Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Facial Paralysis ; therapy ; Female ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Needles ; Young Adult

Objective To observe changes of cognitive function and the expression of tumor necrosis factor alpha(TNF-α),interleukin 10(IL-10) in hippocampus of diabetic rats,and assess the role of inflammation in the possible pathogenesis of diabetic encephalopathy (DE).Methods 30 male SD rats were randomly divided into control group and diabetes mellitus group.After 4 weeks of feeding high fat diet,diabetes mellitus group according to 30mg/kg injected with streptozotocin to establish type 2 diabetic rat model.At the end of the experiment,cognition were evaluated using water maze test.The concentration of beta-amyloid(Aβ) in hippocampus of diabetic rats were detected through enzyme linked immunosorbent assay,and the expression of TNF-α,IL-10 were detected by Western blotting.The expression of Aβ,TNF-α,IL-10 were observed through immunohistochemistry.Results Time spent in the target quadrant in diabetes mellitus group was shorter than that in control group ((38.21± 3.68)s vs (42.10±2.62)s,t=3.105,P＜0.01).The frequency of crossing original platform site was less than that in control group((2.62±0.77) vs(3.69±0.95),t=3.184,P＜0.01).Compared with control group the expression of Aβ,TNF-α were higher(BothP＜0.01),and IL-10 were lower(P＜0.01)in diabetes mellitus group.The positive expression of Aβ,TNF-α were obviously and IL-10 were less obviously observed in diabetes mellitus group according to immunohistochemistry.Conclusion The cognitive decline in diabetic rats is possibly related to inflammatory cytokines expressing out of balance.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the protective effect of Shenfu Injection against ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury due to pancreas transplantation in rats, and explore its possible mechanism.

METHODSSix normal SD rats with sham operation were taken as the normal control group, 24 steptozozin-induced diabetic SD rats were randomly divided into 4 groups, with 6 in each group. Except I/R group, the rats in the other groups were intravenous injected with Shenfu Injection (SF,10 mg/kg), Hongshen Injection (HS, 9 mg/kg) and Fuzi Injection (FZ 1 mg/kg) respectively at the day and 30 minutes before pancreas transplantation performed in the SF group, HS group and FZ group, respectively. At the same time, rats in the normal control group and in the I/R group were intravenously injected the same volume of normal saline. The blood glucose was detected before and after reperfusion, and 2 hours later after reperfusion, the contents of serum nitric oxide (NO) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), the concentrations of malondialdehyde (MDA) , superoxide dismutase (SOD) , and myeloperoxidase (MPO) in the transplanted pancreas tissues were detected. The cell apoptosis of the transplanted pancreas tissue was determined by TUNEL, and the bcl-2 and Bax protein expression was determined by Western blot.

RESULTSAfter reperfusion, the levels of blood glucose and TNF-alpha decreased and the concentration of NO increased in the SF group, HS group and FZ group, compared with those in the I/R group. The activity of SOD, bcl-2 expression and the ratio of bcl-2 and Bax were higher, while the content of MDA, the activity of MPO, apoptotic indexes, and Bax expression were lower in the SF group, HS group and FZ group than those in the I/R group.

CONCLUSIONShenfu Injection can protect L/R injury due to pancreas transplantation in rats, the possible mechanism may be related to promoting activity of SOD, increasing synthesis of endogenous NO, decreasing the excretion of TNF-alpha, alleviating conglutination and aggregation of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) in pancreas, as well as up-regulating Bcl-2 gene expression and down-regulating the Bax gene expression.

Animals ; Cell Aggregation ; drug effects ; Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental ; enzymology ; metabolism ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Injections ; Malondialdehyde ; metabolism ; Nitric Oxide ; blood ; Pancreas ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Pancreas Transplantation ; adverse effects ; Protective Agents ; therapeutic use ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Reperfusion Injury ; etiology ; prevention & control ; Superoxide Dismutase ; metabolism ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo investigate the differences in semen quality between samples collected by masturbation in the clinic and at home.

