Apoptosis is an organized suicide program which is evolutionally conserved from yeast to mammals. Research on yeast apoptosis has made rapid progress, though it remained unrecognized until recent years. Initial observations show that yeast can be induced to undergo apoptosis and a number of conserved pro- and antiapoptotic proteins have been identified in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Yeast has been validated as a model organism to investigate mechanisms of apoptosis. Recently, yeast has also been used as a model to study apoptosis-related disease, such as Huntington's disease and Parkinson′s disease. The feasibility, the advantages and the perspectives of yeast model for apoptosis research are reviewed.

There is time-honored history and culture of medicinal plant cultivation in China. In the present review, the medicinal plant cultivation history in china was summarized, its current situation and question were analyzed, and the prospects of medicinal plant cultivation research were pointed out, with the purpose of accelerating the growth of medicinal plant cultivation research.
China ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; history ; History, 15th Century ; History, 16th Century ; History, 17th Century ; History, 18th Century ; History, 19th Century ; History, 20th Century ; History, 21st Century ; History, Ancient ; History, Medieval ; Materia Medica ; chemistry ; economics ; history ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; history ; trends ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; growth & development

Objective To evaluate the application value of circulating tumor cell ( CTC ) in the differential diagnosis of solitary pulmonary nodule ( SPN ) . Methods Peripheral blood samples were collected from 134 patients with solitary pulmonary nodule in Shanghai Chest Hospital from September 2013 to January 2015, including 80 patients with malignant nodule and 54 with benign nodule.CTC levels of the above subjects were detected by ligand-targeted polymerase chain reaction ( LT-PCR ) assay, and serum carcinoembryonic antigen ( CEA ) and cytokeratin 19 fragment ( CYFRA21-1 ) were detected by flow fluorescence assay.Results By Mann-Whitney U Test, the CTC levels of malignant SPN patients [11.06 (8.77-14.41)units/3 ml] were significantly higher than those of benign SPN patients [6.65(4.49 -7.84)units/3 ml] (Z=-6.217,P<0.001).The sensitivity and specificity of differential diagnosis of SPN for CTC were 80%(64/80) and 85%(46/54) respectively.According to the diameter of SPN, the patients were divided into three groups to evaluate the diagnostic value of CTC in SPN with different size .For SPN with diameter less than 8 mm, the sensitivity and specificity of CTC were 6/9 and 4/5 respectively .For SPN with diameter between 8 mm and 20 mm, the sensitivity and specificity of CTC were 83%(35/42) and 85%(29/34).For SPN with diameter greater than 20 mm, the sensitivity and specificity of CTC were 79%(23/29) and 13/15.Conclusion Comparing with the traditional tumor markers, CTC could provide more clinical value in the differential diagnosis of solitary pulmonary nodule .

Objective To compare the inhibitory effect of fluoride-releasing resin sealant and glass ionomer sealant on enamel demineralization in vitro.Methods Thirty noncarious human third molars extracted were randomly divided into 3 groups with 10 in each.Cavity was placed on buccal surfaces of the molars,then filled with fluoride-releasing resin sealant(ClinproTMsealant),glass ionomer sealant(Fuji Ⅸ GP)or non-fluoride-releasing resin sealant(Concise).After thermocycling for 300 cycles,the surface microhardness of sound enamel 1 mm away from sealant-filled cavities in each group was measured.Then after the treated molars were placed in an artificial demineralizing solution for a week,their surface microhardness was detected again.Results The mean reduction of surface microhardness was(87.30?23.84)HV for ClinproTM sealant group,(76.90?27.75)HV for Fuji Ⅸ GP group and(147.67?46.42)HV for Concise group.There was a significant difference(P0.05).Conclusion Both the fluoride-releasing resin sealant and glass ionomer sealant can effectively reduce the amount of enamel demineralization adjacent to the materials.Fluoride ion released from the sealants protects the adjacent enamel against in vitro demineralization to some extent.

As the actual clinical reflecting of transform Chinese medicine special curative effect, Chinese medicine preparation not only satisfies the need of hospital clinic, scientific research and teaching, but also plays an important role in deepening medical and health system reform, improving people's health level and contributing to the economic growth. However, some problems about administration and approval (tending to western medicine), contraction of the scale, lack of synchronization for clinic and scientific research, and the imbalance of regional development make Chinese medicine preparation move forwards slowly in contradiction. It has not only reduced the effectiveness of the Chinese medicine preparation in hospital clinic, but also brought bad effect on modernized development of Chinese medicine preparation. Research shows that main influencing factors of status quo of Chinese medicine preparation in medical institution include imperfect laws and regulations, high cost than income, and shortage of talents in preparation research. The analysis indicated that the necessary measures to break the contradiction, improve clinical effect of Chinese medicine, and promote the modernization development of Chinese drugs preparation were as follows: government and related departments should strengthen the supporting force in policy by adjusting the examination and approval policy, speeding up dispensing use, reforming pricing system, including into medicare reimbursement, integrating advantage resources and so on; medical institution should actively carry out research and development of traditional Chinese Medicine through drawing the traditional and modern essence, reserving professional talents, and developing characteristic preparation; companies cooperate with hospitals for complementary advantages, which can rapidly transform Chinese medicine preparation into clinical practice.
Chemistry, Pharmaceutical ; economics ; methods ; trends ; China ; Drug Discovery ; economics ; trends ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; economics ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; economics ; trends

