The progressive injury of retinal ganglion cells ( RGCs) is a common occurrence in several eye diseases, which ultimately may lead to irreversible blindness. Currently, there are still no effective or ideal treatments for it in practice, however some recent studies show that stem cell transplantation may provide a promising new idea for neuroprotection and replacement of retinal ganglion cells. This paper will review the research progress of stem cell transplantation-based treatment.

BACKGROUND: Herbal wines are an important part of the traditional Chinese medicine. The traditional medicated wine, lishizhen herbal wine,which can strengthen the immune function, has long been used for some chronic diseases. But,its mechanism remains unclear.OBJECTIVE: To explore the immune pharmacodynamics of lishizhen herbal wine and to observe its effect on the immune organs (spleen,pancreas) and lymphocyte transformation rate in mice.DESIGN: A randomized controlled experiment based on the observation of the experimental animals.SETTING: Department of integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine and the department of pharmacology of a university hospital MATERIALS: The experiment was completed at the Central Laboratory of Zhongnain Hospital of Wuhan University from September 2000 to December 2000. A total of 90 healthy Kuming mice were involved in the study.METHODS: Different doses of the herbal wine,cartinellin and the same volume of distilled water were given to the experimental animals. The drug administration was orally injected directly to the stomach of the animals once a day and 10 days consecutively. One hour after the last administration,the animals were put to death. Then,the thymus gland and the spleen were taken out and weighed to calculate the indexes of the thymus gland and the spleen. In the last three days of the administration phytohemagglutinin(PHA)was injected intramuscularly at a dose of 10 mg/kg once per day. Two hours after the last administration, the tails of the mice were cut out, the blood samples were taken to perform the Wright' s staining,and 100 lymphocytes were counted under immersion and the transformation rate was calculated.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary results: ① The effect on the immune organs of normal mice; ② The effect of PHA on stimulating the lymphocyte transformation in mice. Secondary results: ③ The death condition of the experimental animalsRESULTS: Different doses of the herbal wine increased the spleen index in different degrees. The effect of medium dose group was obvious[(3.71± 0.78) g/kg] (P <0.05),and the thymus gland index increased a little (P>0.05). The cartinellin in the positive control group increased the spleen index[(3.79±0.91 ) g/kg] and there was no impact on thymus gland index. The transformation rates of the lymphocytes of different groups were increased to a different degree and presented a good quantity-effect relationship,especially the group administered a large dose[(45±14)%] (P<0. 01).CONCLUSION: Lishizhen herbal wine has an effect of increasing cellular immune function.

OBJECTIVETo identify the Cynomorii Herba and its analogues species using DNA barcoding technique.

METHODTotal genomic DNA extracted from all materials using the DNA extraction kit. The internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) regions were amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and purified PCR products were sequenced bi-directionally. Sequence assembly and consensus sequence generation were performed using the CodonCode Aligner 3.7.1. The Kimura 2-Parameter (K2P) distances and GC content were computed using MEGA 5. 0. Species identification analyses were conducted through the species identification system for traditional Chinese medicine and neighbor-joining (NJ) trees.

RESULTThe ITS2 sequence lengths of Cynomorii Herba were 229 bp. The average intra-specific genetic distances of Cynomorii Herba were 0.003. The average inter-specific genetic distances between Cynomorii Herba and its adulterants species were 0.760. The results showed that the minimum inter-specific divergence is larger than the maximum intra-specific divergence. The species identification system for traditional Chinese medicine and NJ trees results indicated that Cynomorii Herba and its adulterants species can be easily identification.

CONCLUSIONThe ITS2 region is an efficient barcode for identification of Cynomorii Herba, which provide a new technique to ensure clinical safety in utilization of traditional Chinese medicine.

In order to identify Peucedani Radix, Peucedani Decursivi Radix and their adulterants, the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) regions of Peucedani Radix, Peucedani Decursivi Radix and their adulterants were amplified and bidirectionally sequenced based on the Principles for Molecular Identification of Traditional Chinese Materia Medica Using DNA Barcoding, which has been promulgated by Chinese Pharmacopoeia Commission. Sequences were analyzed and assembled by Codon Code Aligner V3. 7.1. The relevant data were analyzed by MEGA 5. 0. Species identification analyses were performed by using the nearest distance methods and neighbor-joining (NJ) methods. The result showed that the ITS2 sequence lengths of Peucedani Radix were 229-230 bp and the average intra-specific genetic distances were 0.005. The ITS2 sequence lengths of Peucedani Decursivi Radix were 227 bp and the sequences contained no variation site. The average inter-specific K2P genetic distance of Peucedani Radix, Peucedani Decursivi Radix and their adulterants species were 0.044 and 0.065 respectively. The minimum inter-specific divergence is larger than the maximum intra-specific divergence of Peucedani Decursivi Radix. The nearest distance methods and NJ trees results indicated that Peucedani Radix, Peucedani Decursivi Radix and their adulterants species could be identification clearly. The ITS2 regions can stably and accurately distinguish Peucedani Radix, Peucedani Decursivi Radix and their adulterants.
Apiaceae ; classification ; genetics ; DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic ; methods ; DNA, Ribosomal Spacer ; Drug Contamination