METHODSBased on the WHO guidelines, we analyzed the ejaculates collected by masturbation in the clinic and at home from 342 men under infertility assessment and measured the contents of such biochemical markers in the seminal plasma as neutral α-glucosidase, zinc, and fructose. According to the location of semen collection, we divided the samples into two groups, clinic-collected and home-collected, and analyzed the differences in the semen parameters between the two groups with the SPSS 16.0 software.

RESULTSCompared with the clinic-collected semen, the home-collected samples had significantly higher mean values in semen volume (4.0 vs 4.9%), sperm concentration (41 vs 64 x 10(6)/ml), total sperm count (175 vs 270 x 10(6) per ejaculate), progressive sperm motility (40 vs 52%), total count of progressively motile sperm (82 vs 135 x 10(6) per ejaculate) (all P <0.05). No significant differences were found between the two groups in normal sperm morphology (4.0 vs 5.0%) and the contents of neutral α-glucosidase (26 vs 24 mU per ejaculate), zinc (8.0 vs 8.0 μmol per ejaculate), and fructose (62 vs 60 μmol per ejaculate) (all P >0.05). Abnormal sperm concentration (<20 x 10(6)/ml) was observed in significantly fewer of the home-collected samples than the clinic-collected ones (18% [62/342] vs 30% [103/342], P<0.05), and so was abnormal progressive sperm motility (<32%) (64% [219/342] vs 75% [256/342], P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONOur findings show that semen samples collected by masturbation at home has a higher quality than those collected in the clinic. So the location of semen collection should be taken into consideration in infertility investigation.

Humans ; Infertility, Male ; diagnosis ; Male ; Masturbation ; Semen ; enzymology ; physiology ; Semen Analysis ; methods ; Specimen Handling ; methods ; Sperm Count ; Sperm Motility ; alpha-Glucosidases ; analysis

Objective To investigate the effects of different stimulation of electroacupuncture on the protein expressions of SOCS1 and SOCS3 in rabbits with acute facial nerve injury; To determine the better stimulation. Methods New Zealand rabbits were treated with special hemostatic forceps for 5 min, and the length of the lesion was about 2.5 cm. The model of facial nerve injury was induced. The experiment was divided into blank group, sham-operation group, model group, and electoracupuncture weak-, medium-, and strong-stimulation group. The model group received no intervention after surgery. After treatment, the damaged facial nerve of each group was intercepted. The protein expressions of SOCS1 and SOCS3 mediated by negative feedback regulation of JAK-STAT were detected by ABC-ELISA. Results Compared with the blank group, the protein expressions of SOCS1 and SOCS3 in the model group increased (P<0.01). Compared with the model group, the protein expressions of SOCS1 and SOCS3 protein in electroacupuncture weak- stimulation group decreased (P<0.01). Conclusion Electroacupuncture can make SOCS1, SOCS3 protein expressions normal for acute facial nerve injury, and acupuncture treatment effect does not increase with the increase of stimulation.

An improved approximate entropy (ApEn) is presented and applied to characterize surface electromyography (sEMG) signals. In most previous experiments using nonlinear dynamic analysis, this certain processing was often confronted with the problem of insufficient data points and noisy circumstances, which led to unsatisfactory results. Compared with fractal dimension as well as the standard ApEn, the improved ApEn can extract information underlying sEMG signals more efficiently and accurately. The method introduced here can also be applied to other medium-sized and noisy physiological signals.
Algorithms ; Cluster Analysis ; Data Interpretation, Statistical ; Electromyography ; methods ; Entropy ; Fractals ; Humans ; Models, Statistical ; Nonlinear Dynamics ; Pattern Recognition, Automated ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted

