Literatures at home and abroad were collected and pharmacology studies of berberine on treatment of digestive diseases were summarized. Berberine has still huge potential for treatment of peptic ulcer, gastritis, enteritis and other applications, and it has promising prospect in development and utilization.

OBJECTIVE:To study the absorption features of Silymarin enteric coated-polyllactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) nanoparticles in rat in situ intestine perfusion model and colonic adenoma Caco-2 cell model. METHODS:HPLC method was used to determine the content of silymarin. The absorption rate constant(Ka)and apparent absorption coefficient(Kapp)of Silymarin sus-pension,Silymarin PLGA nanoparticles and Silymarin enteric coated-PLGA nanoparticles were investigated in duodenum,jejunum, ileum and colon of rat in situ intestine perfusion model;the apparent permeability coefficient (Papp) of those drugs containing low-concentration,medium-concentration and high-concentration(20,40,60 μg/mL)of silymarin in Caco-2 cell model were also investigated. RESULTS:Compared with Silymarin suspension,Ka and Kapp of Silymarin PLGA nanoparticles and Silymarin enteric coated-PLGA nanoparticles were all increased in duodenum,jejunum,ileum and colon(P<0.05);compared with the correspond-ing concentration Silymarin suspension,two-way Papp of Silymarin PLGA nanoparticles and Silymarin enteric coated-PLGA nanopar-ticles containing low-concentration,medium-concentration and high-concentration of silymarin were all increased in Caco-2 cell model (P<0.05);there was no statistical significance between Silymarin PLGA nanoparticles and Silymarin enteric coated-PLGA nanoparticles (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS:Silymarin enteric coated-PLGA nanoparticles can effectively increase the intestinal ab-sorption,cellular uptake and transmembrane transport rate of silymarin.

Background: Early diagnosis and severity assessment of acute cholangitis is an important means to improve the prognosis of acute cholangitis. Aims: To investigate the clinical value of serum platelet (PLT), D-dimer (D-D) and procalcitonin (PCT) for severity assessment in patients with acute cholangitis. Methods: A total of 96 patients with acute cholangitis were enrolled, and were divided into mild group (n=40), moderate group (n=32), severe group (n=24). Levels of serum PLT, D-D and PCT were compared among the three groups. ROC curve was used to verify the predictive value for the severity assessment of acute cholangitis. Results: The serum levels of D-D and PCT increased with the increase of severity of acute cholangitis, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). The serum level of PLT decreased with the increase of severity of acute cholangitis, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). Correlation analysis showed that serum levels of D-D, PCT was positively correlated with severity of acute cholangitis, while serum level of PLT was negatively correlated with severity of acute cholangitis (P<0.05). When the cut-off values were 135.6×10