate postural workload comprehensively analyzing the dynamic and static postural workload for workers during their work process to analyze the reliability and validity, and to study the relation between workers' postural workload and work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs).@*METHODS@#In the study, 844 workers from electronic and railway vehicle manufacturing factories were selected as subjects investigated by using the China Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (CMQ) to form the postural workload comprehensive assessment method. The Cronbach's α, cluster analysis and factor analysis were used to assess the reliability and validity of the new assessment method. Non-conditional Logistic regression was used to analyze the relation between workers' postural workload and WMSDs.@*RESULTS@#Reliability of the assessment method for postural workload: internal consistency analysis results showed that Cronbach's α was 0.934 and the results of split-half reliability indicated that Spearman-Brown coefficient was 0.881 and the correlation coefficient between the first part and the second was 0.787. Validity of the assessment method for postural workload: the results of cluster analysis indicated that square Euclidean distance between dynamic and static postural workload assessment in the same part or work posture was the shortest. The results of factor analysis showed that 2 components were extracted and the cumulative percentage of variance achieved 65.604%. The postural workload score of the different occupational workers showed significant difference (P<0.05) by covariance analysis. The results of nonconditional Logistic regression indicated that alcohol intake (OR=2.141, 95%CI 1.337-3.428) and obesity (OR=3.408, 95%CI 1.629-7.130) were risk factors for WMSDs. The risk for WMSDs would rise as workers' postural workload rose (OR=1.035, 95%CI 1.022-1.048). There was significant different risk for WMSDs in the different groups of workers distinguished by work type, gender and age. Female workers exhibited a higher prevalence for WMSDs (OR=2.626, 95%CI 1.414-4.879) and workers between 30-40 years of age (OR=1.909, 95%CI 1.237-2.946) as compared with those under 30.@*CONCLUSION@#This method for comprehensively assessing postural workload is reliable and effective when used in assembling workers, and there is certain relation between the postural workload and WMSDs.

Protection of Salvianolate Lyophilized Injection combined with Xueshuantong Injection (Lyophilized) against focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats through suppression of inflammatory response / 中草药·英文版

Objective: Inflammatory reactions induced by microglia in the brain play an important part in the pathogenesis of focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury, resulting in neuronal death. Salvianolate Lyophilized Injection (SLI) and Xueshuantong Injection (Lyophilized) (XST), which have been widely used in the treatment of acutely cerebral infarction clinically in China, exhibit various biological activities. In this study, the neuroprotective properties of SLI combined with XST in a rat model of middle cerebral artery occlusion- reperfusion (MCAO/R) were investigated. Methods: In this study, male Wistar rats were subjected to 1.5 h of middle cerebral artery occlusion followed by reperfusion for 24 h. The rats were randomly divided into the following six groups: normal group (NOR), model group (MOD), SLI group (21 mg/kg, SLI), XST group (100 mg/kg, XST), SLI combined with XST (XST 100 mg/kg + SLI 21 mg/kg, 1X1S), and Edaravone (as a positive control drug, 6 mL/kg, EDI), once a day for 3 d. The neuronal injury, the expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and ionized calcium binding adaptor molecule 1 (IBA-1), and the changes of pro-inflammatory mediators interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and anti-inflammatory mediator interleukin-10 (IL-10) were observed. Results: 1X1S treatment significantly increased the number of neuron, compared with the MOD group, SLI group and XST group. Gliosis (GFAP and IBA-1) and expression of pro-inflammatory mediators IL-6 and TNF-α were significantly reduced. Meanwhile, 1X1S significantly increased the expression of anti-inflammatory mediator IL-10 in the brains of MCAO/R rats, compared with the MOD group, SLI and XST groups. SLI and XST also remarkably down-regulated the expression of IL-6 and TNF-α compared with the MOD group. Conclusions: This study shows that SLI combined with XST (1X1S) can protect cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury due to its anti-inflammatory property, and may provide a potential promising new therapeutic strategy for acute ischemic stroke.

Effect and mechanism of Salvianolate Lyophilized Injection combined with Xueshuantong Injection on expression of astrocytes and microglia on focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats / 中草药

To investigate the effect of Salvianolate Lyophilized Injection (SLI) combined with Xueshuantong Injection (XST) on expression of astrocytes and microglia in cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury rats. Methods The Wistar rats (250-300 g, male) were randomly divided into six groups: control group, model group, Edaravone group (6 mg/kg, EDI), SLI group (21 mg/kg), XST group (100 mg/kg), and SLI+XST group (1X1S, 21 mg/kg and 100 mg/kg). Rat model of cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury was created by the middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) by longa method. Drugs were administered tail intravenous injection once a day for 3 d starting from 24 h after reperfusion. The body weight, neurological deficit scores and survival percentage were observed in 3 d after the cerebral ischemia. The expression of GFAP and IBA-1 was determined at 3 d by immunofluorescence. The complicated compound-target-stroke network of SLI and XST was constructed and analyzed by IPA. Results Compared with the model group, 1X1S could significantly improve the neurological dysfunction, increase the body weight, and inhibit the expression of GFAP and IBA-1 in ischemic penumbra (P < 0.01), IPA reveals the molecular mechanism of SLI and XST in the active ingredient and related targets. Conclusion 1X1S has significant protection on cerebral ischemia reperfusion injury in rats, which may be related to the inhibition of the expression of GFAP and IBA-1 and high mobility group box-1 signaling and Interleukine-8 signaling.

Exploration on biological networks relationship between effects of Danlou Tablets on cardiovascular disease and their relative components / 中草药

By systematically searching through the literature databases, such as PubMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and WanFang database and applying Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) software, we have identified the potential disease targets and forecasted the possible mechanisms of several chemical components in Danlou Tablets. We found that the pharmacological study on Danlou Tablets in recent years mainly focused on hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis. And some of the identified chemical components have been shown to exert such effects through the cyclooxygenase 2 (PTGS2), leptin (LEP), nitric oxide synthase (NOS3), and low density protein receptor (LDLR). However, it remains a great challenge in identifying the key active chemical components of Danlou Tablets and elucidating their pharmacological effects. The combination of the chemical biology and network pharmacology approaches will facilitate our understanding on the cardiovascular disease specificity and mechanisms of the action for Danlou Tablets.