Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is an important biological process in embryonic development and tumori-genesis. In this process, epithelial tumor cells can obtain mesenchymal phenotypes and promote tumor invasion and metastasis. EMT is controlled by multiple transcription factors, signal pathways, and microRNAs. EMT and cancer stem cells are closely related. EMT also promotes the self-renewal ability of tumor cells and the overexpression of EMT-related markers in tumor cells with stemness. Some mi-croRNAs can control EMT process and stemness. In this study, recent developments on EMT and cancer stem cells in tumor metastasis were summarized to provide new insights into target therapy of tumor metastasis and recurrence.

Objective: To observe the clinical efficacy of warm needling plus tuina in treating senile functional constipation. ＜br> Methods: Ninety elderly patients with functional constipation were randomized into two groups. Forty-six patients in the treatment group were intervened by warm needling plus tuina; the other forty-four patients in the control group were intervened bySan Huang tablet. ＜br> Results: In the treatment group, 19 patients were cured, 24 cases showed improvement, 3 cases failed, and the total effective rate was 93.5%; in the control group, 16 patients were cured, 18 cases showed improvement, 10 cases failed, and the total effective rate was 77.3%. There was a significant difference in comparing the therapeutic efficacy (P＜0.05), and the therapeutic efficacy of the treatment group was higher than that of the control group. ＜br> Conclusion: Warm needling plus tuina can produce a higher therapeutic efficacy than takingSan Huang tablet in treating senile functional constipation.

Objective To explore the effects of maternal cypermethrin exposure during lactation on testicle development and steroidogenesis of weaning offspring, and to provide a theoretical basis for the toxicity study of cypermethrin on reproduction.Methods Twenty-one healthy pregnant mice(clean animal) were randomly divided into three groups.Maternal mice were orally administered with different doses of cypermethrin [0,6.25 and 25 mg(/kg?d),10 ml/kg] dissolved in corn oil daily from postnatal day 1(PND1) to PND21.Fifteen male pups were randomly selected from each group and sacrificed at PND21 after exposure.The testicle organ coefficients were calculated.Serum testosterone(T) and estrogen(E2),testicle T were measured by radioimmunoassay(RIA).Histopathological changes in the testicle tissues were observed by HE stain.Testicle cells apoptosis was detected by TdT-mediated dUTP nick end labeling(TUNEL).Results A significant decrease was observed in body weight and the testicle organ coefficients in cypermethrin-treated group was in a dose-dependent manner(P0.05).Histological examination showed that maternal cypermethrin exposure markedly decreased the number and layers of spermatogenic cells,increased the inside diameter(ID) of seminiferous tubules,and disturbed the array of spermatogenic cells in testicle sections of pups at PND21.No significant effect on apoptosis of testicle cells was seen.Conclusion Maternal cypermethrin exposure during lactation may damage testicles and steroidogenesis of weaning offspring.

For natural products are one of the important sources for drug discovery, libraries and databases of natural products are significant for the development and research of natural products. At present, most of compound libraries at abroad are synthetic or combinatorial synthetic molecules, resulting to access natural products difficult; for information of natural products are scattered with different standards, it is difficult to construct convenient, comprehensive and large-scale databases for natural products. This paper reviewed the status of current accessing libraries and databases for natural products at abroad and provided some important information for the development of libraries and database for natural products.
Animals ; Biological Products ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Databases, Factual ; Drug Design ; Humans ; Internet

ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters are a family of proteins that mediate multi-drug resistance (MDR) via ATP-dependent drug efflux pumps. Abnormally expression and function would result in tumor MDR. That is the most important mechanism of MDR. The inhibition of ABC transporters as a strategy to reverse MDR in cancer has been studied extensively. In this review, we reviewed the structure and function of ABC transporters, and focused on the research advances in the mechanism of tumors MDR mediated by ABC transporters and the development of their modulators and reversal strategies.

Chromosome Aberrations ; Environmental Exposure ; adverse effects ; Humans ; Magnetic Fields

Animals ; Atherosclerosis ; prevention & control ; Biflavonoids ; pharmacology ; Catechin ; pharmacology ; Grape Seed Extract ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Proanthocyanidins ; pharmacology

Barium ; urine ; Spectrophotometry, Atomic ; methods

[Objective]To investigate the regular pattern of references quoted in theses of Orthopedic Journal of China from year 2005 to 2006,and to study the characteristics and experiences of reference quoting in Chinese orthopedic academic sphere.[Method]Forty-eight issues of Orthopedic Journal of China from year 2005 to 2006 were downloaded from the website www.chinajournal.net.cn.There were 466 theses about clinical research.All references in these theses were collected as origin of data.Excel software was applied to analyze all references.[Result]References were found in all 466 papers with the reference rate of 100%.The average reference amount in each thesis was 7.15(3 334/466).A total of 3110 references were from journals(93.28%)and 214 references were from monographs(6.42%).The Price Index reached 52.13%.And the number of self-quoted references reached 614 with the rate of self-quoting of 18.42%(614/3 334).References from Chinese and foreign journals with the first 20 highest being-quoting rates were collected,and it reached 56.12% of all references.[Conclusion]The content of references in Orthopedic Journal of China ranges widely.The main quoting origin is from journals.The mainly-quoted language is English,and references from other languages are rarely quoted.Most references showed new and original ideas.

The tumor microenvironment (TME), a dynamic and complex local environment, interacts with the tumor cells and is closely related to tumor growth, metastasis, immune escape and drug resistance. Thus, targeting the TME has been a worldwide focus in cancer therapy. Many natural products possess the advantages of multiple targets, multiple pathways and wide pharmacological functions, and are the main source of antitumor drugs. In recent years studies have found that some natural products had advantageous effects on the TME. In this review, we summarize the components and functions of the TME and some natural products that target the TME, with references to the drug therapy of cancer.