Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy and safety of combined acupuncture and medicine in treating polycystic ovarian syndrome infertility.Methods Ninety patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome infertility were randomly allocated to treatment and control groups, 45 cases each. The control group received oral administration of clomifene citrate tablets plus muscular injection of chorionic gonadotropin and the treatment group, electroacupuncture in addition. The ovulation rates, pregnancy rates, incidences of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), ectopic pregnancy rates and early miscarriage rates were compared between the two groups of patients. Results The ovulation rate and the pregnancy rate were 97.8 % and 37.8%, respectively, in the treatment group and 75.6% and 17.8%, respectively, in the control group; there was a statistically significant difference between the two groups (P<0.05). Of 17 pregnant patients in the treatment group, 2 had early miscarriage, accounting for 11.8% and none had ectopic pregnancy, accounting for 0.0%. Of 8 pregnant patients in the control group, 4 had early miscarriage, accounting for 50.0% and none had ectopic pregnancy, accounting for 0.0%. The incidence of OHSS was 4.4% in the treatment group and 6.7% in the control group; there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups (P>0.05).Conclusions Combined use of acupuncture and medicine can increase the ovulation rate and the pregnancy rate in patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome infertility. It does not significantly cause ovarian hyperstimulation and ectopic pregnancy and may decrease the early miscarriage rate.

Ovulatory dysfunction refers to absent ovulation or luteal insufficiency. It is commonly seen in women with irregular menstruation or menstrual cycles, especially in those with oligomenorrhea or amenorrhea. Ovulatory dysfunction is considered the single-most frequent cause of female infertility. Clinically, the two major causes of ovulatory dysfunction are polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and luteinized unruptured follicle syndrome (LUFS). Acupuncture-moxibustion improves ovulation and helps with infertility. Through a systematic review and analysis on relevant literatures in Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture-moxibustion Databankover the last decade, this paper summarized the characteristics and pattern of acupuncture-moxibustion points for improving ovulation in order to provide an optimal acupuncture-moxibustion protocol in this regard.

Objective_To study the effect of human insulin on cell cycle progression and apoptosis of rat liver cell line BRL-3A in vitro.Methods_MTT method was used to observe the effect of insulin on cell activity, and flow cytometry was used to detect cell apoptosis and cell cycle.qRT-PCR was used to evaluate the expression of related genes.Results_Human insulin induced the proliferation of BRL-3A cells in a dose-dependent manner ( P<0.05 or P<0.01);After 3 days treated by human insulin (500 nmol/L), the proportion of cells in G0/G1 phases re-markably decreased (P<0.05).Moreover, pro-apoptotic BAX was down-regulated (P<0.05), while cell prolif-eration-related gene CCNA2 was up-regulated (P<0.05).Conclusions_Human insulin may inhibit the apoptosis of BRL-3 A cell line and induce proliferation due to the down-regulated expression of BAX and up-regulated expres-sion of CCNA2 .

The mammalian liver has a very strong regeneration capacity after partial hepatectomy (PH). To further learn the genes participating in the liver regeneration (LR), 551 cDNAs selected from subtracted cDNA libraries of the regenerating rat liver were screened by microarray, and their expression profiles were studied by cluster and generalization analyses. Among them, 177 genes were identified unreported and up- or down-regulated more than twofold at one or more time points after PH, of which 62 genes were down-regulated to less than 0.5; 99 genes were up-regulated to 2-10 folds, and 16 genes were either up- or down-regulated at different time points during LR. By using BLAST and GENSCAN, these genes were located on responsible chromosomes with 131 genes on the long arms of the chromosomes. The cluster and generalization analyses showed that the gene expression profiles are similar in 2 and 4, 12 and 16, 96 and 144 h respectively after PH, suggesting that the actions of the genes expressed in the same profiles are similar, and those expressed in different profiles have less similarity. However, the types, characteristics and functions of the 177 genes remain to be further studied.
Animals ; Chromosome Mapping ; Expressed Sequence Tags ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Liver Regeneration ; genetics ; physiology ; RNA, Messenger ; metabolism ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Time Factors