To investigate the significance of cardiac damage in the patients with polymyositis (PM)/dermatomyositis (DM)，45 cases of PM/DM in our hospital from 1992 to 1998 were retrospectively analyzed in the aspects of the clinical data，muscle zymogram，X-ray plain films，electrocardiograph，ultrasonic cardiogram. It was found that cardiac damage (51.1 %) occurred in 23 out of 45 cases of PM/DM. Pericardium，cardiac muscle，endocardium and coronary artery were involved. Clinical manifestations were various. Among the cases of cardiac damage，3 died of heart failure. It was indicated that cardiac damage is the most common complication and also one of the common death causes of PM/DM.

As a series of and continuous publication,the papers published on Chinese Traditional and Herbal Drugs in 2010 were selectively and briefly highlighted to reflect the new progress on modern research of Chinese herbal medicines.Within 617 articles,chemical constituents (127),pharmaceutics and technology (149),pharmacological studies and clinical observation,and medicinal materials are still major categories.Some comments have also been personally provided.

In order to establish stable high expression cell lines, the eukaryotic expression vector pIRES2EGFP and recombinant plasmid pIRES2EGFP-TIM-3 were transfected into mammalian cells CHO by Lipofectamine. The transfected cells were cultivated under selective growth medium including G418 and green fluorescent protein (GFP) positive cells were sorted by FACS. Simultaneously, growing transfectants were selected only by G418 in the medium. The GFP expression in stably transfected cells was detected by FACS. Under selective growth conditions with G418, the percentage of GFP positive cells was reduced rapidly and GFP induction was low. In contrast, the percentages of GFP positive cells were increased gradually after FACS. By 3 rounds of GFP selection, the stable high expression cell lines were established. Furthermore, using FACS analysis GFP and the target protein TIM-3 co-expression in the stable transfectants cultured in nonselective medium was detected. Theses results demonstrated that the stably transfected cell lines that express high titer of recombinant protein can be simply and fleetly obtained by using GFP and selective growth medium.

With the surge of high-throughput sequencing technology, it is becoming popular to perform the phylogenetic study based on genomic data. A bundle of new terms is emerging, such as phylogenomics, pharmacophylogenomics and phylotranscriptomics, which are somewhat overlapping with pharmaphylogeny. Phylogenomics is the crossing of evolutionary biology and genomics, in which genome data are utilized for evolutionary reconstructions. Pharmaphylogeny, advocated by Prof. Pei-gen Xiao since 1980s, focuses on the phylogenetic relationship of medicinal plants and is thus nurtured by molecular phylogeny, chemotaxonomy and bioactivity studies. Phylogenomics can be integrated into the flow chart of drug discovery and development, and extend the field of pharmaphylogeny at the omic level, thus the concept of pharmacophylogenomics could be redefined. This review gives a brief analysis of the association and the distinguished feature of the pharmaphylogeny related terms, in the context of plant-based drug discovery and sustainable utilization of pharmaceutical resource.

Objective To establish a method for the determination of hesperidine inErchen mixture. Methods HPLC method was used with Fortis C18(250 mm×4.6 mm,5μm)column and the mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile-acetic acid-water(22∶4∶74). The flow rate was 1.0 ml/min,the column temperature was 30℃, and the UV detector was set at 283 nm.Results The linear ranges of hesperidine was 2.86-57.20μg(r=0.999 8). The average recovery of Aloin was 99.4%.Conclusion The method is rapid, reliable, simple, repeatable and with high specificity. It can be an important supplement for Erchen mixture elevated standard.

Objective To investigate the mRNA expression of a proliferation inducing ligand (APRIL) and its receptors including B cell maturation antigen (BCMA),transmembrane activator.calcium modulator and cyclophilin ligand interactor (TACI) in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SEE).Methods APRIL mRNA、BCMA mRNA and TACI mRNA in PBMCs were detected by real-time quantitative PCR in 66 SLE patients and 25 normal controls.Gene expression level was measured as 2-AACT.Results The expression levels of APRIL mRNA、BCMA mRNA and TACI-mRNA were significantly increased in both active SLE group and stable SLE group compared with those in the normal controls(P<0.01 for all).The expression levels of APRIL mRNA and TACI mRNA in active SLE group were significantly higher than those in stable SLE group(P<0.01,P<0.05,respectively).But there was no significant difierence in the expression levels of BCMA mRNA between the SLE stable and active groups-Beside,the expression levels of APRIL mRNA and TACI mRNA were significantly increased in patients with lupus nephritis (LN) compared to patients with non-LN (P<0.01 for all).Conclusion The expression levels of APRIL and its receptors are significantly elevated in SLE patients.It may suggest that APRIL and its receptors play an important role in the pathogenesis of SLE.

