Antiobesity Activity of Two Polyherbal Formulations in High-Fat Diet-Induced Obese C57BL/6J Mice.

Obesity and overweight have posed a severe threat to humanity, needing urgent efforts for the development of safe and effective therapeutic interventions. In this research work, we have developed two polyherbal formulations A and B basically consisting of Helianthus tuberosus root powder (also called inulin of synanthrin) along with other herbs for the treatment of obesity. Evaluation of the antioxidant activity of both formulations using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) free radical scavenging assays showed good antioxidant potentials. Both formulations A and B showed good antiobesity activity on a diet-induced obesity (DIO) model of mice by effectively lowering the body weight of mice compared to the high-fat diet (HFD) control mice, mainly by reducing the food efficiency ratio (FER). Furthermore, both formulations ameliorated lipoprotein misbalances induced by obesity and thus decreased the atherogenic index. Treatment with both formulations significantly decreased the liver and epididymal white adipose tissue (WAT) weight. This was supported by the improvement in steatosis of the liver and reduced hypertrophy in WAT on histological examination. In addition, formulations A and B have been seen as effective in controlling fasting blood glucose levels probably by alleviating HFD-induced insulin resistance. All of these results collectively suggest that formulations A and B serve as potentially safe and effective herbal interventions to control obesity and its comorbidities.

Mutant Huntingtin Causes a Selective Decrease in the Expression of Synaptic Vesicle Protein 2C / 神经科学通报·英文版

Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by a polyglutamine expansion in the huntingtin (Htt) protein. Mutant Htt causes synaptic transmission dysfunctions by interfering in the expression of synaptic proteins, leading to early HD symptoms. Synaptic vesicle proteins 2 (SV2s), a family of synaptic vesicle proteins including 3 members, SV2A, SV2B, and SV2C, plays important roles in synaptic physiology. Here, we investigated whether the expression of SV2s is affected by mutant Htt in the brains of HD transgenic (TG) mice and Neuro2a mouse neuroblastoma cells (N2a cells) expressing mutant Htt. Western blot analysis showed that the protein levels of SV2A and SV2B were not significantly changed in the brains of HD TG mice expressing mutant Htt with 82 glutamine repeats. However, in the TG mouse brain there was a dramatic decrease in the protein level of SV2C, which has a restricted distribution pattern in regions particularly vulnerable in HD. Immunostaining revealed that the immunoreactivity of SV2C was progressively weakened in the basal ganglia and hippocampus of TG mice. RT-PCR demonstrated that the mRNA level of SV2C progressively declined in the TG mouse brain without detectable changes in the mRNA levels of SV2A and SV2B, indicating that mutant Htt selectively inhibits the transcriptional expression of SV2C. Furthermore, we found that only SV2C expression was progressively inhibited in N2a cells expressing a mutant Htt containing 120 glutamine repeats. These findings suggest that the synaptic dysfunction in HD results from the mutant Htt-mediated inhibition of SV2C transcriptional expression. These data also imply that the restricted distribution and decreased expression of SV2C contribute to the brain region-selective pathology of HD.

Establishment of clinical nursing pathway for artificial abortion and effect assessment / 中国实用护理杂志

Objective To build clinical nursing pathway for artificial abortion operation and explore the effect of this method. Methods The nursing pathway was designed and carried out. The satisfaction degree with nursing, status of patients' awareness about contraception and artificial abortion operation was compared before and after the nursing pathway was implemented. Results Before and after the nursing pathway was implemented,the proportion of missing item of operation record was 0.636 and 0.013, the satisfaction degree with nursing was 77.0% and 92.3%, rate of patients' awareness about contraception and artificial abortion operation was 47.6% and 96.1%. Conclusions The clinical nursing pathway for artificial abortion operation may improve the degree of satisfaction- and the status of patients' awareness about contraception and artificial abortion operation, and decline the proportion of missing item of operation note, it ensures high nursing quality and safety surgery, which is worthy of popularizing.

Experimental study of effect of corticosterone on primary cultured hippocampal neurons and their Ca2+/CaMKII expression / 华中科技大学学报（医学）（英德文版）

To explore the effect of different concentrations of corticosterone (CORT) on primary cultured hippocampal neurons and their Ca2+/CaMK II expression and possible mechanism, the changes of hippocampal neurons were observed in terms of morphology, activity of cells, cell death, concentrations of cytosolic free calcium, and the expression of CaMK II by using MTT assay, flow cytometry, fluorescent labeling of Fura-2/AM and Western blotting after 10(-7), 10(-6) and 10(-5) mol/L of CORT was added to culture medium, The evident effect of 10(-6) and 10(-5) mol/L of CORT on the morphology of hippocampal neuron was found. Compared with control neurons, the activity of the cells was markedly decreased and [Ca2+]i increased in the neurons treated with 10(-6) and 10(-5) mol/L of CORT, but no change was observed in the neuron treated with 10(-7) mol/L of CORT. The death was either by way of apoptosis or necrosis in the cells treated with 10(-6) and 10(-5) mol/L of CORT respectively. The correlation analysis showed that a reverse correlation existed between [Ca2+]i and the expression of CaMK II. Either apoptosis or necrosis occurs in the hippocampal neurons treated with CORT. The increased hippocampal [Ca2+]i is both the result of CORT impairing the hippocampal neurons and the cause of the apoptosis of hippocampal neurons and the decreased CaMK II expression.

Comparison on constituents from different parts between wild growing and cultivated planting of Ephedra sinica / 中草药

Objective To compare the difference in constituents from different parts of wild and cultivated Ephedra sinica. Methods Using the solvent of 50% methyl alcohol to extract from the stems and roots of wild and cultivated E. sinica under heating reflux, respectively and then determine the content of ephedrine in each extractions by HPLC. The volatile oil was extracted by stream-distillation and analyzed by GC-MS method. Results The content of the ephedrine in extraction of stems and roots of wild E. sinica was 0.55% and 0.000 57% while the content of the cultivated was 0.26% and 0.001 7%. Forty-five compounds in the volatile oil were identified by GC-MS method, among them 13 compounds existed in both wild and cultivated E. sinica. Conclusion The content of the ephedrine is about two times of the cultivated in wild E. sinica′s stems, while it is very low in the roots of two kinds of herbs. And ephedrine is not found in the volatile oil.