Treatment of nonunion after femoral neck fracture with valgus intertrochanteric osteotomy: a case report with 18-year follow-up.

We herein report the long-term effect of valgus intertrochanteric osteotomy for nonunion after femoral neck fracture. In this report, we describe our experience using valgus intertrochanteric osteotomy to treat nonunion after femoral neck fracture in a 20-year-old woman. The patient was discharged from the hospital 10 days after the operation, the internal fixation device was removed 1 year after the operation, and the patient was then followed up for 18 years. Valgus intertrochanteric osteotomy can effectively treat nonunion after adductive femoral neck fracture.

Preventive Effect of Saussurea lappa Extract on Osteoarthritis in Mice Model through Inhibition of NF-κB Pathway.

The current study evaluated Saussurea lappa extract (SLE) as possible therapeutic agent for osteoarthritis treatment in mice model. Male BALB/c nude mice were separated into sham, model and SLE treatment (at 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 mg/kg) groups. Osteoarthritis mice model was prepared by injecting 5 mg/kg doses of monosodium iodoacetate (MIA) to mice via intra-articular route. The SLE was injected to mice for 20 days from day 2 of MIA injection through intraperitoneal route. The SLE treatment alleviated OA-induced higher secretion of interleukin-6, TNF-α, and IL-1ß in mice serum. Moreover, elevated levels of P2X7R and MMP-13 in OA mice were also significantly down-regulated on treatment with SLE. In OA mice SLE treatment suppressed expression of SP and PGE2 in cartilage tissues. The expression of activated IκBα and NF-κB p65 was also inhibited markedly by SLE treatment in OA mice. In summary, SLE has protective effect on osteoarthritis in mice by targeting interleukin overproduction and P2X7R expression. Besides, it suppressed MMP expression and deactivated NF-κB signaling pathway. Therefore, SLE can be developed for the treatment of osteoarthritis.

Neuroligin1 Contributes to Neuropathic Pain by Promoting Phosphorylation of Cofilin in Excitatory Neurons.

Neuropathic pain is a kind of chronic pain that remains difficult to treat due to its complicated underlying mechanisms. Accumulating evidence has indicated that enhanced synaptic plasticity of nociceptive interneurons in the superficial spinal dorsal horn contributes to the development of neuropathic pain. Neuroligin1 (NL1) is a type of excitatory postsynaptic adhesion molecule, which can mediate excitatory synaptic activity, hence promoting neuronal activation. Vglut2 is the most common marker of excitatory glutamatergic neurons. To explore the role of NL1 in excitatory neurons in nociceptive regulation, we used transgenic mice with cre recombinase expression driven by the Vglut2 promoter combined with viral vectors to knockdown the expression of NL1 in excitatory neurons in the spinal dorsal horn. We found that NL1 was upregulated in the L4-L6 spinal dorsal horn in Vglut2-cre+/- mouse subjected to spared nerve injury (SNI). Meanwhile, the expression of phosphorylated cofilin (p-cofilin) and α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor subunit 1 (GluR1) was also increased. Spinal microinjection of a cre-dependent NL1-targeting RNAi in Vglut2-cre+/- mouse alleviated the neuropathic pain-induced mechanical hypersensitivity and reduced the increase in p-cofilin and GluR1 caused by SNI. Taken together, NL1 in excitatory neurons regulates neuropathic pain by promoting the SNI-dependent increase in p-cofilin and GluR1 in the spinal dorsal horn. Our study provides a better understanding of the role of NL1 in excitatory neurons, which might represent a possible therapeutic target for alleviating neuropathic pain.

Volatile DBPs contributed marginally to the developmental toxicity of drinking water DBP mixtures against Platynereis dumerilii.

