Objective To study the real-time gait behavioral changes in rat models of experimental diabetic peripheral neuropathy.Methods Twenty-five SPF Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into experimental group ( 6 males and 7 females) and control group (6 males and 6 females).Diabetes was induced in rats by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin ( STZ ) in a dose of 45 mg/kg.The gait behavior in all rats was tested at 12 weeks after diabetes modelling.Results Compared with the control group, the rats with diabetic peripheral neuropathy showed statistically significant different walk cycle extension, walk speed, average print intensity, balance and coordination.The abnormal gait behavior of the rat models was mainly reflected in the increased average and each foot walk cycle extension ( P<0.01 ) , average intensity (P<0.05), absolute average body rotation (P<0.01),and shortened both homologous coupling and homolateral coupling( P <0.05 ) .Conclusions Experimental rat models of diabetic peripheral neuropathy can exhibit obvious changes of gait behavior, and may provide a reference for related clinical and basic research.

Structural and functional explorations on bio-soft matter such as micelles,vesicles,nanoparticles,ag-gregates or polymers derived from traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)has emerged as a new topic in the field of TCM.The discovery of such cross-scaled bio-soft matter may provide a unique perspective for unraveling the new effective material basis of TCM as well as developing innovative medicine and biomaterials.Despite the rapid rise of TCM-derived bio-soft matter,their hierarchical structure and as-sembly mechanism must be unambiguously probed for a further in-depth understanding of their pharmacological activity.In this review,the current emerged TCM-derived bio-soft matter assembled from either small molecules or macromolecules is introduced,and particularly the unambiguous elucidation of their hierarchical structure and assembly mechanism with combined electron microscopic and spectroscopic techniques is depicted.The pros and cons of each technique are also discussed.The future challenges and perspective of TCM-derived bio-soft matter are outlined,particularly the requirement for their precise in situ structural determination is highlighted.