OBJECTIVETo evaluate the clinical therapeutic effect of electric acupuncture (EA) at Sishencong (EX-HN 1) on insomnia.

METHODSTwo hundred and seventy-six patients were randomly assigned to 2 groups, 138 in each group, the EA group treated with EA at Sishencong, and the control group with oral administration of Tianmeng Capsule. The treatment course for both groups was 3 weeks. The quality and related parameters of sleep before and after treatment were evaluated with a multi-channel sleep detector.

RESULTSAfter treatment, the quality of sleep was improved in both groups (P < 0.05), as compared with before treatment, the difference in related parameters was significant respectively (P<0.05 or P <0.01), however, the improvement in the EA group was superior to that in the control group (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONEA at Sishencong has obvious effect on insomnia.

Acupuncture Points ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Electroacupuncture ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Polysomnography ; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders ; physiopathology ; therapy ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo investigate the protective effects of Huperzine A, a potent acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, against the hypoxic ischemic brain damage (HIBD) of the cognitive and morphology in the neonatal rats.

METHODSPostnatal 7 days old rats were given vehicle or Huperzine A (0.05 mg/kg or 0.1 mg/kg, i.p.) following HIBD (unilateral carotid artery ligation followed by hypoxia) or sham operation, and then tested the learning ability and memory in the Morris water maze (MWM) from 36 to 40 postnatal days. The performance in MWM (escape latency, probe time) were recorded to evaluate the learning and memory dysfunction. At the end of MWM trials, the rats were decapitated and their brains were histologically analyzed. The tissue loss in different brain regions including striatum, cortex, and hippocampus were analyzed by image analysis system. The CA(1) subfield neurons numbers were counted to evaluate the brain damage. The acetylcholinesterase histochemistry staining was used to determine the activity of acetylcholinesterase in different brain regions.

RESULTSCompared with sham-operated group, HIBD rats with the vehicle treatment displayed significant tissue losses in the hippocampus (including CA(1) neurons), cortex, and striatum, as well as severe spatial memory deficits (escape latency: 44 s vs 30 s, P < 0.05, probe time: 14 s vs 40 s, P < 0.01). Huperzine A treatment (0.1 mg/kg) resulted in significant protection against both HI-induced brain tissue losses and spatial memory impairments (mean escape latency: 34 s vs 44 s, P < 0.05, probe time: 35 s vs 14 s,P < 0.01). However, Huperzine A treatment (0.05 mg/kg) did not show any significant improvement of spatial memory impairments (mean escape latency: 45 s vs 44 s, P > 0.05, probe time: 17 s vs 14 s, P > 0.05), but moderate to severe brain tissue losses. There was a pronounced reduction of CA(1) neuron density in ipsilateral hemisphere of vehicle-treated group and 0.05 mg/kg Huperzine A group compared with contralateral hemisphere or ipsilateral hemisphere of sham-operated group and 0.1 mg/kg Huperzine A group (72 vs 232, P < 0.01, 72 vs 229, P < 0.01, respectively). There was a close linear correlation between the CA(1) neurons cell number and the mean escape latency for 5 d acquisition trials (r = 0.777, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONThe unilateral HI brain injury in a neonatal rat model was associated with cognitive deficits, and that Huperzine A treatment may be protective against both brain injury and spatial memory impairment. Huperzine A showed a therapeutic potential for the treatment of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) caused by the perinatal asphyxia.

Acetylcholinesterase ; metabolism ; Alkaloids ; Animals ; Animals, Newborn ; Cerebral Cortex ; drug effects ; enzymology ; pathology ; Cognition Disorders ; drug therapy ; physiopathology ; Corpus Striatum ; drug effects ; enzymology ; pathology ; Female ; Hippocampus ; drug effects ; enzymology ; pathology ; Hypoxia-Ischemia, Brain ; drug therapy ; Male ; Maze Learning ; drug effects ; Neuroprotective Agents ; administration & dosage ; therapeutic use ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Sesquiterpenes ; administration & dosage ; therapeutic use ; Treatment Outcome

