Objective To observe the effects of puerarin on the expression of glycogen synthase kinase- 3 (GSK- 3) in the skeletal muscle of rats with insulin resistance induced by high fat and sucrose diets. Methods 30 Wistar rats were randomly divided into three groups: normal group, model group and puerarin group, 10 rats in each group. The model group and puerarin group were fed with the high fat and sucrose diets for 4 weeks. Then puerarin group was treated with puerarin by abdominal injection (100 mg/kg) for 6 weeks. At the end of the experiment, GSK- 3 content was detected by Western blot analysis. Body weight, serum triglyceride and cholesterol levels, fasting plasma glucose and serum insulin concentrations were measured regularly and insulin sensitivity index was also computed as well. Results The outcome of Western blot analysis showed that the expression of GSK- 3 in the skeletal muscle of the model group increased by 70.20 % (P

Objective:To develop a method for determining deoxynivalenol in four kinds of traditional Chinese herbal medicines. Methods:After being extracted by water, purified by an immunoaffinity column, deoxynivalenol was analyzed by LC-MS-MS. Results:The calibration curve was linear within the range of 2-50 ng·ml-1 for deoxynivalenol. The recovery was 68. 7%-88. 3%. Conclusion:The method is simple, sensitive and accurate in the determination of deoxynivalenol in Semen Ziziphi Spinosae, Semen Sojae Praepara-tum, Semen Coicis and Fructus Psoraleae.

Malignant mesothelioma(MM) is a rare but highly invasive carcinoma associated with asbestos exposure.Its incidence is in rising trend and most cases occur in pleura and peritoneum.The majority of patients diagnosed at late stage with poor prognosis that the median overall survival is only 12 months.Accurate diagnosis depends on the histopathology combined with immunohistochemistry.At present, the treatment of MM is mainly based on the tumor reduction or resection surgery combined with chemotherapy and radiotherapy.The potential molecular target needs to be further investigated.In this paper, we summary the incidence, diagnosis and treatment of MM, which will benefit the diagnosis and treatment of MM in China.

Hyperlipidemia is a major factor causing coronary heart disease and atherosclerosis. The high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) is a major indicator for measuring lipid levels. However, there is no an effective medicine that can obviously increase HDL-C at present. According to previous laboratory studies, atractylodes macrocephalae extracts could significantly increase HDL-C level. In this study, the metabolic hyperlipidemia rat model was established by feeding high-sugar and fat diets and alcohol-drinking to explore the effect and mechanism of atractylodes macrocephalae extracts on hyperlipidemia rats. According to the findingins, different doses of atractylodes macrocephalae extracts could reduce the levels of TC, TG, LDL-C, ACAT and increase the contents of LCAT, HDL-C. Particularly, the atractylodes macrocephalae extracts (100 mg · kg(-1) group showed increase in HDL-C by about 50% and significant declines in HMG-CoA reductase, TC, TG. In conclusion, Atractylodes Macrocephelae Rhizoma extracts could effectively regulate the dyslipidemia of hyperlipidemia rats, especially on HDL-C. Its mechanism may be related to reduction in cholesterol synthesis by inhibiting HMG-CoA reductase in livers and increase in lipid metabolism and transport by regulating LCAT and ACAT levels.
Acyl Coenzyme A ; antagonists & inhibitors ; genetics ; metabolism ; Animals ; Atractylodes ; chemistry ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; Humans ; Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors ; administration & dosage ; Hyperlipidemias ; drug therapy ; enzymology ; metabolism ; Lipoproteins, HDL ; metabolism ; Male ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Rhizome ; chemistry ; Triglycerides ; metabolism

Acute Disease ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Animals ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Foodborne Diseases ; diagnosis ; etiology ; therapy ; Humans ; Male ; Meat ; poisoning ; Middle Aged ; Pesticides ; poisoning ; Swine ; Treatment Outcome

Site-saturation mutagenesis is a newly-developed technology in protein engineering.By manipulating the encoding genes,it can rapidly obtain the mutants of desired proteins whose target residues are substituted by 19 other common amino acids.Site-saturation mutagenesis could serve not only as a powerful tool in protein engineering,but also as an important method in exploring the structure-function relationship of proteins.Several techniques were summarized to achieve site-saturation mutagenesis and introduce their application status in the protein engineering.The problem and promising future of its application were also discussed.

OBJECTIVETo observe the effect of composite factors, like long-term high-salt & fat diet and alcohol abuse on blood viscosity and blood pressure in rats, and compare with a model induced by high molecular dextran, in order to build a chronic hyperviscosity aminal model which is similar to human hyperviscosity in clinic and lay a foundation for efficacy evaluation on traditional Chinese medicines.

METHODMale SD rats were randomly divided into the normal group, the high molecular dextran (HMD) group and the high salt & fat and alcohol (HSFA) group. The HMD group was given normal diet and water for 23 day and then 10% HMD through tail vein for 5 days. The HSFA group was fed with high salt and high fat diets every day and alcohol for 20 h x d(-1) for 13 weeks. After the modeling, whole blood viscosity and plasma viscosity were measured in the 5th, 8th and 11th week. Blood pressure was measured in the 5d, 7h, and 10th week. Red cell count (RBC) and hematocrit (HCT) were measured in the 11th week. PAgT, Fb, ET-1, NO, PGI, TXA2 contents of the normal group and the HSFA group were measured in the 13th week, and IECa21 content was measured with flow cytometry. Result: After the modeling, the HMD group was in good conditions with glossy hairs and active behaviors. The HSFA group was depressed with withered hairs and less activities. During the 5th-11th weeks, the HMD group and the HSFA group showed higher values in high and low shear whole blood viscosity (WBV) than the normal control group. The plasma viscosity (PV) of HMD rats was significantly increased only in the 5th week, and that of HSFA rats significantly increased in the 8"' and 11th week, particularly in the 11'h week. In the 111h week, the HSFA group showed significant increases in RBC and HCT. After the modeling, the blood pressure of HMD rats showed no significant changes, but the blood pressure of HSFA rats significantly increased during 7' and 101h weeks, particularly in the 10"' week. In the 13th week, PAgT, IECa2+, Fb, ET-1 of HSFA rats significantly increased, but with decreases in NO and PGI2.

