OBJECTIVETo investigate the protective effects of sodium tanshinone B (STB) on brain damage following focal ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury through interfering with N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor (NMDAR) and excitatory and inhibitory amino acids, and evaluate the potential mechanisms of the neuroprotective activity of STB.

METHODSTransient forebrain ischemia was induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). The rats were randomized into a sham operated group, a model group (I/R) and three STB different dose groups. Rats were pretreated with STB at the doses of 4, 8, 16 mg/kg (STB(1), STB(2), STB(3)) for 3 days before MCAO. The expression of NMDAR1 was detected by immunohistochemistry and Western blotting. The concentrations of glutamate and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) were analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography.

RESULTSSTB treatment reduced neurological defect scores, cerebral infarction volume and brain water content. The levels of NMDAR1 were significantly higher in the l/R and STB(1) groups than that of the sham and the STB(3) groups (P<0.01). Optical density of NMDAR1 was significantly increased in cornu ammonis (CA)1 region of the l/R group (P<0.05). STB treatment reduced NMDAR1 optical density in the CA1 region (P<0.01). The levels of glutamate were significantly lower in the hippocampus in the STB(3) group than that of the l/R, STB(1) and STB(2) groups (P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONPreconditioning with STB appears to be a simple and promising strategy to reduce or even prevent cerebral l/R injury and has potential for future clinical application.

Animals ; Brain Ischemia ; pathology ; Cytoprotection ; drug effects ; Disease Models, Animal ; Diterpenes, Abietane ; pharmacology ; Drug Evaluation, Preclinical ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Hippocampus ; drug effects ; pathology ; Models, Biological ; Neurons ; drug effects ; pathology ; physiology ; Neuroprotective Agents ; pharmacology ; Random Allocation ; Rats ; Reperfusion Injury ; pathology ; Treatment Outcome

Objective To investigate the self-care and its influencing factors in chemotherapy patients with PICC. Methods A total of 88 chemotherapy patients with PICC were recruited by convenience sampling from October 2013 to January 2014 in two cancer specialty hospitals in Guangzhou. Patients were investigated by the general situation questionnaire, exercise of self-care agency scale ( ESCA) , the degree of adverse reactions to chemotherapy questionnaire, the questionnaire of PICC self-care knowledge and profile of mood state-short form ( POMS-SF) . Results A total of 80 valid questionnaires were collected finally. The total score of self-care agency among chemotherapy patients with PICC was (118. 79 ± 20. 85), and 58. 8% patients were at advanced level. The score of dimension of “self-concept” (26. 28 ± 4. 90) was the highest while “health knowledge”(39. 90 ± 7. 65) was the lowest. Multiple regression analysis showed that chemotherapy regimen, emotional state, the self-care knowledge of PICC, family relationships, education level were the main influencing factors in patients′self-care (P<0. 05), and the variation which can be explained by the five independent variables accounted for 54. 5%. Conclusions Though the self-care of the chemotherapy patients with PICC is at advanced level, the patients′ health knowledge should be improved. Nursing staff should adopt individual nursing according to patients′ personal characteristics along with paying more attention to the adjustment of patients′mental state and improving of knowledge related to PICC in the clinical work.