The battlefield rescuing unit of the current model is always restricted by some factors such as regional environments in wartime rescuing action and peacetime disaster relief, which can lead to failure of following and deploying action, so that wounded persons can not be rescued at the first time. Aiming at the special circumstances, a forward first-aid unit composed of five doctors and nurses should be established to give emergency medical rescue with rescuing emergent equipments and medicine packed in portable packages such as portable respiring machine, defibrillator and oxygen device at the battlefront. In this way, success rate of rescuing wounded persons would be increased obviously, while mortality rate and deformity rate would be decreased greatly.

OBJECTIVETo prepare morphine-loaded chitosan microspheres by emulsion ionic cross-linking and investigate the effect of initial morphine quantity and different cross-linking degrees on drug loading, encapsulation efficiency and in vitro drug release.

METHODSChitosan (with a relative molecular mass of 50,000 and deacetylation degree no less than 90%) at 100 mg and morphine at 20, 30, 40, or 50 mg were dissolved by 2% acetate and dripped slowly into 15 ml soy-bean oil containing 0.75 ml Span80. After full emulsification at 35 degrees C; for 1.5 h, the mixture was dripped slowly into sodium tripolyphosphate (10 mg/ml) at the mass ratio of 5:1, 7:1, or 9:1 to allow cross-linking for 2 h. The drug loading, encapsulation efficiency and in vitro drug release of the preparations were measured.

RESULTSThe drug loading in the microsphere increased while the encapsulation efficiency reduced with the increment of the initial morphine quantity. High cross-linking degree resulted in prolonged release time of the drug loaded in the preparations.

CONCLUSIONThe microspheres loaded with morphine allows sustained release of morphine.

Chitosan ; administration & dosage ; Delayed-Action Preparations ; chemical synthesis ; Drug Carriers ; administration & dosage ; Microspheres ; Morphine ; administration & dosage

OBJECTIVETo study the antifertility and anti-inflammatory effects of compound Kucen gel in vivo.

METHODSAs antifertility experiment, we randomly divided 60 female SD rats into six groups of equal number: normal saline, blank gel, low-, medium- and high-dose compound Kucen gel (0.05, 0.10 and 0.15 g/g), and positive control (4% nonoxynol gel) to receive intravaginal administration of 200 microl of respective agent, followed by copulation with male rats in a 1:1 ratio. At 12 days after successful mating, the female rats were dissected for calculation of the embryos and the rate of contraception. As an anti-inflammatory trial, we established a mouse model of inflammation by applying xylene to the pinna, and equally randomized 60 Kunming mice to six groups as in the former experiment. We determined the degrees and average rates of swelling inhibition in the left ear.

RESULTSHigh-dose compound Kucen gel achieved a fertility-inhibition rate of 100% in the female rats, the number of embryos significantly lower than in the normal saline group (0.00 +/- 0.00 vs 11.00 +/- 2. 00, P < 0.05), but with no statistically insignificant difference from that of the positive control (0.00 +/- 0.00, P > 0.05). High-dose compound Kucen gel also markedly suppressed swelling in the left ear of the mice, with an inhibition rate of 52.3%, the average swelling degree significantly lower than in the normal saline group (10.17 +/- 2.56 vs 21.32 +/- 3.17, P < 0.01), but not remarkably different from that of the positive control (8.53 +/- 1.89, P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONCompound Kucen gel, with its strong antifertility and anti-inflammatory effects, deserves further study and clinical application.

Animals ; Anti-Inflammatory Agents ; pharmacology ; Contraceptive Agents ; pharmacology ; Disease Models, Animal ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Female ; Gels ; Inflammation ; Male ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred Strains ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effects of Salvia Miltiorrhiza Liguspyragine Hydrochloride and Glucose Injection (, SLGI) on the expression of platelet membrane receptors proteinase-activated receptor-1 (PAR1) and proteinase-activated receptor-4 (PAR4) in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients on chronic haemodialysis (HD).

METHODSEighty-six ESRD patients on HD (treated group) were treated with SLGI, 7 days as one therapeutic course, for two successive courses. The previous therapies were unchanged. Flow cytometry was used to assess the expression of platelet PAR1 and PAR4 in the patients, and turbidity method was used to determine the platelet maximum aggregation rate (MAR). Meanwhile, renal function was measured. The final data were compared with those before treatment and with those in the normal control group (54 healthy subjects).