Halogenated disinfection byproducts (DBPs) are formed during chlorine disinfection of drinking water. The complicated natural organic matter in source water causes the formation of an even more complicated mixture of DBPs. To evaluate the toxicity of a DBP mixture in a disinfected water sample, the sample needs to be pretreated in order to attain an observable acute adverse effect in the toxicity test. During sample pretreatment, volatile DBPs including trihalomethanes, haloacetonitriles and haloketones may be lost, which could affect the toxicity evaluation of the DBP mixture. In this study, we intentionally prepared "concentrated" simulated drinking water samples, which contained sufficiently high levels of volatile and nonvolatile DBPs and thus enabled directly evaluating the toxicity of the DBP mixtures without sample pretreatment. Specifically, the natural organic matter and bromide concentrations and the chlorine dose in the concentrated water samples were 250 times higher than those in a typical drinking water sample. Each concentrated water sample was divided into two aliquots, and one of them was nitrogen sparged to eliminate volatile DBPs; then, both aliquots were used directly in a well-established developmental toxicity test. No significant difference (p > 0.10) was found between the developmental toxicity indexes of each concentrated water sample without and with nitrogen sparging, indicating that the contribution of volatile DBPs to the developmental toxicity of the DBP mixture might be marginal. A reasonable interpretation is that nonvolatile halogenated DBPs (especially the aromatic ones) in the DBP mixture could be the major developmental toxicity contributor that warrants more attention.

Frequency-Specific Changes of Resting Brain Activity in Parkinson's Disease: A Machine Learning Approach.

The application of resting state functional MRI (RS-fMRI) in Parkinson's disease (PD) was widely performed using standard statistical tests, however, the machine learning (ML) approach has not yet been investigated in PD using RS-fMRI. In current study, we utilized the mean regional amplitude values as the features in patients with PD (n = 72) and in healthy controls (HC, n = 89). The t-test and linear support vector machine were employed to select the features and make prediction, respectively. Three frequency bins (Slow-5: 0.0107-0.0286 Hz; Slow-4: 0.0286-0.0821 Hz; conventional: 0.01-0.08 Hz) were analyzed. Our results showed that the Slow-4 may provide important information than Slow-5 in PD, and it had almost identical classification performance compared with the Combined (Slow-5 and Slow-4) and conventional frequency bands. Similar with previous neuroimaging studies in PD, the discriminative regions were mainly included the disrupted motor system, aberrant visual cortex, dysfunction of paralimbic/limbic and basal ganglia networks. The lateral parietal lobe, such as right inferior parietal lobe (IPL) and supramarginal gyrus (SMG), was detected as the discriminative features exclusively in Slow-4. Our findings, at the first time, indicated that the ML approach is a promising choice for detecting abnormal regions in PD, and a multi-frequency scheme would provide us more specific information.

Apigenin inhibits in vitro and in vivo tumorigenesis in cisplatin-resistant colon cancer cells by inducing autophagy, programmed cell death and targeting m-TOR/PI3K/Akt signalling pathway.

PURPOSE: Colon cancer is one of the deadly malignancies and the second most frequent cancer in the world. The development of drug resistance and dearth of the viable drug options forms an obstacle in the treatment of colon cancer. Herein, the anticancer potential of Apigenin was examined against cisplatin-resistant colon cancer cells. METHODS: The proliferation rate of the cisplatin-resistant colon cancer cell line HT-29 was assessed by WST-1 assay. Autophagy was detected by electron microscopy. Apoptotic cell death was analysed by propidium iodide (PI) staining. Cell cycle analysis was performed by flow cytometry. Protein expression was determined by immuno blotting. Xenografted mice models were used for in vivo evaluation of Apigenin. RESULTS: The results showed that Apigenin could considerably inhibit the proliferation of colon cancer cells. The anticancer activity of Apigenin against the HT-29 colon cancer cells was found to be due to induction of autophagy and apoptosis. The Apigenin-triggered apoptosis and autophagy were also linked with alteration in the apoptosis and autophagy-related protein expression. Furthermore, it was found that Apigenin could inhibit the m-TOR/PI3K/AKT signalling pathway in the cisplatin-resistant colon cancer cells. The effects of Apigenin were also examined in vivo in xenografted mice models and it was revealed that Apigenin inhibited the growth of xenografted tumors. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, these results indicate that Apigenin could inhibit the growth of cisplatin-resistant colon cancer cells in vitro and in vivo and may be used for the improvement of therapy of colon cancer.

