Value of serum matrix metalloproteinase 3 in the assessment of early rheumatoid arthritis / 北京大学学报(医学版)

OBJECTIVE@#To investigate the expression level of serum matrix metalloproteinase 3 (MMP3) in early rheumatoid arthritis (ERA) patients with normal C-reaction protein (CRP) or erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and the significance in disease assessment.@*METHODS@#In the study, 133 cases of early RA patients, 25 osteoarthritis (OA) patients and 60 healthy controls in Peking University People's Hospital from 2011 to 2015 were included. The RA patients were further divided into 4 groups according to levels of CRP and ESR: 88 patients with increased CRP and increased ESR, 15 patients with normal CRP and normal ESR, 17 patients with normal CRP but increased ESR, and 13 patients with increased CRP but normal ESR. All the clinical information of the patients was collected, and the serum MMP3 levels of both patients and healthy controls were detected by enzyme-linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA).@*RESULTS@#The serum MMP3 level of RA patients with normal CRP and/or normal ESR [(72.89±6.34) μg/L] was obviously higher than that of OA patients [(42.87±4.14) μg/L] (P=0.002) and healthy controls [(31.62±2.88) μg/L] (P<0.001). The serum MMP3 levels of the patients with normal CRP and normal ESR [(47.04±9.64) μg/L] were higher than those of the healthy controls, and there was statistical significance between the two groups (P<0.05). The serum MMP3 levels of the patients with increased CRP but normal ESR [(94.18±9.11) μg/L] and the patients with normal CRP but increased ESR [(79.42±10.60) μg/L] were both higher than those of the OA patients and healthy controls, and there was obvious statistical difference (P<0.05). In the early RA patients with normal CRP and/or normal ESR, the serum MMP3 level was positively correlated with the CRP level (r=0.336, P=0.024). The positive rate of MMP3 in the patients with normal CRP and/or normal ESR was 44.44%, higher than the positive rate of CRP (28.89%) and the positive rate of ESR (37.78%). In these early RA patients, the positive rate was 52.94% in the patients with normal CRP but increased ESR and 53.85% in the patients with increased CRP but normal ESR.@*CONCLUSION@#The detection of the serum MMP3 level was significant in the assessment of early RA patients within 2-year duration who had normal CRP or ESR value.

Content Determination of Geniposide in Biyuanshu Oral Liquid by Micellar Electrokinetic Capillary Chromatography / 中国中医药信息杂志

Objective To establish a micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography method for content determination of geniposide in Biyuanshu Oral Liquid. Methods Acetaminophen was used as an internal standard, and the separation was performed on an uncoated fused silica capillary of 52 cm × 50 μm ID (42 cm effective length) with the separation voltage of 25.0 kV. The running buffer contained 50 mmol/L borax, 100 mmol/L sodium dodecyl sulfate and 15％ acetonitrile (pH=10). The sample was injected by pressure (10 s, 0.5 psi) and detected at 238 nm. Results Geniposide was in good linearity range of 15.02–320.48 μg/mL (r=0.9995). The repeatability (low, medium and high concentration of samples) and intermediate precision assays gave satisfactory RSD values of less than 1.77％and 2.01％, respectively. The average recovery of geniposide in Biyuanshu Oral Liquid was 97.50％ and the RSD was 4.43％. The contents of geniposide determined by micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography were in accordance with the results of HPLC analysis. Conclusion The method is simple, fast, accurate and precise, which can be used for the content determination of geniposide in Biyuanshu Oral Liquid.