Objective To observe the effect of reciprocating gait orthosis on walking ability and activities of daily living (ADL) of patients with C6～T6 spinal cord injury (SCI).Methods 20 cases with C6～T6 SCI and according with type A and type B of ASIA standard received rehabilitation therapy, including training of muscle power, cardiopulmonary function, transferring mobility, ADL, bladder function, etc., before assembling the reciprocating gait orthosis, and additional gait training after fixing orthosis. The timed walking function assessment (6-min walking test and timed 10 meters walking test), gait analysis, Modified Barthel Index (MBI) and Functional Independence Measure (FMI) were used to assess pre- and post-training.Results The ADL ability of all cases improved obviously after equipping reciprocating ambulation orthosis, the walking ability also improved (P＜0.05). The mean timed 10 meters was 99.21±75.24 s, mean 6-min walk test was 41.71±29.38 m. From all patients, 14 cases achieved practicability walking ability, 6 cases achieved domestic walking ability.Conclusion The reciprocating gait orthosis combined with comprehensive rehabilitation therapy has effect on walking ability and ADL of patients with C6～T6 SCI.

Since the first intein was found, more and more attenti on were paid on it. It not only enrichs the content of the process that the gene transfers its information but also can be used in protein purification. The rec ent advance in the sequence characteristic, transfer, evolution and the mechanis m of splicing of intein was summarized.

DNA Fingerprinting ; DNA, Mitochondrial ; Homicide ; Humans ; Mitochondria

BACKGROUND:Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels play an osteogenic role under the assistance of scaffold materials. The scaffold cannot only deliver the cels to the bone defect area, but also act as a new bone growth framework. Colagen-chitosan composite is one of ideal scaffold materials in bone tissue engineering, which has osteoinductive ability and better osteogenic ability than conventional scaffolds. Bone transport technology has been widely used in the clinical repair of long bone defects, but it has some deficiencies, such as slow osteogenesis, long time for external fixation and nonunion. How to further accelerate bone formation and reduce complications has become the current problem to be solved. Here, it is hypothesized that bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels/ colagen/chitosan composite scaffold can increase the therapeutic effect of bone transport in the repair of tibial bone defects.
METHODS/DESIGN:This study is a randomized controled animal experiment, includingin vitro andin vivo tests.In vitro test: Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels are isolated from the bone marrow of New Zealand rabbits aged 1-2 months, and passaged to the third generation. Then, cel suspension is added onto the colagen-chitosan scaffold to construct the bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels/colagen/chitosan composite scaffold.In vivo test: Twenty-four New Zealand rabbits at 3-4 months are selected and randomly assigned to receive bone transport, scaffold implantation, bone transport+scaffold implantation, respectively. The primary outcome measures are the growth of implant materials and bone defect interface, X-ray detection of bone defect repair, hematoxylin-eosin staining and scanning electron microscope observation of bone formation in the bone defect region, immunohistochemical detection of type I colage expression in the osteogenic region, scanning electron microscope observation of interface bonding between implant materials and host bone, ultrastructure and bone formation.
DISCUSSION:The results from this animal experiment wil help to determine the feasibility of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels/colagen/chitosan composite scaffold to accelerate bone repair during bone defect repair using bone transport technology.

To analyze the composition regularity of prescriptions containing Scutellaria baicalensis in Drug Standard of Ministry of Public Health of the Peoples Republic of China--Chinese Patent Medicines and Preparations on the basis of the traditional Chinese medicine inheritance support system (TCMISS), in order to provide reference for new drug R&D. the platform's software V2.0 was applied to establish a database of prescriptions containing S. baicalensis. The software's statistical statement module, association rules and improved mutual information method and other data mining technologies were adopted to analyze commonly used drugs, combination rules and core combination of S. baicalensis prescriptions. Having analyzed 477 prescriptions containing S. baicalensis, the researchers summarized 45 most commonly used drug combinations, whose ingredients mostly had functions of heat-clearing and damp-drying, purging fire for removing toxin and hemostasis. Drugs adopted in core combinations were relatively concentrated and selected according to definite composition methods. There were 23 diseases that S. baicalensis were most frequently applied in the treatment. Having compared three highly frequent diseases--cold, cough and dizziness, the researchers concluded that S. baicalensis could show different therapeutic effects through different combination ratios. Therefore, TCMISS (V2.0) is an important tool in analyzing the composition regularity of traditional Chinese medicines. The longitudinal and parallel comparison method is an effective method for studying the clinical composition regularity of S. baicalensis, while providing reference for new drug R&D.
China ; Drug Compounding ; statistics & numerical data ; Drug Therapy ; statistics & numerical data ; Humans ; Plant Extracts ; analysis ; therapeutic use ; Scutellaria baicalensis ; chemistry

Objective To study the effect of nicardipine on fast floating escape induced lung injury in animal models with decompression sickness .Methods Sixty male SD rats were randomly and evenly divided into three groups:blank control, control and nicardipine groups .The nicardipine group was given nicardipine 50 mg/kg orally 0.5 h before entrance.In the control group, rats were given an equal volume of saline 0.5 h before entrance.The blank control group only stayed in the vehicle without any pressurized procedure .The air was pressurized at the 2t/7 exponential rate to 1.5 Mpa which was maintained for 4 min, and then uniformly decompressed to atmospheric pressure .The extravehicular survival and lung pathology were observed in rats after 0.5 h, IL1-βand TNF-αexpression levels were detected by ELISA , and the Caspase 3 expression in lung tissue was detected by Western blot .Results The incidence and mortality rate were 80%and 50%respectively in control group ,and 100%and 80%in the experimental group .The surviving animals in the two groups suffered from alveolar and interstitial lung hemorrhage , with widened interstitial lung .IL1-βin the experimental group was significantly higher than in the normal control group , while TNF-αhad no significant change .After nicardipine treatment pro-caspase 3 did not change significantly , but cleaved-caspase 3 increased significantly .Conclusion Nicardipine can aggravate lung injury caused by fast floating escape-induced decompression sickness if used before decompression.

