Objective To investigate the relationship between red cell distribution (RDW) and serum inflammatory factor in di‐lated cardiomyopathy (DCM ) patients .Methods 47 dilated cardiomyopathy patients and 40 healthy volunteers were chosen .Ac‐cording to NYHA classification ,12 patients in NYHA class Ⅱ ,15 patients in NYHA class Ⅲ and 20 patients in NYHA class Ⅳ . RDW ,High sensitivity C‐reaction protein (hs‐CPR) ,tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α) and interleukin‐1β (IL‐1β) were detected in all the DCM patients and healthy volunteers .The correlation between RDW and serum inflammatory factors were analyzed . Results Compared to healthy volunteers ,RDW ,hs‐CRP ,TNF‐α and IL‐1β were elevated significantly in DCM patients (all P<0 .05) .Comparisons among the DCM patients groups ,RDW ,hs‐CRP ,TNF‐α,IL‐1β in NYHA class Ⅲ and NYHA class Ⅳ were higher than those in NYHA class Ⅱ(all P<0 .05) .There were positive correlation between RDW and hs‐CRP ,RDW and TNF‐α, RDW and IL‐1β(r=0 .422 ,0 .390 ,0 .325 ,P<0 .05) .Conclusion RDW is one of the indicators evaluating cardiac functions ,and there is a significant correlation between RDW and serum inflammatory factors in DCM patients .

Objective To examine the effectiveness of HGF in blocking TGF-β1 induced α-SMA and extracellular matrix production in fibroblasts of the flexor tendon sheath. Methods Seven adult male New Zealand white rabbits (3.75-4.00 kg) were used for this study. Both of their front feet were sterilised and the middle digit flexor digitorum profundus tendon equivalents were identified and isolated. These specimens were used to establish primary cell cultures. Sheath fibroblasts were obtained from rabbit flexor tendons. After the cells reached confluence, cells were detached with trypsin/ethylenediamine tetra-acetic acid. All experiments were performed using the cells at the third passage. At 70% confluence the medium was supplemented with 5 ng/ml of TGF-β1 along with increasing doses of HGF (10-40 ng/ml). After 72 hours incubation, the productions of α-SMA were assayed by Western-Blot. The productions of collagen Ⅰ and fibronectin in supernatants culture were examined using ELISA. Results Evaluation of protein expression revealed that TGF-β1 markedly induced α-SMA expression in cultured rabbit flexor tendon sheath fibroblasts. TGF-β1 treated fibroblasts expressed 1.8-fold more protein compared to non-treated fibroblasts (P ＜ 0.05). However, simultaneous incubation of HGF significantly abrogated TGF-β1 induced α-SMA expression in a dose-dependent manner (P＜ 0.05). Treatment with TGF-β1 significantly stimulated collagen Ⅰ and fibronectin production in flexor tendon sheath fibroblasts (P ＜ 0.01). Remarkably, the addition of HGF reduced productions of all components induced by TGF-β1 in a dose-dependent manner (P ＜ 0.05). Conclusion HGF antagonizes TGF-β1 induced α-SMA, collagen Ⅰ, and fibronectin production in flexor tendon sheath fibroblasts. The findings provide a cellular and molecular basis for HGF's acting as a therapeutic agent for adhesions in flexor tendons.

AIMTo study the expression of iNOS and AChE on ginea pigs cochlea spiral ganglion induced by streptomycin (SM) and attenuation by salvia miltiorrhiza injection (Chinese Traditional medicine-dansen DS).

METHODS32 guinea pigs were divided into 4 groups randomly (n=8): control group, SM group, DS + SM group, DS group. SABC immunohistochemical staining and image quantitative analysis technique were used to observe the expression of iNOS and AChE, as well as grey value analysis, and ABR measurements were used to observe ototoxicity.

RESULTSAfter 10 days with drugs, the ABR threshold value of SM increased more significantly than that of the control (P < 0.01), while the ABR threshold value of DS+ SM co-treatment increased than the control group, but lower than that of SM group (P < 0.01). The results of immunohistochemical staining implied the expression of iNOS and AChE in SG of SM group were higher than that of control group, and had positive correlate.