Based on the transcriptome database of Salvia miltiorrhiza, specific primers were designed to clone a full-length cDNA of ent-kaurene oxidase synthase (SmKOL) using the RACE strategy. ORF Finder was used to find the open reading frame of SmKOL cDNA, and ClustalW has been performed to analysis the multiple amino acid sequence alignment. Phylogenetic tree has been constructed using MEGA 5.1. The transcription level of SmKOL from the hairy roots induced by elicitor methyl jasmonate (MeJA) was qualifiedby real-time quantitative PCR. The full length of SmKOL cDNA was of 1 884 bp nucleotides encoding 519 amino acids. The molecular weight of the SmKOL protein was about 58.88 kDa with isoelectric point (pI) of 7.62. Results of real-time quantitative PCR analyses indicated that the level of SmKOL mRNA expression in hairy roots was increased by elicitor oMeJA, and reached maximum in 36 h. The full-length cDNA of SmKOL was cloned from S. miltiorrhiza hairy root, which provides a target gene for further studies of its function, gibberellin biosynthesis and regulation of secondary metabolites.
Amino Acid Sequence ; Cloning, Molecular ; Computational Biology ; methods ; Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System ; chemistry ; genetics ; Models, Molecular ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Phylogeny ; Protein Structure, Tertiary ; Salvia miltiorrhiza ; enzymology

Taking guizhi fuling capsule (GZFL) for instance, a new method about reference Chinese medicine preparation which was used as standard substance for the quality evaluation of complex Chinese medicine preparation by the fingerprint of reference preparation instead of standard fingerprint was proposed. It could eliminate the errors from different instruments, chromatographic columns and solve the problem of similarity matching in the absence of standard fingerprint. The qualification of reference GZFL was evaluated according to the quality control method of GZFL from Chinese Pharmacopoeia. Then multiple batches of GZFL were estimated, taking fingerprint of reference preparation and standard fingerprint as references, respectively, at different instruments and chromatographic columns. Finally, the packaging and expiration date for reference GZFL were confirmed according to the results of stability investigation. The results indicated that the fingerprint of reference GZFL could be used to assess the quality of GZFL better than standard fingerprint. The data of accelerated stability and long-term stability test demonstrated that reference GZFL was stable in the conditions of double blister package. Therefore, reference GZFL can be used as standard substance in quality control of GZFL.
Capsules ; Drug Stability ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; standards ; Reference Standards

Serum cortisol and plasma ACTH were determined in 10 patients with severe sepsis and 12 with septic shock on day 1,3,5 after diagnosis were made,and the data were compared with 12 control patients. To evaluate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal(HPA)axis function in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock,1?g ACTH stimulation test was applied after hormone concentrations were obtained on day 1.Compared with the control patients,ACTH level was significantly higher in patients with severe sepsis and lower in septic shock(P

Objective To explore the factors influencing the premarital medical examination in Chinese population and to discuss the related possible intervention strategies.Methods Data were collected through self-designed questionnaires on 2572 newly married respondents,selected under a stratified randomized sampling method,at Marriage Registration Office in 12 counties in Zhejiang province.Predictive factors were derived from the integrating complementary constructs of Health Belief Model,Theory of Reasoned Action as well as individual demographic characteristics.Multiple logistic multilevel analyses was used as the main statistical method,with individuals as the ' low' and counties as the 'high' levels.Results Behaviors on premarital medical examination showed a clustering trait at the county level (P=0.018) and variance partition coefficients (VPC) of each variables was between 15.40％ and 17.58％.There were no statistical significances found in the rates of premarital medical examination among gender,age,residence of Household Registration,education,income,health insurance and history of premarital medical examination.However,significant correlation was seen on occupation of the respondents.The rate of premarital medical examination among the respondents who had not attended medical examination during the last six moths was 1.31times (95％ confidence intervals,1.05 -1.65 ) more than those who had,with OR (odds ratio) as 1.51 (95％CI:1.14-2.00) for the pregnant respondents in their first marriage and 0.35 (95％CI:0.23-0.51 )for remarried respondents,compared with women at first marriage but remained unpregnant.Regarding premarital medical examination,the respondents reported greater benefits,less barriers,greater positive behavioral attitudes and normative beliefs to it,with an ORs as 2.32 (95％ CI:1.18-4.60),0.71 (95％CI:0.57-0.90),1.69 (95％CI:1.10-2.58) and 1.72 (95％CI:1.34-2.20)respectively,but with no significant association with perceived susceptibility,perceived severity and motivation to comply.Conclusion Factors such as individual perceived benefits,barriers,attitudes and normative beliefs etc.,were determinants of premarital medical examination accompanied by minor (16％) influence coming from the geographical environment.