Objective To analyze the causes,cardiac function grading and drug application related to heart failure of the patients with chronic heart failure in Yongchuan district people's hospital.Methods The cases of chronic heart failure of department of cardiology in our hospital from January 1st,2012 to December 31st,2015 were counted and retrospectively analyzed.Results 3 320 cases of chronic heart failure in our hospital chosen from 8 126 medical records accounted for 40.86% of total discharged patients in the same period,including 2 262 cases of coronary disease (68.13%),353 cases of rheumatic heart disease (10.63%)and 265 cases of pulmonary heart disease (7.98%),who took up the top three in the spectrum of disease;2 683 cases of NYHA heart function Ⅲ magnitude accounted for 80.81%;The utilization rate of diuretic,digoxin,spironolactone,angiotensin -converting enzyme inhibi-tor,angiotonin receptor blocker,beta adrenergic receptor were 71.23%,27.23%,70.48%,30.75%,30.78%respectively.The statistical analysis showed that the differences were statistically significant between the patients using diuretics and the patients using spirolactone(χ2 =2.386,P <0.001),the patients with hypertension and the patients with no hypertension using ACEI /ARB(χ2 =2.727,P <0.001),and merged chronic bronchitis patients and the chro-nic bronchitis patients using beta -blocker(χ2 =61.807,P <0.001).Conclusion The patients with chronic heart failure takes up a higher portion among the inpatients in department of cardiology in the district level hospital.The heart function decreases significantly and the normative drug therapy needs to be improved.

[Objective]To evaluate the expression of enhancer of zeste homolog 2(EZH2),Ki-67 and intratumoral microvaseu?lar density(iMVD)in human colorectal cancer(CRC),and discuss their relationship with the biological behavior and prognosis.[Methods]The expression of EZH2,Ki-67 and iMVD(labeled by CD34 protein)was measured with immunohistochemical MaxVision method in CRC patients followed up over 5 years.[Results]Positive expression rates of EZH2,Ki-67 and iMVD were 40.91%(45/110),57.27%(63/110)and 46.36%(51/110),respectively. EZH2 expression was positively correlated with distant metastasis(P=0.024). Ki-67 expression was positively correlated with tumor size,infiltration depth,AJCC stage and differentiation(P=0.033~0.015). The iMVD expression was positively correlated with infiltration depth ,AJCC stage and differentiation (P=0.016~0.034). Spearman correlation analysis showed that EZH2 expression was positively correlated with Ki-67 expression(r=0.195,P=0.041), whereas negatively correlated with iMVD expression. Ki-67 expression had a positive correlation with iMVD(r=0.213,P=0.025). Multivariate analysis suggested that the EZH2 expression was an adverse independent factor for survivals of CRC patients(HR 1.965, 95%CI:1.019-3.789,P=0.044 for OS).[Conclusion]EZH2 expression was significantly correlate with the proliferation of tumor cells and may plays an important role in the metastasis and prognosis of CRC.

Objective Tostudyrecentclinicalefficacyandadversereactionsofpemetrexedincombi-nationwithcisplatininthetreatmentofadvancedbreastcancer.Methods Usingenvelopesandrandomlythe patients were dividing into treatment group and control group.The treatment group with 1 8 cases of advanced breast cancer were treated with pemetrexed and cisplatin while in the control group ,23 cases advanced breast cancer patients were treated with gemcitabine and cisplatin with 21 days as a cycle.The efficacy and adverse re-actions were determined according to the WHO on Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors therapy and chemotherapytoxicityevaluationcriteria.Results Tumorcontrolrateinthetreatmentgroupwas83.3%(1 5/1 8),while in the control group was 78.3%(1 8/23 ),and the difference was not statistically significant (χ2 =0.000 94,P>0.05);while the adverse reactions differenced between the treatment group and the con-trol group were statistically significant(bone marrow suppression χ2 =9.23;fatigue χ2 =4.96;nausea and vomi-tingχ2=4.98;diarrheaχ2=4.45;skinrashχ2=5.03,P<0.05).Conclusion Pemetrexedcombinedwith cisplatin in patients with advanced breast cancer has a good effect,and the adverse reaction is low.

