Hepatitis B ; pathology ; therapy ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; Hepatitis B virus ; Humans

Objiective To evaluate the histocompatibility of gelatin-bletilla/Salvia-miltiorrhiza i material and to discuss the appropriate concentration of salvia-miltiorrhiza in the material. Method Salvia-miltiorrhiza together with gelatin and bletilla was used to make a kind of porous membranes. A total of 175 rats were divided randomly (random number) into 5 groups ( n = 35 in each). The porous membranes containing salvia-miltiorrhiza material in different concentrations of 1, 2, 4, and 5 mL/100 g were implanted subcutaneously into the rats of the four experimental groups, respectively. The gelatin-bletilla material without salvia-miltiorrhiza was implanted into the rats of control group. In 1, 3, 7, 14, 21, 28 and 56 days after implant, the materials were taken out of the bodies of the rats, separately. The material implanted for 1, 3, 7 and 14 days were observed with immunohistoche-mistry. Results In the area of implant, no noticeable inflammation or other was found. The implanted materials were degraded and entirely absorbed in vivo in 8 weeks. The salvia-miltiorrhiza in concentration of 2 mL/100 g in vivo promoted the angiogenesis most significantly. Conclusions The gelatin-bletilla/salvia-miltiorrhiza material has excellent histocompatibility and the appropriate concentration of salvia-miltiorrhiza in material is 2 mL/100 g.

The high molecular weight glutenin subunits (HMW-GS) are the main components of storage proteins of wheat,and play a critical role in determining the visco-elastic properties of gluten. There are both quantitative and qualitative effects of HMW-GS on the processing properties of wheat. Current knowledge of the molecular structures,compositions and properties of the gluten proteins of wheat is summarized in details,and the role of the HMW-GS in determining the quality of the grain for breadmaking and how their amount and composition can be manipulated leading to changes in dough mixing properties is also discussed systematically.

Knowledge Discovery in Databases is gaining attention and raising new hopes for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) researchers. It is a useful tool in understanding and deciphering TCM theories. Aiming for a better understanding of Chinese herbal property theory (CHPT), this paper performed an improved association rule learning to analyze semistructured text in the book entitled Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica. The text was firstly annotated and transformed to well-structured multidimensional data. Subsequently, an Apriori algorithm was employed for producing association rules after the sensitivity analysis of parameters. From the confirmed 120 resulting rules that described the intrinsic relationships between herbal property (qi, flavor and their combinations) and herbal efficacy, two novel fundamental principles underlying CHPT were acquired and further elucidated: (1) the many-to-one mapping of herbal efficacy to herbal property; (2) the nonrandom overlap between the related efficacy of qi and flavor. This work provided an innovative knowledge about CHPT, which would be helpful for its modern research.

Objective To explore the changes of cardiac structure and function in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM)rats so as to detect the level of angiotensinⅡ (AngⅡ)in blood and the myocardium and illuminate the role of AngⅡ in DCM.Methods We randomly divided 30 SD rats into control group and DCM group (which received a single injection of streptozotocin,65 mg/kg).The changes of cardiac structure and function were observed by ultrasonic cardiogram at the end of 16 weeks after injection.Then the changes in the myocardium were also analyzed by using hemotoxylin and eosin staining and Sirius red staining.The level of AngⅡ in blood was tested by radioimmunoassay.The expression of AngⅡ in the myocardium was detected by immunofluorescence. Results Compared with those of the controls,the hearts were dilated in DCM rats accompanied with cardiac dysfunction.There were significant increases in LVEDd,LVESd,LVEDv,and LVESv but decrease in LVEF (P <0.05).There were arrangement disorder and hypertrophic cardiomyocytes in DCM.Then the fibrosis area of DCM was significantly increased compared with that of the controls.The level of AngⅡ in blood and myocardium was significantly higher in DCM than in controls.At the same time,Pearson analysis revealed that the level of AngⅡ in blood was positively related to the collagen content of myocardium (r =0.907,P <0.05).Conclusion Our study provides experimental evidence that AngⅡ plays an important role in myocardial fibrosis of DCM.

Objective To observe whether calreticulin-induced mitochondrial dysfunction is involved in cardiomyocyte hypertrophy induced by angiotensin Ⅱ (AngⅡ).Methods Primary culture of neonatal rat cardiomyocytes was further confirmed by immunocytochemistry.The cardiomyocytes were randomly divided into model group,valsartan group and control group.The model group was subdivided into three groups which were separately treated with 1 0-8 mmol/L, 1 0-7 mmol/L, and 1 0-6 mmol/L Ang Ⅱ. Calreticulin expression, mitochondrial membrane potential level, enzyme activities, cell surface area and protein synthesis rate were observed.Results Cell surface area and protein synthesis rate were both increased in model groups compared with control group.Mitochondrial membrane potential level and enzyme activities were lower in model groups than in control group,while calreticulin expression was up-regulated.Pretreatment with valsartan partially reversed all the above changes.Conclusion Mitochondrial dysfunction induced by calreticulin may be an important mechanism of myocardial hypertrophy.