[Effects of inner-heating acupuncture on apoptosis of chondrocytes and expression of Caspase-3 and Caspase-9 in rats with knee osteoarthritis].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of inner-heating acupuncture on apoptosis of chondrocytes and expression of Caspase-3 and Caspase-9 in rats with knee osteoarthritis (KOA). METHODS: A total of 32 rats were divided into a normal group, a model group, a control treatment group and a treatment group by random number grouping method, 8 rats in each one. The rats in the normal group received no intervention. The rats in the remaining three groups adopted modified Videman method to develop KOA model, the ankle joint of left posterior leg was fully extended and fixed with a resin bandage for 6 weeks. After successful modeling, the rats in the model group received no intervention. The rats in the control treatment group were treated with medium-frequency pulse electrotherapy. The rats in the treatment group were treated with inner- heating acupuncture, 30 min each treatment, once a day, five days per week, and totally 3-week treatment was given. After 3 weeks, the damaged cartilage tissue was collected, and HE staining was used to observe the pathological changes of the cartilage tissue of the knee joint. ELISA was used to detect the content of cytochrome-C in the tissue homogenate supernatant. The chondrocytes in damaged cartilage tissue were isolated, flow cytometer was used to detect the changes of apoptosis and mitochondrial membrane potential. The mRNA and protein expression of Caspase-3 and Caspase-9 in chondrocytes were detected by real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western blot (WB), respectively. RESULTS: Compared with the normal group, the damage of cartilage tissue in the model group was significant, and the expression level of Cyt-C in the homogenate supernatant of damaged cartilage tissue was increased (P<0.01); the chondrocyte apoptosis was increased significantly (P<0.01); the chondrocyte mitochondrial membrane potential was decreased significantly (P<0.01); the mRNA and protein expression of Caspase-3 and Caspase-9 was increased significantly (all P<0.01). Compared with the model group, the cartilage injury in the control treatment group and the treatment group was significantly relieved; the expression level of Cyt-C in the supernatant of damaged cartilage tissue homogenate was decreased (both P<0.01); the chondrocyte apoptosis was significantly reduced (both P<0.01); the chondrocyte mitochondrial membrane potential was increased significantly (both P<0.01). Moreover, the mRNA and protein expression of Caspase-3 and Caspase-9 was significantly reduced (all P<0.01). Compared with the control treatment group, the treatment group was more effective in the treatment of KOA. CONCLUSION: The inner-heating acupuncture could significantly improve the pathological changes of KOA rats, inhibit the apoptosis of chondrocytes, which may be closely related to the suppression of Caspase-3 and Caspase-9 expression.

Conversion of haloacid disinfection byproducts to amino acids via ammonolysis.

Haloacetic acids (HAAs) are the major disinfection byproducts (DBPs) that are formed during chlorination of drinking water. In this paper, the conversion of HAAs to amino acids (e.g., glycine) via ammonolysis was studied. First, a new and sensitive method for detecting glycine was developed by setting selected ion recording m/z 76 in positive electrospray ionization mass spectrometry coupled with ultra performance liquid chromatography. Second, among the mono-HAAs under the same test conditions, iodoacetic acid (49.3%) showed a considerably higher conversion to glycine during ammonolysis than chloroacetic acid (4.2%) and bromoacetic acid (27.7%). The conversion of iodoacetic acid to glycine increased with increasing temperature, increasing reaction time, or decreasing the ratio of (NH4)2CO3 to NH3·H2O in the aminating agent. Hydrolysis of iodoacetic acid to glycolic acid was also observed during ammonolysis, and it accounted for at most 50% of the iodoacetic acid conversion. The conversion to amino acids and the hydrolysis were the two major pathways during ammonolysis of HAAs. Third, compared with the iodoacetic acid sample and the simulated tap water sample without ammonolysis, the developmental toxicity of the corresponding samples with ammonolysis decreased by up to 10.4% and 32.1%, respectively. The ammonolysis was thus demonstrated to be a detoxification process for both individual HAAs and DBP mixture in chlorinated tap water. In practice, the ammonolysis of haloacid DBPs in tap water may be realized by simply adding an appropriate amount of an aminating agent during cooking.