OBJECTIVETo compare the pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of alpha-asarone in lipid emulsion and aqueous solution for injection and study the feasibility of lipid emulsion of alpha-asarone as the parenteral drug delivery system.

METHODHPLC was used to determine the drug concentration in rat plasma and mice tissues after intravenous (i.v.) administration of lipid emulsion and aqueous solution of alpha-asarone at a single dose (40 mg x kg(-1)), respectively.

RESULTThe plasma concentration-time profiles of lipid emulsion and aqueous solution of alpha-asarone after intravenous administration of them are similar and the drug concentration-time data were fitted to a two-compartment open model. The results of tissues distribution showed that distribution contents of alpha-asarone from lipid emulsion and aqueous solution in vivo are similar in lungs but lipid emulsion increased the uptake in livers and spleens, and decreased the uptake in hearts and kidneys for alpha-asarone.

CONCLUSIONThe plasma concentration-time profiles of alpha-asarone in lipid emulsion and aqueous solution are similar, but lipid emulsion significantly altered the tissue distribution of alpha-asarone, which may be beneficial to decrease its potential toxicity to heart and kidney.

Animals ; Anisoles ; administration & dosage ; blood ; pharmacokinetics ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Emulsions ; chemistry ; Female ; Injections, Intravenous ; Kinetics ; Lipids ; chemistry ; Male ; Mice ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Tissue Distribution

Vincristine (VCR) is mainly used to treat acute lymphocytic leukemia, Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma in clinic with definite therapeutic effect. But the obvious neurotoxicity and local stimulation of which limit its clinic use. In order to increase the lymph targeting to enhance the curative effect and to lower the adverse reaction of VCR, the VCR loaded transfersomes (VCR-T) were prepared with dry-film and ultrasonic dispersing methods, and the corresponding pharmaceutical properties, pharmacokinetical characteristics and the targeting ability were studied. The average particle size of VCR-T prepared was 63 nm with an entrapment ratio of 59%. The in vitro transdermal research with modified Franz cell showed that VCR-T permeated through the skin in accordance with polynomial equation, and with an accumulation permeation percentage of 67.4% up to 12 h. An HPLC method was utilized to determine the pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of VCR. Compared with the iv injection of VCR solution, the retention time of VCR in blood was extended by 12 times with VCR-T, and the targeting index in rat lymph was increased by 2.75 times. As a result, transfersomes could penetrate the skin and enter into the systemic circulation carrying VCR with good lymph targeting ability, which makes it probably a new lymphtic targeting drug delivery system.
Administration, Cutaneous ; Animals ; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic ; administration & dosage ; blood ; pharmacokinetics ; Area Under Curve ; Drug Delivery Systems ; Liposomes ; chemistry ; Lymph Nodes ; metabolism ; Male ; Particle Size ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Skin Absorption ; Spleen ; metabolism ; Surface-Active Agents ; chemistry ; Tissue Distribution ; Vincristine ; administration & dosage ; blood ; pharmacokinetics

OBJECTIVETo investigate penetration characteristics of artemether and the effect of different permeation enhancer on transdermal permeation of artemether through rat skin.

METHODThe permeation experiments were performed using rat skin on modified Franz diffusion cells in vitro. The concentrations of artemether in receptor compartment at specified time points were determined by HPLC.

RESULTThe permeating ratio through human skin of artemether solution was Js (2.78 +/- 0.78) microg x cm(-2) x h(-1), the quantity of drug penetrated through and accumulated in the skin by the end of the experiment were (69.07 +/- 3.01) microg x cm(-2), (58.93 +/- 3.56) microg x cm(-2) respectively. Four different permeation enhancers can improve the transdermal permeation of artemether.

CONCLUSIONArtemether have the potential to be developed to new transdermal preparation.

Adjuvants, Pharmaceutic ; chemistry ; Animals ; Artemisinins ; administration & dosage ; pharmacokinetics ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; pharmacokinetics ; In Vitro Techniques ; Male ; Permeability ; drug effects ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Skin ; drug effects ; metabolism

Vitrification is a promising alternative to tissue preservation, which will greatly avoid the ice-crystal formation and circumvent the hazardous effects associated with ice formation during the entire procedures. In this study, we evaluate the effect of vitreous cryopreservation of rabbit trachea by comparing the vitrification procedure with the conventional computer-programmed slow freezing approaches. Harvested tracheae were tailored and divided into groups and cryopreserved by vitrification and programmed freezing, respectively. The morphology and ultrastructure of the thawed tracheal fragments were examined by using HE staining, TUNEL test, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to assess the integrity of the tracheal fragments. The morphological studies demonstrated both cryopreservation procedure retain the interity of trachea, and that epithelium mucosae, cilia and cartilage cells were in good shape. Compared with slow freezing methods, vitrification was less detrimental to cartilage cells and had a higher survival rate of chondrocytes and coverage of epithelium and cilia. Therefore, vitrification method is a more satisfactory method to preserve trachea, the survival of chondrocytes in situ in cartilage tissue is adequate, and respiratory epithelium is soundly preserved.
Animals ; Cryopreservation ; methods ; Cryoprotective Agents ; chemistry ; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning ; Rabbits ; Tissue Preservation ; methods ; Trachea ; cytology ; ultrastructure