Objective To study the effect of folic acid on decreasing level of plasma total homocysteine(tHcy)in patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss(SSHL) and the optimal dosage of folic acid. Methods Ten randomized controlled trials involving treatment data on 210 patients with SSHL were retrospectively studied.They were divided into seven groups according to the daily dosage of folic acid: group A to group G,0.2 mg,0.4 mg,0.8 mg,2.0 mg,5.0 mg,10.0 mg and 15.0 mg,respectively.Besides oral administration of folic acid,Vitamine B6 and B12were supplemented,and other routine treatment were performed.Fluorescence polarization immunoassay was employed to detect the plasma tHcy before and 3 months after the treatment.And the data of plasma tHcy of 210 patients without SSHL were collected and served as controls.The levels of plasma tHcy were statistically analysed between the SSHL group and control group and among group A to group G. Results The level of plasma tHcy in the SSHL group was significantly higher than that in the control group,(18.07?1.58)?mol/L vs(13.63?1.33) ?mol/L(P0.05). Conclusion The levels of plasma tHcy are significantly increased in SSHL.Folic acid may play an important role in decreasing the levels of tHcy in patients with SSHL,and a dosage of 10 mg/d for oral adminstration is well suggested.

0.05). The production of TNF-? in LPS group was higher than that in control group (61 ng/L vs 156 ng/L, q=5.12, P

Objective To observe the effects of stress treatment for different time on autonomic behaviors and spatial learning-memory abilities of rats and to investigate the therapeutic efficacy of Chaihu Shugan San(CSS). Methods Seventy-five 8-week-old Wistar rats were randomly divided into blank control group, model control group, and low-, middle-, and high- dose CSS groups, 15 rats in each group. Chronic multi-stress model was set up. The rat body weight in various groups was measured. The autonomic behaviors of rats were observed by open field test, and the abilities of spatial learning-memory of rats were examined by Morris water maze test. Results (1)On modeling day 20, 30, the model control group had lighter body weight than the blank control group (P < 0.01); the middle-, high- dose CSS groups had higher body weight than the model control group (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01) , and the high-dose CSS group had the highest body weight, the difference being insignificant compared with the blank control group (P > 0.05). (2)Open field test results showed as follows:Compared with the blank control group, the total distance and central-area distance were shortened (P < 0.01) and the average speed was decreased(P < 0.01) in the model control group at different modeling time points, the effect being positively correlated with the modeling time; compared with the model control group, the total distance and central-area distance were prolonged(P < 0.05 or P < 0.01) and the average speed was increased (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01) in the low-, middle-, and high- dose CSS groups at different modeling time points, and the therapeutic efficacy of high- dose CSS group was approach to the blank control group. (3)Morris water maze test results showed as follows: Compared with blank control group, the average latent period was prolonged and the times of platform crossing were decreased in the model control group (P < 0.01); compared with the model control group, the average potential time was shortened and the times of platform crossing were increased in the middle- and high-dose CSS groups (P<0.01), the efficacy being not significantly different from that of the blank control group (P > 0.05). Conclusion The chronic stress may decrease the excitability, reduce autonomic behaviors, and injure spatial learning and memory abilities of rats, the effect being positively correlated with the modeling time. And CSS has an effect on improving the above indexes, in particular the middle-and high-dose of CSS.

Purpose To investigate the clinicopathological features, histogenesis, morphological characteristics, immunophenotypes and differential diagnosis of primary extragonadal yolk sac tumor ( eYST) . Methods Clinicopathological data, morphological charac-teristics and immunophenotypes results of 40 cases of eYST were retrospectively studied and the relevant literatures were reviewed. Re-sults All 40 patients, which included 24 male and 16 female, aged from 6 months to 42 years with a 12 years average age and 17 (42.5%) cases were over 12 years old. Mediastinum, sacrococcygeal, retroperitoneal, pineal gland and vagina were involved in 16 (40.0%), 12(30.0%), 5(12.5%), 4(10.0%) and 3(7.5%), respectively. All 40 cases included 32(80.0%) cases pure YSTs, while other 8(20.0%) cases contained other one or two types of germ cell tumor (GCT) components. Conclusions Primary eYST is rare, mediastinum and sacrococcygeal are the most common anatomic sites for eYST, and these mediastinal tumor patients are overwhelmingly confined to adult males, whose average age are significantly older than that in sacrococcygeal, retroperitoneal, pineal gland and vaginal tumor patients (P<0.05), while other sites eYST are restricted to prepubertal children. Adult eYST contain other types of GCT components in some cases, and children's counterparts are always pure YST. Extragonadal eYST manifestate pleomorphic histological features, which combine with immunohistochemical markers is definite value for diagnosis, differential diagnosis.