Clinical Value of Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography Combined with Ultrasound in Detection of Primary Tumors in Patients with Malignant Ascites.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate and discuss the clinical value of positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) combined with ultrasound in detection of primary tumors in patients with malignant ascites (MA). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 122 malignant tumor patients with ascites as the initial symptom and 48 patients with benign ascites were enrolled in this study. All patients underwent PET-CT and abdominal B-ultrasound examinations. The corresponding specificity, sensitivity, accuracy rate, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of PET-CT, abdominal B-ultrasound, and combined detection group were recorded, respectively, with pathological findings as the gold standards. Statistical Product and Service Solutions 17.0 software was used for statistical analysis. p < 0.05 suggested that the difference was statistically significant. RESULTS: The detection rate of primary foci through PET-CT was 79.5%, of which the detection rate of primary foci of MA derived from gastric cancer was the highest. The detection rate of primary foci through B-ultrasound was 62.5%, which is the highest for MA derived from ovarian cancer. B-ultrasound had the highest specificity in diagnosing the primary foci of MA (73.2%), PET-CT had the highest sensitivity in diagnosing the primary foci of MA (91.7%), and PET-CT combined with abdominal B-ultrasound had the highest sensitivity and accuracy in diagnosing the primary foci of MA (98.1% and 89.1%, respectively). The diagnostic accuracy rate of B-ultrasound was the highest in detecting tumors >5 cm (77.0%), whereas that of PET-CT was the highest in detecting tumors of 3-5 cm (84.2%). CONCLUSION: The PET-CT combined with ultrasound is conducive to improving the diagnostic efficiency for primary tumors in patients with MA.

Characterization of halogenated DBPs and identification of new DBPs trihalomethanols in chlorine dioxide treated drinking water with multiple extractions.

Chlorine dioxide (ClO2) is a widely used alternative disinfectant due to its high biocidal efficiency and low-level formation of trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids. A major portion of total organic halogen (TOX), a collective parameter for all halogenated DBPs, formed in ClO2-treated drinking water is still unknown. A commonly used pretreatment method for analyzing halogenated DBPs in drinking water is one-time liquid-liquid extraction (LLE), which may lead to a substantial loss of DBPs prior to analysis. In this study, characterization and identification of polar halogenated DBPs in a ClO2-treated drinking water sample were conducted by pretreating the sample with multiple extractions. Compared to one-time LLE, the combined four-time LLEs improved the recovery of TOX by 2.3 times. The developmental toxicity of the drinking water sample pretreated with the combined four-time LLEs was 1.67 times higher than that pretreated with one-time LLE. With the aid of ultra-performance liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry, a new group of polar halogenated DBPs, trihalomethanols, were detected in the drinking water sample pretreated with multiple extractions; two of them, trichloromethanol and bromodichloromethanol, were identified with synthesized standard compounds. Moreover, these trihalomethanols were found to be the transformation products of trihalomethanes formed during ClO2 disinfection. The results indicate that multiple LLEs can significantly improve extraction efficiencies of polar halogenated DBPs and is a better pretreatment method for characterizing and identifying new polar halogenated DBPs in drinking water.

Removal of Intermediate Aromatic Halogenated DBPs by Activated Carbon Adsorption: A New Approach to Controlling Halogenated DBPs in Chlorinated Drinking Water.

