Puerarin (PUE), as an isoflavone component, has a wide range of pharmacological activities, while its poorly aqueous solubility limits the development of solid oral dosage forms. In this study, PUE along with nicotinamide (NIC) were prepared into the coamorphous system by solvent-evaporation method and characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). In addition, its dissolution behavior and solubilization mechanism were also investigated. PUE-NIC coamorphous was a single homogeneous binary system, with a single glass transition temperature at 35.1 ℃. In comparison to crystalline PUE, during the dissolution process, coamorphous PUE-NIC not only exhibited the "liquid-liquid phase separation" (LLPS) phenomenon, but the formation of A_p type complexation (1∶1 and 1∶2) between PUE and NIC molecules was also verified, which significantly improved the solubility of PUE and prolonged the supersaturation time, and would benefit its absorption.

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the levels of bone morphogenetic protein-15 (BMP-15) in human follicular fluid (FF) and its association with response to ovarian stimulation.

METHODSWestern blotting was performed to determine the levels of BMP-15 in FF obtained from follicle aspirates in 70 patients undergoing IVF treatment. According to the response to ovarian stimulation the patients were divided into poor responder group and normal responder group.

RESULTBMP-15 levels in FF of poor responders were significantly higher than those in normal responders (1.01 +/- 0.34 vs 0.77 +/- 0.24, P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONIncreased levels of BMP-15 in FF may be associated with poor response to ovarian stimulation.

Adult ; Blotting, Western ; Bone Morphogenetic Protein 15 ; Female ; Follicle Stimulating Hormone ; administration & dosage ; Follicular Fluid ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone ; administration & dosage ; analogs & derivatives ; Growth Differentiation Factor 9 ; Humans ; Infertility, Female ; metabolism ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; biosynthesis ; Ovary ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Ovulation Induction

AIM: To explore the relationship between the expression of caspase-2 and caspase-3 and the apoptosis in retinal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury of rats, as well as the therapeutic effects of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)on the ischemic and reperfused retina.METHODS: This experiment was conducted at the laboratory of Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University Medical College from February 2007 to July 2007. The models of retinal ischemia/reperfusion injury were made by transiently elevating intraocular pressure. A total of 28 rats were divided into Normal and Operative Groups. Operative group was divided into six subgroups. In each subgroup there were four rats. The left eyes of rats were used for I/R and the right eyes were used for intravitreal injection of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) as treatment group. After reperfusion we divided our subgroups according to the reperfusion time as 1, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72 hours. The retinal ganglion cell number was counted by using optic microscope(BX-51,Olympus). Apoptosis was assessed by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick-end labelling (TUNEL) method, and the expression of caspase-2,caspase-3 was studied by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and strept avidin-biotin complex (SABC)immunohistochemistry.RESULTS: No positive apoptotic cells were observed in the normal rats' retinae, but there were a significant number of positive apoptosis cells in 6-24 hours after transient ischemia followed by a decrease at 48 hours. The number of apoptotic cells reached a maximum at 24 hours after ischemia .The expression of caspase-2 gradually increased as early as at 6 hours, reached a peak at 24 hours, then decreased between 48 and 72 hours. Similarly, caspase-3 has the same rule with caspsae-2 in the time courses of expression in retinal tissues.BDNF administered before reperfusion inhibited the expression of apoptosis and ameliorated the retinal tissue damage. It also decreased caspase-2 and caspase-3 expression in ischemic/reperfused retina.CONCLUSION: Retinal ischemia-reperfusion can induce apoptosis of cells in the retina. BDNF rescues retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) from retinal ischemia/reperfusion injury through down-regulation of cell apoptosis and caspase-2 and caspase-3 expression. BDNF have a neuroprotective effect on retina.

Objective To evaluate the genotoxicity of a magnesium alloy coated with β-tricalcium phosphate(β-TCP).Methods Four groups were designed.In the first group,AZ31B magnesium alloy surface was coated with β-TCP using chemical bath deposition,and in the second group magnesium alloy was tested.The other two groups were negative control(pure titanium)and positive control groups(0.5 mg/L bleomycin).Single cell gel electrophoresis was adopted to investigate genotoxicity of the alloy samples in different groups,and 60 cells from each group were analysed.Tail moment and tail DNA percentage were used as reliable indicators to show DNA damage in lymphocytes induced by every testing sample.Student-Newman-Keuls(SNK)test wag used to compare results from 4 groups.Results There were no significant differences in tail moment and tail DNA percentage between magnesium alloy group[(0.52±0.12),(6.82±1.81)%]and magnesium alloy coated with β-TCP group[(0.51±0.12),(6.89±1.93)%,P＞0.05].Tail moment and tail DNA percentage in negative group were(0.47±0.14)and(6.29±1.64)%,and tail moment and tail DNA percentage in positive group were(5.17±1.23)and(22.09±4.51)%.Conclusions No significant increase was found in DNA damage in lymphocytes induced by magnesium alloy coated with β-TCP.

