Mutagenicity Tests ; methods ; Tobacco Smoke Pollution ; adverse effects

Objective To investigate the operative methods and clinical significance of the treatment for large acoustic ncuroma with microsurgery by retrosigmoid approach.Methods 15 cases of large acoustic neuroma treated with microsurgery by retrosigmoid approach were systematic analyzed,including the operative approach,microsurgical technique,disposal after operation,prevention and cure of complications.Results Tumors were totally removed in 12 cases and were subtotally removed in 3 cases.Facial nerve was kept ana- tomic intact in 13 cases(86.7%) and acoustic nerve was kept anatomic intact in 6 cases(40.0%).The short period complications happened in 3 cases and no patient died in this series.Conclusion Treatment for large acoustic neuroma with microsurgery by retrosigmoid approach is a safe method,which give small hurt brain tissue and benefit to increase the total removal rate and protect effectively the function of facial nerve and acoustic nerve.

BACKGROUND: The present study aimed to determine the short-term and long-term outcomes of critically ill patients with acute respiratory insufficiency who had received sedation or no sedation. METHODS: The data of 91 patients who had received mechanical ventilation in the first 24 hours between November 2008 and October 2009 were retrospectively analyzed. These patients were divided into two groups: a sedation group (n=28) and a non-sedation group (n=63). The patients were also grouped in two groups: deep sedation group and daily interruption and /or light sedation group. RESULTS: Overall, the 91 patients who had received ventilation ≥48 hours were analyzed. Multivariate analysis demonstrated two independent risk factors for in-hospital death: sequential organ failure assessment score (P=0.019, RR 1.355, 95％CI 1.051–1.747, B=0.304, SE=0.130, Wald=50483) and sedation (P=0.041, RR 5.015, 95％CI 1.072–23.459, B=1.612, SE=0.787, Wald=4.195). Compared with the patients who had received no sedation, those who had received sedation had a longer duration of ventilation, a longer stay in intensive care unit and hospital, and an increased in-hospital mortality rate. The Kaplan-Meier method showed that patients who had received sedation had a lower 60-month survival rate than those who had received no sedation (76.7％ vs. 88.9％, Log-rank test=3.630, P=0.057). Compared with the patients who had received deep sedation, those who had received daily interruption or light sedation showed a decreased in-hospital mortality rate (57.1％ vs. 9.5％, P=0.008). The 60-month survival of the patients who had received deep sedation was significantly lower than that of those who had daily interruption or light sedation (38.1％vs. 90.5％, Log-rank test=6.783, P=0.009). CONCLUSIONS: Sedation was associated with in-hospital death. The patients who had received sedation had a longer duration of ventilation, a longer stay in intensive care unit and in hospital, and an increased in-hospital mortality rate compared with the patients who did not receive sedation. Compared with daily interruption or light sedation, deep sedation increased the in-hospital mortality and decreased the 60-month survival for patients who had received sedation.

The development of acupuncture-moxibustion and Tuina in Namibia was introduced in the article. The history of acupuncture in Namibia is only 15 years, and there are 3 acupuncturists and Tuina practitioners with permanent resident permit in Namibia. The University of Namibia has already established a medical college, which is now cooperating with the concerning Chinese medical university of China and carrying out education for the undergraduate students. The development of acupuncture-moxibustion and Tuina has a great potential in Namibia with an extensive indication involving diseases of internal medicine, surgery, gynecology, pediatrics, orthopedics, and neurology.
Acupuncture ; education ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Humans ; Massage ; Namibia

