The role of serotonergic system in vasovagal syncope (VVS) has been more concerned.Serotonin is a kind of neurotransmitter which is widely distributed in central nervous system.There are kinds of serotonergic receptors on postsynaptic membrane,among which 5-HT1A receptors participate in the mechanism of central blood pressure depression and promote the release of hormones such as prolactin and adrenocorticotrophic hormone.Acute administration of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) during head-up tilt test (HUT) blocks the reuptake of serotonin in the synapse space and thus increases stimulation of the serotonin receptors,which induces syncope episode.Long-term administration of SSRIs downregulates the postsynaptic serotonergic receptors,thus it weakens the reaction to the rapid change of serotonin concentration, which results in rapid depression of sympathic nerves and prevention of syncope episode.These demonstrate that central serotonergic system may participate in the pathogenesis of VVS and SSRIs are important for the diagnosis and treatment of VVS.

Ten compounds were isolated from the 70% ethanol extract of linseed meal (Linum usitatissimum L) through a combination of various chromatographic techniques, including silica gel, macroporous adsorbent resin, Sephadex LH-20, and preparative HPLC. On the basis of spectroscopic data analysis, they were elucidated as 1-methylethyl-2-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1" --> 6')-beta-D-glucopyanoside (1), linustatin (2), neolinustatin (3), lotaustralin (4), linamarin (5), deoxyguanosine (6), deoxyadenosine (7), (+)-pinoresinol-4'-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (8), 4-O-beta-D-glucopyranosylvanillyl alcohol (9) and tachioside (10), separately. Among them, compound 1 is a new compound, and compounds 6, 8 and 10 were isolated from the linseed meal for the first time.

Animals ; Benzofurans ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Bone Marrow Cells ; cytology ; Cell Differentiation ; drug effects ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation ; methods ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; cytology ; Myocardial Infarction ; drug therapy ; therapy ; Myocytes, Cardiac ; cytology ; Phytotherapy ; Salvia miltiorrhiza ; chemistry

Objective To evaluate the application of intra-operative cholangiography in cholecystectomy. Methods A total of 442 patients with biliary calculi underwent cholecystotomy were reviewed. Results Of the 442 cases, 3 were false positive and 1 was false negative radiologically. The accuracy rate was 99.1％. Conclusion The results suggested that the application of intra-operative cholangiography could decrease the incidence of residual calculi and avoid unnessary exploration and trauma of the common bile duct.

OBJECTIVETo identify the Cynomorii Herba and its analogues species using DNA barcoding technique.

METHODTotal genomic DNA extracted from all materials using the DNA extraction kit. The internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) regions were amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and purified PCR products were sequenced bi-directionally. Sequence assembly and consensus sequence generation were performed using the CodonCode Aligner 3.7.1. The Kimura 2-Parameter (K2P) distances and GC content were computed using MEGA 5. 0. Species identification analyses were conducted through the species identification system for traditional Chinese medicine and neighbor-joining (NJ) trees.

RESULTThe ITS2 sequence lengths of Cynomorii Herba were 229 bp. The average intra-specific genetic distances of Cynomorii Herba were 0.003. The average inter-specific genetic distances between Cynomorii Herba and its adulterants species were 0.760. The results showed that the minimum inter-specific divergence is larger than the maximum intra-specific divergence. The species identification system for traditional Chinese medicine and NJ trees results indicated that Cynomorii Herba and its adulterants species can be easily identification.

CONCLUSIONThe ITS2 region is an efficient barcode for identification of Cynomorii Herba, which provide a new technique to ensure clinical safety in utilization of traditional Chinese medicine.

Cynomorium ; classification ; genetics ; DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic ; DNA, Intergenic ; genetics ; DNA, Plant ; genetics ; Polymerase Chain Reaction

Objective To study the clinical features of target organ damage in children with essential hypertension.Methods From Jan.2007 to Oct.2013,86 children were enrolled who were diagnosed as essential hypertension in the Children's Hospital Affiliated to Capital Institute of Pediatrics.All children received the following examinations:fundus oculi,electrocardiogram,echocardiography,serum triglyceride,glucose,insulin,C peptide,uric acid,renal function,urine microalbumin,serum and urine β2-microglobulin.All data were collected as standard procedure and analyzed by using statistic methods.Results In all recruited children,there were 68 boys (79.1％)and 18 girls (20.9％) with the average age of (12.3 ±2.4) years old.There were 46 children(53.5％) with grade Ⅰ hypertension and 40 (46.5％) with grade Ⅱ hypertension,13.5％ (7/52 cases) of the children with retinal vessel damage,21.0％ (17/81 cases) with abnormal electrocardiogram,and 2.6％ (2/78 cases) with left ventricular hypertrophy and increased left ventricular posterior w all thickness.Thirty-seven percent (30/81 cases) of the children had a higher voltage of R wave in V5 than average values at the same ages.Renal damage mainly included increased serum creatinine and microalbuminuria,with the rates of 40.2％ (33/82 cases) and 39.7％ (23/58 cases),respectively.Metabolic disorders mainly included 87.5％ (56/64 cases) hyperuricemia,32.5％ (25/77 cases) hypertriglyceridemia,22.1％ (19/86 cases) hepatic adipose infiltration,and 36.1％ (30/83 cases) hyperinsulinemia or sugar intolerance damage.There were 58 (67.4％) children wit h obesity.Compared with normal weight children,children with obesity had a higher rate of target organ damage(98.3％ vs 82.1％,x2 =5.291,P =0.021),and hyperinsulinemia or sugar intolerance damage(45.5％ vs 17.9％,x2 =6.123,P =0.013).Children with the course longer than 6 months showed a higher rate of hyperinsulinemia or sugar intolerance damage than the children with the course less than 6 months(50.0％ vs 25.5％,x2 =5.788,P =0.021).Conclusions Target organ damage caused by adolescent essential hypertension is present at diagnosis in most of these children.Electrocardiogram and echocardiography are effective measures for early detection of cardiac damage of hypertension.Serum uric caid and urine microalbumin can be used as early warning and screening indexes.To enhance blood pressure monitoring of children with obesity will be helpful for early diagnosis of essential hypertension,which will decrease the rate of target organ damage with earlier effective interference.