[ ABSTRACT] AIM:To observe the effect of high glucose on the protein expression of calreticulin ( CRT) and its association with cell apoptosis and mitochondrial dysfunction in the cardiomyocytes.METHODS: AC-16 cardiomyocytes were randomly divided into normal glucose group, high glucose group, high glucose+CRT siRNA group and isotonic con-trol group.The cell apoptotic rate, reactive oxygen species (ROS), mitochondrial membrane potential level, respiratory enzyme activity, and protein expression of CRT were observed.RESULTS: Compared with the cardiomyocytes in normal glucose group, the apoptotic rate and ROS production of cardiomyocytes increased in high glucose group, accompanying with the decreases in the mitochondrial membrane potential level and enzyme activitiy of the respiratory chain.The protein expression of CRT was significantly increased in high glucose group.However, compared with high glucose group, high glucose+CRT siRNA decreased the expression of CRT and attenuated the damage of mitochondria, but CRT siRNA did not reduce the ROS level in cardiomyocytes.CONCLUSION:High glucose brings about CRT over-expression to induce mito-chondrial injury, thus increasing myocardial apoptosis.

Objective To retrospectively analyze the outcomes,adverse events,and prognostic factors in elderly patients initially diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) who receive radiotherapy and chemotherapy.Methods From January 2004 to April 2007,202 patients (over 60 years of age) initially diagnosed with NPC received radical radiotherapy or chemotherapy.These patients included 165 males (81.7％) and 37 females (18.3％),with a median age of 65 years (range 60-86 years).Of all patients,1 had stage Ⅰ NPC,25 had stage Ⅱ NPC,120 had stage Ⅲ NPC,and 56 had stage Ⅳa/Ⅳb NPC,according to the AJCC staging system (6th edition).All patients received a radiation dose of ≥66 Gy,and 146 patients (72.3％) with locally advanced NPC also received chemotherapy.The Cox model was used for multivariate analysis.Results The follow-up rate was 100％.The 5-year local control rate,regional lymph node control rate,distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) rate,disease-free survival rate,and overall survival (OS) rate were 93％,94％,82％,74％,and 67％,respectively.The multivariate analysis revealed that T stage,N stage,and age were prognostic factors for OS and DMFS (P =0.006,0.002,and 0.008 ;P =0.020,0.002,and 0.022).The severe acute toxicities included grade 4 radiation dermatitis (1 patient,0.5％),grade 4 radiation mucositis (2 patients,1.0％),and grade 4 bone marrow suppression (5 patients,2.5％).Conclusions The elderly NPC patients can tolerate radiotherapy and chemotherapy well.Multimodality therapy should be adopted for the patients aged 60-74 years who have advanced-stage NPC and good general conditions.

The theory of four properties (Qi) and five tastes (Wei) is the core of the property theory of Chinese materia medica. It is known that Qi and Wei are associated with the pharmacological effects (Xiao) of herbs. This study took records of all 365 Chinese herbs in Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica (Shennong Ben Cao Jing) as the data resource and established a three-dimensional data cube, in the purpose of finding out and analyzing the frequent patterns and valued association rules of Qi, Wei and Xiao based on Apriori algorithm. The results of this study may give rise to innovative ideas and methods in research of traditional Chinese materia medica.

Objective: The primary aim of this research is to systematically sort out and analyze available documents for yang deficiency syndrome in traditional Chinese medicine, providing innovative ideas and methods for statistical study of yang deficiency syndrome. Methods: Based on the China National Knowledge Internet (CNKI) and Chongqing VIP databases, using "yang deficiency", "deficiency cold", and "patient" as keywords, we searched literature of clinical researches and used "ratio-comparison" and "integration-comparison" to analyze objective data after data preprocessing. Relative importance value of physiological and biochemical parameters were reflected by P value calculated by ratio-comparison or Q value by integration-comparison. Results: With calculation of relative importance values of clinical indicators among various systems, we got the ranking of relative importance of different indexes. Triiodothyronine and urine 17-hydorxycorticosteroid of endocrine system, immunoglobulin A of immune system, and the ratio of cyclic adenosine monophosphate to cyclic guanosine monophosphate, which had great |P| (or |Q|) values and negative P (or Q) values, had a clearly lower level in yang deficiency patients than in the control; hemorheological indicators such as plasma viscosity, whole blood reduced viscosity and erythrocyte electrophoresis time had small |P| (or |Q|) values. These indicators, however, showed less importance for reflecting yang deficiency. Conclusion: Ratio-comparison method and integration-comparison method employed in this study have merits of efficiency and robustness. After detailed compiling and mining of all available data, we have made reasonable advice on the most relevant index of yang deficiency for further study of the essence of this syndrome.