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a serious threat for human health, the incidence of HCC in China accounts for more than 50% worldwide. There is an urgent need to develop novel anticancer agents for the treatment of HCC patients. Here we characterized the inhibitory effect and the molecular mechanism of protopine on HCC cancer cells. The results of a CCK-8 assay indicated that protopine displays anticancer activities on HCC cells. Flow cytometry and JC-1 staining confirmed that treatment with protopine decreased the mitochondrial membrane potential and induced apoptosis in HCC cells. Western blot analysis showed that protopine was able to increase protein expression in the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway; the level of cytochrome C, apoptotic protease activating factor-1 (Apaf-1), Bax, cleaved-poly ADP-ribose polymerase (cleaved-PARP), cleaved-caspase-3, and cleaved-caspase-9 were increased while the expression of Bcl-2 was suppressed significantly. An in vivo study revealed that protopine significantly suppressed the growth of tumors in nude mice bearing HepG2 cells. Administration of protopine intraperitoneally at a concentration of 50 mg·kg^-1 inhibited tumor growth by 72.46%. Animal experiments were carried out according to the Regulation of the Animal Ethics Committee of Southwest Medical University. This study provides preliminary evidence that there is potential to develop protopine as a lead compound for the treatment of HCC.

Objective To investigate the possibility of using the results of breast ultrasound and Cohen-classification to determine the gynecomastia patients' subtype, and to evaluate the effectiveness of different surgical methods based on the classification. Methods In the past 3 years, 40 patients with gy-necomastia were treated in this hospital. The patients" age ranged from 18 to 50 years, with an average of 21.38. All the patients had the bilateral lesions, and their pathological diagnosis was gynecomastia. The mammary gland resected from each side weighted from 30 to 180 grams. The total fat volume liposucted ranged from 200 ml to 1 200 ml. As a routine, we performed breast ultrasound examination before the op-eration on each patient. According to the different echo, we marked the extent of breast gland on the chest walls and determine the Cohen classification of the patients. For breast tissue hyperplasia, we only resected the gland under the direction of the chest wall marks. For fat tissue hyperplasia, we just per-formed liposuction. For patients with mixed fat and gland hyperplasia, we combined these two methods rationally. If necessary, the procedures was repeated. Results With the help of breast ultrasound exami-nation, the operating procedure was more accurate and simple, as a result, our treatments had less injury and no severe complications. After a following-up of 6-36 months, satisfactory results were achieved, with normal male chest appearance and small obscure scar. Conclusions Male breast surgery is totally different from the females. The Cohen classification has been determined for each gynecomastia patient, based on the results of breast ultrasound examination, which helps choose the surgical methods and procedures and decrease surgical injuries and complications, with satisfactory results.

Objective To investigate the role of KiSS-1 and matrix metalloproteinase(MMP)9 in trophoblasts in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia and their relation to perinatal outcome of neonates. Methods RT-PCR and western blot analyses were used to detect the MMP-9 and KiSS-1 expression levels in trophoblast of 40 patients with preeclampsia (15 cases of mild and 25 cases of severe preeclampsia)(preeclampsia group) and 20 cases of term pregnancy (normal pregnancy group) and their correlations with symptoms and perinatal outcome of neonates were analyzed. Results (1) The KiSS-1mRNA and metastin expression levels in trophoblasts of preeclampsia group were 1.73?0.24 (A value) and (78.4?8.0) ?g/ 100 ?g total protein separately,those of mild preeclampsia were (1.50?0.15) and (72.4?6.9) ?g/ 100 ?g total protein , and severe preeclampsia were (1.87?0.20) and (83.52?3.57) ?g/100 ?g total protein , which were all significantly higher than those of normal pregnancy group [1.24?0.25, P

Cost-Benefit Analysis ; Early Detection of Cancer ; Humans ; Mass Screening ; methods ; Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; epidemiology ; therapy ; Program Evaluation

This study was aimed to establish the classification method of Chinese herbal medicine based on feature parameters extracted from images of herbal transverse section, in order to explore the feasibility of automatic identi-fication method of herbal medicine. The extracted 26 parameters of 18 herbal medicine images by gray-level co-oc-currence matrix and grayscale gradient matrix were used as the basic data set. And the minimum covariance determi-nant (MCD) was used to delete the outliers. A total of 18 identification models were established using the native Bayes method and BP neural network methods. The results showed that the average correct rates of models were 90%. It was concluded the feasibility of using these models in the establishment of the automatic identification method of herbal medicines. It provided new technologies for the quantitative, scientific and objective identification of Chinese herbal medicine.