[Objective] To assess the role of imbalance between regulatory T (Treg) cells and T helper 17 (Th17) cells in the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis (AD).[Methods] Peripheral blood was obtained from 41 patients with AD and 38 age- and sex-matched healthy controls.Flow cytometry was performed to determine the percentage of Treg cells (CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ T cells) and Thl7 cells (CD4+ILl7+ T cells),real-time quantitative reverse transcription (RT)-PCR to detect the mRNA expressions of Foxp3 and RORγt,which are the specific transcription factors of Treg and Th17 cells respectively.Serum concentrations of transforming growth factor (TGF)-β,IL-17 and IL-23 were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA).Data were statistically assessed by independent-samples t test and Pearson correlation analysis.[Results] The patients with AD showed an obvious decrease in Treg cell percentage,transcription factor Foxp3 mRNA level and Treg/Th17 ratio (2.01％ ± 0.57％ vs.5.04％ ± 1.44％,t =12.47,P＜ 0.01; 0.65 ± 0.19 vs.1.71 ± 0.69,t=9.47,P＜0.01; 1.26 ± 0.61 vs.14.53 ± 5.77,t =14.11,P ＜ 0.01),but a significant increase in peripheral Th17 cell percentage and transcription factor RORγt mRNA level (1.77％ ± 0.55％ vs.0.39％ ± 0.15％,t =14.82,P ＜0.01; 5.97 ± 1.45 vs.1.49 ± 0.57,t =17.78,P ＜ 0.01 ) compared with the healthy controls.Further comparison revealed that Treg/Th17 ratio was significantly lower in patients with acute AD than in those with subacute AD (0.88 ± 0.04 vs.1.29 ± 0.11,t =4.02,P ＜ 0.01 ) and those with chronic AD (2.05 ± 0.24,t =4.83,P ＜ 0.01 ),statistically different between patients with subacute AD and chronic AD (t =2.89,P ＜ 0.05).There was no significant difference in the serum concentration of TGF-β between patients with AD and healthy controls ((15.28 ± 2.34) μg/L vs.(16.56 ± 3.27) μg/L,t =1.96,P＞ 0.05).A significant increase was observed in the serum levels of IL-17 and IL-23 in patients with AD compared with those in the healthy controls( (33.24 ± 7.06)ng/L vs.(11.68 ± 2.67) ng/L,t =17.96,P＜ 0.01; (56.35 ± 12.16) ng/L vs.(18.43 ± 3.90) ng/L,t =18.36,P＜ 0.01).In patients with moderate and severe AD,SCORing atopic dermatitis (SCORAD) index was negatively correlated with the percentage of Treg ceils (r =-0.40,P＜ 0.05 ),but positively correlated with that of Th17 cells (r =0.42,P ＜ 0.05 ).[Conclusion]s There exists a change in Treg/Th 17 ratio,mRN A expressions of RORγt and Foxp3,and serum levels of relevant cytokines in patients with AD,which may lead to immune imbalance and subsequently contribute to the development of AD.

With the increase of Chinese people's material life level, their health consciousness has become more and more intense. Chinese Materia Medica, a treasure of Chinese medicine, has made a great contribution in maintaining people's health in the history. Patent is a kind of high-value scientific literature. In this paper, we retrieved the patents of the traditional medicines used in health care worldwide. The patents were further screened by a series of processes. Finally, multi-angle analysis was carried out on the dataset to form a patent analysis report of traditional medicines in health care, including the distribution of the patents, the application trends, the domestic and foreign geographical layout, the major applicant and its activity, the important technical areas, the important medicinal and its pharmacological properties and so on.