Background and Purpose:The recurrent rate of breast cancer after mastectomy was 5%~20%,high risk factors were included it could achieve 34%~40%,Chest wall recurrence was the most common.This paper explores the reason for chest wall recurrence of breast cancer after mastectomy,hoping to find an efficient way to prevent and reduce chest wall recurrence after mastectomy.Methods:For 39 patients with local recurrence on the chest wall after mastectomy clinical data was reviewed retrospectively.Results:This group of patients was 5.1% of all breast cancer patients in the same period.Most of recurrences(59.0%)occured within two years affer operation.The recurrent rate of T_1～T_4 was 1.6%、1.9%、9.7% and 37.2% respectively.Rate of chest wall recurrence in patients with negative axillary nodes and positive axillary nodes was 1.3%、7.6%,but if the amount of positive axillary nodes≥4,it was 13.4%.Conclusions:In the patients who had more positive axillary nodes,larger primary tumor and no proper adjuvant therapy,recurrence on the chest wall was seen more often.Adjuvant chemotherapy and postoperative radiotherapy are efficient ways to prevent recurrence on the chest wall.

In order to study the effect of nitric oxide (NO) on the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1alpha) mRNA in hypoxic pulmonary hypertension (HPH) rats, 30 healthy male Wistar rats were randomly divided into normoxic control group, chronic hypoxic group and hypoxia plus L-arginine (L-Arg) group. The animal model of HPH was developed. The mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP) was measured by inserting a microcatheter into the pulmonary artery. The HIF-1alpha mRNA expression levels were detected by in situ hybridization (ISH) and semiquantitative RT-PCR. It was found that after 14 days hypoxia, the mPAP in normoxic control group (17.6 +/- 2.7 mmHg, 1 mmHg=0.133 kPa) was significantly lower than that in chronic hypoxic group (35.8 +/- 6.1 mmHg, t=0.2918, P<0.05) and mPAP in chronic hypoxic group was higher than that in hypoxia plus L-arginine group (24.4 +/- 3.8 mmHg, t=0.2563, P<0.05). ISH showed that the expression of HIF-1alpha mRNA in the intraacinar pulmonary arteriolae (IAPA) in normoxic control group (0.1076 +/- 0.0205) was markedly weaker than that in chronic hypoxic group (0.3317 +/- 0.0683, t=3.125, P<0.05) and that in chronic hypoxic group was stronger than that in hypoxia plus L-arginine group (0.1928 +/- 0.0381, t=2.844, P<0.05). RT-PCR showed that the content of HIF-1alpha mRNA in chronic hypoxic group (2.5395 +/- 0.6449) was 2.16 times and 1.75 times higher than that in normoxic control group (1.1781 +/- 0.3628) and hypoxia plus L-arginine group (1.4511 +/- 0.3981), respectively. It is concluded that NO can reduce the mPAP by the inhibition of the expression of HIF-1alpha mRNA, which may be one of the mechanisms through which NO affects the pathogenesis of HPH.
Anoxia/metabolism ; Arginine/pharmacology ; Hypertension, Pulmonary/*metabolism ; Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1, alpha Subunit ; Nitric Oxide/*pharmacology ; RNA, Messenger/biosynthesis ; RNA, Messenger/genetics ; Random Allocation ; Rats, Wistar ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Transcription Factors/*biosynthesis ; Transcription Factors/genetics

Neurocytoma, a rare brain tumor, is characterized by a mass located mainly in cerebral ventricles. It is prone to be misdiagnosed as oligodendroglioma or ependymoma due to their similar histopathological features in clinical practice. This study aimed to examine the clinicopathological features and differential diagnosis of central and extraventricular neurocytoma. The clinical and histopathological data of 17 patients (male: female=7:10; age: 4-41 years; mean age: 27.4 years) with central or extraventricular neurocytoma were retrospectively analyzed. These patients showed typical radiological, histopathological and immunohistochemical features of neurocytoma. The tumor tissue was found to be composed of small uniform cells with round nuclei and clear cytoplasm resembling that of oligodendroglioma and ependymoma. Immunohistochemistry revealed the tumor tissues were positive for neuronal markers such as synaptophysin (SYN) and neuronal nuclear antigen (NeuN). It was concluded histopathological features of neurocytoma overlaps with some tumors in the central neural system. Immunopositivity for SYN and NeuN can help differentially diagnose neurocytoma.

