Objective To study the stilbene constituents from the traditional Chinese medicine Smilax china and to determine their antioxidant activity. Methods The compounds were separated and purified by column chromatography with silica gel, RP C18, and Sephadex LH- 20, and were identified by IR, MS, NMR. DPPH method was used to evaluate the free radical scavenging activity of the isolated compounds. Results Three compounds were isolated from the EtOAc fraction of the rhizomes of S. china and were identified as: resveratrol (1), oxyresveratrol (2) and 3, 5, 3′ , 4′ - tetrahydroxylstilbene (3). Compounds 1～ 3 showed strong antioxidant activity, and could scavenge DPPH free radicals, effectively. At the concentration of 50 ? mol/L, their DPPH free radical scavenging rates were 79.47 % , 89.89 % and 93.86 % , respectively. Conclusion Stilbenes might be the material foundation of antioxidant activities of rhizomes of S. china.

Objective To study the chemical constituents of Abacopteris penangiana.Methods The compounds were separated and purified by various chromatographic techniques and their structures were elucidated on the basis of physiochemical properties and spectroscopic methods.Results Seven compounds were purified and their structures were identified as:(7'Z)-3-O-(3,4-dihydroxy phenylethenyl)-caffeic acid(1),caffeiein B(2),matteucinol(3),protocatechuic acid(4),p-methoxybenzoic acid(5),β-sitosterol(6),and daucosterol(7).Conclusion Compound 1 is a new phenolic acid compound named abacopteric acid,and the other compounds are isolated from the plant for the first time.

Objective: To study the effect of berberine (BR) on ventricular remodeling in experimental rats with myocardial infarction (MI) and its mechanisms.
Methods: The MI model of experimental rats was established by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery and the MI animals were randomly divided into 3 groups: MI+BR group, in which the rats received BR 20 mg/kg.d, Sham group and MI group, the rats in those 2 groups received the same volume of normal saline. All animals were treated for 8 weeks. The cardiac function and structure were assessed by echocardiography, cardiac interstitial collagen deposition was evaluated by Masson stain, the myocardial cell apoptosis was detected by Tunel method, and the activation of nuclear factor (NF-κB) was also examined.
Results: For echocardiography, MI group had enlarged left ventricular end diastolic diameter (7.28 ± 0.29) mm than Sham group (6.86 ± 0.36) mm,P<0.05, but it decreased in MI+BR group (6.89 ± 0.99) mm,P>0.05. MI group had increased left ventricular end systolic diameter (5.88 ± 0.33) mm than Sham group (4.61 ± 0.31) mm, but it decreased in MI+BR group (4.68 ± 1.17) mm, allP< 0.01. MI group showed increased left ventricular posterior wall compensatory hypertrophy (1.81 ± 0.85) mm than Sham group (1.67 ± 0.16 mm),P<0.05, while in MI+BR group, it was deereased to (1.65 ± 0.14) mm. MI group presented decreased LVEF (45.77 ± 3.17) % than Sham group (67.28 ± 4.15) %, but it increased in MI+BR group (64.64 ± 5.82) %, allP<0.01. For Masson stain, cardiac interstitial collagen deposition in MI group (11.39 ± 0.45) % was higher than Sham group (2.65 ± 0.45) %, but less in MI+BR group (7.00 ± 0.87) %, allP<0.01. For Tunel examination, the myocardial cell apoptosis index was increased in MI group (21.31 ± 2.34) than Sham group (0.99 ± 0.38), but decreased in MI+BR group (14.15 ± 1.62), allP<0.01. For NF-κB activation study, the nuclear protein p65 content was higher in MI group (0.14 ± 0.02) ng/ml than Sham group (0.06 ± 0.01) ng/ml, but lower in MI+BR group (0.10 ± 0.02) ng/ml, allP<0.01.
Conclusion: Application of BR may improve the ventricular remodeling and cardiac function in experimental MI rats, it might be because of BR partially inhibit NF-κB activation, reduce collagen deposition and help anti-apoptosis in myocardial cells.

