Study on Medication Regularity of Li Dong Yuan Based on Data Mining / 中国中医药信息杂志

Objective To analyze the medication regularity of the prescriptions in the work of Li Dong Yuan; To provide references for inheritance of his academic ideas.Methods The prescriptions in the work of Li Dong Yuan were inputted into the TCM Inheritance Supporting System (V2.5). By using revised mutual information, complex system entropy cluster and unsupervised hierarchical clustering, the composing medication regularity was analyzed.Results Based on the analysis of 470 entries of prescriptions, the frequency of 44 entries was more than 30 times; 19 combinations contained 2 to 3 entries, including 11 entries in total; 14 medicine association rules and their confidence coefficient were obtained, which leaded to 54 new core combinations and 27 new prescriptions. Conclusion The results of this study show Li Dong Yuan’s academic idea of “internal injuries of spleen and stomach, all diseases will born”, which guides the medication regularity of using medicine with the functions of strengthening the middle jiao, invigorating yang, tonifying qi and reinforcing the stomach. The results also provide data support for further study.

Epithelium constitution for esophageal tissue engineering using electrospinning technology / 生物工程学报

The basement membrane (BM) is crucial in regulating the physical and biological activities of esophageal epithelial cells which attach to the underlying BM. In order to simulate the natural construction of BM, we prepared the fibrous scaffolds using biodegradable polylactide (PLA) and silk fibroin (SF) as the materials via electrospinning technology. BM's proteins containing collagen (IV), laminin, entactin and proteoglycan were extracted from porcine esophagus and coated on the eletrospun fibers. Morphology, mechanical strength, biodegradability and cytocompatibility of the coated and uncoated scaffolds were tested and evaluated using scanning electron micrography, mechanical test system, immunofluorescence assay and western blotting with CK14 as the primary antibody. The fibrous scaffold PLA or PLA/SF, generated from the present protocol had good formation and mechanical and biodegradable properties. After coating with BM's proteins, the scaffold could enhance the growth and differentiation of esophageal epithelial cells, which would contribute to remodel and regenerate the tissue engineered epithelium and further contribute to engineer the whole esophagus in future.