GJ-4 is crocin enrichments extracted from Gardenia jasminoides J. Ellis, and our previous studies have shown that GJ-4 significantly improved learning and memory impairment induced by Aβ in mice. Herein, a memory deficit model was developed by injecting okadaic acid (OA) into the lateral ventricle of mice, and the neuroprotection and underlying mechanism of GJ-4 on neuronal injury caused by Tau hyperphosphorylation were investigated. The Animal Care & Welfare Committee, Institute of Materia Medica, CAMS & PUMC has approved all procedures (No.00000318). GJ-4 at different doses was intragastric administration to mice for 16 days. Step-down test and Morris water maze test showed that GJ-4 could significantly improve OA-induced memory impairment in mice, and reduced the loss of Nissl bodies in the hippocampus of mice. GJ-4 could also decrease the phosphorylation level of Tau protein at Ser396, Thr231 and Ser404 via increasing protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) activity and inhibiting glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) activity. Besides, further researches indicated that GJ-4 could inhibit the level of oxidative stress in the brain of OA mice, reduce neuronal apoptosis and inhibit the neuroinflammation mediated by activation of astrocytes in the hippocampus of mice, and eventually achieve its effects in improving learning and memory impairment in mice. According to these findings, we anticipated that GJ-4 might be a potential therapeutic drug for Alzheimer's disease.

OBJECTIVEThe aim of this study was to explore the expression of activin A in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and its clinical significance.

METHODSImmunohistochemical (IHC) staining was used for detecting the expression of tissue activin A in sixty-four patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used for detecting the serum activin A in the patients before and after surgery. The relationship between expression of activin A in the esophageal cancer tissue with clinicopathological features and its influence on prognosis were analyzed.

RESULTSThe positive expression rate of activin A in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma was 82.8% (53/64), and that of normal esophageal epithelium was 6.7% (2/30), showing a very significant difference between them (P < 0.001). Expression of activin A was correlated with both lymph node metastasis and invasion depth of the tumor (all P < 0.05), and the expression of activin A was positively correlated with lymph node metastasis (r = 0.321, P < 0.05) and invasion depth of the tumor (r = 0.417, P < 0.05). The serum activin A of the patients before and after surgery was (911 ± 276) pg/ml and (667 ± 236) pg/ml, respectively, showing a significant difference (P = 0.005). Univariate and multivariate analyses indicated that expression of activin A and lymph node metastasis were independent influencing factors for prognosis in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (all P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSActivin A may play an important role in the pathogenesis and development of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, and it has an important reference value in the estimation of diagnosis and prognosis for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Activins ; blood ; metabolism ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; blood ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; blood ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Invasiveness ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Survival Rate

To investigate the role of histamine in airway remodeling, 50 healthy guinea pigs were divided into 5 groups: control group: nebulized inhalation of distilled water for 8 weeks; asthma model group: nebulized inhalation of ovalbumin (OVA) for 8 weeks after sensitization; continued asthma model group: nebulized inhalation of OVA for 14 weeks after sensitization; histamine group: nebulized inhalation of OVA for 14 weeks after sensitization and histamine was added in the last 6 weeks; antagonist group: nebulized inhalation of OVA for 14 weeks after sensitization and histamine receptor antagonists were added in the last 6 weeks. For each group, the concentration of histamine, sodium ion (Na(+)), chlorine ion (Cl(-)), arterial partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2), arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO2), pH, actual bicarbonate (AB), standard bicarbonate (SB) in serum, and thickness of airway mucosa, base membrane and smooth muscle were measured and compared with each other. The results showed that: (1) the concentration of histamine in serum and the thickness of airway increased, the following order was, the control group, the asthma model group, the continued asthma model group and histamine group (P<0.01); and the concentration of histamine in serum and the thickness of airway of antagonist group was lower than that of the continued asthma model group (P<0.05, 0.01). (2) PaO2 of the asthma model group was lower than that of the normal control group (P<0.01); PaO2, pH, AB, SB decreased, the following order was, the asthma model group, the continued asthma model group and the histamine group (P<0.01); and PaO2, pH, AB, SB of the antagonist group was higher than that of the continued asthma model group (P<0.01); but for PaCO2, the order was converse (P<0.01); For the concentration of Na(+) and Cl(-) in serum, there was no difference among these groups. It is concluded that: (1) Histamine is one of the mediators in the airway remodeling of asthma. (2) Histamine receptor antagonists may play a role in preventing and treating airway remodeling. (3) There is a negative correlation between the PaO2, pH and the wall thickness of the airway (P<0.01), while a positive correlation between the PaCO2, anion gap (AG) and the wall thickness of the airway (P<0.01).
Airway Remodeling ; physiology ; Animals ; Asthma ; chemically induced ; physiopathology ; Guinea Pigs ; Histamine ; physiology ; Histamine Antagonists ; pharmacology ; Male ; Ovalbumin ; Random Allocation

OBJECTIVETo investigate the clinical effect and safety of somatostatin in the treatment of postoperative gastrointestinal bleeding in neonates.