The theory that "the kidney nourishes marrow and brain is the sea of marrow" has been instructing traditional Chinese medical doctors in preventing and treating dementia in aged people for thousands of years. However, the modern biological basis of this theory has not been systemically studied. In this review, we summarized our serial pharmacological studies on the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) with Chinese medicinal herbs, using multiple kinds of AD-like animal and cell models. The results show that "kidney-reinforcing" herbs of traditional Chinese medicine play a very important role in the anti-AD effects; and different "kidney-reinforcing" herbs have different effects in brain functions. The common effects of "kidney-reinforcing" herbs are improving cellular energy metabolism, increasing neurotrophic factors and the number of cholinergic neurons, and decreasing neurotoxin production. Based on above results, we propose that the essence of "brain marrow" is the neurons and neurotrophic factors in the brain; "the deficiency of brain marrow" is induced by the decrease in neurotrophic factors and the atrophy and loss of neurons in the brain, thus resulting in cognitive impairment and dementia. The modern biological basis of "reinforcing kidney to replenish marrow" by traditional Chinese medicine includes improving cellular energy metabolism and utilization, enhancing endogenous neurotrophic effects and decreasing neurotoxin production, thus reducing the cell death and increasing the survival and regeneration of neurons.
Alzheimer Disease ; metabolism ; physiopathology ; Animals ; Cell Death ; drug effects ; Cell Survival ; drug effects ; Drug Combinations ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Energy Metabolism ; drug effects ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Memory ; drug effects ; Mitochondria ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Nerve Growth Factors ; metabolism ; Neurons ; cytology ; drug effects ; Neurotoxins ; metabolism ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry

Ligustrazine, one of the major effective components of the Chinese traditional medicinal herb Ligusticum Chuanxiong Hort, has been reported plenty of biological activities, such as protect cardiovascular and cerebrovascular, neuroprotection and anti-tumor, et al. Because of its remarkable effects, studies on structural modification of ligustrazine have attracted much attention. Ligustrazine synthetic derivatives reported in recent decades are mainly derived from four primary intermediates (TMP-COOH, TMP-OH, TMP-NH2, HO-TMP-OH). To explore the neuroprotection activitiy of ligustrazine intermediates, six ligustrazine intermediates (2, 5, 8, 11, 12, 13) were synthesized and their protective effects against CoCl2-induced neurotoxicity in differentiated PC12 cells were studied. The target compounds were prepared via different chemical methods, including oxidation, substitution, esterification and amidation without changing the structure nucleus of ligustrazine. Compared with TMP (EC50 = 56.03 micromol x L(-1)), four compounds (2, 5, 12 and 13) exhibited higher activity (EC50 < 50 micromol x L(-1)) respectively, of which, compound 2 displayed the highest protective effect against the damaged PC12 cells (EC50 = 32.86 micromol x L(-1)), but target compounds 8 and 11 appeared lower activity (EC50 > 70 micromol x L(-1)). By structure-activity relationships analysis, the introduction of carboxyl, amino to the side chain of ligustrazine and appropriately increase the proportion of ligustrazine may contribute to enhance its neuroprotective activity, which provides a reference for the design, synthesis and activity screening of relevant series of ligustrazine derivatives in the future.
Animals ; Cell Differentiation ; drug effects ; Chemistry Techniques, Synthetic ; Cobalt ; toxicity ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Neuroprotective Agents ; chemical synthesis ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Neurotoxins ; toxicity ; PC12 Cells ; Pyrazines ; chemical synthesis ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Rats

Design space approach is applied in this study to enhance the robustness of first ethanol precipitation process of Codonopsis Radix (Dangshen) by optimizing parameters. Total flavonoid recovery, dry matter removal, and pigment removal were defined as the process critical quality attributes (CQAs). Plackett-Burman designed experiments were carried out to find the critical process parameters (CPPs). Dry matter content of concentrated extract (DMCE), mass ratio of ethanol to concentrated extract (E/C ratio) and concentration of ethanol (CEA) were identified as the CPPs. Box-Behnken designed experiments were performed to establish the quantitative models between CPPs and CQAs. Probability based design space was obtained and verified using Monte-Carlo simulation method. According to the verification results, the robustness of first ethanol precipitation process of Dangshen can be guaranteed by operating within the design space parameters. Recommended normal operation space are as follows: dry matter content of concentrated extract of 45.0% - 48.0%, E/C ratio of 2.48-2.80 g x g(-1), and the concentration of ethanol of 92.0% - 92.7%.
Chemical Precipitation ; Chemistry, Pharmaceutical ; methods ; Codonopsis ; chemistry ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; isolation & purification

OBJECTIVETo understand the demography changes and behaviors in drug users.

METHODSelf-reported questionnaires was used and longitudinal investigation was conducted in one of the detoxication centers in Beijing in 1998 and 2000. Drug users were randomly chosen.