0.05).There was statistically significant difference between the groups with integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine and the group with Western medicine alone(P

Depression is a common mental disorders, severe cases may affect people's lives. In the treatment of de-pression, appropriate medication, as an assistant approach to psychological support, is proved helpful to patients' re-covery. Western medicine's ingredients are simple and mechanism is clear. Given it meets parts of the demand, the total effect is not satisfactory yet. Traditional Medicine's advantage is systematic, it has advantage in treating complex diseases. Thus, more and more attention was paid to Traditional Medicine, especially Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). In this paper, we use patent as data source to discover the law of the TCM's usage, the international differ-ences, the outstanding organization, and the hotspots of the drug research in the treatment of depression. Profiling of the current status can provide references in new drug finding and the progress of pharmacy. The results show that there are a few traditional Chinese medicine patents about treatment of depression associated with kidney, but de-pression and kidney also have a higher correlation. Medicines within soothing liver formulas such as Xiaoyaosan have many related patent.

A . Senticosus is a common medicinal plants, mainly used parts are the dried roots, rhizomes and stems. Since ancient time, it has been regarded as one of top grade medicabecause of its safety and various medicinal properties. To further the development and utilization, a survey of patent information is very helpful to outline the current status of the drug. In this paper, Espacenetand World Traditional Medcine Patent Database were used to perform patent retrieval. Then the dataset were screened, standardized and analyzes via Python and R. The result indicates that, A . Senticosus, given being used for a long history, has less invention patents application comparing with other TCM drugs. The applications mainly come from China, Korea, Japan, Russia, and USA. The major functions includes systemic protection, anti-toxic agent, and treatments of nervous system, digestive system, metabolic, immune and allergic diseases. As to the compatibility of medicines, it often associated with tonic medicine, especially Buqi medicine.

Schisandra is a frequent traditional Chinese medicine. It has the efficacy of SHOULIAN-GUSE, YIQING-SHENGJING, tonifying kidney and Ning heart, is very important tonic medicine. Patent literature records the majority of technological innovations, is a kind of valuable scientific literature, making good use of it can effectively promote innovation. And invention patent is the most valuable of all patent. Access to information found that there is no paper about analysis of schisandra related pantent in China. Thus, in this paper, Schisandra related patents were collected, statistics, analysis, to discover the information within, such as Schisandra patent history, the current pattern, outstanding invention agencies and drug law of Schisandra. Based on the result above, we hope to provide a reference for the patent application.

