To investigate the effects of comprehensive and integrated therapy on the recovery of facial nerve function,60 patients with post-stroke facial nerve injury were divided into two groups:Group A (control group) was administered a simple conventional medication,and Group B underwent acupuncture by total considered therapy and was administered a simple conventional medication.Thirty patients were enrolled in each group.The Portmann modified clinical symptom score,intracranial hemodynamics,and electrophysiological parameters were analyzed before and after treatment.Thirty days later,the clinical symptom score in Group B increased significantly compared with that in the control group ( Group B,17.0 ±2.5 ; Group A,13.0 ±2.0; P ＜0.01 ).Group B showed significant improvements in middle cerebral artery blood flow [ Group B,(90 ± 17 ) cm/s; Group A,( 52 ± 15 ) cm/s ; P ＜ 0.01 ],facial nerve conductivity [Group B,latency of the ipsilateral orbicularis muscle,(3.35 ± 0.67) ms; Group A (3.95 ±0.58) ms;P ＜ 0.01 ].These results indicate that the total considered therapy improved the recovery of post-stroke facial nerve function and that this improvement was related to the increase in intracranial blood supply.

Objective To investigate the clinical effect of edaravone on free radical damage after acute stroke. Methods The 60 patients with acute stroke were randomly divided into therapy group and control group. Both the groups were treated with routine approaches of dehydration, intracranial pressure reducing and blood pressure control. The treatment with balanced saline 250 ml plus edaravone 30 mg, intravenously infusion twice a day, was adopted in therapy group, while the control group received balanced saline 250 ml only, the treatment lasted for 14 days. Before and 14 days after treatment, the neurologic impairment analysis, activity of daily living scale (ADL) and serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) were checked. Results Compared with control group, after 14 dtreatment, the improvements in neurologic impairment analysis (7.5±5.4 vs. 15.9±7.9, P＜0.05),ADL (58.32±11.57 vs. 43.73± 12.48, P＜0.05) and SOD[(157.25±21.81)mmol/L vs. (127.08 ± 13. 14)mmol/L, P＜0. 05] occurred in therapy group. Conclusions Edaravone could increase the ability of cleaning free radicals and promoting function of nerves recovery.

Objective To explore the effects of physiological ischemia training (PIT) on the function of endothelial progenitor cells.Methods Eighteen male New Zealand rabbits (2.5 ± 0.5) kg were divided into 3 groups:a sham operation (SO) group,a myocardial ischemia (MI) group and a MI ± physiological ischemia training (MI ± PIT) group.The PIT was modeled by ischemic isometric contraction of gastrocnemius muscle induced by electric stimulation (40 Hz,1 ms,40％ maximum current strength),and the MI was modeled by implantation of a water balloon to occlude the left ventrical branch of the heart.The experiment was conducted for 4 weeks.Before and after the experiments,the ability of mobilization and adhesion of endothelial progenitor cells were detected,the number and the capillary density were counted.Results Post-experiment,compared with groups SO and MI,PIT group significantly improved the ability of mobilization (151 ± 16 cells/HPF,P ＜ 0.01) and adhesion (17.8 ± 2.8 cells/ HPF,P ＜ 0.05),increased the circulating amount (P ＜ 0.05) and capillary density (824.0 ± 106.6 /mm2,P ＜ 0.05).Pearson analyze showed that there was positive correlation between circulating EPCs and capillary density.Conclusion Physiological ischemia training could improve EPCs mobilization and function,resulted to neovascularization in the ischemic heart tissues.

Objective: To establish an HPLC-fluorescence detection method for the determination of thioguanosine-monophosphate (TGMP), thioguanosine-diphosphate (TGDP) and thioguanosine-triphosphate (TGTP) in red blood cells (RBC), as well as quantify the individual thioguanine nucleotides metabolites in kidney transplant recipients with azathioprine (AZA) therapy.Methods: The individual thioguanosine phosphates were extracted from RBC by dichloromethane and subsequently oxidized by potassium permanganate.The separation was achieved on a Nucleosil C18 column (150 mm×4.6 mm,5 μm) with an ion pairing reagent and detected by a fluorescence detector (excitation at 315 nm, emission at 390 nm).The mobile phase consisted of 20 mmol·L-1 potassium phosphate buffer (pH was adjusted to 6.8 by 5 mmol·L-1 tetrabutylammonium hydrogensulfate)-acetonitril (80:20) with the flow rate of 1.0 ml·min-1.Results: TGMP, TGDP and TGTP were quantified from RBC within the range of 50-500, 50-1000 and 100-5 000 pmol·ml-1, respectively.The limit of quantification (LOQ) was 50, 50 and 100 pmol·ml-1 RBC for TGMP, TGDP and TGTP, respectively.The intra-and inter-day RSDs were below 7.0% with the method recovery between 95.0% and 103.6%.The mean extraction recovery was above 90%.The assay was applied in the blood samples of 30 kidney transplant recipients with AZA therapy, and the results indicated that TGTP was the predominant phosphate metabolite in RBC.Conclusion: The method is simple, rapid, sensitive and specific, and it can quantitatively determine the individual thioguanosine phosphates in RBC of kidney transplant recipients with AZA therapy.

