Current situations and thinking of acupuncture and moxibustion in Jordan / 中国针灸

The brief history of acupuncture, its current situation, locations for acupuncture practitioners, the manipulation and indications of acupuncture in Jordan are introduced in this paper. The acupuncture treatment in Jordan started in the early 1990s. Now there are more than 20 private acupuncture clinics in different size, most in the capital city of Amman. Acupuncture practitioners are western doctors who studied acupuncture techniques in China. The indications of acupuncture in Jordan are pain and nervous system diseases. Acupuncture therapy can be applied single or combined with physical therapy.

PDGF-BB initiates vascular smooth muscle-like phenotype differentiation of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in vitro / 中华整形外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the feasibility of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs) in vitro differentiation into vascular smooth muscle cells with induction of platelet-derived growth Factor BB (PDGF-BB).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells of adult healthy donors were separated from iliac crest aspiration and expanded in DMEM-LG medium. Cells at passage 1 were transferred to EGM-2 medium containing PDGF-BB (20 ng/ml) and cultured for 14 days. The expression of SM alpha-actin, SM calponin, SMMHC and SM 22alpha were detected by immunofluorescence and observed with fluorescence microscope. mRNA expression of SMalpha-actin, SM calponin, SMMHC as well as SM 22alpha was analyzed by RT-PCR. The method of Western-Blot was applied to determine protein expression of SM 22alpha. Cells with induction were observed for the expression of SM alpha-actin,SM calponin,SMMHC by FACs analysis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>With the induction of PDGF-BB, the morphology of cells changed to a spindle fibroblastic appearance. By fluorescence microscope observation, expression of SM alpha-actin, SM calponin and SMMHC was found intracellularly in PDGF-BB treated hBMSCs at 14 days. Western-Blot detection confirmed SM 22alpha expression by 14 days induction. RT-PCR of characteristic vascular smooth muscle cells related genes, such as SM alpha-actin, SM calponin, SMMHC and SM 22alpha revealed differentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells phenotype in monolayer culture upon stimulation with PDGF-BB for 14 days. The positive expression of SM alpha-actin, SM calponin and SMMHC in induced cells was significantly higher than that in non-induced cells (P < 0.05, n=3).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>These results suggested hBMSCs could be differentiated into vascular smooth muscle cell phenotype with PDGF-BB induction in vitro.</p>