Research progress on the biological effects of HIF-1α on follicle development and ovulation / 生理学报

Hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), as a hypoxia inducible factor, affects women's reproductive function by regulating the development and excretion of follicles. HIF-1α induces glycolysis and autophagy in the granule cells by promoting oocyte development, regulating the secretion of related angiogenic factors, and improving follicle maturity. In addition, HIF-1α promotes the process of luteinization of follicular vesicles, maintains luteal function, and finally completes physiological luteal atrophy through cumulative oxidative stress. Dysfunction of HIF-1α will cause a series of pathological consequences, such as angiogenesis defect, energy metabolism abnormality, excessive oxidative stress and dysregulated autophagy and apoptosis, resulting in ovulation problem and infertility. This article summarizes the previous studies on the regulation of follicle development and excretion and maintenance of luteal function and structural atrophy by HIF-1α. We also describe the effective intervention mechanism of related drugs or bioactive ingredients on follicular dysplasia and ovulation disorders through HIF-1α, in order to provide a systematic and in-depth insights for solving ovulation disorder infertility.

Mechanism of tonifying kidney and activating blood therapy for premature ovarian failure:a review / 中国中药杂志

Healthy birth and child development are the prerequisite for improving the overall quality of the population. However, premature ovarian failure(POF) threatens the reproductive health of women. The incidence of this disease has been on the rise, and it tends to occur in the young. The causes are complex, involving genetics, autoimmune, infectious and iatrogenic factors, but most of the causes remain unclear. At the moment, hormone replacement therapy and assisted reproductive technology are the main clinical approaches. According to traditional Chinese medicine(TCM), kidney deficiency and blood stasis are one of the major causes of POF, and TCM with the effects of tonifying kidney and activating blood has a definite effect. Through clinical trials, TCM prescriptions for POF have excellent therapeutic effect as a result of multi-target regulation and slight toxicity. In particular, they have no obvious side effects. A large number of studies have shown that the kidney-tonifying and blood-activating TCM can regulate the neuroendocrine function of hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis, improve ovarian hemodynamics and microcirculation, reduce the apoptosis of granulosa cells, alleviate oxidative stress injury, and modulate immunologic balance. The mechanism is that it regulates the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase(PI3K)/protein kinase B(Akt), vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF), transforming growth factor(TGF)-β/Smads, nuclear factor E2-related factor 2(Nrf2)/antioxidant response element(ARE), and nuclear factor-kappa B(NF-κB) signaling pathways. This article summarized the pathological mechanisms of tonifying kidney and activating blood TCM in the prevention and treatment of POF and explored the biological basis of its multi-pathway and multi-target characteristics in the treatment of this disease. As a result, this study is expected to serve as a reference for the treatment of POF with the tonifying kidney and activating blood therapy.

Medication rule of Chinese materia medica in treatment of pulmonary fibrosis based on data mining / 中草药

To explore the medication rule of Chinese materia medica (CMM) in the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis, and provide reference for the prevention and treatment of pulmonary fibrosis in the novel coronavirus pneumonia. Using Excel 2013 and SPSS Statistics 23.0, the literatures with the theme of “pulmonary fibrosis” that met the screening criteria were searched, and the association rule analysis was carried out. Frequency analysis showed that the occurrence frequency of Astragali Radix (148, 45.82%), Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma (124, 38.39%) and Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma (102, 31.58%) was the highest in the clinical treatment literature. In the statistics of nature and flavor, warm (10 times, 50.00%) and neutral (six times, 30.00%) were the most common. The highest frequency of meridian tropism was found in the spleen (11 times, 25.58%), lung (10 times, 23.26%) and sweet (11 times, 36.67%). In the analysis of association rules, six groups of TCM combinations with high frequency correlation strength were obtained. The high frequency and high correlation CMM combinations obtained from this data analysis were mainly effective in strengthening the spleen and invigorating qi, and warming the spleen and lung, which can be used to prevent the early patients from developing to the critical stage and prevent the patients from reinfection due to low immunity in the convalescence stage.