Objective Previous studies showed that hypoxia preconditioning could protect cardiac function against subsequent myo-cardial infarction injury. However, the effect of hypoxia on left ventricular after myocardial infarction is still unclear. This study therefore aims to investigate the effects of hypoxia training on left ventricular remodeling in rabbits post myocardial infarction. Methods Adult male rabbits were randomly divided into three groups: group SO (sham operated), group MI (myocardial infarc-tion only) and group MI-HT (myocardial infarction plus hypoxia training). Myocardial infarction was induced by left ventricular branch ligation. Hypoxia training was performed in a hypobaric chamber (having equivalent condition at an altitude of 4000 m, FiO214.9%) for 1 h/day, 5 days/week for four weeks. At the endpoints, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the plasma was measured. Infarct size and capillary density were detected by histology. Left ventricular remodeling and function were as-sessed by echocardiography.Results After the 4-week experiment, compared with the group SO, plasma VEGF levels in groups MI (130.27 ± 18.58 pg/mL,P< 0.01) and MI-HT (181.93 ± 20.29 pg/mL,P< 0.01) were significantly increased. Infarct size in Group MI-HT (29.67% ± 7.73%) was deceased remarkably, while its capillary density (816.0 ± 122.2/mm2) was significantly increased. For both groups MI and MI-HT, left ventricular end-diastolic and end-systolic dimensions were increased whereas left ventricular ejection fraction was decreased. However, compared with group MI, group MI-HT diminished left ventricular end-diastolic (15.86 ± 1.09 mm,P< 0.05) and end-systolic dimensions (12.10 ± 1.20 mm,P< 0.01) significantly and im-proved left ventricular ejection fraction (54.39 ± 12.74 mm,P< 0.05).ConclusionHypoxia training may improve left ven-tricular function and reduce remodeling via angiogenesis in rabbits with MI.

Objective To investigate the therapeutic efficacy of the combined therapy of daoyin prescription and cognitive training on vascular dementia(VD).Methods Totally 75 patients with VD were randomly divided into 3 treatment groups:daoyin prescription,cognitive training and two combined treatments(n =25 each) for 3 months.Mini mental state examination(MMSE),Loewenstein occupational therapy cognitive assessment(LOTCA)and activities of daily living scale(ADL)were used for assessing therapeutic efficacy among three treatment groups.Results There were no significant differences in baseline clinical data among the three groups (P ＞ 0.05),possessing data comparability.Scores of MMSE,LOTCA,ADL and LOTCA subitems of orientation,visual perception,spatial perception,visual movement,thinking operation and attention were significantly improved in the 3 groups after 3 months intervention versus pre-treatment with three treatments(all P＜0.01).There were significant differences in scores of MMSE,LOTCA,ADL and LOTCA subitems of orientation,visual perception,visuo-motor organization and attention between combination therapy group versus daoyin prescription group and cognitive training group (all P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions Combined treatments of daoyin prescription and cognitive training have better effect on vascular cognitive function in patients with and VD.It can markedly improve the activities of daily living and cognitive function.It is worthy of further research in clinical medicine.

Human Gasdermin B (GSDMB) gene, as a member of the Gasdermin (GSDM) gene family, may be associated with the development of asthma, tumor and immune system diseases. Recent studies have found that cell pyroptosis can be mediated by GSDMB protein. The N-terminus of GSDMB cleaved by Granzyme A (GZMA), which is secreted by cytotoxic lymphocytes, can directly promote cell pyroptosis. Moreover, GSDMB protein promotes the cleavage of Gasdermin D (GSDMD) by binding to cysteinyl aspartate specific proteinase-4 (caspase-4), thus indirectly promoting cell pyroptosis. This article summarized the progress in the mechanism of GSDMB gene-mediated cell pyroptosis and the related diseases.

