Total Panax notoginseng saponin inhibits balloon injury-induced neointimal hyperplasia in rat carotid artery models by suppressing pERK/p38 MAPK pathways

Total Panax notoginseng saponin (TPNS) is the main bioactivity compound derived from the roots and rhizomes of Panax notoginseng (Burk.) F.H. Chen. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of TPNS in treating vascular neointimal hyperplasia in rats and its mechanisms. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into five groups, sham (control), injury, and low, medium, and high dose TPNS (5, 10, and 20 mg/kg). An in vivo 2F Fogarty balloon-induced carotid artery injury model was established in rats. TPNS significantly and dose-dependently reduced balloon injury-induced neointimal area (NIA) (P<0.001, for all doses) and NIA/media area (MA) (P<0.030, for all doses) in the carotid artery of rats, and PCNA expression (P<0.001, all). The mRNA expression of smooth muscle (SM) α-actin was significantly increased in all TPNS groups (P<0.005, for all doses) and the protein expression was significantly increased in the medium (P=0.006) and high dose TPNS (P=0.002) groups compared to the injury group. All the TPNS doses significantly decreased the mRNA expression of c-fos (P<0.001). The medium and high dose TPNS groups significantly suppressed the upregulation of pERK1/2 protein in the NIA (P<0.025) and MA (P<0.004). TPNS dose-dependently inhibited balloon injury-induced activation of pERK/p38MAPK signaling in the carotid artery. TPNS could be a promising agent in inhibiting cell proliferation following vascular injuries.

Design and Realization of Off-label Drug Use Control System Based on B/S Structure / 中国药房

OBJECTIVE:To build the off-label drug use control system,and to realize automatic prompt for off-label drug use by system when physicians prescribed drugs. METHODS:The module and flow chart of off-label drug use control system were de-signed based on B/S structure. The drugs of the prescriptions were verified one by one in terms of drug indication,drug dosage, age and gender of patient,route of administration,etc. The system prompted automatically off-label drug use when drug use didn’t agree with preset value;at the same time,the management effect of the system was evaluated by taken the amount of attention about antibiotics medical orders as an example. RESULTS:At present,265 kinds of drugs were involved in the system designed by our hospital. Since the system was applied,the system had prompted more than 50 thousand items of off-label drug use prescrip-tions/medical orders,accounting for 0.3% of total. Among the types of off-label drug use,the most number of medical orders were over single dose(745 items),followed by extra-indication(706 items)and over daily dose(671 items). Within 3 months after sys-tem used,the attention numbers of antibiotics medical orders of over daily dose decreased month by month. CONCLUSIONS:Es-tablished off-label drug use control system of our hospital has a stable running and convenient manipulation,and contains powerful practicability. It can monitor off-label drug use of some drugs.

Effect of high glucose on the expression of transcription factor Scleraxis in periodontal ligament cells in vitro / 中华口腔医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To approach the mechanisms of effects of high glucose on the differentiation of periodontal ligament cells(PDLC) by investigating the changes of Scleraxis mRNA expression in high glucose condition in vitro.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Human PDLC were cultured in high glucose medium (4500 mg/L glucose) and normal glucose medium (1000 mg/L glucose), respectively. High glucose was used to inhibit the osteogenic differentiation of PDLC. PDLC cultured in normal glucose medium served as control. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, the early parameter of osteogenetic differentiation of cells and the expression of Scleraxis mRNA were detected in each group. ALP activity was measured colorimetrically by using nitrophenyl phosphate as a substrate and the expression of Scleraxis mRNA was analyzed by semi-quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>ALP activity of PDLC was lower in high glucose medium than in normal glucose medium, and the values were 0.113 +/- 0.068 and 0.218 +/- 0.012, respectively. However, the level of Scleraxis mRNA was quite higher in high glucose medium compared with in normal glucose medium, and the values were 0.973 +/- 0.055 and 0.611 +/- 0.205, respectively. The values of ALP activity and the expression of Scleraxis mRNA were significantly different between the two groups.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>High glucose inhibited osteogenetic differentiation of PDLC and up-regulated Scleraxis expression. The adverse changes of Scleraxis expression and osteogenic differentiation of PDLC suggest that Scleraxis may regulate the osteogenic differentiation of PDLC negatively and the inhibition of high glucose on osteogenetic differentiation of PDLC may be regulated by Scleraxis in transcription level.</p>

Expression of cyclooxygenase-2 in carcinoma of the gastric cardia and its correlation with angiogenesis / 肿瘤

Objective: To investigate the expression of cyclooxygenase (Cox)-2 in carcinoma of the gastric cardia, and to evaluate the relationship between Cox-2 expression and angiogenesis. Methods: Forty-six resected tumor specimens from patients with carcinoma of the gastric cardia were collected, and 21 corresponding paracancerous normal tissues were randomly selected as controls. Immunohistochemical staining was used for detecting the expression of Cox-2. Monoclonal antiboty against CD34 was used for labeling vascular endothelial cells, and microvascular density (MVD) was determined by counting CD34-positive vascular endothelial cells. The correlations of Cox-2 expression and MVD with clinicopathological parameters of the patients were analyzed. Results: The positive expression rate of Cox-2 and MVD value in the cancerous tissue were 80.4% and 31.95 ± 3.87, respectively, which were significantly higher than those in the pericancerous normal tissues (14.3%, 16.28 ± 1.55; P <0.01). The positive expression level of Cox-2 and MVD value were associated with clinical TNM staging and lymph node metastasis. The Spearman rank correlation test showed that tumor MVD were closely associated with Cox-2 expression. Conclusion: Abnormal expression of Cox-2 and angiogenesis play important roles in tumor invasion and lymph node metastasis of carcinoma of the gastric cardia.

Effect of Bisphenol A on the Structure of Spleen and the Expression of ER-? in Rats / 环境与健康杂志

Objective To study the effect of bisphenol A on the structure of the spleen and the expression of ER-? in F344 rats. Methods Fisher 344 rats were randomly divided into control,low-dose,moderate-dose and high-dose groups,10 in each and treated with bisphenol A through gavage at the doses of 4 mg/kg,40 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg respectively,once a day for 17 consecutive weeks. In the end of the experiment,the pathological examination of the spleen was done and the expression of ER-? was detected by western blotting. Results Compared with the control,the weight of high dose group decreased (P