Objective: To investigate the effect of Danshensu Capsules on platelet aggregation, experimental thrombosis and hemorrheology in rat. Methods : The effects of Danshensu Capsules were observed on platelet aggregation induced by ADP. Occlusive thrombotic time was determined by electrostimulating; “blood stasis” model was prepared by ice water stimulation and the main hemorheological indexes were detected. Results : Danshensu Capsules could greatly inhibit the platelet aggregation in rat induced by ADP and delay occlusive thrombosis time after electrostimulating rat common carotid artery as well as decrease whole blood viscosity, plasma viscosity, red-cell specific volume, red-cell electrophoresis time, yield stress and red-cell aggregation indexes in experimental rat with the blood stasis syndrone. The rat's hemorheological properties were improved. Conclusion : Danshensu Capsules could decrease obviously the blood state with “dense、viscosity、aggregation、coagulation” and have obvious actions of blood-activating and stasis-eliminating.

Objective To investigate whether 5 different chemotherapeutic drugs and their combination of either two drugs could further promote the inhibition on the cell growth of HCC cell line (HepG2) in vitro in the hypoxic and hyponutritional culture medium (HHCM) mimicking the different scenarios of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE).Methods The cells were treated by 5 drugs for 2 h, 4 h,6 h and 24 h, which include epirubicin (EPI), cisplatin (DDP), mitomycin-C (MMC), oxaliplatin (OXA) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in four concentrations of HHCM (5％, 10％, 25％ and 50％) mimicking the scenarios during TACE and the cell viability was assessed using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay.The combinations of dual drugs treated for 24 h were also tested.Results The sensitive drugs with inhibition rates more than 30％ were EPI, MMC and OXA in 4 different concentrations of HHCM.The sensitivity of the drugs treated for 24 h was significantly increased compared with that for 2 h in 5％, 10％ and 25％ HHCM.The dual combinations did not increase the chemosensitivity of HepG2 cells.Conclusions EPI, MMC and OXA exhibited cytotoxic activity against HepG2 cells in various hypoxia and hyponutrition states.Prolonging the exposure time could increase the sensitivity of drug in HHCM, and the combination of dual drugs cannot enhance the cytotoxic effect.

This study is to establish the methods for determination of iridoid glycosides and triterpenic acids in Corni Fructus and provide technical support for the quality control of Corni Fructus. Morroniside, loganin and sweroside were determined by HPLC-UV method with acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid as the mobile phase, and the detective wavelength was set at 240 nm. Oleanolic acid and ursolic acid were determined by HPLC-ELSD method with methanol-0.5% ammonium acetate (87:13) as the mobile phase. The results showed that the linear ranges of morroniside, loganin and sweroside were 5.335-213.4 mg · L(-1) (r = 0.9999), 5.515-220.6 mg · L(-1) (r = 1.0000), 1.992-79.68 mg · L(-1) (r = 1.0000), respectively. The average recoveries of the above three iridoid glycosides were 98.49%-99.28% with RSDs of recoveries being less than 2%. The linear ranges of oleanolic acid and ursolic acid were 7.74-154.8 mg · L(-1) (r = 0.9964), 10.82-216.4 mg · L(-1) (r = 0.9996), respectively. The average recoveries of the above two triterpenic acids were 98.11%-99.27% with RSDs of recoveries being less than 3%. The method established in this research is simple, rapid and reliable, and can be used for quality control of Corni Fructus. Furthermore, the research provided experimental data for the improvement of present quality standard of Corni Fructus, which has important significance to guarantee its quality and clinical curative effect.
Cornus ; chemistry ; Drug Stability ; Oleanolic Acid ; analysis ; Quality Control ; Triterpenes ; analysis