CONCLUSIONThe ABR threshold value increases and the expression of iNOS and AChE strengthen on SM ototoxicity, and has some correlation. DS can attenuate the ototoxicity induced by SM, and has protective function.

Acetylcholinesterase ; metabolism ; Animals ; Cochlea ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Female ; Guinea Pigs ; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural ; chemically induced ; pathology ; prevention & control ; Male ; Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II ; metabolism ; Protective Agents ; pharmacology ; Random Allocation ; Salvia miltiorrhiza ; chemistry ; Spiral Ganglion ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Streptomycin ; toxicity

BACKGROUND: In the process of bone defect healing, the use of biological materials loaded with drugs for local defect intervention can accelerate the repair of the defect, which provides a new method for the local treatment of bone defects. OBJECTIVE: To introduce the local application of bone tissue engineering scaffolds loaded with bisphosphonates in bone defect repair and to summarize the effects of bone tissue engineering scaffolds as a drug delivery system on the bone defect healing. METHODS: The authors retrieved PubMed, Web of Science, Springerlink, Medline, WanFang and CNKI databases with "bisphosphonates, alendronate, zoledronate, bone defect, bone tissue engineering" as key words for relevant articles published from 2006 to 2018. Initially, 235 articles were retrieved, and finally 70 articles were selected for further analysis. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Bisphosphonate drug is an effective inhibitor of osteoclast dissolution. It can form a drug sustained release system on the local defect by being loaded to composite scaffolds, promote the formation of new bone and accelerate the healing of the defect. For the drug delivery system of bisphosphonates, suitable scaffold materials are crucial to the osteogenic effect of composite scaffolds in the defect area. At present, the carrier materials used for bisphosphonate-loaded composite scaffolds are mainly divided into organic materials and inorganic materials. Most polymeric organic materials can directly load bisphosphonates to form good drug sustained release in the local area and obviously exert their pro-osteogenic effects, while natural materials and most inorganic materials are often combined with other materials to form composite materials as carriers to optimize the carrier performance. Most studies have also confirmed that these composite materials loaded with bisphosphonates in the defect area exert osteogenic effect in the defect area.

This study was designed to compare the antithrombotic effects of salvianolic acid A and aspirin. The anti-platelet aggregation and anticoagulant effects of salvianolic acid A and aspirin in vitro and in vivo were investigated in normal rats. The anti-cerebral ischemia and anti-platelet aggregation effects of salvianolic acid A and aspirin were also investigated in rats with thrombotic cerebral ischemia. All animal care and experimental procedures were reviewed and approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. The results of antiplatelet aggregation in vitro and in vivo showed that salvianolic acid A could mildly inhibit adenosine diphosphate (ADP), arachidonic acid (AA) and thrombin (THR)-induced antiplatelet aggregation in a dose-dependent manner, while aspirin played a strong inhibitory effect on AA-induced platelet aggregation in vivo. The effects of salvianolic acid A and aspirin on the coagulation system were similar. At the same time, the results of maximum platelet aggregation rate (MAR) in the rat cerebral ischemia model [MAR_ADP= (41.67±4.55)%, MAR_AA= (53.22±2.83)%, MAR_THR= (73.33±5.04)%] indicated that salvianolic acid A could mildly inhibit ADP and AA-induced antiplatelet aggregation [MAR_ADP= (26.13±4.60)%, MAR_AA= (35.53±13.73)%, P<0.01], while aspirin played a strong inhibitory effect on AA-induced platelet aggregation [MAR_AA= (8.13±2.99)%]. Salvianolic acid A (10 mg·kg^-1) significantly improved the neurological function, cerebral infarction volume [(10.77±7.80)%] and brain edema [(79.72±0.83)%] compared with the model group [(43.50±12.69)%, (82.25±0.89)%] (P<0.01), while the effect of aspirin (100 mg·kg^-1) was not obvious. The above results suggest that compared with aspirin, salvianolic acid A provided a mild inhibitory effect on platelet aggregation and protected against cerebral ischemia induced by thrombus. Therefore, salvianolic acid A has a good application prospect in the prevention and treatment of thrombotic diseases.