Objective: To explore the molecular biological mechanism of acupuncture in intervening visual deprivation.
Methods: Forty-eight 2-week old Wistar rats were randomly divided into a normal group, a model group, and 6 acupuncture groups (group C1: acupuncture at the unaffected side in early stage; group C2: acupuncture at the affected side in early stage; group D1: acupuncture at the unaffected side in mid-stage; group D2: acupuncture at the affected side in mid-stage; group E1: acupuncture at the unaffected side in late stage; group E2: acupuncture at the affected side in late stage) by the random number table, 6 rats in each group. Rats in the normal group didn’t receive any interventions. The rat model of deprivation amblyopia was established by unilateral eyelid suture in the model group and each acupuncture group. After successful modeling, rats in model group didn’t receive any treatments; rats in the acupuncture groups received acupuncture intervention which began respectively on the 3rd, 12th and 21st day after modeling. Pattern visual evoked potential (P-VEP) and N-methy D-aspartatreceptor-1 (NMDAR1) mRNA expression in visual cortex area 17 were detected at the end of acupuncture intervention in each group.
Results: After the intervention, the P-VEP waveform was significantly changed, with a significantly delayed P100 value (P<0.01) and significantly decreased amplitude of N45-P100 in the model group versus the normal group (P<0.01); the P-VEP waveform was significantly improved, with obviously earlier P100 (P<0.01) and increased amplitude of N45-P100 (P<0.05) in each acupuncture group versus the model group. The improvement effect of acupuncture on the P-VEP waveform in group C1 and C2 was more significant than that in group D1, D2, E1 and E2. The expression of NMDAR1 mRNA of the rat visual cortex area 17 in the model group was significantly lower than that in the normal group (P<0.01); and the expression of NMDAR1 mRNA in the visual cortex area 17 of each acupuncture group was significantly higher than that in the model group (P<0.05); the effect of acupuncture on NMDAR1 mRNA expression in group C1 and C2 was more significant than that in group D1, D2, E1 and E2; and the effect of acupuncture on NMDAR1 mRNA expression was better in group C2 than in group C1 (P<0.05); there was no significant difference in the expression of NMDAR1 mRNA between group D1 and D2, neither between E1 and E2 (P>0.05).
Conclusion: P-VEP waveform is abnormal and NMDAR1 mRNA expression in visual cortex area 17 is decreased in rats with monocularly-deprived amblyopia. Acupuncture in the sensitive period can significantly regulate the abnormal P-VEP waveform and the down-regulate the NMDAR1 mRNA expression of the visual cortex of rats with monocularly-deprived amblyopia. Early treatment in the sensitive period should be the key to obtaining the curative effect.

The degranulation of mast cells represents a pivotal e-vent in the allergic disorders.The Src family kinases(SFKs)are as a starting signal in the activation of mast cell.Lyn,Fyn and Syk play important regulatory role in the degranulation of mast cells.Regulating SFKs can reduce the degranlation process and inhibit the allergic disorders.Therefore,SFKs inhibitors can be potential drugs in the allergy.It is necessary to study the targeted medicine of SFKs,which will be a new direction of drug develop-ment.

Objective To assess the therapeutic efficacy of trigger points (TrPs) combined with acupoints by acupuncture for subjective tinnitus (ST);To discuss the correlation of TrPs acupuncture inactivation and the releasing of symptom. Methods Sixty patients with ST were randomly divided into trial group and control group, 30 cases in each group. Those in trial group were acupunctured by TrPs combined with acupoints, and those in control group received regular acupuncture treatment. The scores of tinnitus severity assessment were available for effect evaluation after 3 treatment course. The size and tenderness degree of TrPs contraction knots were checked, and TrPs local thermal infrared spectrum was compared by infrared camera. Results The post-treatment tinnitus severity scores had significant difference compared with pre-therapy in each group (P<0.01). The total effective percentage of trial group with 93.33%(28/30) was obviously higher than control group with 86.67%(26/30) (P<0.05). The post-treatment and pre-therapy contraction knots size, tenderness and temperature difference of TrPs within trial groups had a very significant difference (P<0.01), and difference of tenderness and temperature of patients’ TrPs had a positive correlation with the difference of tinnitus severity scores before and after treatment (P<0.01). The contraction knots area of TrPs had not significant correlation with the difference of tinnitus severity scores (P>0.05). Conclusion TrPs combined with acupoints by acupuncture for ST patients are better than conventional acupoints in improving clinical symptoms. The deactivation of TrPs is closely related to tinnitus symptoms, therefore, temperature and tenderness of TrPs can be employed to assist in the diagnosis, or evaluated the tinnitus severity and therapeutic efficacy.