CONCLUSIONLong-term high salt & fat and alcohol diets can cause abnormal blood viscosity in rats. WBV significantly increased since the 5th week in rats, and PV increased since the 8th week. The mechanism for increasing BV may be: (1) increases in RBC, HCT, and IECa2+, (2) PAgT increase, (3) Fb content increase, or (4) TXA2/PGI2, ET-1/NO imbalance. Although the modeling time with the method is longer than that with the HMD method, the model is more stable and moderate, and could lead to abnormal increases in WBV and PV; Whereas the HMD method only induced transient increase in plasma viscosity and abnormal increase in SBP. The model is more similar to traditional Chinese medicine syndromes and pathogenesis, with higher value for studies on efficacy of traditional Chinese medicines.

Alcoholism ; blood ; metabolism ; Animals ; Blood Pressure ; Blood Viscosity ; Diet, High-Fat ; adverse effects ; Disease Models, Animal ; Ethanol ; adverse effects ; metabolism ; Humans ; Male ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Sodium Chloride, Dietary ; adverse effects ; metabolism

BACKGROUND:Previous studies have shown that there are some significantly gender-related differences in coronary heart disease between women and men.It is not clear whether the outcomes have affected by gender.OBJECTIVE:To analyze the outcomes of follow-up after coronary stenting,and to investigate the sex diffefence.DESIGN,TIME AND SETTING:The prospective follow-up was performed at the Wuhan Asia Heart Hospital from January 2004 to December 2005.PARTICIPANTS:267 patients who suffered from coronary artery disease and treated with percutaneous coronary intervention were involved in the present study and followed up for 3 years,including 52 females and 215 males,averagely(59.4±7.5)years old.Imfarction in 3 levels were considered to be scccessful.Follow-up in out-patient clinic was conducted regularly.Six monks after implantation,telephone follow-up was done;questionnaire follow-up was performed every year.Average follow-up time was(20±7)months.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:Baseline clinical and angiographic characteristics,follow-up outcomes after 3 years of implantation after coronary stenting were compared between 52 females and 215 males.lower significantly than those in men.During the 3-year follow-up,no significant differences were observed between women and men regarding death,major adverse cardiovascular events,and recurrent typical ischemia.The proportion of symptom remission,life quality improvement was similar between women and men.In multivariable analysis,sex was not anindependent predicator for long-term outcomes of coronary stenting(OR 0.819,95% CI 0.41 to 1.79).CONCLUSION:Women with coronary artery disease are older than men and have more comorbidities.Long-term outcomes have improved in women after coronary stenting.Therapeutic outcome is not correlated to sex.

Objective To conduct an in vitro study of the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa,Staphylococcus aureus and Acin- etobacter spp.,and evaluate their response to various concentrations of tumor necrosis factor(TNF)-?,interleukin (IL)-1?, and IL-6.Methods To monitor the growth of bacteria incubated with the cytokines TNF?,IL-1?and IL-6 that were added to RPMI 1640 medium in various concentrations (10,50.100,500 pg,1 and 10 ng) at 2,4 to 6,8 and 16-18 h.The bacterial concentration was estimated when the mixtures of cytokines and specific neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) were in- cubated.Results We found that all three bacterial species showed concentration-dependent growth enhancement when incubated with one or more tested cytokines.Blockade by specific neutralizing cytokine significantly inhibited cytokine-induced growth. When compared with control,the 6 h growth response was maximal with IL-1?for Staphylococcus aureus and Acinetobacter spp.,and with IL-6 for Pseudomonas aeruginosa.Conclusions In this study we provide additional evidence for a newly de- scribed mechanism for bacterial proliferation in the presence of exaggerated and protracted inflammation.The effect that cyto kine-induced growth enhancement inhibited by specific neutralizing cytokine MoAbs may be useful for antimicrobial therapy.

The differential expression of genes in HepG2 cells caused by UC001kfo RNAi was investigated using RNA-seq.HepG2 cells were infected by Lenti-shUC001kfo lentivirus particles.The expression of UC001kfo mRNA in the HepG2-shUC001kfo cell line was detected by real-time PCR.RNA-seq technology was used to identify the difference in the expression of genes regulated by lncRNA UC001kfo in the HepG2 cell line.Gene ontology and signaling pathway analysis were performed to reveal the biological functions of the genes encoding of significantly different mRNAs.The results showed that mRNAs were differentially expressed between the HepG2-shUC001kfo cell line and the HepG2 cell line.The UC001kfo mRNA was significantly down-regulated in the stable cell line HepG2-shUC001kfo (P＜0.001).Additionally,we found 19 signaling pathways or functional classifications encompassing 30 genes that played a role in cancer characteristics,cell adhesion,invasion and migration.The results also showed that the expression of many genes associated with cancer cell invasion and metastasis was decreased with the down-regulation of the lncRNA UC001kfo.LncRNA UC001kfo may play a role in regulating cancer cell invasion and metastasis.It was suggested that mRNAs were differentially expressed in the HepG2 cell line after the down-regulation of lncRNA-UC001kfo.Some took part in the extracellular matrix,cell adhesion,motility,growth,and localization.The genes encoding of differentially expressed mRNAs may participate in cell invasion and metastasis.