This study was ai med to observe the taste-masking effects of Neotame on bitter Chinese herbal ingredients. Five kinds of herbal ingredients, which include Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, Cortex Phellodendri chinensis, Coptis chinensis Franch, Gentiana scabra Bunge, Andrographis paniculata, were selected to measure the bitterness degree of decoctions with berberine solution as the benchmark. The decreasing of bitterness degree was used as index. Healthy volunteers were recruited to taste and compare the changes of bitterness of decoctions with the taste-masking effects of Neotame. Different concentrations of Neotame were selected in the determination of the influence on changes of bitterness. The results showed that when the concentration of Neotame was at 0.012 5‰-0.4‰, taste-masking effects of Neotame on selected herbal decoctions were in a concentration-dependent fashion. When the concentration of Neotame was 0.4‰, the reduced bitterness of S. baicalensis Georgi and Cortex P. chinensis decoctions were 1.22 and 1.77, by 70.11% and 71.88%, respectively. Three highly-bitter herbal ingredients C. chinensis Franch, G. scabra Bunge and A . paniculata were also reduced in bitter taste by 49.12%, 50.87% and 38.39%, with the bitter reduced value (△I) of 1.78, 2.02 and 1.43, respectively. It was concluded that Neotame exerted taste masking potential on bitter herbal ingredients with different bitter degrees.

OBJECTIVETo optimize solubilizing process of Qingkailing injection.

METHODUniform design experimental method and GA-BPNN modeling method were applied to optimize the technical parameters, and the solubility of cholic acid in medium was taken as optimizing index.

RESULTThe type of solubilizer and pH of medium had greater impact on the index than the concentration for solubilizer. The optimum solubilizer was Tween-80. In a certain range the higher pH of medium was optimum; it was not necessary to use high-concentration solubilizer although there was positive correlation between the index and the concentration of solubilizer.

CONCLUSIONUniform design combined with GA-BPNN modeling method is suitable for optimization of solubilizing process of Chinese materia medica injection, which has certain practical application value.

Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Materia Medica ; chemistry ; Neural Networks (Computer) ; Solubility

Rat's osteoblasts cultured in vitro were stimulated by recombinant bovine basic fibroblast growth factor(rb-bFGF). After 1-2 days, the osteoblast grew long protuberance, the numbers of osteoblasts were greater than the control groups', the vitality of osteoblasts was better than that of control groups. After 1 hour, the expression of c-fos in osteoblast increased when compared with that in the control group. After the osteoblasts having been stimulated for 1-2 days, the expression of c-fos increased more conspicuously. These results show that bFGF can boost the osteoblast to grow and proliferate and can enhance the expression of c-fos gene. The increase of c-fos gene's expression may be an important step in the signal transformation process of all kinds of stimulation boosting osteoblast to proliferate.
Animals ; Cattle ; Cell Proliferation ; drug effects ; Cells, Cultured ; Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 ; pharmacology ; Gene Expression Regulation ; drug effects ; Genes, fos ; drug effects ; Osteoblasts ; cytology ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos ; metabolism ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Recombinant Proteins ; pharmacology

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effects of erlong zuoci (ELZC) pills and its disassembled prescriptions (Shudi-huang-Zexie group and Zexie group) on the enzymatic activity and protein expression changes of the key apoptosis molecules in the gentamycin injured hair cells.

METHODThe model of gentamycin induced ototoxicity in mice cochlear primary cultures was copied. Cochlear organotypic cultures of postnatal day 3-5 (P3-P5) mice were treated with gentamycin alone or in combination with ELZC pills, Shudihuang-Zexie group or Zexie group respectively. The enzymatic activity of Caspase-9 and Caspase-3 was determined by means of fluorescence staining in situ. The protein expression of Bcl-2 and Bax in the hair cell area was examined by immunofluorescence in normal and treated specimens.

RESULTAverage optical density analysis indicated that, compared to the normal group, 0.03 mmol x L(-1) gentamycin could significantly activate Caspase-9 and Caspase-3, downregulate the ratio of Bcl-2 and Bax protein expression. Compared to the gentamycin model group, ELZC pills significantly inhibited the enzymatic activity of Caspase-9 and upregulated the ratio of Bcl-2 and Bax protein expression, showing inhibition trend toward the enzymatic activity of Caspase-3. Both Shudihuang-Zexie group and Zexie group could effectively inhibit the enzymatic activity of Caspase-9 and Caspase-3, upregulate the ratio of Bcl-2 and Bax protein expression.

