Research progress on excitotoxicity of glutamate and its modulators / 中国药理学通报

Excitotoxicity mainly refers to the toxic effect of the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate.Long-term activation of glutamate receptors will cause a series of neurotoxicity, eventually leading to the loss of neuronal function and cell death.Triggering excitotoxicity may involve changes in glutamate and calcium metabolism, dysfunction of glutamate transporter, N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor(NMDAR)and mitochondria, and production of ROS.Therefore, we here review the occurrence of these mechanisms and introduce the pathological mechanism of glutamate excitotoxicity in Alzheimer's disease(AD), Parkinson's disease(PD), depression and epilepsy.Finally, this review briefly describes the regulatory effects of broad-spectrum glutamic satellite modulators, marine compounds and Chinese herbal medicines on the glutamatergic system.

Research progress on antidepressant effects of melatonin and its receptor agonists / 中国药理学通报

Depression, a chronic syndrome with significant and lasting depression and sleep disturbance, is the most common mental disorder.Recent studies have shown that melatonin plays an important role in the occurrence and development of depression.rI1iis review describes the antidepressant effects of melatonin from HPA axis, cytokines, neurosynaptic plasticity and monoamine neurotransmitters, and summarizes the melatonin receptor agonists agomelatine, ramelteon and piromelatine antidepressant effects.A theoretical basis is expected to provide a reference for the study of melatonin's antidepressant mechanism.

Effects of compound Chaijin Jieyu tablets on expression of GABA receptor in brain regions of depressive insomnia rats / 中国药理学通报

Aim To explore compound Chaijin Jieyu tablets on expression of GABA receptor in brain regions of depressive insomnia rats. Methods Seventy-two male SD rats were randomly divided into control, model, positive drug (venlafaxine hydrochloridel3. 5 mg · kg

Safety and Efficacy of Radiofrequency Ablation for Solitary Hepatocellular Carcinoma (3-5 cm): a Propensity Score Matching Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: We aim to investigate the safety and efficacy of radiofrequency ablation in the treatment of solitary hepatocellular carcinoma (3-5 cm) in comparison with surgical resection. METHODS: Included in this study were 388 patients with primary and solitary hepatocellular carcinoma, of whom 196 patients underwent surgical resection and the other 192 patients received radiofrequency ablation. Clinicopathological characteristics, prognosis, post-treatment complications, hospital stay, and financial expenditures between the two groups were compared retrospectively. RESULTS: The result of propensity score matching and subgroup analysis showed that the 1-, 3-, and 5-year overall survival and disease-free survival were comparable in patients with tumors of 3-4 cm in diameter between surgical resection and radiofrequency ablation groups. However, when the tumor size exceeded 4 cm in diameter, surgical resection exhibited a superior long-term prognosis compared with radiofrequency ablation. Nevertheless, hepatectomy was associated with high occurrences of postoperative complications, long hospital stay, and high hospitalization cost as compared with radiofrequency ablation. Further analysis of the relationship between tumor size and pathological features of hepatocellular carcinoma showed that tumors larger than 4 cm were positively correlated with a high rate of microvascular invasion and satellite nodule formation. CONCLUSION: For solitary hepatocellular carcinoma of 3-4 cm in diameter, radiofrequency ablation could achieve a comparable prognosis with a low incidence of post-treatment complications and low hospitalization costs, while surgical resection is recommended for solitary hepatocellular carcinoma tumors of 4-5 cm in diameter when long-term prognosis is considered.

Effect of hypoxia on expressions of stromal cell-derived factor-1 and integrin-linked kinase in retinal pigment epithelium cell in vitro / 中华实验眼科杂志

Background Hypoxia is a crucial factor of neovascularization.Many researches found that stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) and integrin-linked kinase (ILK) play an important role in the neovascular disease.However,effect of SDF-1 and ILK in eye neovascular disease is below understood.Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of hypoxia on the expressions of SDF-1 and ILK in cultured retinal pigment epithelium(RPE) cells in vitro.Methods RPE tissue was isolated from 4-week-old C57BL/6 mouse and was digested and cultured in DMEM/F12 with 10％ fetal bovine serum (FBS).The cells with 80％ confluence were collected and passaged.The third generation of cells were identified with cytokeratin 18 (CK18) antibody by immunochemistry.The cells were inoculated at the density of 5×104 cells/ml to free-serum DMEM/F12 for 24 hours and then were cultured in regular medium in the normoxic control group.RPE cells were cultured for 1 hour and 3,6,12,24,48,72 hours with 200 μmol/L CoCl2 in the hypoxia group.Reverse transcription-PCR(RT-PCR) was used to evaluate the expressing change of SDF-1 mRNA and ILK mRNA in RPE cells,and Western blot was used to assay the expressing change of SDF-1 protein and ILK protein in RPE cells in different time points.The detected outcomes were represented as the ratio of target gene A value/β-actin A value.Results Cultured cells showed the polygon in shape with the black pigment granules in cytoplasm.Over 90％ cells were positive response for CK18.Expressions of the SDF-1 mRNA and ILK mRNA were increased in different time points after CoCl2 co-cultured(SDF-1 mRNA:F=281.875,P=0.000 ;ILK mRNA: F=187.566,P=0.000),with the highest expressing value in hypoxia at 12 hours.No significant change in the expression of SDF-1 mRNA and protein was found 1 hour after CoCl2 co-cultured,but expressions of SDF-1 mRNA and ILK mRNA were significantly higher in 3,6,12,24,48 and 72 hours than the normoxic control group(P＜0.01).The expressions of SDF-1 protein and ILK protein were gradually ascended with the time increase of CoCl2 co-culture,showing a significant difference among different time points(SDF-1: F=44.719,P =0.000 ; ILK: F =144.481,P =0.000),and the up-regulation of SDF-1 protein and ILK protein expression was seen mainly in 3,6,12,24,48 and 72 hours after CoCl2 co-cultured in comparison with the normoxic control group (P＜0.01).Conclusions SDF-1 and ILK are involved in the hypoxic response of RPE cells and may play a potential role in ischemic/hypoxic retinopathy.