Isoliquiritigenin protects against blood­brain barrier damage and inhibits the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines in mice after traumatic brain injury.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) caused by an external mechanical force acting on the brain is a serious neurological condition. Inflammation plays an important role in prolonging secondary tissue injury after TBI, leading to neuronal cell death and dysfunction. Isoliquiritigenin (ILG) is a flavonoid monomer with anti-inflammatory characteristic. Thus, we had investigated the potential protective effects of ILG on TBI-induced injuries and identified the mechanisms underlying it. Here, we have demonstrated that ILG preserves blood brain barrier (BBB) integrity in vivo, suppresses the activation of microglia and inflammatory responses in mice after TBI, consequently leading to neurofunctional deficits, brain oedema, structural damage, and macrophage infiltration. In vitro, ILG exerts anti-inflammatory effect, and upregulates tight junction proteins 120­ß­catenin and occludin in SH­SY5Y cells under oxygen glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/D) condition. Additionally, we found that PI3K/AKT/GSK­3ß signalling pathway is involved in ILG treatment for TBI. To further confirm it, we had used SC79 (ethyl 2­amino­6­chloro­4­(1­cyano­2­ethoxy­2­oxoethyl)­4H­chromene­3­carboxylate), an Akt specific activator, to activate Akt, we found that SC79 partially reduces the protective effect of ILG for TBI. Overall, our current study reveals the neuroprotective role of ILG on TBI-induced BBB damage, downregulated tight junction proteins via PI3K/AKT/GSK­3ß signalling pathway. Furthermore, ILG suppresses the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines after TBI through inhibiting the PI3K/AKT/GSK­3ß/NF­κB signalling pathway. Our findings suggest that GSK­3ß is a key regulatory factor during TBI-induced secretion of inflammatory cytokines, neuronal apoptosis and destruction of BBB.

Effect of route of preoperative biopsy on endoscopic submucosal dissection for patients with early gastric cancer.

OBJECTIVE: To observe and compare the effects of multi-patch biopsy under conventional white light imaging endoscopy (C-WLI) and precise targeted biopsy under magnifying narrow-band imaging endoscopy (M-NBI) on the endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) of early gastric cancers and intraepithelial neoplasias. METHODS: According to the way of selecting biopsy specimens, patients were divided into C-WLI and M-NBI groups, 20 cases. The ESD operations of the 2 groups were compared quantitively. RESULTS: The mean frequency of biopsy in M-NBI group was (1.00±0.00), obviously lower than in the C-WLI group (4.78±1.02) (P<0.01).The average total number of selected biopsy specimens was also fewer (1.45±0.12 and 7.82±2.22, respectively, P<0.01). There was no significant difference in the time of determining excision extension, marking time and the time of specimen excision of 2 groups during the ESD (P>0.05), whereas submucosal injection time, mucosal dissection time, stopping bleeding time, wound processing time in the M-NBI group were significantly shorter than in the C-WLI group (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: Precise targeted biopsy under M-NBI can obviously shorten the time of ESD operation, with small quantity of tissues but high pathological positive rate.