OBJECTIVETo observe the effects of electroacupuncture (EA) at "Dazhui" (GV 14) on Wnt-β-catenin signal pathway in annulus fibrosus cells in intervertebral disc in rats with cervical spondylosis.

METHODSForty SD rats were randomized into a control group, a model group, an EA group and a medication group, 10 rats in each one. Rats in the control group were treated with sham operation, only incision on local skin; rats in the remaining groups were made into cervical spondylosis models. After model establishment, rats in the control group and model group received fixed treatment under identical condition; rats in the EA group were treated with EA at "Dazhui" (GV 14), 30 min per treatment; rats in the medication group were treated with intragastric administration of meloxicam tablets. Treatments were both given once a day, and 14 days were taken as one session; there was an interval of 2 days between two sessions, and totally two sessions were given. After the treatments, immunohistochemistry was applied to measure the expression of Wnt, glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) and Axin in annulus fibrosus cells; western blot was used to test the expression of P-β-catenin.

RESULTSIn the control group, there were more positive cells of Wnt, GSK-3β and Axin, which were intensively distributed, deeply colored, and strongly positive; In the model group, there were less positive cells of Wnt, GSK-3β and Axin, which were sparsely distributed and weakly positive. The expression of Wnt, GSK-3β, Axin and P-β-catenin in the model group was less than that in the control group (all P < 0.05); expression of Wnt, GSK-3β, Axin and P-β-catenin in the EA group and medication group was higher than that in the model group (all P < 0.05); expression of Wnt, GSK-3β, Axin and P-β-catenin was not significantly different between EA group and medication group (all P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONEA could delay the degeneration of intervertebral disc, which may be related to EA inhibiting signal pathway of Wnt-β-catenin.

Acupuncture Points ; Animals ; Electroacupuncture ; Female ; Fibrosis ; Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 ; genetics ; metabolism ; Humans ; Intervertebral Disc ; metabolism ; pathology ; Male ; Rats ; Spondylosis ; genetics ; metabolism ; pathology ; therapy ; Wnt Signaling Pathway ; beta Catenin ; genetics ; metabolism

Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics of speech disorders in children with cerebral palsy (CP) and any relationship between those characteristics and cranial magnetic resonance images.Methods A sample of 138 children with CP were given the ＜ s-s ＞ language development test,a Chinese-language articulation test and oral motor scores to quantify their functional speech and articulation.The characteristics of their speech disorders,articulation and oral motor dysfunction were then related with abnormalities in their cranial magnetic resonance images (MRIs).Results Of the 138 MRIs,only 9 were normal.Three showed non-specific abnormalities (delayed myelination and/or broadening of the space outside the brain) and 122 (91％) showed specific abnormalities.Among the children with specific abnormalities,51.6％ had speech reception delay and 74.6％ had speech expression delays.The dysarthria rate was 71.3％,including 8.7％ with no speech ability at all.The main MRI abnormalities were lesions of the basal ganglia (23％),lesions of the cerebellum (11.5％),periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) (47.5％),extensive cortical or subcortical lesions (6.6％) and focal cerebral injury (11.5 ％).The corresponding oral motor scores increased successively.The children with lesions of the basal ganglia or cerebellum were most likely to manifest speech expression delay and dysarthria.The children with cortical or subcortical lesions or PVL also showed speech expression delay and dysarthria.However,the children who had a focal cerebral injury generally performed well on the speech ability assessment.Twelve children had no speaking ability at all,and in 7 of them the lesions were of the basal ganglia.Conclusions The probability and severity of speech disorders in children with cerebral palsy relate with specific abnormalities detectable with cranial MRI.Those with lesions of the basal ganglia or cerebellum will be more likely to show more severe speech disorders.

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Advocating green, nature, environmental protection, safety and the pursuit of efficacy are the trends of cosmetics in the world. In recent years, more and more Chinese herbal extracts with mild, high safety and small irritation are applied to cosmetics as the natural additives. This has become a new hot spot. The recent application advances of Chinese medicine raw materials in cosmetics are overviewed according to their main functions. This review will provide useful references for the future development and application of Chinese medicinal herbs cosmetics.
Animals ; Biomedical Research ; trends ; Consumer Product Safety ; Cosmetics ; analysis ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; analysis ; Humans

OBJECTIVETo explore the effect of Bushen Huoxue Compound (BHC) on lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) leakage, expressions of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and VEGF mRNA in retinal Muller cells under high glucose condition or advanced glycosylation end products (AGEs) condition by using serum pharmacological method.

