Objective To evaluate the characteristics of abdominal aorta wall motion in different stages of rats atherosclerosis with velocity vector imaging (VVI) technique. Methods Twenty-four healthy SD rats were on high-fat feeding after one week ordinary diet. Abdominal aortic intima-media thickness (IMT), end-systolic blood vessel diameter (Ds), peak systolic velocity (Vs), resistance index (RI), pulsatility index (PI) were measured before and at the end of 8th and 12nd week. Artery wall peak velocity (V_(max)), maximum tangential strain (S_(max)) and the maximum tangential strain rate (SR_(max)) were caculated with VVI. Results Abdominal aortic intima was rough and a small amount of foam cells were found under the light microscope at the end of 8 weeks of high-fat feeding. The values of Smax and SRmax measured at the end of 8th week of high-fat feeding decreased significantly than those of before high-fat feeding (P<0.05). At the end of 12nd week, abdominal aortic intimal was thicker and atherosclerotic plaque appeared somewhere. There were significant differences in artery IMT, Ds, Vs, RI, PI between before and the end of 2nd week of high-fat feeding (P<0.05);the values of V_(max), S_(max), SR_(max) decreased significantly than those of before and at the end of 8th week of high-fat feeding (P<0.05). Conclusion VVI can quantitatively evaluate the vessel wall elasticity in different stage of arteriosclerosis rats.

Objective:To investigate the clinical efficacy and possible mechanism of Sanjie analgesic capsule combined with levonorgestrel intrauterine birth control system in the treatment of adenomyosis with phlegm-stasis interjunction.Methods:Eighty-six cases of adenomyosis with phlegm-stasis interjunction were randomly divided into the observation group (44 cases) and the control group (42 cases). The control group was given levonorgestrel intrauterine birth control system treatment, and the observation group was given Sanjie analgesic capsule combined with levonorgestrel intrauterine birth control system treatment. After 6 months of treatment, the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome scores, follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), estradiol (E 2), progesterone (P), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2), insulin like growth factor (IGF-1), transforming growth factor-β 1(TGF- β 1), clinical efficacy, adverse reactions were compared between the two groups. Results:After treatment, the TCM syndrome scores in the observation group was lower than that in the control group: (7.57 ± 1.23) scores vs. (9.32 ± 1.45) scores, there was statistical difference ( P<0.05). After treatment, the levels of FSH, LH, E 2, P in the observation group were lower than those in the control group: (5.54 ± 1.21) U/L vs. (7.62 ± 1.36) U/L, (4.43 ± 1.05) U/L vs. (6.14 ± 1.15) U/L, (83.54 ± 12.36) μg/L vs. (92.45 ± 11.56) μg/L, (9.64 ± 1.43) pmol/L vs. (11.36 ± 1.52) pmol/L, there were statistical differences ( P<0.05). After treatment, the levels of VEGF, Ang-2, IGF-1, TGF- β 1 in the observation group were lower than those in the control group: (114.32 ± 15.41) ng/L vs. (162.45 ± 16.32) ng/L, (156.14 ± 20.45) ng/L vs. (186.53 ± 22.36) ng/L, (135.21 ± 15.52) ng/L vs. (151.23 ± 16.21) ng/L, (13.43 ± 2.24) ng/L vs. (16.36 ± 2.51) ng/L, there were statistical differences ( P<0.05). After treatment, the clinical efficacy in the observation group was higher than that in the control group and the adverse reactions was lower than that in the control group: 84.09%(37/44) vs. 64.29%(27/42), 13.64%(6/44) vs. 33.33%(14/42), there were statistical differences ( χ2 = 4.73 and 4.67, P<0.05). Conclusions:For adenomyosis with phlegm-stasis interjunction, the combination of Sanjie analgesic capsule and levonorgestrel intrauterine birth control system can improve the clinical symptoms of patients, improve treatment effectiveness, and reduce the occurrence of adverse reactions, which may be related to factors such as inhibiting estrogen, progesterone and vascular associated growth factors.

Establishing an effective three-dimensional (3D) culture system to better model human neurological diseases is desirable, since the human brain is a 3D structure. Here, we demonstrated the development of a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) pillar-based 3D scaffold that mimicked the 3D microenvironment of the brain. We utilized this scaffold for the growth of human cortical glutamatergic neurons that were differentiated from human pluripotent stem cells. In comparison with the 2D culture, we demonstrated that the developed 3D culture promoted the maturation of human cortical glutamatergic neurons by showing significantly more MAP2 and less Ki67 expression. Based on this 3D culture system, we further developed an disease-like model of traumatic brain injury (TBI), which showed a robust increase of glutamate-release from the neurons, in response to mechanical impacts, recapitulating the critical pathology of TBI. The increased glutamate-release from our 3D culture model was attenuated by the treatment of neural protective drugs, memantine or nimodipine. The established 3D human neural culture system and TBI-like model may be used to facilitate mechanistic studies and drug screening for neurotrauma or other neurological diseases.