RESULTSCompared with the normal control group, the expressions of PAR1 and PAR4 and platelet MAR in ESRD patients on HD was significantly higher before treatment (P=0.001, P=0.006, and P=0.008); after treatment with SLGI, the above indices in patients were remarkably decreased (P=0.036 and P=0.046), except PAR4 (P=0.067), but still higher than those in the normal control group, however, it was not statistically significant.

CONCLUSIONS(1) The overexpression of PAR1 and PAR4 might lead to increased platelet aggregation and this could be one of the reasons for the thrombotic events in ESRD patients on HD. (2) SLGI was able to down-regulate the expression of PAR1 in ESRD patients on HD, improve platelet function, and regulate platelet activation.

Blood Platelets ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; adverse effects ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Glucose ; administration & dosage ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Kidney Function Tests ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Platelet Aggregation ; drug effects ; Receptors, Thrombin ; metabolism ; Renal Dialysis ; Salvia miltiorrhiza ; chemistry

BACKGROUNDThe onsets of needling sensation introduced by acupuncture stimulus can vary widely from subject to subject. This should be explicitly accounted for by the model blood oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) time course used in general linear model (GLM) analysis to obtain more consistent across-subject group results. However, in standard GLM analysis, the model BOLD time course obtained by convolving a canonical hemodynamic response function with an experimental paradigm time course is assumed identical across subjects. Although some added-on properties to the model BOLD time course, such as temporal and dispersion derivatives, may be used to account for different BOLD response onsets, they can only account for the BOLD onset deviations to the extent of less than one repetition time (TR).

METHODSIn this study, we explicitly manipulated the onsets of model BOLD time course by shifting it with -2, -1, or 1 TR and used these temporally shifted BOLD model to analyze the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data obtained from three acupuncture fMRI experiments with GLM analysis. One involved acupuncture stimulus on left ST42 acupoint and the other two on left GB40 and left BL64 acupoints.

RESULTSThe model BOLD time course with temporal shifts, in addition to temporal and dispersion derivatives, could result in better statistical power of the data analysis in terms of the average correlation coefficients between the used BOLD models and extracted BOLD responses from individual subject data and the T-values of the activation clusters in the grouped random effects.

CONCLUSIONSThe GLM analysis with ordinary BOLD model failed to catch the large variability of the onsets of the BOLD responses associated with the acupuncture needling sensation. Shifts in time with more than a TR on model BOLD time course might be required to better extract the acupuncture stimulus-induced BOLD activities from individual fMRI data.

Acupuncture ; Adult ; Female ; Hemodynamics ; physiology ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Oxygen ; blood ; Young Adult

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), including embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced PSCs (iPSCs), represent potentially unlimited cell sources for clinical applications. Previous studies have suggested that hPSCs may benefit from immune privilege and limited immunogenicity, as reflected by the reduced expression of major histocompatibility complex class-related molecules. Here we investigated the global immune-related gene expression profiles of human ESCs, hiPSCs and somatic cells and identified candidate immune-related genes that may alter their immunogenicity. The expression levels of global immune-related genes were determined by comparing undifferentiated and differentiated stem cells and three types of human somatic cells: dermal papilla cells, ovarian granulosa cells and foreskin fibroblast cells. We identified the differentially expressed genes CD24, GATA3, PROM1, THBS2, LY96, IFIT3, CXCR4, IL1R1, FGFR3, IDO1 and KDR, which overlapped with selected immune-related gene lists. In further analyses, mammalian target of rapamycin complex (mTOR) signaling was investigated in the differentiated stem cells following treatment with rapamycin and lentiviral transduction with specific short-hairpin RNAs. We found that the inhibition of mTOR signal pathways significantly downregulated the immunogenicity of differentiated stem cells. We also tested the immune responses induced in differentiated stem cells by mixed lymphocyte reactions. We found that CD24- and GATA3-deficient differentiated stem cells including neural lineage cells had limited abilities to activate human lymphocytes. By analyzing the transcriptome signature of immune-related genes, we observed a tendency of the hPSCs to differentiate toward an immune cell phenotype. Taken together, these data identify candidate immune-related genes that might constitute valuable targets for clinical applications.
Embryonic Stem Cells ; Female ; Fibroblasts ; Foreskin ; Granulosa Cells ; Humans* ; Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells ; Lymphocyte Culture Test, Mixed ; Lymphocytes* ; Major Histocompatibility Complex ; Phenotype ; Pluripotent Stem Cells* ; RNA ; Signal Transduction ; Sirolimus ; Stem Cells ; Transcriptome