Objective To investigate the mRNA expression level of neurogranin on peripheral blood mononuclear cells(PBMCs)from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE).Methods Top 20 tags of SLE PBMCs SAGE library were searched from normal lymphocytes SAGE library including navie-T,Th1,Th2, CD8+T, NK and B cells,and their abundance was compared.The mRNA expression level of neuro-granin,a differential over-expressed tag,was detected in 35 cases of SLE and 15 normal controls by reversetranscription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).Results Neurogranin tag could only be detected in SLE PBMCs SAGE library,but was hardly found in normal lymphocyte SAGE library.However,either SLE pa-tients or normal controls showed a detectable mRNA level of neurogranin on PBMCs by RT-PCR.The mRNA level of neurogranin in active SLE patients was significantly increased than those in controls(P＜0.001).but only slightly increased in inactive SLE patients (P＞0.05).Conclusion Neurogranin,as a novel proapototic factor,is overexpressed on PBMCs of SLE patients.It may be involved in the regulation of abnormal immune responses in lupus.

Aim To elucidate the molecular mechanism of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis of MCF-7 cells induced by paclitaxel. Methods Flow cytometry was used to determine the cell cycle changes of MCF-7 cells upon paclitaxel treatment. Gene expression profiles of MCF-7 cells induced by paclitaxel were obtained by using cDNA microarrays containing 9 984 genes and expressed sequence tags (ESTs).Results Cell cycle analysis showed that 77.8% of cells arrested at G2/M phase and 1.3% of cells caused G2/M cell cycle arrest and apoptotic cell death in a concentration-dependent manner, which is associated with the regulation of selected genes related to microtubule assembly and cytoskeleton, cell cycle regulation, and DNA repair and apoptosis.

To study the chemical constituents of K. oblongifolia, silica gel column chromatography, MCI and Sephadex LH-20 were used to separate the 70% acetone extract of the stems of K. oblongifolia. The structures of the isolated compounds have been established on the basis of physicochemical and NMR spectroscopic evidence as well as ESI-MS in some cases. Twenty compounds were obtained and identified as heteroclitalignan A (1), kadsulignan F (2), kadoblongifolin C (3), schizanrin F (4), heteroclitalignan C (5), kadsurarin (6), kadsulignan O (7), eburicol (8), meso-dihydroguaiaretic acid (9), kadsufolin A (10), tiegusanin M (11), heteroclitin B (12), (7'S)-parabenzlactone (13), angeloylbinankadsurin B (14), propinquain H (15), quercetin (16), kadsulignan P (17), schizanrin G (18), micrandilactone C (19) and (-)-shikimic acid (20). Compouds 1, 5, 8, 11-15, 18 and 20 were isolated from this plant for the first time. Toxicity of compounds 1-10 were evaluated with zebrafish model to observe the effect on its embryonic development and heart function. The results showed that compounds 7, 9 and 10 caused edema of zebrafish embryo and decreased the heart rate of zebrafish, which exhibited interference effect on heart development of zebrafish.

This article was aimed to compare the antioxidant activities of Green tea and four tree-type non-Camellia teas. The antioxidant activities of the water extract of Green tea, Eagle tea, Large-leaved Kuding tea, Shiya tea and Qingqianliu tea were evaluated with four different in vitro assays including 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH), ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), ferrous ion-chelating (FIC) and β-carotene-linoleate bleaching assay. In addition, the polyphenol contents of different teas were estimated by the Folin-Ciocalteu assay. The results showed that Shiya tea had strong antioxidant activity; its FIC and FRAP abilities are better compared with Green tea. The Eagle tea and Large-leaved Kuding tea have better antioxidant activity. The FRAP activity of Large-leaved Kuding tea was better than green tea. The DPPH of Eagle tea and Large-leaved Kuding tea were slightly lower than Green tea, but higher than the butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). The antioxidant ability of Qingqianliu tea was the lowest. It was concluded that Shiya tea, Eagle tea, Large-leaved Kuding tea had relatively high development value which re-quires in-depth research and promotion.