This study was purposed to investigate the role of post-thaw infused donor cells for predicting engraftment and hematopoietic reconstitution after unrelated cord blood transplantation (UCBT). The retrospective analysis was performed on clinical data of 97 children with malignant or non-malignant diseases received single unit UCBT from August 1999 to April 2010. The impact of pre-freezing and post-thaw cell dose of total nucleated cells (TNC), CD34(+) cells and colony-forming units-granulocyte/macrophage (CFU-GM) on engraftment and hematological recovery after UCBT was analyzed. Unrelated donors were from Guangzhou cord blood bank (GZCBB) entirely. The results indicated that the pre-freezing TNC (/kg) (mean ± SD: 7.65 × 10⁷ ± 4.26 × 10⁷; median: 6.34 × 10⁷), CD34(+)cells (/kg) (mean ± SD: 4.64 × 10(5) ± 4.47 × 10⁵; median: 3.03 × 10⁵) and CFU-GM (/kg) (mean ± SD: 0.79 × 10⁵ ± 1.09 × 10⁵; median: 0.57 × 10⁵) showed a good correlation with their post-thaw counterparts including TNC(/kg) (mean ± SD: 6.98 × 10⁷ ± 4.12 × 10⁷; median: 6.00 × 10⁷), CD34(+)cells (/kg)(Mean ± SD: 6.86 × 10⁵ ± 8.56 × 10⁵; Median: 4.17 × 10⁵), and CFU-GM (/kg) (mean ± SD: 0.52 × 10⁵ ± 0.52 × 10⁵; median: 0.39 × 10⁵) (r = 0.952, p < 0.001; r = 0.794, p < 0.001; r = 0.478, p < 0.001). Either the pre-freezing or post-thaw number of infused CFU-GM was significant higher in patients who achieved engraftment (n = 70) than those who suffered graft failure (n = 22) (p = 0.023 and 0.011, respectively), but no significant difference of TNC and CD34(+) cells dose (pre-freezing or post-thaw) were found between these two groups. Pre-freezing CFU-GM, TNC, CD34(+) cell dose negatively correlated with the time of neutrophil engraftment (r = -0.285, p = 0.018; r = -0.396, p = 0.002; r = -0.373, p = 0.002), as well as the post-thaw number of TNC and CD34(+) cells (r = -0.260, p = 0.031; r = -0.483, p < 0.001), whereas only pre-freezing CD34(+) cells showed a significant correlation with platelet engraftment time (r = -0.352, p = 0.013). It is concluded that the CFU-GM amount is useful for predicting engraftment of UCBT, while pre-freezing hematopoietic cell doses show superior correlation with the speed of engraftment and hematopoietic reconstitution than their post-thaw counterparts in pediatric recipients, suggesting that it is essential to perform hematopoietic potency assay on each cord blood unit prior to listing or release for administration.
Adolescent ; Antigens, CD34 ; blood ; Blood Banks ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation ; methods ; Female ; Fetal Blood ; cytology ; Graft Survival ; Granulocyte-Macrophage Progenitor Cells ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Retrospective Studies ; Tissue Donors

OBJECTIVEFrom December 1998 to April 2004, 3960 umbilical cord blood units were stored in Guangzhou cord blood bank, which provided 100 umbilical cord blood units to 25 transplant center for 83 patients with malignant or non-malignant diseases. To study the related factors affecting unrelated umbilical cord blood stem cell transplantation, the authors analyzed retrospectively the results of transplantation of unrelated umbilical cord blood stem cells for 65 patients.

METHODSALL (acute lymphocytic leukemia) cord blood units were obtained from full term normal vaginal and cesarean deliveries in Guangzhou Women and Infants Hospital. The fractionation, cryopreservation and thawing of the cord blood were performed according to the regulations of New York umbilical cord blood bank and pertinent literature. The selection of cord blood was based on HLA typing and the number of nucleated cells. The sex and HLA antigens of donors were defined as the evidence of engraftment. Time to engraftment was recorded when the absolute number of neutrophil ANC (absolute neutrophil count) was higher than 5.0 x 10(8) for three days. Event-free survival and graft versus host disease (GVHD) were provided by transplant centers.