METHODSA prospective randomized study was performed, and 126 neonates who underwent surgery for congenital gastrointestinal anomalies were randomly divided into control group, treatment group A, and treatment group B. The neonates in the control group were given routine postoperative hemostasis, and those in the treatment groups were given somatostatin in addition to the treatment for the control group. The neonates in treatment group A were given intravenous injection of somatostatin 0.25 mg as the initial dose and 0.25 mg/h for maintenance, and those in treatment group B were given continuous intravenous pumping of somatostatin at a dose of 3.5 μg/(kg·h). The clinical outcome and complications were compared between the three groups.

RESULTSCompared with the control group, the treatment groups had significantly shortened clearance time in occult blood test for gastrointestinal decompression drainage and a significantly lower degree of the reduction in 24-hour hemoglobin (P<0.05), while there were no significant differences between treatment groups A and B. Compared with the control group, treatment group A had significant reductions in heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR), blood pressure (BP), and SaO2 after one hour of treatment (P<0.05 ), but there were no significant differences at the other time points between the two groups (P>0.05). There were no significant differences in monitoring indices between the control group and treatment group B (P>0.05). No neonates in the control group experienced hypoglycemia reaction, and treatment group A had a significantly higher incidence rate of hypoglycemia (20%) than treatment group B (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONSSomatostatin has a marked clinical effect and good safety in the treatment of neonates with postoperative gastrointestinal bleeding, and the administration of somatostatin by continuous intravenous pumping leads to fewer side effects.

Female ; Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage ; drug therapy ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Postoperative Complications ; drug therapy ; Prospective Studies ; Somatostatin ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use

OBJECTIVETo investigate effects of intermittent negative pressure on osteogenesis in human bone marrow-derived stroma cells (BMSCs) cultured in vitro.

METHODSThe third passage cells were divided into negative pressure treatment group and control group. The cells in the treatment group were induced by negative pressure intermittently (pressure: 17 kPa, 30 min per time, and four times of each day). The cells in the control group were cultured in conventional condition. The osteogenesis of BMSCs was examined by phase-contrast microscopy. The alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activities were determined. The expression of collagen type I was detected by immunohistochemistry method. The mRNA expressions of osteoprotegerin (OPG) and osteoprotegerin ligand (OPGL) in BMSCs were analyzed by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

RESULTSBMSCs showed a typical appearance of osteoblast after 2 weeks of induction by intermittent negative pressure. The activity of ALP increased significantly, and the expression of collagen type I was positive. In the treatment group, the mRNA expression of OPG increased significantly (P < 0.05) and the mRNA expression of OPGL decreased significantly (P < 0.05) after 2 weeks, compared with the control. However, 3 days after the exposure to 2-week negative pressure, these were no significantly different from that of the control group (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONIntermittent negative pressure could promote osteogenesis in BMSCs in vitro.

Bone Marrow Cells ; physiology ; Cell Culture Techniques ; Collagen Type I ; analysis ; Humans ; Osteogenesis ; Osteoprotegerin ; genetics ; Pressure ; RANK Ligand ; genetics ; RNA, Messenger ; analysis ; Stromal Cells ; physiology

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common respiratory disease with a high morbidity, disability and mortality. At the same time, COPD is always accompanied by pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary fibrosis, chronic pulmonary heart disease, right heart failure and other common serious complications. All of these cause serious financial burden for the family of patients. Airway remodeling plays an important role in the pathogenesis of COPD. It is the progressive development of airflow restriction that induces the main symptoms of COPD, such as cough, asthma and depression. Therefore, it is of great research value to explore the intervention of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) in the development of COPD by alleviating airway remodeling. Studies have shown that multiple signaling pathways can induce progressive airway remodeling, and the therapeutic effect of TCM has been frequently confirmed by experimental studies. TCM often has a therapeutic effect on COPD through multi-target and multi-channel mediation. This paper mainly includes five signaling pathways that traditional Chinese medicine can intervene COPD airway remodeling, namely matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs)/tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase (TIMPs), transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta 1/Smads, RhoA/Rho-associated kinase (ROCK), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)/b-fibroblast growth factor (b-FGF) and nuclear factor (NF)-κB. This paper briefly reviews the research progress of these five signaling pathways, and discusses other signaling pathways that may be involved, in order to provide reference and ideas for future experimental research.

