Picroside II protects myocardium from ischemia/reperfusion-induced injury through inhibition of the inflammatory response.

The inflammatory response is important in the pathogenesis of myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Picroside II, the primary active constituent of Picrorhizae, has been reported to protect the myocardium from I/R-induced injury, however, the exact mechanism underlying these protective effects remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate the mechanism underlying the protective effects of picroside II on I/R-induced myocardial injury. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats underwent 1 h left coronary artery occlusion followed by 3 h reperfusion. Picroside II was administered (10 mg/kg) via the tail vein 30 min prior to left coronary artery occlusion. The results revealed that pretreatment of picroside II could significantly alleviate I/R-induced myocardial injury concomitantly with a decrease in inflammatory factor production. In addition, picroside II was also able to decrease high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) expression, and release and downregulate the expression of the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE), toll-like receptor (TLR)-2 and TLR-4. Furthermore, picroside II was able to inhibit nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) activation. The results indicated that the protective effect of picroside II on I/R-induced myocardial injury was associated, at least partly, with inhibition of the inflammatory response by suppressing the HMGB1-RAGE/TLR-2/TLR-4-NF-κB signaling pathway.

[Survey on characteristics of menopause of Chinese women with the age of 40-60 years at gynecological clinic from 14 hospitals].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the characteristics of menopause of Chinese women with the age of 40-60 years concerning gynecologic clinics in China. METHODS: From Mar.2008 to Sept.2008, a face-to-face questionnaire was conducted in gynecological clinic in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women in 14 hospitals in China, which included general demographic data, menstrual change process, climacteric symptoms and knowledge about menopause. Modified Kupperman index were used to evaluate climacteric symptoms during the recent week and awareness of hormonal replacement therapy were studied. RESULTS: A total of 1641 women were investigated. The ages of onset of menopause transition, climacteric symptoms and natural menopause were (47 ± 4), (46 ± 4), (49 ± 3) years old respectively. Climacteric symptoms could be found in 78.43% (1287/1641) women during menopausal transition, which were mainly mild to moderate symptoms. The top 5 symptoms were fatigue and weakness (71.48%, 1173/1641), irritability (68.68%, 1127/1641), insomnia (67.65%, 1110/1641), muscle and joint pain (64.11%, 1052/1641) and hot flush (57.90%, 950/1641). The climacteric symptoms were not constant during menopausal transition, usually more severe in late transition and postmenopausal periods, during which the moderate and severe symptoms were 59.1% (189/320) and 51.1% (291/570) respectively. Although most symptoms primarily appeared along with menstruation change, there are about 17.5% (172/981) patients experienced climacteric symptoms before menstruation change occurrence. There were 56.39% (733/1300) women had ever heard (mostly from gynecologist) about hormone replacement therapy from Obstetrician and Gynecologist. CONCLUSIONS: Most of the women during menopausal transition had climacteric symptoms, usually mild and moderate ones. Although most symptoms primarily appeared along with menstruation change, there are other patients' experienced climacteric symptoms before menstruation change occurrence.