Objective: To investigate the electrophysiological mechanism of acupuncture for the visual cortex plasticity during the sensitive period. Methods: Fifty 2-week-old Wistar rats were randomly divided into a blank control group, a model group, an early-stage acupuncture group, a middle-stage acupuncture group and a late-stage acupuncture group, 10 rats in each group. Monocular deprivation amblyopia models were prepared in rats except those in the blank control group by unilateral eyelid suture. After successful modeling, no treatment was applied to the rats in the model group. Rats in each acupuncture group were treated with acupuncture at bilateral Jingming (BL 1), Cuanzhu (BL 2), Fengchi (GB 20) and Guangming (GB 37), started from the 3rd day, 12th day or 21st day after modeling separately, once a day, for a total of 9 d treatment. The neuronal discharge frequency and action potential inter-spike interval (ISI) in the rat visual cortex area 17 of each group were measured by multi-channel microelectrode array nerve signal technique. Results: The discharge number of neurons in the visual cortex of the model group was significantly lower than that in the blank control group (P<0.05). After treatment, the discharge numbers in the early-stage acupuncture group and the middle-stage acupuncture group were significantly higher than that in the model group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the discharge numbers between the late-stage acupuncture group and the model group (P>0.05). The discharge number in the middle-stage acupuncture group was lower than that in the early-stage acupuncture group (P<0.05), and the discharge number of the late-stage acupuncture group was lower than that in the middle-stage acupuncture group (P<0.05). The ISI sequences of the visual cortex neurons were mainly distributed under 0.3 s in the blank control group, under 15 s in the model group, under 1 s in the early-stage acupuncture group, under 4 s in the middle-stage acupuncture group, and under 10 s in the late-stage acupuncture group, divergent in each group. Conclusion: The neuronal coding appears abnormality in the visual cortex area 17 of monocular deprivation rats, indicating that there is a plasticity change in the visual cortex neurons during the sensitive period. Acupuncture has a significant effect on the abnormal neural coding. The therapeutic efficacy is closely related to the stage to start the treatment. Early stage treatment in the sensitive period is the key to achieving the good efficacy.

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic autoimmune disease. Moxibustion treatment for RA has significant efficacy, with high security and without dependency. It can alleviate the symptoms and make the body gradually return to normal level of immunity at the same time. This article reviewed the study on mechanism of moxibustion for the treatment of RA in recent years from the aspects of innate immunity, humeral immunity, cellular immunity, cytokines and immune organs, discussed the existing problems in relevant study, and provided a basis for clinic and future research.

Objective To study the immunologic mechanism of electroacupuncture at Sanyin points on chronic abacterial prostatitis rats. Methods Forty-eight male rats were divided randomly into normal group, model group, drug group and electroacupuncture group, 12 rats in each group. The animal model was made by SC purified prostate protein twice with immunologic adjuvant, and the rats in electroacupuncture group and drug group were treated by electroacupuncture at Sanyin points and feeding Cernilton for 15 days. The changes of prostate weight, index, pathology and contents of IgG, expressions of IL-2 and IL-8 in prostate homogenate were observed. Results Compared with normal group, the prostate weight and index were significantly increased in model group (P<0.05), the content of IgG was significantly increased (P<0.05), cytokine IL-2 and IL-8 were highly expressed (P<0.05, P<0.01), prostate tissue’s morphology and structure were significantly impaired in model group. Compared with model group, the prostate weight and index were significantly decreased in electroacupuncture group after treatment (P<0.05 or P<0.01), pathological changes reduced significantly, the content of IgG decreased significantly (P<0.05), the expressions of cytokine IL-2 and IL-8 were significantly decreased (P<0.05, P<0.01), and the pathological manifestation of chronic inflammation was significantly improved. Conclusion Electroacupuncture at Sanyin points can reduce the secretion of local prostate antibody IgG, regulate the expression of cytokine IL-2 and IL-8, protect the morphology and structure of prostate tissue from damage. Electroacupuncture at Sanyin points can adjust local immunologic function and promote the recovery of prostate.

Objective To investigate the genetic relationships of Astragalus membranaceus and Codonopsis pilosula from the different cultivars (varieties). Methods Twenty-five samples of A. membranaceus and seventeen samples of C. Pilosula were amplified by ISSR-PCR. Genetic diversity and genetic distance were analyzed by Popgen32. UPGMA dendrogram relationship was clustered by NTSYS. Results Totally 62 and 100 loci were detected respectively from A. membranaceus and C. pilosula. All percentages of polymorphic loci (PPL) were 100%. Shannon’s information indexes (I) were 0.537 6 and 0.472 7. Nei’s genetic diversity indexes (H) were 0.361 3 and 0.307 4. A. membranaceus was divided into two groups in genetic distance 0.59, and C. pilosula was alike in 0.50. Conclusion Different cultivars (varieties) of A. membranaceus and C. pilosula had rich genetic diversities among species, and had large genetic differences.