Notch signaling pathway is a highly conserved signaling pathway in the process of evolution. It is composed of three parts: Notch receptor, ligand and effector molecules responsible for intracellular signal transduction. It plays an important role in cell proliferation, differentiation, development, migration, apoptosis and other processes, and has a regulatory effect on tissue homeostasis and homeostasis. Mitochondria are the sites of oxidative metabolism in eukaryotes, where sugars, fats and proteins are finally oxidized to release energy. In recent years, the regulation of Notch signaling pathway on mitochondrial energy metabolism has attracted more and more attention. A large number of data have shown that Notch signaling pathway has a significant effect on mitochondrial energy metabolism, but the relationship between Notch signaling pathway and mitochondrial energy metabolism needs to be specifically and systematically discussed. In this paper, the relationship between Notch signaling pathway and mitochondrial energy metabolism is reviewed, in order to improve the understanding of them and provide new ideas for the treatment of related diseases.
Signal Transduction/physiology* ; Mitochondria ; Receptors, Notch/metabolism* ; Cell Differentiation/physiology* ; Energy Metabolism

Objective: To observe the expression changes of Notch and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) signaling pathways in rat myocardium post myocardial infarction. Methods: Myocardial infarction was established by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery(MI group), sham rats (similar surgical procedure without coronary artery ligation) served as control, the rats were sacrificed at first week, 4th and 8th week after operation, the non-infarct myocardial tissue in both groups was obtained to detect the mRNA expression of Notch1, Dll4 and Hes1 by RT-PCR, the protein expression of NICD1 was detected by Western blot, the nuclear protein p65 content was detected to reflect the activation degree of NF-κB signaling in the cardiomyocytes. Results: The myocardial mRNA expression of Notch1 in MI group was significantly higher than in control group (1.68±0.35 vs. 0.47±0.12, P<0.05) at first week, and tended to be higher at the 4th week and 8th week (P>0.05). The mRNA expression of Dll4 and Hes1 was similar between the two groups at the three time points. NICD1 protein level was increased at the first week in MI group as compared with control group (1.31±0.33 vs.0.45±0.11, P<0.05), which tended also to be higher at the 4th week and 8th week post operation (P>0.05). For NF-κB activation study, the nuclear protein p65 content was higher at first week, 4th week and 8th week in MI group as compared with respective control groups (0.286±0.052 vs.0.049±0.016 (P<0.01), 0.247±0.056 vs. 0.043±0.018 (P<0.01), 0.120±0.033 vs. 0.044±0.009 (P<0.05)), the most significant increase was found in the first week. Conclusions Notch and NF-κB signaling pathways are actively involved in the process of ventricular remodeling after myocardial infarction. Notch1 and NF-κB signaling pathways are both activated at the first week after myocardial infarction, NF-κB signaling pathway activation after myocardial infarction continues up to 8 weeks. These two signal transduction pathways may thus serve as new targets for future intervention studies to prevent heart failure.

Objective To study the correlation of the serum albumin level on the first day of life and the mortality rate in preterm infants .Method Premature infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit between January 2015 and December 2015 were recruited for study .Preterm infants were assigned into low level group ( <25 g/L ) , medium level group ( 25 ~30 g/L ) and high level group ( >30 g/L ) according to serum albumin level on the first day after birth .To compare the treatment and related prognostic factors among the three groups with χ2 and F tests.Besides, multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to predict the relative factors of premature infant mortality .Result A total of 364 premature infants were collected, and the mean serum albumin concentration was (27.9 ±5.7) g/L.There were 92 cases of low level group, 179 cases of moderate level group and 93 cases of high level group.There was no significant difference in gender , gestational age , birth weight and gestational age among the preterm infants (P>0.05).The pH, base excess value of first blood gas after birth and the percentage of prenatal steroid hormone in premature infants were lower than those in medium and high level group .The percentage of prenatal eclampsia and Lac value were higher than that of medium group and high level group , and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05).There were no statistical differences among three groups in the proportion of mechanical ventilation , the duration of mechanical ventilation and oxygen , the length of hospital stay and the incidence rate of patent ductus arteriosus , intracranial hemorrhage , bronchopulmonary dsyplasia, necrotizing enterocolitis, retinopathy of prematurity and periventricular leukomalacia (P>0.05). The incidence of respiratory distress syndrome , sepsis and mortality in the low level group were higher than that of the other groups, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05).Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that low birth weight (OR=1.233, P=0.005), serum albumin concentration (<25 g/L) (OR=3.453, P=0.020), and the complication of respiratory distress syndrome and sepsis (OR=1.363、2.611, P =0.006、0.004) were independent predictors of mortality in preterm infants . Albumin levels lower than 22.8 g/L is associated with mortality , with a sensitivity of 72%and a specificity of 85%.Conclusion The decrease of serum albumin level on the first day of life after birth can be used as an independent risk factor for predicting mortality in premature infants .