[The relationship of serum testosterone and its related index with the metabolism syndrome in women at perimenopausal or postmenopausal periods].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between testosterone level and related index and metabolic syndrome (MS) of women in perimenopause or postmenopause period. METHODS: From May 2009 to August 2010, 911 women aged 40-65 years underwent physical examination in the Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University were enrolled in this study, which were divided into 175 women with early perimenopause period in group A, 112 women late perimenopause period in group B, 161 women with early postmenopause period in group C, 132 women with moderate postmenopause period in group D, 88 women with late postmenopause period in group E, 243 women with regular menstruation as control group (group F). MS was defined according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria. The relationship of free testosterone level and MS of women in different stage of menopause was analyzed. RESULTS: (1) Compared with 1.13 nmol/L in group F, median testosterone level of 1.03 nmol/L in group A, 0.91 nmol/L in group B, 0.91 nmol/L in group C, 0.87 nmol/L in group D, 0.83 nmol/L in group E decreased significantly at early peri-menopause period (P < 0.01). Median free androgen index (FAI) was 1.33 in group A, 1.56 in group B, 1.69 in group F. When compared median FAI in group A with those in group F or B, it all showed significantly difference (P < 0.01); Testosterone (T)/estradiol (E(2)) were 0.042 in group C, 0.040 in group D, 0.042 in group E, 0.010 in group A. When compared T/E(2) in group C with group F, D and E, it all reached statistical difference (P < 0.01). (2) There were negative correlation among waist circumference (WC, r = -0.287), fasting blood glucose (FBG, r = -0.281), triglyceride (TG, r = -0.224) and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) and positive correlation with high density lipoprotein cholesterone (HDL-C, r = 0.314). The logistic regression analysis for MS showed that the MS was associated with SHBG significantly (OR = 0.993, 95%CI: 0.986 - 0.999, P = 0.035). (3) When cut-off value of SHBG was defined at 56.14 nmol/L, SHBG was used to predict MS with sensitivity of 63.13% and specificity of 69.45%. CONCLUSIONS: Serum testosterone was associated with MS in women at perimenopausal and postmenopausal period, so window period of preventing MS was set at perimenopausal period. A serum testosterone level was elevated from premenopause to postmenopause period. Because there was an association between SHBG and MS, SHBG was a selectable parameter to predict MS.

[Polymorphism of catechol-O-methyltransferase gene in relation to the risk of endometrial cancer].

OBJECTIVE: The 4- and 16-hydroxylated metabolites of estrogens have been implicated in carcinogenesis, whereas its 2-hydroxylated metabolites have been shown to have antiangiogenic effects. We aimed to examine whether the polymorphisms of catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) involved in the estrogen metabolism are associated with endometrial cancer risk. METHODS: Polymerase chain reaction-restrictive fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis was used to study the variant allele frequency distributions of COMT Val158Met genetic polymorphism in a population based case-control study with 132 endometrial cancer cases and 110 controls. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated by unconditional logistic regression after adjustment for known or suspected risk factors for endometrial cancer. RESULTS: The most frequent genotype was COMT(Val/Val) (47.2%, 52/110) in control group and COMT(Val/Met) (58.3%, 77/132) in endometrial cancer group. The difference between the two groups was of statistical significance (P < 0.05). Compared with COMT(Met/Met) genotype, the COMT(Val/Val) genotype was inversely correlated with endometrial cancer risk, and the adjusted OR value was 0.262 (95% CI: 0.080 - 0.862, P = 0.027). CONCLUSIONS: Among the genotypes in women in South China, genotype COMT(Val/Val) is mostly seen, followed by COMT(Val/Met), and COMT(Met/Met) is the least in control group. The endometrial cancer susceptivity of genotype COMT(Val/Val) carriers may be lower than COMT(Met/Met) carriers.

[Determination of ofloxacin in human fallopian tube, uterus and serum by high performance liquid chromatography].

AIM: To establish a method for determineation of the concentration of ofloxacin in human fallopian tube, uterus and serum. METHODS: The separation was performed on a Spherisob C18 column (Hypersil, 250 mm x 4.6 mm ID, 5 microns) with a mobile phase of acetonitrile-0.01 moL.L-1 potassium dihydrogen phosphate-0.5 mol.L-1 tetrabutylammonium bromide (9:91:4, pH 2.5). The flow rate was 1.0 mL.min-1 and detection was at 294 nm. The samples were homogenated or ground to powder after freezing with liquid nitrogen. 1% triton-100 and certain volume of ethylacetate-isopropanol (10:1) were added, shaken and centrifuged. Then the entire organic layer was transferred to a tube and vacuum dried. The residue was reconstituted in the mobile phase for HPLC. RESULTS: There was a linear relationship between the peak area ratio and the ofloxacin concentration over the range of 0.2-8.0 micrograms.mL-1. The limits of detection was 40 ng.mL-1. Using this method to determine the ofloxacin concentrations in relevant organs as well as in the plasma of patients of the Department of Gynecology, and achieved satisfactary results. CONCLUSION: The method can be applied to assay the ofloxacin concentration in human tissues. Ofloxacin was well distributed in woman fallopian tube, uterus and serum after single oral administration.