AIM: To develop a simple HPLC for the determination of ursolic acid in Hawthorn leaves, and to compare ursolic acid content in Hawthorn leaves of different species, locations and growth stages, so as to supply some evidences for the exploitation and utilization of Hawthorn leaves reasonably. METHODS: By high-performance liquid chromatography method. Lichrospher C18 column (250 ×4.6 mm I. D. 5 μm); mobile phase, acetonitrile-water-orthophosphoric acid (85: 14.95: 0.05) with a flow-rate of 1.00 ml/min; column temperature at 30 ℃; injection volume, 5μl; UV detector at 210 nm. RESULTS: The detection limit (S/N=3) was less than 4. 024 μg/ml and the limit of quantification( S/N =10) was less than 12.05 μg/ml. The calibration curve showed good linear regression(r =0. 9999) within measurement ranges( 16.09 - 1030 μg/ml). The intra-day and interday variation were 0.71% and 6. 15%, respectively. The recoveries at low to high concentration were 89%-105%. Under these conditions, the ursolic acid content in different Hawthorn leaves were determined: 1.90%-1.95% in C. scabrifolia (Franch.) Rehd, 1.00%-1.45% in C. cuneata Sieb. & Zucc, 0.45%-0.65% in C.pinnatifida Bge. var. major N. E. Br.; In differnet growth stages of C. pinnatifida Bge. var. major N. E. Br. , the young leaves contain higher content of ursolic acid. CONCLUSION: The method is successfully applied to quantify ursolic acid in Hawthorn leaves. And the ursolic acid contents in Hawthorn leaves of differnent species are very different; C. scabrifolia (Franch.) Rehd contains the highest ursolic acid content in them. However, there is a little difference among different locations and growth stages for same species.

In order to reflect the research achievements of acupuncture on international academic community and study the acupuncture international discourse power from 2007 through 2017, we used text analysis software to analyze 5668 papers that focusing on acupuncture research in the recent 10 years. The results show that international acupuncture research trend has been formed, the research force diverges to the rest of the world with "China-America" as the center, and the study focuses on its sight and the interaction between China and foreign countries is good. Under the perspective of international discourse power, the construction of the national communication platform, the cultivation of academic centers and research fields, and the interaction with international research forces will enhance the quality of Chinese acupuncture research, and these will become an important task in enhancing the international discourse power of Chinese acupuncture.
Acupuncture ; Acupuncture Therapy ; China ; Humans ; Internationality ; Research ; trends

Objective To investigate the clinical utility of ultrasound parameters in diagnosing neonatal annular pancreas.Methods A total of 56 neonates with descending duodenal obstruction underwent saline-contrast ultrasound examination.Ultrasonic parameters,including dilated duodenum diameter(DDD),dilated duodenum thickness(DDT),and stenosis duodenum diameter(SDD),were measured.The cases were categorized into three groups:annular pancreas(group A,n=28),descending duodenal atresia(group B,n=3),and descending duodenal septum(group C,n=25).One-way ANOVA was employed to compare statistical differences among the three ultrasonic parameters across the groups,followed by LSD-t test for pairwise comparisons between two groups showing significant differences.Receiver operating characteristics analysis was conducted to calculate the area under the curve and determine the cut-off value if there were statistically significant differences observed.Results In group A,group B,group C,the diameters of DDD were measured as(23.2±2.4)mm,(25±1.0)mm,(19.4±2.6)mm,respectively.When comparing these three groups,there was a statistically significant difference between group A or group B and group C in terms of DDD diameter measurements(t=5.7,P＜0.05;t=3.793,P＜0.05).However,no statistically significant difference was observed between group A and group B for DDD diameter measurements(t=1.232,P＞0.05).The corresponding values for DDT were measured as(3.0±0.6)mm,(3.2±0.4)mm,and(2.4±0.3)mm,respectively.When comparing these three groups,the results showed a statistically significant differ-ence between either Group A or Group B compared to Group C in terms of DDT measurement(t=4.695,P＜0.05;t=2.778,P＜0.05).However,no statistically significant difference was found between Group A and Group B regard-ing the measurement of DDT(t=0.666,P＞0.05).The SDD measurements in the three groups were(1.9±0.3)mm,(3.6±0.8)mm,(5.5±0.7)mm,respectively.Statistical analysis using LSD-t test revealed significant differences between the three groups(t=5.521,P＜0.05;t=6.142,P＜0.05;t=25.828,P＜0.05).The sensitivity,specificity,positive predictive value,and negative predictive value for detecting annular pancreas at a cutoff of 2.3 mm were determined to be 96.4%,100%,100%,and 96.6%,respectively,with an area under the receiver operating charac-teristic curve of 0.999.Conclusion SDD could be employed for the diagnosis of neonatal annular pancreas.