METHODSThe retinal Müller cells of 5-7 days post-natal Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were cultured with modified enzyme-digestion method. Purified retinal Muller cells were cultured in normal conditions, high glucose condition (50 mmol/L) or AGEs (50 mg/L and 100 mg/L) conditions, and BHC-containing serum was added to culture medium. The LDH leakage and VEGF expressions were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In addition, the relative expression of VEGF mRNA was tested by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

RESULTSCompared with the normal control group, expressions of VEGF and VEGF mRNA were significantly increased in the high glucose group, the low dose AGEs group and the high dose AGEs group (all P < 0.01). The LDH leakage was obviously increased in the high dose AGEs group, when compared with the normal control group and the high glucose group (P < 0.01). The LDH leakage, expressions of VEGF and VEGF mRNA were obviously decreased by BHC-containing serum both in high glucose and AGEs conditions (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). BHC-containing serum had no significant effect on the LDH leakage and expressions of VEGF and VEGF mRNA in normal conditions (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSAGEs intervention could obviously lower the stability of Müller cell membrane. Up-regulated expressions of VEGF and VEGF mRNA in cultured Müller cells could be induced by AGEs or high glucose. BHC-containing serum could stabilize the stability of Müller cell membrane, inhibit the transcription of VEGF mRNA and decrease the protein expression of VEGF, which might be one of important mechanisms for preventing and treating diabetic retinopathy.

Animals ; Cells, Cultured ; Diabetic Retinopathy ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Ependymoglial Cells ; Glucose ; L-Lactate Dehydrogenase ; RNA, Messenger ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A

Objective:This study aims to investigate the correlation between the number of resected lymph nodes (LNs) and the prognosis of patients with node-negative non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods:A retrospective review of 305 patients with NSCLC, who received curative resection between January 2004 and December 2009, was conducted. All patients were proved without lymph node involvement histopathologically. The prognostic impact of the number of negative LNs and the clinicopathologic factors were analyzed. Results:The overall median survival time and the 1-, 3-, and 5-year overall survival rates were 60.0 months, 76.1%, 59.3%, and 47.1%, respectively. Survival analysis confirmed that the number of negative LNs, T staging and the stations of the mediasti-nal lymph nodes dissected were showed to be independent prognostic factors. Patients with a high number of negative LNs had better overall survival than patients with a low number of negative LNs (P<0.05). The patients with dissected LNs counts of more than 11 for cases with pTl~2 tumor (P<0.05) and more than 16 for cases with pT3 tumor (P<0.05) had better long-term survival outcomes. The post-operative complication rate was 12.1%, which was not significantly correlated with the number of dissected lymph nodes (P>0.05). Conclusion:The number of negative lymph nodes is an independent prognostic predicting factor for node-negative NSCLC. Sufficient dissection of LNs is recommended to improve the survival of the patients with node-negative NSCLC.

OBJECTIVETo observe the therapeutic effect and relevant mechanism of shuxuening Injection (SI) in treating patients with active ulcerative colitis (UC).

METHODSTotally 91 patients with active UC were randomly assigned to 2 groups, 44 in the control group and 47 in the treatment group. Patients in the control group received routine treatment, while patients in the treatment group additionally received intravenous injection of SI (15 mL), twice daily for 14 days in total. Colonoscopy was performed before and after treatment. The therapeutic effect was assessed by Mayo scoring system and the grading of activities evaluated by Baron endoscope. Serum levels of IL-6 and TNF-α were detected by ELISA. The activity of SOD was detected by xanthine oxidase method. The content of MDA was detected by thiobarbituricacid (TBA). Besides, 20 healthy subjects were recruited as the healthy control group.

RESULTSTotally 82 patients completed the study (40 in the control group and 42 in the treatment group). There was no statistical difference in serum levels of IL-6, TNF-α, SOD, MDA, the Mayo score and endoscope grading between the two groups before treatment (P >0. 05). Compared with the healthy control group, serum levels of IL-6, TNF-α, MDA significantly increased (P <0.01), and the serum SOD level decreased (P < 0. 05) in the treatment grup and the control group before treatment. Compared with before treatment in the same group, serum levels of IL-6, TNF-α, MDA, the Mayo score and endoscope grading all decreased in the treatment group and the control group after treatment (P <0. 01, P <0. 05). Compared with the control group after treatment, serum levels of IL-6, TNF-α, MDA, the Mayo score and endoscope grading all decreased (P <0.01, P <0.05), the serum SOD level increased (P <0.05) in the treatment group after treatment. The serum SOD level was obviously negative correlated with serum levels of IL-6, TNF-a, Mayo score, and endoscope score (r = -0. 621, -0.638, -0. 509, -0.787, P <0.01). The serum MDA level was obviously positive correlated with serum levels of IL-6, TNF-α, Mayo score, and endoscope score (r =0.711, 0. 882, 0. 525, 0. 639, P <0.01).

CONCLUSIONSI could improve inflammatory injury and clinical symptoms of patients with active UC, and its mechanism might be associated with antioxidant and scavenging oxygen free radicals.