RESULTSOut of 65 patients who received unrelated cord blood stem cell transplant, 49 patients were diagnosed as having malignant diseases [including 23 with ALL, 16 with AML (acute myeloid leukemia), 7 with CML (chronic myelogenous leukemia), 3 with lymphoma and one with MDS (myelodysplastic syndrome)], 16 patients had non-malignant disease. The 65 transplanted patients (42 male, 23 female) had a median age of 10 years (range 1 - 33 years) and a median body weight of 27 kg (range 10 - 67 kg). The patients received cord blood stem cells from unrelated 0-locus (n = 9) or 1-locus (n = 43) or 2-locus (n = 13) HLA mismatched donor. The median dose of infused cells was: total neutrophil count (TNC) 5.7 x 10(7), CD(34)(+) 5.1 x 10(5), CFU-GM 3.8 x 10(4). Fifty of 65 (77%) patients had engraftment. GVHD occurred in 41 patients (63%), including acute grade I - II GVHD in 31 patients (76%), acute grade III - IV GVHD in 8 patients (20%) and chronic GVHD in 2 patients (5%). Fifty patients had engraftment (ANC > 5.0 x 10(8)) after a median time of 17 (range 7 to 44) days after transplant, while an autologous hematopoietic reconstitution was observed in 6 patients; 24 patients died of severe pneumonia (n = 8), acute GVHD (n = 4), or sepsis (n = 12) and the disease-free survival probability was 61%.

CONCLUSIONSUnrelated allogeneic umbilical cord blood transplantation may be a good substitution for unrelated allogeneic bone marrow transplantation with a good prospect.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; China ; Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation ; adverse effects ; methods ; Disease-Free Survival ; Female ; Graft vs Host Disease ; etiology ; mortality ; Humans ; Infant ; Leukemia ; mortality ; therapy ; Male ; Retrospective Studies ; Survival Rate ; Transplantation, Homologous ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult

Unrelated umbilical cord blood units for 54 cases in 21 transplant centers were provided by Guangzhou Cord Blood Bank in China from 1998 to 2003. This study was aimed to identify HLA-DRB1 alleles by means of PCR sequencing based typing methods (SBT) and to analyze the correlation between HLA-DRB1 alleles and GVHD in unrelated umbilical cord blood transplantation (UCBT). 48 out of 54 patients received UCBT were followed up. DNA were extracted from cryopreservation blood of recipients/donors with UCBT, HLA-DRB1 alleles typing were done by SBT. Compared with low resolution results of HLA-DRB1 alleles, high resolution results were analyzed to see any correlation between HLA-DRB1 alleles and GVHD. by double-blind statistically analysis of HLA-DRB1 high resolution in 48 donor/recipient typings in UCBT. The results showed that the incidence of GVHD (25%) in patients who has HLA-DRB1 alleles matched with donors significantly lower (65.6%) than that in the patients with HLA-DRB1 alleles mismatched (P = 0.008). It is concluded that HLA-DRB1 by high resolution typing method is important in clinical application in UCBT.
Alleles ; Blood Donors ; Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation ; methods ; Graft vs Host Disease ; genetics ; immunology ; HLA-DR Antigens ; genetics ; HLA-DRB1 Chains ; Histocompatibility Testing ; methods ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; methods

In order to research the related factors of umbilical cord blood transplantation, 54 cases of unrelated umbilical cord blood transplantation were analyzed retrospectively, which were performed from June 1998 to July 2003. All cord blood units were obtained from full term normal vaginal deliveries in Guangzhou Maternal-Neonatal Hospital. The fractionation, cryopreservation and thawing of cord blood have been done according to the regulation of New York umbilical cord blood bank and pertinent literature. The selection of cord blood is based on HLA typing and the number of nucleated cells. The results showed that from June 1998 to July 2003, 3 475 units of cord blood were collected in Guangzhou Umbilical Cord Blood Bank and 99 units were provided for therapy of 85 patients in 21 transplantation centers, including 11 sibling and 74 unrelated cord blood transplantations. 54 cases of unrelated cord blood transplantation were reported, including 43 malignant diseases and 11 non-malignant diseases. The median age of recipients was 9.5 (range 1.2 - 33) years, the median weight was 27 (range 10 - 60) kg, the median number of TNC was 6.82 x 10(7)/kg, 43 cord blood were implanted (ANC > 500/microl) at day 60 after transplantation (79.6%, median 17). The time of nuclear cell reconstitution after cord blood transplantation was statistically related with nucleated cells and the type of disease, not related with HLA matching. Acute GVHD was present in 8 patients (21.6%) and chronic GVHD occurred in 2 patients (5.4%), 6 patients suffered from graft failure (11.1%). The total survival rate was 42.6%. It is suggested that unrelated umbilical cord blood transplantation seems to be a good substitute for bone marrow transplantation and has good prospects especially in children.
Acute Disease ; Adolescent ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; China ; Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation ; adverse effects ; methods ; Female ; Graft vs Host Disease ; etiology ; mortality ; Humans ; Leukemia ; surgery ; Male ; Retrospective Studies ; Survival Rate