Asiaticoside is a compound extracted from traditional Chinese medicine Centella asiatica, and mainly used in wound healing and scar repair in clinical, with notable efficacy. However, its poor transdermal absorption and short action time restrict its wide application. In this experiment, the reserve-phase-extrusion-lyophilization method was conducted to prepare the lyophilized asiaticoside-loaded flexible nanoliposomes (LAFL). Its characteristics including electron microscope structure, particle size, Zeta potential, entrapment rate, drug-loading rate, stability and drug release were determined with the intelligent transdermal absorption instrument. LAFL were white spheroids, with pH, particle size and zeta potential of 7. 03, 70. 14 nm and - 36. 5 mV, respectively. The average entrapment rate of the 3 batch samples were 31. 43% , and the average asiaticoside content in 1 mg lyophilized simple was 0. 134 mg. The results indicated that LAFL have good physicochemical properties and pharmaceutical characteristics, with an improved transdermal performance.
Animals ; Liposomes ; chemistry ; Nanoparticles ; chemistry ; Triterpenes ; chemistry

In this paper, the status of adjuvant standard for Chinese materia medica processing in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2015 edition, the National Specification of Chinese Materia Medica Processing, and the 29 provincial specification of Chinese materia medica was summarized, and the the status including general requirements, specific requirements, and quality standard in the three grade official specifications was collected and analyzed according to the "medicine-adjuvant homology" and "food-adjuvant homology" features of adjuvants. This paper also introduced the research situation of adjuvant standard for Chinese materia medica processing in China; In addition, analyzed and discussed the problems existing in the standard system of adjuvant for Chinese materia medica processing, such as lack of general requirements, low level of standard, inconsistent standard references, and lack of research on the standard, and provided suggestions for the further establishment of the national standards system of adjuvant for Chinese materia medica processing.

Objective: To observe the effect of modified Erchentang on GATA-binding protein-3(GATA3) and T-box expressed in T cells(T-bet) in lung tissue of rats with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Method: Seventy SD rats were randomly divided into seven groups, namely normal group, model group, low, medium and high-dose modified Erchentang group(5,10,20 g ·kg^-1), Xiaokechuan group(5 g ·kg^-1) and Erchentang group(5 g ·kg^-1), with 10 in each group. The rat model of COPD was established by smoking combined with intratracheal dripping of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). After successful modeling, the treatment group was given intragastric administration, and the normal group and the model group were given intragastric administration of equal volume of saline. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to determine the concentrations of interleukin-10 (IL-10) and interleukin-12 (IL-12) in rat serum. The expressions of GATA3 and T-bet were detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Real-time PCR). The expressions of GATA3 and T-bet in lung tissue were detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Result: Compared with the control group, the serum levels of IL-10 in the model group was significantly decreased, while the IL-12 level was significantly increased (P<0.01). The protein and gene expressions of GATA3 in lung tissue were significantly decreased, whereas the expression of T-bet was significantly increased (P<0.01). Compared with the model group, the serum level of IL-10 in each treatment group was increased to varying degrees, while the level of IL-12 was decreased to varying degrees (P<0.05). The mRNA and protein expressions of GATA3 in lung tissue of rats in each treatment group were increased significantly, while T-bet was inhibited (P<0.05). Conclusion: Modified Erchentang may reduce the inflammation of lung tissue and improve lung function in COPD rats by reducing IL-12, increasing the content of IL-10, inhibiting the protein and gene expressions of T-bet, and stimulating the protein and gene expressions of GATA3.

Objective: To explore the effect of modified Erchentang on peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) protein and gene expressions in lung tissue of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) rat model, and the expressions of interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-10 (IL-10) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) in serum, lung homogenate and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. Method: Seventy SD rats were randomly divided into seven groups:normal group, model group, high, medium and low-dose modified Erchentang groups (40, 20, 10 g · kg^-1 · d^-1), Xiaokechuan group (5 g · kg^-1 · d^-1), and Erchentang group (5 g · kg^-1 · d^-1). The rat COPD model was established through smoking and intratracheal instillation of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). After successful modeling, the treatment group was given drug by gavage, while the normal group and the model group were given the same amount of saline. The concentrations of IL-6, IL-10 and TNF-α in serum, lung homogenate and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid(BALF) of rats were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (Real-time PCR) was used to detect the expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ), and immunohistochemistry (IHC) and Western blot were used to detect the expression of PPARγ in lung tissue. Result: Compared with the normal group, the levels of IL-6 and TNF-α in serum, lung homogenate and BALF of the model group rats increased significantly (P<0.01), while IL-10 decreased significantly (P<0.01). The expressions of PPARγ mRNA in lung tissue of rats in model group were significantly decreased (P<0.01), and the expression of PPARγ protein was significantly inhibited(P<0.01). Compared with the model group, the levels of IL-6 and TNF-α in serum, lung homogenate and BALF of each treatment group decreased to varying degrees(P<0.01), while IL-10 increased to varying degrees. The excitation of IL-10 and the inhibition of IL-6 and TNF-α in the middle-dose Erchentang group were particularly significant. The PPARγ mRNA and protein expressions in lung tissue of rats in each treatment group were increased to varying degrees (P<0.01). Conclusion: Modified Erchentang may improve pulmonary inflammation and pulmonary function in COPD rats by increasing the expression of PPARγ and the content of IL-10 and decreasing the contents of IL-6 and TNF-α.