Objective To observe apelin and its receptor (APJ) expressions in human osteoblasts and evaluate the effect of apelin on osteoblasts.Methods The expressions of apelin and APJ in human osteoblasts were tested by RT-PCR and Western blot.After human osteoblasts were treated with apelin,cell proliferation was measured by [~3H] thymidine incorporation and cell counting.Cell function was measured by alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity,the secreted osteocalcin level and typeⅠcollagen production .The activation of signaling cascades was tested by Western blot.Small-interfering RNA (siRNA) to blockade APJ was applied to observe effects of apelin on cell proliferation and the activation of signaling cascades.Results Both apelin and APJ were expressed in human osteoblasts.Apelin increased the proliferation and did not show the influences on ALP activity, osteocalcin secretion and type I collagen production in human osteoblasts.Apelin induced activation of phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K) downstream effector (Akt),but not mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) such as c-jun N-terminal kinase (JNK),p38 and ERK1/2 in human osteoblasts.Suppression of APJ with siRNA or LY294002 (PI3K inhibitor) abolished the apelin-induced cell proliferation and the activation of Akt.Conclusion Human osteoblasts express apelin and APJ.Apelin stimulates the proliferation of human osteoblast via APJ/PI3K/Akt pathway,but has no effect on osteoblast differentiation.

Random amplified microsatellite polymorphism (RAMP) markers were used to access the genetic diversity among 112 samples of nine populations of Dendrobium officinale Kimura et Migo. Using 16 informative primers, 123 bands were amplified and 86 (69.92%) were polymorphic. The polymorphic bands from three to eight could be detected for each RAMP primer, with a mean of 5, indicating abundant genetic diversity among populations. Genetic similarity coefficients ranged from 0.250 to 0.813. UPGMA dendrogram illustrated 9 populations clustered into 3 groups, and the cluster pattern showed correlation with the locations of the D. officinale populations. These results were supported by the previous conclusions that were achieved by other molecular markers, and RAMP is proved to be effective for evaluating the genetic diversity of wild populations of Dendrobium officinale.
Cluster Analysis ; DNA Primers ; DNA, Plant ; genetics ; Dendrobium ; genetics ; Genetic Variation ; Microsatellite Repeats ; Phylogeny ; Plants, Medicinal ; genetics ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; methods ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique ; methods

Objective: To observe the clinical effect of acupoint sticking therapy with Mian Tan Gao (facial paralysis paste) plus electroacupuncture (EA) for treating peripheral facial paralysis and its influence on patients' facial nerve functions, facial disability index and clinical symptoms and signs. Methods: A total of 96 peripheral facial paralysis patients were allocated into an observation group, a medicine group and an EA group by simple randomization, with 32 cases in each group. Patients in the medicine group were treated with oral mecobalamine and prednisone acetate; patients in the EA group were treated with EA on the basis of the medicine treatment; while patients in the observation group were treated with acupoint sticking therapy with Mian Tan Gao (facial paralysis paste) plus EA. After 4-week treatment, the clinical efficacy, the adverse events, and the scores of House-Brackmann (H-B) facial nerve function grading scale, visual analog scale (VAS), clinical symptoms and signs, and facial disability index (FDI) were compared. Results: After 4-week treatment, the total effective rate was 96.9％ in the observation group, higher than 68.7％ in the medicine group and 75.0％ in the EA group (both P<0.05). After 4-week treatment, the scores of H-B grading scale, VAS and clinical symptoms and signs in the three groups dropped significantly compared with those before treatment, and the scores in the observation group were lower than those in the medicine group and EA group (all P<0.05). After 4-week treatment, the facial disability index-physical function (FDIP) in the FDI in the three groups increased significantly, with a higher value in the observation group compared with that in the medicine group and EA group (both P<0.05). The facial disability index-social function (FDIS) in the FDI dropped significantly, with a lower score in the observation group compared with that in the medicine group and EA group (both P<0.05). However, the comparisons of the items above between the medicine group and the EA group showed no statistical significance (all P>0.05). The between-group comparison of the adverse event across the three groups showed no statistical significance (P>0.05). Conclusion: Acupoint sticking therapy with Mian Tan Gao (facial paralysis paste) plus EA can decrease H-B grade, reduce pain severity and improve clinical symptoms and signs as well as the facial disability condition in peripheral facial paralysis patients. This method produced more significant efficacy compared with oral medicine and medicine plus EA.