CONCLUSIONELZC pills, Shudihuang-Zexie group and Zexie group can effectively protect hair cells from gentamycin by correcting the abnormal changes of the mitochondrion-dependent signal transduction pathway.

Animals ; Apoptosis ; drug effects ; Caspase 3 ; genetics ; metabolism ; Caspase 9 ; genetics ; metabolism ; Cells, Cultured ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Female ; Gene Expression ; drug effects ; Gentamicins ; adverse effects ; Hair Cells, Auditory ; cytology ; drug effects ; Male ; Mice ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 ; genetics ; metabolism

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effect of different soft-tissue morphologies on the treatment of skeletal class Ⅰ malocclusion patients by analyzing measurement data before and after treatment. METHODS: Pre- and post-treatment lateral cephalograms of 55 adult female Angle class Ⅰ patients were collected in the Department of Orthodontics, Hospital of Stomatology, Jilin University from January 2012 to December 2020. Chin soft-tissue morphologies in the lateral cranial radiographs were used to divide the patients into an abnormal chin morphology group (flat and retracted chins, n=27) and a normal chin morphology group (rounded and prominent chins, n=28). Relevant soft- and hard-tissue indexes were selected to study in-group varieties and intergroup differences in the varying chin morphologies before and after treatment. RESULTS: The chin-lip angle, mandibular chin angle, mandibular chin vertex angle, PP-MP, LL-E, UL-E, Po-Pos, and B-B' thickness in the abnormal chin morphology group were significantly higher than those in the normal chin morphology group (P<0.05). Furthermore, m∶BMe and n∶B'Mes in the abnormal chin morphology group were signi-ficantly lower than those in the normal chin morphology group (P<0.05). After treatment, the mandibular chin angle, mandibular chin vertex angle, U1-SN, L1-MP, LL-E, UL-E, SNA, SNB, and B-B' thickness of the abnormal chin morphology group significantly decreased (P<0.05), whereas the nasolabial angle, m∶BMe, n∶B' Mes, and Po-Pos significantly increased (P<0.05). In the normal chin morphology group, the U1-SN, L1-MP, LL-E, UL-E, and B-B' thicknesses decreased significantly (P<0.05), whereas the nasolabial angle significantly increased (P<0.05). Among them, m∶BMe and n∶B' Mes were positively correlated. CONCLUSIONS Chin morphology affects the formulation of treatment plans. Compared with the normal chin morphology group, the abnormal chin morphology group required a larger retraction of incisors. Although the chin of soft-tissue morphology is related to the morphology of bones, the changes in soft tissue chin after treatment cannot be directly predicted according to the bone changes. Soft-tissue chin morphology affects the aesthetic assessment of the soft-tissue lateral profile and the change in soft tissue before and after treatment. The method of predicting the change in soft-tissue chin after treatment should consider the morphology of the soft-tissue chin.
Adult ; Humans ; Female ; Chin ; Lip ; Cephalometry/methods* ; Esthetics, Dental ; Mandible

OBJECTIVE：To improve the quality standard of Xiangsha hezhong pills. METHODS ：Based on previous quality standard of Xiangsha hezhong pills ，the items of property observation and microscopic identification were revised. TLC identification methods were established for ginger-processed Magnolia officinalis ，Pogostemon cablin and Atractylodes Lancea （stir-fried with earth ）. HPLC methods were adopted for contents determination of hesperidin ，magnolol and honokiol. RESULTS ： The description of the appearance of Xiangsha hezhong pills should be modified to “yellow brown or brown water pill ”. The description of microscopical identification was adjusted slightly. TLC chromatogram of ginger-processed M. officinalis ，P. cablin and Atractylodes Lancea （stir-fried with earth ）all showed the same color spots in the same position as the corresponding substance control or reference medicinal material ，and the negative samples had no interference. The contents determination were performed on Phenomenex Luna C 18 column with mobile phase consisted of methanol-water （40 ∶ 60，V/V，hesperidin）or acetonitrile- 1％ glacial acetic acid （52∶48，V/V，magnolol and honokiol ）at the flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The column temperature was 30 ℃. The detection wavelengths were set at 284 nm（hesperidin）or 294 nm（magnolol and honokiol ）. The linear ranges of hesperidin ， magnolol and honokiol were 0.201 8-2.018 μg，0.035 7-0.357 4 μg and 0.028 2-0.282 4 μg（all r＝0.999 9）. The detection limits were 2.0，0.72，0.45 ng；the limits of quantitation were 7.0，2.45，1.61 ng. RSDs of precision ，reproducibility，stability and durability tests were all lower than 3％. The average recoveries were 99.92％，100.49％ and 102.08％（all RSD ＜3％）. CONCLUSIONS ：The study verifies the description of character observation and microscopical identification ，adds TLC identification methods for ginger-processed M. officinalis ，P. cablin and Atractylodes Lancea （stir-fried with earth ）based on previous quality standard of Xiangsha hezhong pills. HPLC methods were adopted to determine the contents of hesperidin ，magnolol and honokiol ，and can effectively improve the quality control standard of the preparation.