Objective:To explore the effect of pentraxin 3 (PTX3) on memory improvement and Aβ expression in Alzheimer's disease (AD) model mice.Methods:(1) Ten 5-month-old 5×FAD mice were randomly divided into PTX3 group and model group ( n=5); 5 C57BL/6 wild-type mice at the same age were selected as control group; mice in the PTX3 group and control group were stereotactically injected 4 μL 0.5 g/L PTX3 or same dose of phosphate buffered saline (PBS); Morris water maze test was used to detect the learning and memory abilities, Y maze test was used to detect the short-term memory, and ELISA was used to obsevre the contents of Aβ 40 and Aβ 42 in the brain hemisphere. (2) Twenty-five 3-month-old 5×FAD mice were randomly divided into model group, 2 μg/kg PTX3 group, 4 μg/kg PTX3 group, 8 μg/kg PTX3 group, and 16 μg/kg PTX3 group ( n=5); 5 C57BL/6 wild-type mice at the same age were selected as control group; mice in the PTX3 groups were intranasally injected 2, 4, 8, and 16 μg/kg PTX3, respectively; those in the model group and control group were intranasally injected same dose of PBS; injection was given once every 96 h for a total of 7 times. Morris water maze test was used to detect the learning and memory abilities, Y maze test was used to detect the short-term memory, and ELISA was used to obsevre the contents of Aβ 40 and Aβ 42 in the hippocampus. Results:(1) Compared with the model group, the PTX3 group had significantly shorter platform latency, higher percentage of exploration time and higher percentage of spontaneous alternations ( P<0.05). Compared with those in model group ([63.38±21.42] pg/mL, [29.77±6.11] pg/mL), the concentrations of Aβ 40 and Aβ 42 in the brain tissues of PTX3 group ([15.87±2.11] pg/mL, [16.55±1.95] pg/mL) were statistically lower ( P<0.05). (2) Compared with the model group, the 16 μg/kg PTX3 group had significantly shorter escape latency and higher percentage of exploration time ( P<0.05); compared with the model group, the 2 μg/kg PTX3 group and 16 μg/kg PTX3 group had significantly higher percentage of spontaneous alternations ( P<0.05). The contents of Aβ 40 and Aβ 42 in the hippocampus of 8 μg/kg PTX3 group and 16 μg/kg PTX3 group were statistically lower compared with those in the model group ( P<0.05). Conclusion:PTX3 may attenuate cognitive deficits and decrease Aβ expression in the brain or hippocampus tissues of 5×FAD mice with AD.

Objective To establish a fast detection method of sodium aescinate by using near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy analysis method for the determination of the content of sodium aescinate for injection. Methods OPUS software was used to optimize the collected spectrum. PLS algorithm and factorization algorithm were used to establish quantitative model and qualitative model. Results The correlation coefficient of the quantitative model reached 0.9926, the RMSECV deviation was 0.253. The deviation between the predicted value of the sample and the true measured value was less than 5%, which could accurately predict the content of sodium aescinate. Conclution The qualitative model can effectively distinguish the samples of other varieties that have not participated in the modeling, and provide a reference for the rapid screening of the drug.