RESULTSResults showed that age of drug users tend to become younger with the numbers of drug users aged below 25, increased from 18.7% in 1998 to 28.2% in 2000. Majority of drug users remained males, but the proportion of females seemed to increase. Distribution of occupation showed that the largest increase fell among individual enterprisers, from 15.2% in 1998 to 25.9% in 2000. With educational back-ground, the proportion of lower than elementary education level, including illiterate, increased. Fifty percent of drug users were unmarried which increased from 40.8% in 1998 to 53.2% in 2000. Needle sharing was quite common, 16.5% in 1998 and 11.9% in 2000, but the decrease was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Fifty-seven point three percent of the injecting drug users did not have constant partners to share equipments. Proportion of extra-marriage sexual practice increased from 12.5% in 1998 to 27.5% in 2000, and significant difference (Chi-square = 12.50, P < 0.001). Multiple partners in extra-married drug users was also found (mean = 2). Compared to 1998, condom use during every sexual practice increased in 2000, but 47.7% drug users still never used condom.

CONCLUSIONIn summary, as the quick increase of drug users, sharing of injecting equipment and high-risk sexual behavior, including multiple partners and unprotected sex, were quite common, with the possibility of HIV epidemic in drug users.

Adult ; China ; epidemiology ; Demography ; Female ; HIV Infections ; epidemiology ; Humans ; Longitudinal Studies ; Male ; Needle Sharing ; adverse effects ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Safe Sex ; statistics & numerical data ; Substance Abuse, Intravenous ; epidemiology ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVETo study the expression of protein kinase C (PKC) alpha subtype in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells.

METHODSThe PKC alpha primer pairs were designed based on the GenBank sequence of PKC alpha of a species with the highest homology to Chinese hamster identified using EMBL Data Library Clustalw tool. The sequence coding for PKC alpha, amplified from the CHO cells using RT-PCR, was ligated to the pGEM-T plasmid vector, and the recombinant vector was transformed into E.coli DH5alpha with the positive colones selected by blue/white screening. Restriction enzyme digestion, gel electrophoresis analysis, followed by sequencing of the digestion products were performed for identification of the recombinant. Western blotting was used to analyze the PKC alpha expression in the CHO cells.

RESULTSThe presence of PKC alpha mRNA was detected in the CHO cells by RT-PCR. Western blotting also identified PKC alpha expression in the cells.

CONCLUSIONSPKC alpha expression has been identified in the CHO cells, which may facilitate further structural and functional study of PKC alpha and investigation of its role in the intracellular signal transduction pathways.

Animals ; Blotting, Western ; CHO Cells ; Cloning, Molecular ; Cricetinae ; Cricetulus ; Female ; Protein Kinase C-alpha ; metabolism ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction

Objective To investigate the effects of 3 different ventilation methods,including conventional mechanical ventilation (CMV),high frequency oscillatory ventilation(HFOV) and partial liquid ventilation (PLV),on the changes of inflammatory factors and pulmonary surfactant associated protein A (SP-A) in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) in newborn piglets with acute lung injury(ALI).Methods Twenty-four newborn piglets,no more than 3 days old,were enrolled.After ALI made with saline lavage(38 ℃,35 mL/kg),newborn piglets were randomly assigned to 4 groups:control group (n =6,no ventilation),CMV group(n =6),HFOV group(n =6),and PLV group(n =6).Piglets were sacrificed after being ventilated for 24 h.Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α),interleukin-8 (IL-8),interleukin-1 (IL-1) and SP-A in BALF were measured quantitatively by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.Results In 3 groups using different ventilation methods,the population mean of TNF-o,IL-8,IL-1 and SP-A were statistically different (all P =0.000).SP-A in PLV group and HFOV group were higher than that in CMV group (all P ＜ 0.05),while IL-8,IL-1 and TNF-α in PLV group were lower than those in CMV group (all P ＜ 0.05),IL-8 and TNF-α in PLV group were lower than those in HFOV group (all P ＜ 0.05),IL-8 and TNF-α in HFOV group were lower than those in CMV group (all P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions Pulmonary inflammatory reaction was different in 3 ventilation groups.Compared with CMV and HFOV,PLV attenuated inflammatory reaction,so it could increase the expression of SP-A and decrease the degradation of SP-A.