OBJECTIVETo dynamically assess drug targeting of Yougui Pill (YP) and Zuogui Pill (ZP) using infrared thermography.

METHODSIn this self-control experiment, five healthy volunteers were recruited. By using infrared thermography 10 to 11 thermal images of different body locations were taken from each participant after they took warm water, YP, ZP, and their dissembled prescriptions at 30, 70, 100, 130, and 160 min, respectively. The heat values in the lower quadrant abdomen, uterus, Du channel, and Shenque (CV8) were statistically analyzed after scanning for 125 times.

RESULTSAdministration of YP and its disassembled prescriptions enhanced the heat value of the locations of the Du channel and Shenque (CV8), but did no enhance the heat value of the lower quadrant abdomen at 30 min. Administration of ZP and its disassembled prescriptions reduced the heat value in the locations of the lower quadrant abdomen, uterus, Du channel, and Shenque (CV8) at each time point.

CONCLUSIONThe drug targeting of ZP and YP focused on the locations of the Du channel and Shenque (CV8), not on the locations of the lower quadrant abdomen or uterus.

Adult ; Drug Delivery Systems ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; Female ; Humans ; Infrared Rays ; Thermography ; methods ; Young Adult

Objective The aim of this study was to observe the growth difference and expression of cytochrome C of skin hair follicles in neonatal mice .Methods The morphology of different skin hair follicles of neonatal mice ( postnatal day 1-9)were observed by HE staining histology and cytochrome C was detected by immunohistochemistry .Results The skin hair follicles in different parts of neonatal mice showed differences not only in morphology but also in developmental pe -riods.Hair follicle growth in the back and tail skin had a nonlinear and growing period .After the nonlinear and growing pe-riod they began to grow rapidly .The tail development was slightly slower than that on the back .The hair follicles of vibris-sae were very special , and started to develop without a stable period .Conclusions The results of morphological observa-tion and cytochrome C immunohistochemistry demonstrate that differences exist in the hair follicle morphology and develop -mental times in the skin of different parts of the body in neonatal mice .

Objective To evaluate the relationship between serum matrix metalloproteinase-9(MMP-9), white blood cell(WBC)count and type 2 diabetes mellitus with macroangiopathy and to investigate the mechanism of the protective effects of rusiglitazone(RSG)on blood vessel.Methods Serum MMP-9 was determined by ELISA in 30 normal controls and 80 type 2 diabetic patients(including 40 cases with macroangiopathy and 40 without maeroangiopathy).WBC count and other clinical parameters were also determined.32 type 2 diabetic patients received RSG(4rag qd)for 12 weeks.All parameters were determined after 4 weeks(17 patients)and after 12 weeks(all patients)to observe the changes in MMP-9,WBC and other parameters.Results In the diabetic patients,serum MMP-9 and WBC were markedly higher as compared with normal controls;and MMP-9 and WBC in patients with macroangiopathy[579(440-949)?g/L,(7.51?1.47)?10~9/L]were higher than those [324(275-423)?g/L,(6.22?0.79)?10~9/L]in the cases without macroangiopathy(P