In order to study the feasibility of multi-umbilical cord blood transplantation (multi-UCBT) in adult, 13 cases of unrelated allogeneic multi-UCBT performed from June 1998 to July 2003 were analyzed retrospectively. All cord blood units were obtained from full term normal vaginal and cesarean deliveries in Guangzhou Maternity and Neonatal Hospital. The fractionation, cryopreservation and thawing of cord blood were done according to the regulation of New York Umbilical Cord Blood Bank and pertinent literatures. Donors of HLA 1/6-2/6 mismatch were accepted at registry search. The results showed that from June 1998 to July 2003, 28 umbilical cord blood units were selected by 7 transplantation centers for 13 cases. The median age of recipients was 22 (8 - 41) years, and the median weight was 50 (21 - 75) kg, the median infused dose of total nuclear cells was 2.91 x 10(7)/kg. Six out of thirteen cases were engrafted after cord blood infusion with absolute neutrophil count of > 5.0 x 10(8)/L at 19 days post-infusion. Only one case suffered from graft versus host disease, the total survival of multi-UCBT was 46.2% (6/13). It is concluded that good prospects in the field of multi-umbilical cord blood transplantation is likely to be realized.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Child ; Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation ; mortality ; Female ; Graft vs Host Disease ; epidemiology ; Humans ; Male ; Retrospective Studies