BACKGROUND: Diabetic nephropathy is one of the most serious vascular complications of diabetes mellitus. Compound preparation of huangqi and dahuang, a traditional Chinese medicine, has been used to preventing or treating diabetic nephropathy for several years, and has a certain protective effect on the kidney of diabetes mellitus patients. But its exact mechanism remains unknown and needs to be studied more.OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of compound preparation shenkang wan on the proliferation and secretion of extracellular matrix in cultured rat mesangial cells induced by high glucose.DESIGN: Randomized and controlled study.SETTING: Center of Integrated Traditional and Western Nephrology of Zhujiang Hospital and Medicine Department of Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University.MATERIALS: The serum pharmacological experiment was performed in Animal Experimental Center of Southern Medical University in A pril 2005.The cell culture experiment was conducted in Cell culture room of Southern Medical University from April 2005 to July 2005. Totally 16 normal Wistar male rats, weighted varied from 190 g to 220 g, were used in the study.METHODS: Sixteen normal Wistar male rats were randomly divided into 4 groups: normal serum group, capoten group, shenkang wan group (high dose and low dose); shenkang wan was mainly constituted of huangqi,dahuang, leech, gordon guryale seed and corn stigma and made in Pharmacy Department of Zhujiang Hospital of Nanfang Medical University, agent number: 20031214). ① The rats in capoten group and high and low dose shenkang wan group were given the corresponding drugs respectively according to 5 mg/kg, 2.4 g/kg, 1.2 g/kg weight. The rats in normal serum group were given the same volume water. After treated 7 days, all rats were hocused and separated medication serum. ② Mesangial cell was cultured in vitro with different concentrations of glucose (10, 20, 30 and 40 mmol/L).The proliferation of mesangial cell was observed with the methyl-thiazoltelrazolium colorimetric assay at 24, 48, 72 hours and 96 hours. ③ Then the cultured mesangial cells were divided into six subgroups :Low glucose control group (10 mmol/L glucose), high glucose group (30 mmol/L glucose);normal serum group (30 mmol/L glucose); capoten group (30 mmol/L glucose); shenkang wan group (high dose and low dose, 30 mmol/L glucose).After cultured 72 hours, the proliferation of mesangial cell was detected with the methyl-thiazol-telrazolium colorimetric assay, the secretion and mRNA gene expression of fibronetin levels in mesangial cell were respectively detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: ①Proliferation of mesangial cell induced by different concentrations glucose. ② Proliferation and secretion and mRNA gene expression of fibronectin in every group.RUSULTS: ① Effect of different concentrations glucose on the prolifera-tion of mesangial cell: Compared with low concentrations glucose(10 mmol/L), 20 mmol/L glucose could accelerate the proliferation ofmesangial cell during 96 hours experiment period, but only had a statisti-cally significant difference at 72 and 96 hours (P ＜ 0.05). 30 mmol/L glu-cose could significantly accelerate the proliferation of mesangial cell thanthat of 10 mmol/L glucose from 24 hours to 96 hours (P ＜ 0.05 or P ＜ 0.01),and this effect was increasing with time in 72 hours and reduced after 72hours. 40 mmol/L glucose could significantly increase the proliferation ofmesangial cell than of low concentrations glucose in 48 hours (P ＜ 0.05),and this effect was reduced after 48 hours and even conversed to restraineffect. ② Effect of different medication serum on the proliferation ofmesangial cell: The optical density value in high glucose group is obviouslyhigher than that of low glucose control group (P ＜ 0.01). Compared withhigh glucose group, the optical density value in capoten, shenkang wangroup (high dose and low dose) was decreased markedly (P ＜ 0.01 or P＜ 0.05). While the optical density value in normal serum group was showedno difference with the high glucose group (P ＞ 0.05). ③ Effect of differentmedication serum on secretion of fibronectin in mesangial cell: Content offibronectin in high glucose group was increased more markedly than that oflow glucose group (P ＜ 0.01). Compared with high glucose group, contentof fibronectin in capoten and shenkang wan group (high dose and low dose)was showed a significantly decrease (P ＜ 0.01 or P ＜ 0.05), while contentof fibronectin in normal serum group was showed no difference with thehigh glucose group (P ＞ 0.05). ④ Effect of different medication serum onexpression of fibronectin mRNA in mesangial cell: The optical density val-ue of fibronectin strip in high glucose group was brighter than that in lowglucose group and the ratio of it and β-actin were increased markedly too(P ＜ 0.01). Compared with high glucose group, the optical density value offibronectin strip in capoten and shenkang wan group (high dose and lowdose) was showed a significantly decrease and the ratio of it and β-actinwas reduced distinctly too (P ＜ 0.01), while the ratio of it and β-actin innormal serum group was showed no difference (P ＞ 0.05).CONCLUSION: High glucose could accelerate proliferation, increase thesecretion and mRNA gene expression of fibronectin in mesangial cell,while shenkang wan could inhibit proliferation and secretion of the extra-cellular matrix in mesangial cell induced by high glucose.

ObjectiveTo detect the expression levels of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs),sera and skin tissue fluid from patients with vitiligo vulgaris,and to investigate their clinical significance.MethodsThirty-nine patients with vitiligo vulgaris and 31 age- and sex-matched normal human controls were recruited in this study.Real-time reverse transcription-PCR was employed to assess the expressions of MIF mRNA in PBMCs,enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect the concentrations of MIF in sera and skin tissue fluid from these subjects.ResultsPatients with vitiligo vulgaris showed a significantly higher level of MIF mRNA in PBMCs (6.70 (2.64 - 8.65) vs.1.67 (1.24 - 2.45),Z=5.895,P＜ 0.05),MIF protein in sera (32.76 (10.67 - 40.98) μg/L vs.7.89 (6.13 - 9.54) μg/L,Z=5.936,P ＜ 0.05 ) and skin tissue fluid ( 167.80 ( 107.40 - 219.60) μg/L vs.42.44 (32.29 - 49.74) μg/L,Z =4.715,P ＜ 0.05) compared with the normal human controls.The expression levels of MIF mRNA in PBMCs,and MIF protein in sera and skin tissue fluid were also higher in patients with progressive vitiligo than in those with stable vitiligo (7.89 (3.89 - 9.12) vs.5.62 (2.23 - 7.29),Z=2.213,P＜ 0.05; 37.80 (29.50 - 45.70) μg/L vs.22.70 (9.36 - 37.78) μg/L,Z=2.141,P＜ 0.05; 211.50 (131.70 - 248.75) μg/L vs.144.65 (89.13 - 167.30) μg/L,Z =2.100,P ＜ 0.05).In addition,the vitiligo area severity index (VASI) score was positively correlated with the expression levels of MIF mRNA in PBMCs (r =0.486,P ＜ 0.05)and MIF protein in sera (r =0.453,P ＜ 0.05).ConclusionMIF might play a certain role in the pathogenesis of vitiligo vulgaris.