BACKGROUND: The pathogenesis of hepatic encephalopathy is still not completely clear at present, and the theory of ammonia poisoning may be the most powerful, the mechanism for lactulose in decreasing ammonia is clearer, and there are many studies on hepatic encephalopathy treated by lactulose at home and aboard, but the comparative studies on the long-term and short-term treatment of lactulose and placebo control treatment are still in lack. OBJECTIVE: To given long-term and short-term treatment of lactulose to patients with minimal hepatic encephalopathy, and compare the effect on the quality of life (QOL) of the patients with minimal hepatic encephalopa thy. DESIGN: A case-control observation. SETTING: Department of Geriatrics, Guangzhou First People's Hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Sixty patients with minimal hepatic encephalopathy, who were abnormal in the number connection test (NCT), digital symbol test (DST) and/or evoked potential examination and cooperated with the treatment, were selected from the patients with cirrhosis treated in the De partment of Geriatrics of Guangzhou First People's Hospital between June 1998 and March 2002, and they were randomly divided into control group (n=20), short-term lactulose group (n=20) and long-term lactulose group (n=20). METHODS: All the patients were given vitamin B for 24 weeks, two tablets for each time, three times a day; besides, the patients in the short term lactulose group and long-term lactulose group were orally adminis tered with lactulose (15-90 mL per day) for 8 and 24 weeks respectively. They were assessed with WHOQOL-BREF at the end of 0, 8, 16 and 24 weeks respectively, the incidence rate of hepatic encephalopathy was observed, and the ammonia conc entration in blood was detected at the same period.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The changes of QOL and ammonia concentration in blood during the treatment were observed.RESULTS: During the treatment, one case in the control group lost to the follow-up, one case in the short-term lactulose group died from traffic accident, and two cases in the long -term group quitted because they could not endure the side effect of diarrhea, and totally 56 cases finished the treatment and entered the analysis of results. ① The incidence rate of hepatic encephalopathy at 6 months was 40%(8/20), 30%(6/20), 5%(1/20) in the control group, short-term lactulose group and long-term lactulose group respectively, and it was significantly lower in the long-term lactulose group than in the control group and short-term lactulose group (P ＜ 0.05), but there was no significant difference between the short-term lactulose group and control group (P ＞ 0.05). ② At 8, 16 and 24 weeks after treatment,the score of environment in QOL had no significant difference among the control group, short-term lactulose group and long-term lactulose group (P ＞ 0.05), but there were significant differences in the scores of physiology,psychology and social relationship (P ＜ 0.05); At 8 weeks, there were more obvious differences in the long-term lactulose group and short-term lactulose group than in the control group, but no significant difference between the long and short-term lactulose groups; At 16 weeks, there were more obvious differences in the long-term lactulose group than in the short-term lactulose group and control group, but no significant difference between the short-term lactulose group and control group; At 24 weeks, the long-term lactulose group had more improvements than in the control group and short-term lactulose group. ③ At 16 and 24 weeks after treatment, the ammonia concentrations in blood were significantly decreased in the long-term lactulose group as compared with the control group and short-term lactulose group.CONCLUSION: The long-term treatment of lactulose can improve the QOL of patients with minimal hepatic encephalopathy, eventually reduce the incidence of hepatic encephalopathy and decrease the ammonia concentration in blood; However, the short-term treatment of lactulose could not.

BACKGROUND: Long-term radioactive ray accumulation leads to surrounding tissues fibrosis accompanied by limitation of mouth-opening, which seriously affects life quality of tumor patients. OBJECTIVE: To observe pathological change of soft tissues in rats with radiation masseter injury and the level of transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) mRNA expression in vivo.METHODS: A total of 30 Wistar rats were randomly divided into control group (n=10) and radiated group (n=20). Radiated group were radiated with linear accelerator at a dose of 40 Gy. The pathological changes of vessels were observed under light microscope and electron microscope and expression of TGF-β1 was detected by RT-PCR. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The microvessel density of radiated group was obviously decreased than that of the control group (P < 0.01), but the mRNA expression of was higher than that in the control group (P < 0.01). It suggests that radiated injury can induce fibrosis to repair the radiated injury.

AIM: To study the molecular mechanism of EGCG on inhibiting the growth of hepatic carcinoma. METHODS: The proliferation of hepatic cell line HepG2 cultured with different doses of EGCG was studied by MTT and suspension/adherence methods. The effect of EGCG on the expression of HIF-1α/VEGF at mRNA and protein levels in vitro and in vivo was evaluated by RT-PCR and Western blotting, respectively. The inhibition of EGCG on the growth of tumor implanted into athymic nude mice was also observed. RESULTS: The proliferation of hepatic cell line HepG2 was inhibited by EGCG in a dose-dependent manner. The expression of HIF-1α/VEGF was suppressed markedly by EGCG at protein level. However, the inhibitory effect of EGCG on the mRNA expression was only observed on VEGF, not on HIF-1α. In the animal experiment, the implanted tumor growth was inhibited by 39.8%±5.1%. CONCLUSION: EGCG suppresses the hepatic carcinoma cell growth, and interrupts the HIF-1α/VEGF signaling pathway significantly, indicating a fundamental mechanism of EGCG for inhibiting tumor growth.