This article was aimed to study the physiological mechanisms in frozen storage to reduce early bolting of Angelica sinensis. By analyzing the root soluble sugar, soluble protein, MDA content changes before and after -10oC processing of the Angelica sinensis seedlings of different size from different sources , the physiological mechanisms in frozen storage reducing early bolting of A . sinensis had been studied. The results indicated that the greater seedlings , the higher content of soluble sugar , lower protein content and higher MDA . There were no obvious differences on the soluble sugar , soluble protein and MDA content of the same size seedlings from different sources . After -10oC freezing , the content of soluble sugar and protein in the seedlings with the same size were decreased. Meanwhile, the content of MDA was increased. It was concluded that the content of soluble sugar, soluble protein and MDA were obviously related to the size of Angelica sinensis seedlings from the same source before and after low temperature process .

Aim To explore micro RNAs-integrated pathogenic signaling to control endothelial-mesenchy-mal transition ( EndMT ) in pulmonary hypertension ( PH) by a network bioinformatic approach. Methods Literature-mining method was used to find PH-relat-ed genes and EndMT/EMT-related miRNAs. Bioinfor-matic prediction approach ( DIANA3 , Miranda4 , PicT-ar5 , TargetScan6 , miRDB7 and microT-CDS8 ) was used for miRNA target prediction. Hypergeometric a-nalysis was used to predict miRNAs related to EndMT in PH. The analysis of interactions between PH-rele-vant genes( PH network) was performed with the use of Biological General Repository for Interaction Datasets ( BioGRID ) . These miRNAs were ranked with the highest probability of substantial overlap among their gene targets in the PH-network, the relationship be-tween their targets and the PH functional categories which include hypoxia, inflammation, and transforming growth factor/BMP signaling. Then, the part of results was validated by animal experiment. Lastly the miR-NA-Target network was built using Cytocape 3 . Results List of 230 genes was compiled that were directly im-plicated in the development of PH and 189 miRNAs were related to EndMT in PH. Among 189 miRNAs, only 22 microRNAs(miR-let-7 family, miR-124, miR-130 family, miR-135, miR-144, miR-149, miR-155, miR-16-1, miR-17, miR-181 family, miR-182, miR-200 family, miR-204, miR-205, miR-21, miR-224, miR-27, miR-29 family, miR-301a, miR-31, miR-361 and miR-375) were related to hypoxia, inflamma-tion, and transforming growth factor/BMP signaling. Among these miRNAs, the levels of let-7g, miR-21, miR-124 and miR-130 family were significantly changed in the pulmonary artery in hypoxia-induced PH rats. Conclusions Among numerous miRNAs,22 of which may be involved in hypoxia, inflammation, and transforming growth factor/BMP signaling and re-lated to EndMT in PH by network bioinformatic ap-proach, which provides a theoretical basis for further investigation of EndMT in PH.

Objective To observe the efficacy of Zheng’s “gold hook fishing acupuncture” in the treatment of scapulohumeral periarthritis. Methods Sixty patients were randomly divided into gold hook fishing group and reinforcing-reducing group, with 30 cases in each group. Gold hook fishing group chose the main points from the Tianzong (SI11), Bingfeng (SI12), Jiajixue (double EX-B2), Binao (LI14), Jianyu (LI15), Jianliao (SJ14), Jianzhen (SI9), Ashi, Naoshu (SI10), Quchi (LI11), Waiguan (SJ5), Hegu (LI4), Houxi (SI3), Tiaokou (ST38) and Chengshan (BL57). Needles were pierced at tendon junction points and Ashi points, and golden hook fishing acupuncture was operated. Other points were given reinforcing-reducing method. The reinforcing-reducing group was treated with reinforcing-reducing method at points the same as gold hook fishing group. Patients were treated once a day for 2 courses, 5 days as a treatment course. The pain visual analogue scale (VAS), shoulder range of motion (ROM), and ability of daily life (ADL) were observed before and after treatment to evaluate the clinical efficacy. Results The total effective rate of gold hook fishing group was 90.0% (27/30), better than the reinforcing-reducing group 83.3% (25/30, P<0.05); VAS pain score, ROM score and ADL score before and after treatment in the two groups were improved to some extent (P<0.05), and scores in the golden hook fishing group were improved more significantly compared with reinforcing-reducing group (P<0.05). Conclusion Zheng’s gold hook fishing acupuncture can effectively improve the clinical symptoms and signs of patients with scapulohumeral periarthritis and their life quality.