Objective To compare the safety,feasibility,and long-term outcomes between combined thoracoscopic and laparoscopic esophagectomy (TLE) and open three-field esophagectomy (OE) for esophageal cancer.Methods The data of 183 patients with esophageal cancer who accepted TLE (n =94) or OE (n =89) from February 2009 to December 2011 were retrospectively collected and compared.Results Demographics,pathologic data in each cohort were almost identical.No significant differences were observed in operative time,the number of lymph node harvested,rates of anastomotic leak,thoracic abscess,chyle chest,re-operation,vocal cord paralysis,gastric emptying dysfunction and morbidity.A significant difference was observed in blood loss (86.6 ±38.3 ml in TLE group vs.217.4 ±87.2 ml in OE group,P=0.000),rate of transfusion (1.1％ vs.6.7％,P =0.045),hospital stay (13.9 ±7.5 d vs.17.1 ±10.2 d,P =0.017),rate of overall surgical complications (23.4％ vs.38.2％,P =0.030),rate of pulmonary complications (9.6％ vs.27.0％,P =0.002) and rate of arythmia (4.1％ vs.12.4％,P =0.046).Median follow-up time was 28.0 ±2.0 months (95％ CI:24.2-31.8).No difference between the two groups concerning survival was observed (P =0.954).Conclusion The TLE for esophageal cancer is safe and feasible.Although it cannot improve the survival of long-term,it is worth spreading in intraoperative and postoperative advantages compared with OE group.

Objective To investigate the relation of serum leptin level in senile depressive patients with type 2 diabetes and polymorphisms of leptin receptor gene 3057 G/A.Methods 10 senile depressive patients with type 2 diabetes and 47 senile depressive patients without type 2 diabetes were selected for the study.Leptin levels were determined by radioimmunoassay.Genomitic DNA were obtained by phenol/chloroform method.Leptin receptor gene 3057 G/A polymorphisms and allele frequencies were determined with the polymerase chain reaction and restricted fragment length polymorphism assay.Results (1) The differences of leptin receptor genotypes and allele distribution in the 3 groups were not found (all P ＞ 0.05).(2) Serum leptin level in senile depressive patients with type 2 diabetes and without type 2 diabetic patients ((41.65 ± 28.19) ng/ml,(25.56 ± 21.04) ng/ml) were significantly higher than the normal people ((10.84 ± 9.16) ng/ml) (all P ＜ 0.05).Serum leptin level in senile depressive patients with type 2 diabetes were significantly higher than without type 2 diabetic patients(P＜ 0.05).(3) The serum leptin level in genotype AA senile depressive patients with type 2 diabetes were significantly higher than genotype AA patients without type 2 diabetes.The differences of the serum leptin levels in genotype AA senile depressive patients without type 2 diabetes and genotype AG/GG patients without type 2 diabetes were not found(P ＞ 0.05).The differences of the serum leptin level in genotype AA and genotype AG/GG in normal groups were not found (P＞ 0.05).Conclusion Senile depressive patients have higher serum leptin level.The serum leptin level is higher,especially with type 2 diabetes.Serum leptin level is related to type 2 diabetes.Serum leptin level is not related to the polymorphisms of leptin receptor gene 3057 G/A.Type 2 diabetes are not related to polymorphisms of leptin receptor gene 3057 G/A.