In order to construct an integrated DNA barcoding database for identifying Chinese animal medicine, the authors and their cooperators have completed a lot of researches for identifying Chinese animal medicines using DNA barcoding technology. Sequences from GenBank have been analyzed simultaneously. Three different methods, BLAST, barcoding gap and Tree building, have been used to confirm the reliabilities of barcode records in the database. The integrated DNA barcoding database for identifying Chinese animal medicine has been constructed using three different parts: specimen, sequence and literature information. This database contained about 800 animal medicines and the adulterants and closely related species. Unknown specimens can be identified by pasting their sequence record into the window on the ID page of species identification system for traditional Chinese medicine (www. tcmbarcode. cn). The integrated DNA barcoding database for identifying Chinese animal medicine is significantly important for animal species identification, rare and endangered species conservation and sustainable utilization of animal resources.
Animals ; DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic ; methods ; Databases, Nucleic Acid ; Eukaryota ; classification ; genetics ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional

Objective To respectively analyze the patterns and possible predictors of recurrent strokes among patients with initial ischemic stroke.Methods Three hundred and sixty-one patients with recurrent strokes (acute ischemic stroke or intracerebral hemorrhage) after initial ischemic strokes were collected from Jan 2004 to Dec 2009.The data about conventional risk factors such as smoking,heavy alcohol drinking,hypertension,diabetes,hyperlipidemia,heart diseases,head trauma,migraine,family history of cardiovascular disease,and the use of preventive medications were collected and analyzed among patients with different types of recurrent strokes.Results Patients (n =361) were divided into ischemic stroke group (n =321) and hemorrhagic stroke group (n =40) according to the recurrent stroke type.The ischemic stroke group was further divided into the anterior circulation stroke subgroup (n =234),the posterior circulation stroke subgroup (n =75) and watershed cerebral infarction or multiple infarction subgroup (n =12).Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that older age at initial stroke onset (OR =1.036,95 ％ CI 1.006-1.067,P =0.02) and hyperlipidemia (OR =2.253,95 ％ CI 1.092-4.647,P =0.028) were both the independent risk factors for the recurrent ischemic stroke.Comparing the subgroups,multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that atrial fibrillation (OR =4.217,95％ CI 1.489-11.942,P =0.007) was the independent risk factor for the recurrent ischemic stroke in the posterior circulation territory.Conclusion Aging and hyperlipidemia are possible predictors of recurrent ischemic stroke after the initial ischemic stroke which would be useful for individualized secondary prevention of stroke.

Objective To evaluate the changes in cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway in hippocampi global in aged rats with cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R ) injury .Methods One hundred and twenty male Sprague-Dawley rats , aged 18-22 months ,weighing 450-600 g ,were randomly divided into 2 groups ( n= 60 each):sham operation group (group S) and global cerebral I/R group (group I/R) .The animals were anesthetized with intraperitoneal 10% chloral hydrate 0.4 ml/100 g .Global cerebral I/R was induced by 4-vessel occlusion method described by Pulsinelli .Fifteen rats were sacrificed at 1 ,3 ,5 and 7 days of reperfusion ,and brains were removed for determination of neuronal apoptosis and expression of α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7nAChR ) , choline acetyltransferase (ChAT ) ,tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α) and interleukin-1β(IL-1β) in the hippocampal CA1 region .The apoptosis rate was calculated .Results Compared with group S ,the apoptosis rate was increased and the expression of α7nAChR ,ChAT ,TNF-αand IL-1βwas up-regulated in group I/R ( P<0.05 or 0.01 ) . The expression of α7nAChR and ChAT was up-regulated gradually during reperfusion and peaked at 5 day of reperfusion ( P< 0.05 ) .Conclusion Global cerebral I/R injury can activate cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway in aged rat hippocampi ,and the activation of this pathway is the endogenous mechanism of inhibition of excessive inflammatory responses in brain tissues .

OBJECTIVETo evaluate in vivo pharmacokinetics of Ophiopogonis Radix polysaccharide MDG-1 oily suspension injection prepared with different prescriptions in rats, and explore the feasibility of the long-acting drug delivery of MDG-1 Injection by using the oily suspension drug release system.

METHODMDG-1 microparticles were prepared by the anti-solvent precipitation method. Their size and size distribution were characterized. Castor oil with a high viscosity or aluminum stearate were added into soybean oil with a low viscosity, in order to prepare oily media with different viscosities, detect their rheological properties and screen out superior prescriptions for in vivo evaluation.

RESULTThe average size of microparticles was 21.81 microm, and the span between them was 2.63. The in vivo evaluation was conducted for prescriptions of mixed oil (soybean oil/castor oil, 2: 3) and soybean oils gelled by 2% and 4% aluminium stearate. Among them, the prescription of soybean gelled by 4% aluminium stearate could significantly reduce C(max) and prolong the apparent t1/2, with the MDG-1 release time of several days.

CONCLUSIONIt is feasible to achieve the long-acting MDG-1 drug delivery by using oily media with a high viscosity.

Animals ; Chemistry, Pharmaceutical ; methods ; Drug Delivery Systems ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; chemistry ; pharmacokinetics ; Male ; Ophiopogon ; chemistry ; Plant Oils ; chemistry ; Polysaccharides ; administration & dosage ; chemistry ; pharmacokinetics ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Viscosity