The feasibility of simultaneously loading both liposoluble and water-soluble components of Salvia miltiorrhiza in emulsion was discussed, in order to provide new ideas in comprehensive application of effective components in S. miltiorrhiza in terms of technology of pharmaceutics. With tanshinone II (A) and salvianolic acid B as raw materials, soybean phospholipid and poloxamer 188 as emulsifiers, and glycerin as isoosmotic regulator, the central composite design-response surface method was employed to optimize the prescription. The coarse emulsion was prepared with the high-speed shearing method and then homogenized in the high pressure homogenizer. The biphasic drug-loading intravenous emulsion was prepared to investigate its pharmaceutical properties and stability. The prepared emulsion is orange-yellow, with the average diameter of 241 nm and Zeta potential of -35.3 mV. Specifically, the drug loading capacity of tanshinone II (A) and salvianolic acid B were 0.5 g x L(-1) and 1 g x L(-1), respectively, with a good stability among long-term retention samples. According to the results, the prepared emulsion could load liposoluble tanshinone II (A) and water-soluble salvianolic acid B simultaneously, which lays a pharmaceutical foundation for giving full play to the efficacy of S. miltiorrhiza.
Chemistry, Pharmaceutical ; instrumentation ; methods ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Emulsions ; chemistry ; Quality Control ; Salvia miltiorrhiza ; chemistry

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Creatine Kinase ; blood ; Female ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; blood ; drug therapy ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Thymidine ; analogs & derivatives ; therapeutic use ; Young Adult

Global longitudinal strain (GLS) at rest on two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography (2D STE) was demonstrated to help detect coronary artery disease (CAD).However,the optimal cut-off point of GLS and its diagnostic power for detecting critical CAD in non-diabetes mellitus (DM) patients are unknown.In the present study,211 patients with suspected CAD were prospectively included,with DM patients excluded.All patients underwent echocardiography and subsequently coronary angiography within 3 days.Left ventricular (LV) GLSs were quantified by 2D STE.Territorial peak systolic longitudinal strains (TLSs) were calculated based on the perfusion territories of the 3-epicardial coronary arteries in a 17-segment LV model.Critical CAD was defined as an area stenosis ≥70％ in ≥1 epicardial coronary artery (≥50％ in left main coronary artery).Totally 145 patients were diagnosed as having critical CAD by coronary angiography.Significant differences were observed in all strain parameters between patients with and without critical CAD.The area under the receiver operating charcteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) for GLS in the detection of left main (LM) or threevessel CAD was 0.875 at a cut-off value of-19.05％ with sensitivity of 78.1％ and specificity of 72.7％,which increased to 0.926 after exclusion of apical segments (cut-off value-18.66％;sensitivity 84.4％ and specificity 81.8％).The values of TLSs were significantly lower in regions supplied by stenotic arteries than in those by non-stenotic arteries.The AUC for the TLSs to identify critical stenosis of left circumflex (LCX) artery,left anterior descending (LAD) artery and right coronary artery (RCA),in order of diagnostic accuracy,was 0.818 for LCX,0.764 for LAD and 0.723 for RCA,respectively.In conclusion,in non-DM patients with suspected CAD,GLS assessed by 2D STE is an excellent predictor for LM or three-vessel CAD with high diagnostic accuracy,and a higher cut-off point than reported before should be used.Excluding apical segments in the calculation of GLS can further improve the predictive accuracy of GLS.It is unsatisfactory for TLSs to be used to identify stenotic coronary arteries.

AIMTo investigate the effect of paraventricular nucleus (PVN) stimulation and the c-fos expression within PVN and nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) of the rat following gastric ischemia/reperfusion injury (GI/RI).

METHODSThe rat celiac artery was clamped for thirty minutes and reperfused for sixty minutes, using Fos immunohistochemical method (ABC method) examined the c-fos expression within PVN and NTS.

RESULTS(1) Both electrical and chemical stimulation of the PVN obviously attenuated the GI/ RI. (2) Bilateral electrolytic lesion of NTS could eliminate the protective effect of electrical stimulation of the PVN. (3) The Fos-like immunoreactive neurons were increased in bilateral PVN and NTS by GI/RI.

CONCLUSIONThe function of PVN and NTS could be affected by the GI/RI noxious stimulation. PVN, NTS were involved in the regulation of GI/RI.

Animals ; Gastric Mucosa ; pathology ; Male ; Paraventricular Hypothalamic Nucleus ; metabolism ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos ; metabolism ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Reperfusion Injury ; metabolism ; Solitary Nucleus ; metabolism ; Stomach ; blood supply

Flavonol synthase (FLS) is one of the key enzymes in flavonoids metabolic pathways. In this study, middle sequence was obtained from Carthamus tinctorius transcriptome sequencing results. Full-length cDNAs of FLS was cloned from petals of C. tinctorius to FLS by using RT-PCR and RACE technology. Its full-length cDNA was 1,201 bp, with an open reading frame of 1,101 bp and 336 encoded amino acids. The phylogenetic analysis showed that, FLS gene encoded amino acids in C. tinctorius were highly homologous with amino acids in congeneric Compositae species, especially Rudbeckia laciniata. The pBASTA-FLS plant expression vector was successfully built by the molecular biology method, which lays a foundation for further studying biology functions of the gene and biosynthesis mechanism of flavonoids.
Amino Acid Sequence ; Base Sequence ; Carthamus tinctorius ; classification ; enzymology ; genetics ; Cloning, Molecular ; DNA, Complementary ; genetics ; metabolism ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Open Reading Frames ; Oxidoreductases ; genetics ; metabolism ; Phylogeny ; Plant Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism

Objective To investigate the effect of health belief model on the quality of life of patients with chronic prosatitis. Methods Totally, 80 patients with chronic prosatitis were divided into the observation group and the contrast group at random and each group consisted of 40 patients. Patients in the observation group took medication and at the same time they received conventional health education in accordance with the health belief mold while the contrast group only used the routine health education. The quality of life of patients of the two groups were compared before and after the health education. Results Before the health education, the quality of life between groups showed no significance ( P ＞ 0. 05). While after the 3-month health education, the difference of quality of life betweens group was significant. Conclusions The health belief mold education can improve the quality of life of patients with chronic prosatitis.