Objective To investigate the application value of dynamic single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) 99m-technetium galactosyl human serum albumin diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid injection (99 Tcm-GSA) scintigraphy assessing regional liver function changes before and after portal vein embolization (PVE).Methods The retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted.The clinical data of 11 patients with Bismuth Ⅲ a hilar cholangiocarcinoma who were admitted to the General Hospital of People's Liberation Army (10 patients) and Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital (1 patient) from October 2010 to October 2016 were collected.B ultrasound-guided percutaneous transhepatic ipsilateral exbolization was performed before radical resection of hilar cholangiocarcinoma.Dynamic SPECT 99 Tcm-GSA scintigraphy was performed to calculate and compare the changes of functional liver volume (FLV),morphological liver volume (MLV) and functional liver density (FLD) in embolized lobe and non-embolized lobe before PVE and 2 weeks after PVE.Observation indicators:(1) the changes of serum indexes in 2 weeks before and after PVE;(2) the changes of FLV,MLV and FLD in the whole liver,embolized and non-embolized lobes in 2 weeks before and after PVE;(3) surgical and postoperative situations of hilar cholangiocarcinoma;(4) follow-up and survival situations.Follow-up using outpatient examination and telephone interview was performed to detect postoperative serum toal bilirubin (TBil) level,with or without peritoneal effusion and survival up to June 2017.Measurement data with normal distribution were represented as x-±s.The comparisons of pre-and post-operative data were analyzed by the paired t test.Results (1) The changes of serum indexes in 2 weeks before and after PVE:11 patients underwent successful right PVE.The alanine aminotransferase (ALT),TBil,albumin (Alb),Platelets (PLT) and prothrombin time (PT) were respectively (113±20) U/L,(73± 8) μmol/L,(35.0±2.5) g/L,(209±58) × 109/L,(11.4±0.7) seconds in 2 weeks before PVE and (120± 18) U/L,(36± 7) μmol/L,(34.4± 3.2) g/L,(224± 82) × 109/L,(11.2±0.8)seconds in 2 weeks after PVE,with a statistically significant difference in TBil level (t=-10.592,P＜0.05) and no statistically significant difference in ALT,Alb,PLT and PT (t=0.981,-0.350,-0.591,0.533,P＞0.05).(2) The changes of FLV,M LV and FLD in the whole liver,embolized and nonembolized lobes in 2 weeks before and after PVE:the FLV,MLV and FLD of the whole liver were respectively (894±255) mL,(1 552±504) mL,0.59±0.14 in 2 weeks before PVE and (812±206) mL,(1 521±422) mL,0.55±0.16 in 2 weeks after PVE,with no statistically significant difference (t =1.569,0.666,1.980,P＞ 0.05).The FLV,MLV and FLD of the embolized lobe were respectively (623±275) mL,(1 047± 394) mL,0.62±0.14 in 2 weeks before PVE and (375±240) mL,(865±337) mL,0.44±0.24 in 2 weeks after PVE,with statistically significant differences (t =5.909,3.736,3.359,P ＜ 0.05);the descending percentages were respectively 38.1％,9.8％ and 24.6％.The FLV,MLV and FLD of the non-embolized lobe were respectively (274±152)mL,(530±176)mL,0.52±0.21 in 2 weeks before PVE and (436±149) mL,(656±133)mL,0.68± 0.24 in 2 weeks after PVE,with statistically significant differences (t =-6.019,-6.345,-3.933,P＜0.05);the elevated percentages were respectively 80.1％,19.9％ and 23.8％.(3) Surgical and postoperative situations of hilar cholangiocarcinoma:of 11 patients,10 received successful peri-hilar right hemihepatectomy,the right hepatic atrophy and an obvious demarcation line between left and right liver were found intraoperatively;1 stopped operation due to detect intraoperatively peritoneal metastasis of tumor.The operation time,volume of intraoperative blood loss and time of postoperative abdominal drainage-tube removal were respectively (585± 194)minutes,(472± 274)mL and (8±5)days.Of 10 patients undergoing operations,2 were complicated with massive peritoneal effusion at 2 days postoperatively,volume of peritoneal effusion remained more than 500 mL up to 7 days after drainage,and were improved by 1-month conservative treatment;other 8 patients were not complicated with hepatic dysfunction.Duration of hospital stay of 11 patients was (16± 4) days.(4) Follow-up and survival situations:10 patients were followed up for 4-72 months,with a median time of 39 months.During the follow-up,there was no evaluated TBil level and peritoneal effusion in 10 patients.The median survival time,1-,3-and 5-year overall survival rates were 88.8％,74.6％ and 36.8％,respectively.Conclusions The dynamic SPECT 99Tcm-GSA scintigraphy can effectively evaluate liver function changes of embolized and non-embolized lobes before and after PVE.The increased rate of FLV of non-embolized lobe is higher than that of MLV.

BACKGROUND: Thyroid dysfunction is associated with cardiovascular diseases. However, the role of thyroid function in lipid metabolism remains partly unknown. The present study aimed to investigate the causal association between thyroid function and serum lipid metabolism via a genetic analysis termed Mendelian randomization (MR). METHODS: The MR approach uses a genetic variant as the instrumental variable in epidemiological studies to mimic a randomized controlled trial. A two-sample MR was performed to assess the causal association, using summary statistics from the Atrial Fibrillation Genetics Consortium (n = 537,409) and the Global Lipids Genetics Consortium (n = 188,577). The clinical measures of thyroid function include thyrotropin (TSH), free triiodothyronine (FT3) and free thyroxine (FT4) levels, FT3:FT4 ratio and concentration of thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPOAb). The serum lipid metabolism traits include total cholesterol (TC) and triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein, and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels. The MR estimate and MR inverse variance-weighted method were used to assess the association between thyroid function and serum lipid metabolism. RESULTS: The results demonstrated that increased TSH levels were significantly associated with higher TC (β = 0.052, P = 0.002) and LDL (β = 0.041, P = 0.018) levels. In addition, the FT3:FT4 ratio was significantly associated with TC (β = 0.240, P = 0.033) and LDL (β = 0.025, P = 0.027) levels. However, no significant differences were observed between genetically predicted FT4 and TPOAb and serum lipids. CONCLUSION Taken together, the results of the present study suggest an association between thyroid function and serum lipid metabolism, highlighting the importance of the pituitary-thyroid-cardiac axis in dyslipidemia susceptibility.
Lipid Metabolism/genetics* ; Mendelian Randomization Analysis ; Thyroid Function Tests ; Thyroid Gland ; Thyrotropin ; Thyroxine ; Triiodothyronine