During chlorine disinfection of drinking water, chlorine may react with natural organic matter (NOM) and bromide ion in raw water to generate halogenated disinfection byproducts (DBPs). To mitigate adverse effects from DBP exposure, granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorption has been considered as one of the best available technologies for removing NOM (DBP precursor) in drinking water treatment. Recently, we have found that many aromatic halogenated DBPs form in chlorination, and they act as intermediate DBPs to decompose and form commonly known DBPs including trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids. In this work, we proposed a new approach to controlling drinking water halogenated DBPs by GAC adsorption of intermediate aromatic halogenated DBPs during chlorination, rather than by GAC adsorption of NOM prior to chlorination (i.e., traditional approach). Rapid small-scale column tests were used to simulate GAC adsorption in the new and traditional approaches. Significant reductions of aromatic halogenated DBPs were observed in the effluents with the new approach; the removals of total organic halogen, trihalomethanes, and haloacetic acids by the new approach always exceeded those by the traditional approach; and the effluents with the new approach were considerably less developmentally toxic than those with the traditional approach. Our findings indicate that the new approach is substantially more effective in controlling halogenated DBPs than the traditional approach.

Modeling the formation of TOCl, TOBr and TOI during chlor(am)ination of drinking water.

The use of chlorine and chloramines in drinking water disinfection may produce innumerable halogenated disinfection byproducts (DBPs). Because of the impossibility of measuring the concentration and evaluating the toxicity of each individual halogenated DBP in a water sample, total organic halogen (TOX) as a collective parameter and a toxicity indicator for all the halogenated DBPs has been gaining popularity in recent years. TOX can be divided into total organic chlorine (TOCl), total organic bromine (TOBr), and total organic iodine (TOI). Previously, the authors' group studied the formation kinetics of TOCl and TOBr in chlor(am)ination using two models. In this study, we further explored the formation kinetics of TOI as well as TOCl and TOBr during chlor(am)ination by carefully selecting a series of iodine-related reactions and incorporating them into the two kinetic models. The models well predicted the levels of TOCl, TOBr, TOI, and total chlorine residual during chlorination and chloramination of simulated raw waters. According to the modeling results, 57.1-73.6% of the total generated iodinated DBPs in chlorination was converted to their chlorinated and brominated analogues by the substitution with hypochlorous acid and hypobromous acid; while in chloramination, with the presence of excessive monochloramine, the formed hypoiodous acid might react with monochloramine to form an iodine-substituted intermediate (proposed as chloroiodamine), which was responsible for 41.4-49.8% of the total generated iodinated DBPs, and meantime 51.9-52.6% of the total generated iodinated DBPs underwent deiodination via the base-catalyzed hydrolysis. The models were successfully applied in determining the lag time between the dosages of chlorine and ammonia, a challenging issue in chlorine-chloramine sequential treatment. This study provided important insights into kinetic reactions that control the formation of overall halogenated DBPs in chlor(am)ination.

Transcriptomic changes following synthesis of a Populus full-sib diploid and allotriploid population with different heterozygosities driven by three types of 2n female gamete.