ObjectiveTo investigate the feasibility of applying electronic nose technology to rapidly identify Bletillae Rhizoma and its approximate decoction pieces. MethodA total of 134 batches of Bletillae Rhizoma and its approximate decoction pieces， including 45 batches of Bletillae Rhizoma， 30 batches of Gastrodiae Rhizoma， 30 batches of Polygonati Odorati Rhizoma and 29 batches of Bletillae Ochraceae Rhizoma， were collected as test samples. The olfactory sensory data of the samples were collected by PEN3 electronic nose as the independent variable（X）. Based on the identification results of the 2020 edition of Chinese Pharmacopoeia and local standards， as well as the high performance liquid chromatography（HPLC） fingerprint and original purchase information of 134 batches of the decoction pieces， the benchmark data Y of the identification model were obtained， and four chemometric methods of principal component analysis-discriminant analysis（PCA-DA）， partial least squares-discriminant analysis（PLS-DA）， least square-support vector machine（LS-SVM） and K-nearest neighbor（KNN） were used to establish the binary identification model for 45 batches of Bletillae Rhizoma and 89 batches of non-Bletillae Rhizoma and the quadratic identification model of the four kinds of decoction pieces， that is， Y=F（X）. ResultAfter leave-one-out cross validation， the positive discrimination rates of the above four models were 97.01%， 97.01%， 98.51% and 97.01% in the binary identification， and 97.76%， 89.55%， 98.51% and 97.01% in the quadratic identification， respectively. The highest positive discrimination rate could reach 98.51% for the binary and quadratic identification models， and LS-SVM algorithm is both the optimal one， the most suitable kernel functions were chosen as radial basis function and linear kernel function， respectively. The optimal models discriminated well with no unclassified samples. ConclusionElectronic nose technology can accurately and rapidly identify Bletillae Rhizoma and its approximate decoction pieces， which can provide new ideas and methods for rapid quality evaluation of other decoction pieces.

The small molecule nutrients and cell growth factors required for the normal metabolism of chondrocyte mainly transport into the cartilage through free diffusion. However, the specific mass transfer law in the cartilage remains to be studied. In this study, using small molecule rhodamine B as tracer, the mass transfer models of cartilage were built under different pathways including surface pathway, lateral pathway and composite pathway. Sections of cartilage at different mass transfer times were observed by using laser confocal microscopy and the transport law of small molecules within different layers of cartilage was studied. The results showed that rhodamine B diffused into the whole cartilage layer through surface pathway within 2 h. The fluorescence intensity in the whole cartilage layer increased with the increase of mass transfer time. Compared to mass transfer of 2 h, the mean fluorescence intensity in the superficial, middle, and deep layers of cartilage increased by 1.83, 1.95, and 3.64 times, respectively, after 24 h of mass transfer. Under lateral path condition, rhodamine B was transported along the cartilage width, and the molecular transport distance increased with increasing mass transfer time. It is noted that rhodamine B could be transported to 2 mm away from cartilage side after 24 h of mass transfer. The effect of mass transfer under the composite path was better than those under the surface path and the lateral path, and especially the mass transfer in the deep layer of cartilage was improved. This study may provide a reference for the treatment and repair of cartilage injury.
Cartilage, Articular ; Rhodamines/pharmacology* ; Chondrocytes