Objective: To study the value of unmethylated cytosine guanine dinucleotide oligodeoxynucleotide (DSP30) and IL-2 in the conventional cytogenetic (CA) detection of the chromosomal aberrations in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) . Methods: Bone marrow or peripheral blood cells of CLL patients were cultured with DSP30 plus IL-2 for 72 h, following which R-banding analysis was conducted. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was performed in 85 patients. CA results were compared with data obtained by FISH. Results: Among 89 CLL patients, the success rate of chromosome analysis was 94.38% (84/89) . Clonal aberrations were detected in 51 patients (51/84, 60.71%) . Of them, 27 (27/51, 52.94%) were complex karyotype. Among 85 CLL patients tested by FISH, chromosomal abnormalities were detected in 74 (74/85, 87.06%) patients, of which 2 (2/74) patients were complex karyotypes, accounting for 2.70%. Of the 85 CLL patients examined by FISH, 50 had abnormal karyotype analysis, 30 had normal karyotype, 5 failed to have chromosome analysis. Among them, 25 cases showed clonal aberrations by FISH assay but normal by CA, and 4 cases were normal by FISH but displayed aberrations in chromosome analysis, and totally 78 (91.76%) cases with abnormality detected by the combination of the two methods. The frequency of 13q- abnormality detected by FISH was significantly higher than that by CA analysis (69.41%vs 16.67%, P<0.001) , while the frequency of 11q-,+12 and 17p- detected by two methods showed no significant difference (P>0.05) . The detection rate of complex abnormalities in conventional karyotype analysis was higher than that in FISH (50.98%vs 2.70%) . In addition, 11 low-risk and 9 intermediate-risk patients according to FISH results showed complex karyotype by cytogenetics, and were classified into high-risk cytogenetic subgroup. Conclusion DSP30 and IL-2 are effective in improving the detection rate of CA in CLL patients (60.71%) and CA is more effective to detect complex karyotype. However, FISH had a higher overall abnormality detection rate (87.06%) than CA, especially for 13q-. The combination of CA and FISH not only enhanced the detection rate of clonal aberrations to 91.76%, but also provided more precise prognosis stratification for CLL patients, thus to provide more information for clinical implication.

Septic cardiomyopathy (SCM) has a high incidence and complex pathogenesis, which can significantly increase the mortality of sepsis patients. NOD-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammatory corpuscles play an important role in the pathogenesis of SCM. Mitochondrial dysfunction in cardiomyocytes is also one of the important pathogenesis of SCM. Activation of NLRP3 inflammatory corpuscles is closely related to mitochondrial dysfunction. The study of interaction mechanism between the two is helpful to find a new therapeutic scheme for SCM. This article reviews the interaction between NLRP3 inflammatory corpuscles and mitochondrial dysfunction in the pathogenesis of SCM, as well as the related mechanisms of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) prevention and treatment of SCM, providing theoretical reference for further exploring therapeutic targets for SCM.

BACKGROUNDSignificant efforts have been made to identify factors that differentiate patients treated with novel therapies, such as bortezomib in multiple myeloma (MM). The exact expression pattern and prognostic value of the cancer/testis antigen preferentially expressed antigen of melanoma (PRAME) in MM are unknown and were explored in this study.

METHODSThe transcript level of PRAME was detected in bone marrow specimens from 100 newly diagnosed MM patients using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and the prognostic value of PRAME was determined through retrospective survival analysis. PRAME expression higher than the upper limit of normal bone marrow was defined as PRAME overexpression or PRAME (+).

RESULTSSixty-two patients (62.0%) overexpressed PRAME. PRAME overexpression showed no prognostic significance to either overall survival (n = 100) or progression-free survival (PFS, n = 96, all P > 0.05) of patients. The patients were also categorized according to regimens with or without bortezomib. PRAME overexpression tended to be associated with a lower two-year PFS rate in patients treated with non-bortezomib-containing regimens (53.5% vs. 76.9%, P = 0.071). By contrast, it was not associated with the two-year PFS rate in patients with bortezomib-containing regimens (77.5% vs. 63.9%, P > 0.05). When the patients were categorized into PRAME (+) and PRAME (-) groups, treatment with bortezomibcontaining regimens predicted a higher two-year PFS rate in PRAME (+) patients (77.5% vs. 53.5%, P = 0.027) but showed no significant effect on two-year PFS rate in PRAME (-) patients (63.9% vs. 76.9%, P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONPRAME overexpression might be an adverse prognostic factor of PFS in MM patients treated with non-bortezomib-containing regimens. Bortezomib improves PFS in patients overexpressing PRAME.

Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Antigens, Neoplasm ; metabolism ; Boronic Acids ; therapeutic use ; Bortezomib ; Disease-Free Survival ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Multiple Myeloma ; drug therapy ; metabolism ; mortality ; Pyrazines ; therapeutic use ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Young Adult