Diploid gametes are usually applied to produce triploids of Populus [originating from first-division restitution (FDR), second-division restitution (SDR), and postmeiotic restitution (PMR) 2n eggs]. Three types of 2n gametes transmitted different parental heterozygosities in Populus. Failed spindle formation and no chromosomal separation to opposite poles during meiosis I mean that FDR 2n gametes carry nonsister chromatids that are potentially heterozygous. By contrast, SDR 2n gametes result from failed sister chromatid separation in meiosis II, and therefore, they carry sister chromatid that are potentially homozygous. Completely homozygous 2n gametes can arise from the PMR mechanism. The alteration of gene expression resulting from allopolyploidization is a prominent feature in plants. We compared gene expression in the full-sib progeny of three allotriploid Populus populations (triploid-F, triploid-S, and triploid-P) with that in its parent species, and their full-sib diploid F1 hybrid. Genome-wide expression level dominance was biased toward the maternal in the diploid F1 hybrid and three allotriploid populations, whereas our data indicated important, but different, effects of the transmission of different heterozygosity by 2n female gametes in the expression patterns of allopolyploids. Because of the higher level of heterozygosity, the triploids had higher rates of non-additive and transgressive expression patterns in the triploid-F than in triploid-S and triploid-P. Compared with diploid F1, about 30-fold more genes (251) were differently expressed in the triploid-F than in the triploid-S (9) and triploid-P (8), respectively. These findings indicate that hybridization and polyploidization have immediate and distinct effects on the large-scale patterns of gene expression, and different effects on the transmission of heterozygosity by three 2n female gametes.

Formation of brominated disinfection byproducts during Chloramination of drinking water: new polar species and overall kinetics.

The formation of brominated disinfection byproducts (Br-DBPs), which are generally significantly more cytotoxic and genotoxic than their chlorinated analogues, in chloramination has not been fully examined. In this work, the formation of new polar Br-DBPs in simulated drinking waters was examined using state-of-the-art ultraperformance liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. As many as 29 aliphatic, aromatic, or nitrogenous polar Br-DBPs were detected in chloramination, and five of them (including 2,4,6-tribromoresorcinol, 2,6-dibromo-4-nitrophenol, 2,2,4-tribromo-5-hydroxy-4-cyclopentene-1,3-dione, 2,2,4-dibromochloro-5-hydroxy-4-cyclopentene-1,3-dione, and 2,2,4-bromodichloro-5-hydroxy-4-cyclopentene-1,3-dione) were tentatively identified. Unlike chlorination, chloramination favored the formation of aromatic and nitrogenous polar Br-DBPs and was mild enough to allow polar intermediate Br-DBPs to accumulate. To further explore the formation mechanism of Br-DBPs in chloramination, a quantitative empirical model involving 33 major reactions was developed to describe the overall kinetics. According to the modeling results, bromochloramine and monobromamine were the major species responsible for 54.2-58.1% and 41.7-45.7%, respectively, of the formed Br-DBPs, while hypobromous acid accounted for only 0.2% of the formed Br-DBPs; direct reactions between monochloramine and natural organic matter accounted for the majority of the formed chlorinated DBPs (93.7-95.1%); hypochlorous acid and hypobromous acid in the chloramination were at ng/L or subng/L levels, which were not enough to cause polar intermediate Br-DBPs to decompose.

Selective anti-proliferation of HER2-positive breast cancer cells by anthocyanins identified by high-throughput screening.

Overexpressed Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) drives the biology of 20% breast cancer and is a prediction of a poor prognosis for patients. HER2-targeted therapies significantly improve outcomes for HER2-positive patients. Traditional Chinese herbs/medicines have been used to treat breast cancer patients including HER2-positive patients in Asia for decades. Although the traditional medicines demonstrate efficacy in clinics for HER2-positive patients, the mechanism is largely unknown. In this article, we screened a 10,000 natural product library in 6 different cell lines representing breast cancer, and assessed the ability of each drug to cause cytotoxicity through a high-throughput screening approach. We have identified eight natural compounds that selectively inhibit the proliferation of HER2-positive cells. Two of the hit compounds, peonidin-3-glucoside and cyaniding-3-glucoside, are both extracts from black rice. They inhibit the phospho-HER2 and phospho-AKT and were confirmed to induce HER2-psotive breast cancer cells apoptosis both in vitro and in vivo. Peonidin-3-glucoside and cyaniding-3-glucoside treatments significantly reduced the tumor size and volume in vivo compared to the control group. There is no significant difference of antitumorgenic effects between peonidin-3-glucoside and cyaniding-3-glucoside treatments.

[Efficacy of integrative respiratory rehabilitation training in exercise ability and quality of life of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in stable phase: a randomized controlled trial].

