Involvement of Interleukin-1 β/Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 in Ameliorating Effects of Electroacupuncture on Myocardial Fibrosis Induced by Essential Hypertension / 中国结合医学杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To investigate the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) at Neiguan (PC 6) on myocardial fibrosis in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs), and to explore the contribution of interleukin-1 β (IL-1 β), insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), and transforming growth factor β 1 (TGF- β 1) to the effects.@*METHODS@#Nine 12-weeks-old Wistar Kyoto (WKY) male rats were employed as the normal group. Twenty-seven SHRs were equally randomized into SHR, SHR+EA, and SHR + sham groups. EA was applied at bilateral PC 6 once a day 30 min per day in 8 consecutive weeks. After 8-weeks EA treatment at PC 6, histopathologic changes of collagen type I (Col I), collagen type 1 (Col 1) and the levels of IGF-1, 1L-1 β, TGF- β 1, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and MMP-9 were examined in myocardial tissure respectively.@*RESULTS@#After 8-weeks EA treatment at PC 6, the enhanced myocardial fibrosis in SHRs were characterized by the increased mean fluorescence intensity of Col I and Col 1 in myocardium tissue (P<0.01). All these abnormal alterations above in SHR + EA group was significantly lower compared with the SHR group (P<0.01). Meanwhile, the increased levels of IL-1 β, IGF-1, TGF-β 1 in serum or myocardial tissue of SHRs, diminished MMP 9 mRNA expression in SHRs were also markedly inhibited after 8 weeks of EA treatment (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Furthermore, the contents of IL-1 β, IGF-1, TGF-β 1 in myocardial tissue were positively correlated with the systolic blood pressure and hydroxyproline respectively (P<0.01).@*CONCLUSION@#EA at bilateral PC 6 could ameliorate cardiac fibrosis in SHRs, which might be mediated by regulation of 1L-1 β/IGF-1-TGF- β 1-MMP9 pathway.

Role of energy synthesis disorders in pathogenesis of Alzheimer' s disease / 中国药理学通报

Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disease with multiple causes. Due to no effective drugs to reverse the progress of AD, many researchers in the world focus on the early pathological changes of AD in order to find the effective intervention for delaying the progress of AD. As an organ with high energy demand, brain is very sensitive to changes in fuel supply and energy alteration. Abnormal glucose metabolism and mitochondrial dysfunction are the important signs of brain aging and the main causes of bioenergetic deficits, which appear earlier than the characteristic pathological injuries of AD. So the disturbance of energy synthesis has been considered an early contributory e- vent to AD progression. In this article we review the study progress of energy synthesis disorder involved in the pathogenesis of AD base on cerebral blood flow, glucose uptake, utilization and the relative metabolic regulation in the brain.

Expression of specific marker molecules of long-term cultured human dermal papilla cells in vitro / 中华医学美学美容杂志

Objective To investigate the expression of specific marker molecules in hair-inducing activity of long-term cultured human dermal papilla cells (HDPCs) in vitro.Methods After dissected and cultured the HDPCs in vitro,the cells of passages 1 to 8 were used for experiments.The growth appearances of HDPCs in different passages were observed under inverted microscope.To detect the expression of specific marker molecules of long-term cultured HDPCs,the alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity of the HDPCs was examined,and the specific genes ALP and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) expression levels of HDPCs were determined by real-time quantitative PCR.Results After long-term cultured in vitro,the ALP and IGF-1 expression levels of HDPCs gradually decreased in different passages,as well as the display of the aggregated and cartouche growth.The ALP and IGF-1 expression levels of HDPCs in passage 1 was the highest,they were almost about 6.8-fold and 3.5-fold higher than the HDPCs in passage 8.The ALP staining of the HDPCs in passage 1 and passage 2 were evident,but the cells' ALP staining gradually became much weaker than the cells in the previous passages after the long-term cultured in vitro.Conclusions The expression levels of specific marker molecules ALP and IGF-1 of the HDPCs decrease gradually after long-term cultured in vitro,and the higher passage HDPCs lost the special aggregated and cartouche growth appearance,and hence lead to the loss of hair-inducing activity of HDPCs.