Objective:To observe the effect of early exercise intervention on the corticospinal tract of rats with cerebral infarction.Methods:Eighteen male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into a sedentary group (SED), a 1 day later exercise group (1D) and a 1 week later exercise group (1W), each of 6. A modified Longa′s method was used to occlude the middle cerebral artery to model a stroke. Rats in the 1D and 1W groups started exercising 1 day and 1 week after the modeling, while those in the sedentary group were placed on a stationary treadmill for 30 minutes every day. Modified neurological severity scores (mNSSs) were used to quantify neurological functioning after 1, 4 and 8 weeks. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to calculate the infarct volume ratio, and diffusion tensor imaging was used to detect the fractional anisotropy ratio (rFA) of the corticospinal tract for correlation with the mNSS scores. The corticospinal cord′s morphology was observed using DTT.Results:After 1 week the average mNSS score of the 1D group was significantly lower than the other two groups′ averages. At 4 weeks the average mNSS scores of both the 1D and the 1W group were significantly lower than the sedentary group′s average. At 8 weeks the 1D group′s average mNSS score was significantly lower than those of the other two groups, while that of the 1W group was significantly lower than the sedentary group′s average. At 1 and 4 weeks after modeling the average infarct volume ratio in the 1D group was significantly lower than those of the other groups. By 4 weeks the average infarct volume ratio of the 1W group was significantly lower than that of the sedentary group, and by 8 weeks the average infarct volume ratios of both the 1D and 1W groups was significantly lower than that of the sedentary group. After 1 week the average rFA of the 1D group was significantly lower than that of the sedentary group, but by 4 weeks the averages of the 1D group and the 1W group were both significantly higher than the sedentary group′s average. At 8 weeks the 1D group′s average rFA was significantly above that of the 1W group and of the sedentary group, and that of the 1W group was significantly higher than that of the sedentary group. After 8 weeks the corticospinal tracts in the 1D group appeared to be more symmetrical than those of the other 2 groups. The rFA results correlated strongly with the mNSS scores ( r=-0.707). Conclusions:Exercise can promote corticospinal cord remodeling and improve neurological function after cerebral infarction, at least in rats. It should be started as early as possible.

Objective:To explore any effect of intermittent hypoxia (IH) on myocardial energy metabolism and its mechanism.Methods:Twenty-one male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into a sham operation group, a myocardial infarction group and an observation group. The latter two groups received occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery. The observation group then lived in an hypoxic environment intermittently for 4 hours/day, 5 days/week for four weeks, while the other 2 groups were exposed to a normal level of oxygen. The ejection fraction of the left ventricle (LVEF) was measured at 1 week after the modeling and 4 weeks after the start of the intervention. Also at that point myocardial fibrosis, mitochondrial structure, ATP content, and the protein expressions of adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase alpha1 (AMPKα1) and sirtuins protein family member 3 (SIRT3) were assessed in all three groups.Results:A significant decrease in the LVEF, the number of mitochondria, ATP content, AMPKα1 and SIRT3 protein were observed in the infarction group compared with the sham group. There was also a significant increase in the myocardial fibrosis index. Moreover, the LVEF decreased significantly and the myocardial fibrosis index had increased significantly in the observation group compared with the sham operation group, though the two groups exhibited no significant differences the number of mitochondria, ATP content, or the expression of AMPKα1 or SIRT3. Compared with the myocardial infarction group, in the observation group there was a significant increase in the LVEF, the number of mitochondria, ATP content, and the expression of AMPKα1 and SIRT3 protein, with a significant decrease in the fibrosis index. AMPKα1 and SIRT3 level were positively inter-correlated and positively correlated with LVEF and ATP content.Conclusions:IH intervention can promote ATP synthesis and improve mitochondrial structure by regulating the AMPKα1/SIRT3 pathway, reducing myocardial fibrosis and enhancing cardiac function.

INTRODUCTIONThis study aims to assess whether cryosurgery is a feasible local therapy for bone metastatic prostate cancer (bmPCa).

METHODSA total of 23 patients with bmPCa who received cryosurgery and adjuvant androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) were included in the cryosurgery group (Group 1). Another 23 matched patients who received only ADT served as the control (Group 2). Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) nadir level, time to PSA nadir, time to castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), progression-free survival and therapy response of bone metastases were compared between the groups.

RESULTSThe median follow-up time in Group 1 and Group 2 patients was 37 (range 19-53) months and 42 (range 24-56) months, respectively. Patients in Group 1 had fewer local complications, lower PSA nadir level (0.23 ng/mL vs. 4.01 ng/mL; p = 0.024), shorter median time to PSA nadir (3 months vs. 7 months; p < 0.001), longer median time to CRPC (36 months vs. 27 months; p = 0.002) and longer progression-free survival (35 months vs. 26 months; p = 0.003) compared to those in Group 2. Therapy responses of bone metastases were similar in the two treatment groups (p = 0.689).

CONCLUSIONCryosurgery is a feasible local therapy for bmPCa patients with prostate volume less than 50 mL and without bulk tumours outside the prostate capsula. Cryosurgery may decrease PSA nadir level, local complications and time to PSA nadir, delay time to CRPC and improve progression-free survival.