BACKGROUND: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an important clinical disease, and its global prevalence and mortality rates are high. It is meaningful to investigate the efficacy of integrative respiratory rehabilitation training in quality of life and respiratory physiology of COPD patients in stable phase. OBJECTIVE: To observe the efficacy of integrative respiratory rehabilitation training in exercise ability and quality of life of COPD patients in stable phase. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS AND INTERVENTIONS: Eighty outpatients and inpatients with COPD from Department of Respiratory Medicine, Taihe Hospital, Yunyang Medical College were randomly divided into 4 groups, with 20 patients in each group. The patients in group A only received drug therapy, the patients in group B received traditional qigong training, the patients in group C received modern rehabilitation training, and the patients in group D received integrative respiratory rehabilitation training. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Chronic respiratory questionnaire (CRQ), 6-minute walking distance and Borg score in each group were examined before and after one-, three-, and six-month and one-year treatment. RESULTS: The 6-minute walking distance, Borg score and CRQ score in group A had no significant changes after treatment (P>0.05). After one-month treatment, there were no significant differences in 6-minute walking distance and Borg score in groups B, C and D as compared with those before treatment (P<0.05). After three-month treatment, 6-minute walking distance and Borg score were improved in groups B, C and D (P<0.05). After six-month and one-year treatment, 6-minute walking distance, Borg score and CRQ score in groups B, C and D were improved as compared with those before treatment (P<0.05), and there were significant differences between group D and any of groups A, B and C (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Modern rehabilitation training, traditional qigong training and integrative respiratory rehabilitation training programs all can improve the quality of life and exercise ability of COPD patients, and integrative respiratory rehabilitation training program is better than modern rehabilitation training and traditional qigong training programs. The efficacy of respiratory rehabilitation training is time-dependent, and need long-time adherence to the therapy.

Expression characteristic and significance of interleukin-6, nuclear factor kappa beta, and bone formation markers in rat models of osteoporosis.

The goal of this study was to investigate the expression levels of interleukin 6 (IL-6), nuclear factor kappa beta (NF-kappabeta), bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BALP), and bone osteocalcin (BGP) in rats with osteoporosis and their significance in the pathogenesis of osteoporosis. In all, 60 adult female SD rats were divided randomly into 3 groups of 20 rats each: normal control group (control), sham-operated group (sham), and ovariectomized group (OVX). In 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 months after surgery, 4 rats were randomized from each group for assays of BMD, IL-6, BALP, and BGP. Then, the rats were sacrificed for the detection of IL-6 and NF-kappabeta expression levels in bone tissue by quantitative real-time RT-PCR analysis. Compared with the sham (0.097 +/- 0.04 g/cm2, 0.097 +/- 0.01 g/cm2, 0.095 +/- 0.07 g/cm2) and control group (0.107 +/- 0.01 g/cm2, 0.103 +/- 0.07 g/cm2, 0.108 +/- 0.06 g/cm2), the BMD of rats in the OVX group was reduced remarkably in 4, 5, and 6 months (0.082 +/- 0.05 g/cm2, 0.073 +/- 0.02 g/cm2, 0.061 +/- 0.05 g/cm2, respectively; P < 0.01); the serum IL-6 level increased significantly from 2 to 6 months after surgery (P < 0.01); and the serum levels of BALP and BGP were greater at 4, 5, and 6 months (P < 0.05). The quantitative real-time RT-PCR analysis demonstrated that IL-6 and NF-kappabeta mRNA levels in OVX group increased in a time-dependent manner. Moreover, the IL-6, NF-kappabeta, BALP, and BGP levels were correlated negatively with the BMD. Meanwhile, a positive correlation was observed between IL-6 and NF-kappabeta. In conclusion, the expression levels of IL-6, NF-kappabeta, and bone formation markers may increase significantly in the osteoporosis rats. These molecules could play a role in the pathogenesis.