A rapid and sensitive method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of four selenium species Se(Ⅵ), Se(Ⅵ), selenomethionine, and Se-methylselenocysteine in Se-enriched yeast by liquid chromatography-hydride generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry (HPLC-HG-AFS). The isolation of the analytes from yeast samples was accomplished by proteaseⅩⅣ and trypsin enzymatic digestion. The target compounds were separated on a PRP-X100 anion exchange column and analyzed by HG-AFS. The mobile phase was 20 mmol/L (NH4)2HPO4. Good linearity was obtained for all the selenium species, with linear correlation coefficients higher than 0. 9996. The LODs of the four species were between 0. 5 and 5. 0 μg/kg. Average recoveries for the four analytes were in the ranges of 82 . 5%-101 . 2%, with intra-and inter-day RSD lower than 8. 6% and 14. 5, respectively. The proposed analytical method is simple, sensitive, with low operation cost, making it applicable for the determination of the selenium species in Se-enriched feeds.

Objective To investigate the susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with HLA- DR?1*04 subtypes.Methods One hundred and thirty-six RA patients and 79 patients with other rheumatic diseases were recruited in this study.HLA typing was performed using high-resolution PCR-SSP DNA techniques.The clinical features and serologic markers between different motifs were analyzed.Results Compared with other rheumatic diseases,the frequency of HLA-DR?1*04 alleles in RA patients was significantly increased(33.8% vs 12.7%)(OR=3.52,95%CI=1.43~5.43,P

Objective To test using musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSUS) to observe uncovertebral joints (UJs) and to explain the ultrasound images of UJs and their adjacent tissues,especially the vertebral artery (VA).Methods MSUS was used first with human skeletons and cadavers to localize the UJs and VA on the MSUS images with the aid of implanted needles.MSUS was then used with a patient clinically diagnosed with cervical spondylosis of the vertebral artery type (CSA) to detail the image of a normal UJ and its relationship with the adjacent tissues,especially the VA.Whether there was a lateral spur from the uncinate process (UP) was assessed to try to establish a method for measuring osteophytes.Results During the examination the patient was in supine,the neck was elevated 15cm with a pillow and was at 45 degrees of rotation to the contralateral side.The probe was placed at the medial border of the sternocleidomastoid muscle.When the longitudinal section of the common carotid artery was shown,the probe was slowly moved laterally until the VA first appeared,and then was moved up along the VA.Once the VA entered the transverse foramen,moving the probe slightly allowed the UJ behind the VA to be seen between two transverse processes.The UJ thus lies between two transverse processes,that is,between the lateral margins of two vertebral bodies and outside the intervertebral disc.The echo of the lateral border of the UP is on a straight line with the echo of the lateral margin of the vertebral body,with the VA in front of the line.It was noticed that the image of a UP with lateral osteophyte formation crossed the line and reached closer to the VA.The transverse diameter of the UJ was measured as the distance from a line cutting the lateral cortical margin of the cervical vertebra to the outer cortical margin of the lateral UP.Conclusion MSUS can clearly show the UJ and its adjacent tissues,especially the VA.It can be used to assess and measure UJs with lateral osteophyte formation.

Objective To investigate the potential infectious of the new-Bunyavirus among the blood-donors in Guiyang area.Methods A total of 1 187 blood samples and the basic data were collected from the blood center of Guizhou.The new-Bunyavirus total antibody in serum was tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA).The samples were tested repeatedly by ELSIA,and general statistics description of the samples′ data was did by Excel2007,and the age,gender,occupation and collecting time of the samples were analyzed by SPSS19.0.Results The positive rate of new-Bunyavirus total antibody among blood-donors in Guiyang was 5.31%,and the new-Bunyavirus total antibody titers was 1∶20-1∶64.The positive were tested by PCR for identifying,PCR results of all positive samples were negative.The positive rates between different genders,ages,occupations,and nationalities were not statistically significant(P>0.05),but the difference of positive rates between epidemic period and later stages of the epidemic was statistically significant(χ2=4.623,P=0.032).Conclusion There are new-Bunyavirus total antibody positive samples in blood-donors,noticing that there is a possibility of potential infection among Guiyang blood-donors and even healthy people.