Development of precocious puberty in children: Surmised medicinal plant treatment.

Precocious puberty in children is one of the common endocrine diseases in paediatrics. Epidemiological surveys have shown that the number of children with precocious puberty has significantly increased globally. Precocious puberty negatively affects the physical and mental health of children and may increase the risk of hypertension, diabetes, obesity and infertility in adulthood. Therefore, the initiating factors of adolescence have become core issues in the study of sexual development in children. Owing to developments in molecular genetics, many studies have been able to show that precocious puberty is mostly resulted in autosomal inheritance. For instance, makorin ring finger protein 3 gene (MKRN3) may be implicated in familial CPP. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) is the gold standard for treatment, but its safety still requires long-term evaluation and management. Traditional medicinal plants have been used in clinical treatments and in exploring novel treatment methods. From the collected datas, in Asia, traditional Chinese medicine treatment is based on the principles of nourishing Yin, lowering fire and draining fire from the liver to help precocious children and alleviate or delay the onset of precocious puberty by medicinal plants such as Anemarrhena asphodeloides Bge., Phellodendron amurense Rupr., Rehmannia glutinosa and Poria cocos Wolf. They play an important role in exploring the pharmacological mechanisms of precocious puberty treatment effects and drug development. Therefore, by elucidating the occurrence and development of precocious puberty, this review provides novel and valuable insights of paediatric endocrine therapy accessing the published researches on the effectiveness of traditional herbal medicine in the treatment of precocious puberty and its therapeutic mechanisms.

Role of Bile Acids and Nuclear Receptors in Acupuncture in Improving Crohn's Disease.

Nuclear receptors (NRs) are ligand-dependent transcription factors that regulate the transcription of target genes. Bile acids (BAs) can be used as effector molecules to regulate physiological processes in the gut, and NRs are important receptors for bile acid signaling. Relevant studies have shown that NRs are closely related to the occurrence of Crohn's disease (CD). Although the mechanism of NRs in CD has not been clarified completely, growing evidence shows that NRs play an important role in regulating intestinal immunity, mucosal barrier, and intestinal flora. NRs can participate in the progress of CD by mediating inflammation, immunity, and autophagy. As the important parts of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapy, acupuncture and moxibustion in the treatment of CD curative mechanism can get a lot of research support. At the same time, acupuncture and moxibustion can regulate the changes of related NRs. Therefore, to explore whether acupuncture can regulate BA circulation and NRs expression and then participate in the disease progression of CD, a new theoretical basis for acupuncture treatment of CD is provided.

[Effect of acupuncture-moxibustion on negative emotions and plasma tryptophan metabolism in patients with Crohn's disease at active stage].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of acupuncture-moxibustion on negative emotions and plasma tryptophan (Trip)-kynurenine (Kyn) metabolism in the patients with Crohn's disease (CD) at the mild and moderate active stage. METHODS: A total of 66 CD patients were randomized into an observation group (33 cases, 1 case dropped off) and a control group (33 cases, 2 cases dropped off). In the observation group, acupuncture was applied in combination with moxibustion. In the control group, the sham-acupuncture was used in combination with sham-moxibustion. In both of the observation group and the control group, acupuncture was applied to Zhongwan (CV 12), Shangjuxu (ST 37), Sanyinjiao (SP 6), Gongsun (SP 4), Hegu (LI 4), Quchi (LI 11), Taixi (KI 3) and Taichong (LR 3), and moxibustion was applied to Tianshu (ST 25) and Zusanli (ST 36). The treatment was given once every two days, 3 times a week, totally for 12 weeks. Separately, before and after treatment, the score of the hospital anxiety-depression scale (HADS) and the score of intestinal core symptoms (degree of abdominal pain and frequency of diarrhea) were observed in the patients of the two groups. The concentration of plasma indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) and the ratios of Kyn/Trp, QuinA/Kyn, KynA/Kyn and KynA/QuinA were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: Compared with before treatment, the scores of HADS-A and HADS-D in the observation group and the score of HADS-A in the control group were all reduced after treatment (P<0.01, P<0.05). The scores of abdominal pain degree in the two groups and score of diarrhea frequency in the observation group were all reduced after treatment (P<0.001). After treatment, the reducing ranges of the score of HADS-A and the scores of abdominal pain degree and diarrhea frequency in the observation group were all larger than the control group (P<0.01, P<0.05). Compared with before treatment, the plasma IDO1 concentration in the two groups and the ratios of plasma Kyn/Trp and QuinA/Kyn in the observation group were all reduced after treatment (P<0.001, P<0.05, P<0.01), the ratios of plasma KynA/Kyn and KynA/QuinA were increased after treatment in the observation group (P<0.05, P<0.01). After treatment, the changes in IDO1 concentration and the ratios of plasma QuinA/Kyn and KynA/QuinA in the observation were larger than the control group (P≤0.01, P<0.05). In the observation group, the difference in the ratio of plasma KynA/Kyn before and after treatment was negatively related to the improvement value of HADS-D (r =-0.67, P<0.05). After treatment, plasma IDO1 concentration was positively related to HADS-A in the observation group (r =0.65, P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Acupuncture and moxibustion relieve the negative emotions of anxiety and depression in CD patients at mild and moderate active stage, which is probably related to the regulation of plasma Trp-Kyn metabolic pathway.

Light-driven motion of water droplets with directional control on nanostructured surfaces.

Discrete droplet transport has drawn much interest in a broad range of applications. Controlling the motion direction in droplet transport, however, is a long-lasting challenge. In this work, a simple yet efficient approach is demonstrated to realize the motion of droplets with directional control on nanostructured surfaces with predefined channels. Light is used as the external stimulus to induce the uneven thermal expansion of the substrate, which leads to the tilting of nanostructured channels so that the droplet is driven to move along the channel. Due to the easy manipulation of light, including both the light position and power density, this study demonstrates the controllable entrance of static water droplets into targeted channels and the simultaneous control of the motion of multiple droplets in multi-channel systems, using just one light source. Besides static droplets, this approach can also be applied for the directional control of moving droplets in multi-channel systems. As a proof-of-concept, such an approach has been utilized for efficient multiplexed reactions for chemical sensing or microreactor applications. This work offers an alternative approach for the manipulation of droplet movement in applications that involve the control of droplet motion.

[Discussion on the duration of needle retention].

Needle retention is an important step in the acupuncture procedure. How to optimize scientifically the duration of needle retention according to individual case has been considered in the medical circle. In this paper, by collecting the literatures on needle retention from the early Qin dynasty to the contemporary time, the evolution of the needle retention from a short duration to a long one with the productivity improvement was elaborated. On the base of the views of the medical scholars of all dynasties, it was concluded that the ultimate purpose of needle retention is to improve the effects of acupuncture on the premise of ensuring the safety of acupuncture. Hence, the clinical physician should optimize the duration of needle retention cautiously in compliance with the tolerance of patient so as to save the time cost of both physician and patient, avoid the occurrence of tolerable effect of acupuncture and reduce the potential safety hazard of acupuncture induced by the long duration of needle retention.