Effects of Restraint Manipulation on Learning-memory Ability, Visional Acuity and Body Mass of Rats / 针刺研究

OBJECTIVE: Restraint manipulation is necessary for observing the effect of acupuncture or moxibustion stimulation on various variables in the experimental study. Thus, the present study was designed to examine the impact of restraint manipulation on rats' learning-memory ability, visional acuity, and body mass, so as to have a reasonable assessment on the influence of restraint stress. METHODS: Normal Sprague Dawley rats were randomly assigned to a restraint group (n=15) and a control group (n=15). In the restraint group, self-made restraint devices were used to bind the rats for 30 min daily for 30 consecutive days. The body mass of the rats was monitored daily; and the learningmemory ability and the visional acuity assessed using visual water task. RESULTS: After 30 days' restraint, no significant differences were found between the two groups in the training times for acquiring a correct rate of 80% in the learning-memory tests, and visional acuity and body mass (P ﹥0.05). CONCLUSION: Thirty days' restraint has no obvious impact on the increase of body weight, learning-memory and visional acuity in normal rats, suggesting an applicable of restraint device in acupuncture study.

Applications of nanomaterial-based drug delivery carriers in treating eye diseases / 国际眼科杂志(Guoji Yanke Zazhi)

In view of the anatomical and physiological barrier of the ocular surface and the intraocular structure, the conventional ophthalmic agents cannot efficiently reach the lesion site.Currently, the different types of nanomaterials possess great advantages in delivering drugs due to their characteristics of small size, easy preparation, degradability, strong targeting and less irritation to biological tissue.As drug delivery carriers, nanomaterials have been widely used in ocular drug delivery so as to treat different types of eye diseases.In this paper, the applications of nanomaterials as drug delivery carriers in treating eye diseases are briefly reviewed.

Early multi-disciplinary intervention reduces neurological disability in premature infants / 中国当代儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of multi-disciplinary treatment approaches in reducing neurological disabilities in premature infants.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 117 infants who were born premature in our hospital between March 2008 and February 2010 but had no congenital malformations and no severe neonatal complications, were enrolled in this study. They were randomly allocated to a multi-disciplinary treatment group (n=63) and a control group (n=54). While patients in the control group underwent an early conventional treatment, those in the multi-disciplinary treatment group were subjected to regular development monitoring, neurological examination and screening for brain injury, neuro-nutrition and neurodevelopment therapies, and rehabilitation training.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The incidence rates of abnormalities in posture, reflex, sleep, muscle tone and EEG were significantly lower in the multi-disciplinary treatment group than in the control froup (P<0.05) at corrected postnatal ages of 6-12 months. At corrected postnatal ages of 6, 12, 18 and 24 months, both mental development index (MDI) and psychomotor development index (PDI) scores were significantly higher in the multi-disciplinary treatment group than in the control group (P<0.05). At corrected postnatal age of 3 years, incidence rates of cerebral palsy, language barrier, abnormal muscle tone and hearing impairment were significantly lower in the multi-disciplinary treatment group than in the control group (P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Early multi-disciplinary intervention approaches may significantly improve mental and motor developments and reduce the incidence of cerebral palsy-associated neurological disabilities in premature infants.</p>

Microscopic Raman spectral characteristics and diagnostic value of pathological lip minor salivary glands affected in primary Sjögren's syndrome / 中华口腔医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the Raman spectral characteristics of the pathological lip minor salivary glands affected in primary Sjögren's syndrome.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Thirty pathological samples and 30 normal samples were collected in this study. The samples were examined by Raman microscope.Support vector machine(SVM) was employed to analyze the data and establish the classification model.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The spectra of pathological tissues was different from the controls in proteins, nucleic acids, lipids and glycogen skeleton. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the model established by SVM on the training sets were all 92.0% (92/100), but the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the model established by SVM on the testing sets were 69.2% (37/53), 100.0% (37/37) and 82.0% (73/89) respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>There was significant difference in Raman spectra between the pathological and normal lip salivary glands, and the classification model established by SVM could discriminate the pathological glands from the normal ones.</p>