Objective:To investigate the diagnostic accuracy of serological indicators and evaluate the diagnostic value of a new established combined serological model on identifying the minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) in patients with compensated cirrhosis.Methods:This prospective multicenter study enrolled 263 compensated cirrhotic patients from 23 hospitals in 15 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities of China between October 2021 and August 2022. Clinical data and laboratory test results were collected, and the model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score was calculated. Ammonia level was corrected to the upper limit of normal (AMM-ULN) by the baseline blood ammonia measurements/upper limit of the normal reference value. MHE was diagnosed by combined abnormal number connection test-A and abnormal digit symbol test as suggested by Guidelines on the management of hepatic encephalopathy in cirrhosis. The patients were randomly divided (7∶3) into training set ( n=185) and validation set ( n=78) based on caret package of R language. Logistic regression was used to establish a combined model of MHE diagnosis. The diagnostic performance was evaluated by the area under the curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristic curve, Hosmer-Lemeshow test and calibration curve. The internal verification was carried out by the Bootstrap method ( n=200). AUC comparisons were achieved using the Delong test. Results:In the training set, prevalence of MHE was 37.8% (70/185). There were statistically significant differences in AMM-ULN, albumin, platelet, alkaline phosphatase, international normalized ratio, MELD score and education between non-MHE group and MHE group (all P<0.05). Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that AMM-ULN [odds ratio ( OR)=1.78, 95% confidence interval ( CI) 1.05-3.14, P=0.038] and MELD score ( OR=1.11, 95% CI 1.04-1.20, P=0.002) were independent risk factors for MHE, and the AUC for predicting MHE were 0.663, 0.625, respectively. Compared with the use of blood AMM-ULN and MELD score alone, the AUC of the combined model of AMM-ULN, MELD score and education exhibited better predictive performance in determining the presence of MHE was 0.755, the specificity and sensitivity was 85.2% and 55.7%, respectively. Hosmer-Lemeshow test and calibration curve showed that the model had good calibration ( P=0.733). The AUC for internal validation of the combined model for diagnosing MHE was 0.752. In the validation set, the AUC of the combined model for diagnosing MHE was 0.794, and Hosmer-Lemeshow test showed good calibration ( P=0.841). Conclusion:Use of the combined model including AMM-ULN, MELD score and education could improve the predictive efficiency of MHE among patients with compensated cirrhosis.

OBJECTIVE： To establish the elimination method of outliers based on Grubbs rule and MATLAB language， and to evaluate the effects of it on drug bitterness evaluation. METHODS： Referring to Grubbs rule， the automatic cyclic outliers elimination method based on MATLAB language was established. Totally 20 volunteers were included in single oral taste test （Tetrapanax papyrifer） and multiple oral taste test （10 kinds of medicinal material as T. papyrifer， Changium smyrnioides， Poria cocos， etc.）. Seven sensors were selected for electronic tongue test （Clematis armandii）. The data of bitterness evaluation in above tests （oral taste test as bitterness value， electronic tongue test as response value of sensors） were used as the data source. Five researchers were selected and adopted table-by-table elimination method based on Grubbs rule （method one）， Excel software elimination method based on Grubbs rule （method two） and automatic cyclic outliers elimination method based on Grubbs rule and MATLAB language （method three） to judge and eliminate the outliers. The effects of above three methods were evaluated with the removal time and error rate of outliers as indexes. RESULTS： There were two outliers in the data of bitterness evaluation in single oral taste test； the elimination time of the three methods were（745.400 0±25.904 4），（288.333 3±31.253 1）and（0.000 3±0.000 0）s， respectively； error rates were 20.0％， 0 and 0， respectively. There were six outliers in the data of bitterness evaluation in multiple oral taste test； the elimination time of three methods were （3 693.107 7±75.023 3）， （1 494.761 4±53.826 9）， （0.005 2±0.000 0）s， respectively； error rates were 10.0％， 4.0％， 0， respectively. There were three outliers in the data of bitterness evaluation in electronic tongue test； the elimination time of three methods were （2 992.673 3±84.117 6）， （1 276.367 1±55.024 5）， （0.002 3±0.000 0）s， respectively； error rates were 5.7％， 2.9％， 0， respectively. The elimination results of the three methods were consistent. The elimination time of method two was significantly shorter than that of method one （P＜0.01）； the elimination time of method three was significantly shorter than those of method one and method two （P＜0.01）. There was no significant difference in error rate of 3 methods （P＞0.05）. CONCLUSIONS： The automatic cyclic elimination method of outliers based on Grubbs rule and MATLAB language can significantly shorten the elimination time of outliers in data of drug bitterness evaluation， improve the efficiency of data processing， and is suitable for drug bitterness evaluation.