Colitis, Ulcerative ; blood ; drug therapy ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Inflammation ; drug therapy ; Interleukin-6 ; blood ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ; blood

A study was performed to validate 3 FMDV 3ABC-I-ELISA kits developed in China for the differentiation of FMDV infected and vaccinated animals.Sets of sera from naive and vaccinated cattle as well as from cattle that had been infected were tested for antibodies against nonstructural proteins (NSPs) of FMDV by commercial diagnosis kits,Ceditest(R)FMDV-NS (Ceditest(R) kit),UBI(R) FMDV NONSTRUCTURAL PROTEIN ELISA DIRECTION INSERT (UBI(R) kit) and a FMDV 3ABC-I-ELISA kitdeveloped at the Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute.The test parameters (sensitivity and specificity) of the three kits were determined,and the result obtained from FMD 3ABC-I-ELISA kit was compared with that obtained from two foreign kits.The results indicated that the coincidence rate between the FMDV 3ABC-I-ELISA and Ceditest(R) kits was 98.05%,and the coincidence rate between the FMDV 3ABC-I-ELISA and UBI(R) kits was 94.4%; the sensitivity of both Ceditest(R) and FMDV 3ABC-I-ELISA kit was 100%.However,the sensitivity of the UBI(R) kit was only 81.8%.With sera from naive or vaccinated non-infected animals,the specificity of all tests exceeded 90%.

Background Our previous study demonstrated that epigallocateehin-gallate(EGCG),an active ingredient of green tea,has protective effect on optical nerve after optic nerve crush.Astrocyte was proved to play key role in the repair of nerve tissue,but the influence of EGCG on astrocyte is unclear.Glial flbrillary acidic protein (GFAP) is a special marker for astrocyte. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of EGCG on the expression of GFAP in optic nerve tissue after optic nerve crush. Methods Seventy-two clean Wistar rats were randomly divided into normal control group,sham+EGCG group,optic nerve crush+normal saline group(vehicle group),optic nerve crush+EGCG group.Optic nerve crush models were established by clamping optical nerve for 60 seconds by minitype optic nerve clipper with the force of 40 gram.Only ocular tissue was cut in the rats in sham group.Normal saline solution or EGCG(25 mg/kg)was intraperitoneally injected daily for 5 days consecutively and orally administered(2 mg/kg)daily afterwards.The expression of GFAP in optic nerve was detected by immunohistochemistry and quantified by Western blotting analysis on day 7,14 and 28 after modeling. Results lmmunochemistry showed that GFAP were weakly expressed in the rats of both normal group and sham+EGCG group with the sliSht brown staining in optic nerve tissue.The deeply brown staining for GFAP was seen in vehicle group,and the staining intensity weakened in optic nerve crush+EGCG group compared to vehicle group on days 7,14 and 28 after modeling.Western blotting analysis revealed that the expression level of GFAP in rat optic nerve tissue of vehicle group was significantly enhanced in comparison with normal control group(P＜0.01).On day 7 and 14 after optic nerve modeling,the expression levels of GFAP were evidently decreased in optic nerve crush+EGCG group in comparison with vehicle group(P＜0.05).However,on day 28 after modeling,no significant difference wag found in the expression levels of GFAP between vehicle group and optic nerve erush+EGCG group(P＞0.05). Conclusion EGCG down-regulates optic nerve crush-induced of GFAP in the optic nerve and therefore attenuates the activity of astrocytes,suggesting that EGCG might reduce the formation of glial scar.

Background Researches demonstrated that epigallocatechin-3-gallate(EGCG) can protect retinal ganglion cells(RGCs) against damage induced by retinal ischemia-reperfusion and optic nerve crush(ONC),but the effect of EGCG on lateral geniculate nucleus(LGN) was under study.Objective This study was designed to detect neuroprotective effect of EGCG on LGN in the rat model with ONC.Methods Forty-eight 7-week-old female clean Wistar rats were randomly divided into normal control group,sham operation+EGCG group,ONC+normal saline(NS) group and ONC+EGCG group.ONC models were created by clamping the optical nerve for 60 seconds with the clipper with the force of 40 grams in the right eyes of 24 rats.The EGCG solution(25mg/kg) was intraperitoneally injected from 2 days before operation daily for 5 consecutively days and orally administered(2mg/kg) after that,and NS was used in the same way for ONC+NS group.Four weeks after ONC,the brain tissue of the rats was obtained,and the neurons of dorsal LGN(dLGN) were counted by Nissl staining under the light microscopy.The expression of neurofilament triplet L(NF-L) was detected by immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis.Meanwhile,the neuronal nitric oxide synthase(nNOS) positive cells were counted.Results Compared with normal control group,no significant differences were found in neuron number both between sham operation+EGCG group or ipsilateral LGN of operative eyes in ONC+normal saline group and ONC+EGCG group(P=0.906,0.561,0.794,0.646 respectively) in 4 weeks after ONC,but loss of neurons in contralateral LGN in both ONC+normal saline group and ONC+EGCG group were observed(P=0.000,0.015 respectively).However,compared with ONC+normal saline group,the density of neurons in ONC+EGCG group was higher(P=0.007).Moreover,a higher expression level of NF-L protein was seen in ONC+EGCG group compared with ONC+normal saline group at contralateral LGN of operative eyes(P=0.002).Concerning the number of nNOS positive cells in LGN,there was no significant difference among normal control group,sham operation+EGCG group and ONC+EGCG group(P＞0.05).The number of nNOS positive cells in the contralateral LGN of operative eyes of ONC+normal saline group was higher than that of ONC+EGCG group(P=0.000).Conclusion EGCG plays the protective effect on LGN after ONC in rats through mediating the expression of nNOS.