BACKGROUND: The morbility of rheumatoid arthritis is closely associated with cell apoptosis process. Hyperplasia of synoviocyte lies in the relatively insufficiency of synoviocyte apoptosis. Therefore, induction of synoviocyte apoptosis has clinical significance in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Arteannuin and its derivatives can induce the apoptosis of various cells. OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of artesunate on the expression of Fas/FasL and Bcl-2/Bax, which are correlated with apoptosis in synoviocyte of adjuvant arthritis. DESIGN: Randomized and controlled observation. SETTING: First College of Clinical Medical Science, Three Gorges UniversityMATERIALS: The experiment was conducted in the laboratories of Immunology and Morphology, Three Gorges University from September 2005 to November 2005. Fifty 8-week-old male Wistar rats of clean grade and (150±21) g were provided by the Animal Experimental Center of Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology; Complete Freud adjuvant by SIGMA, U.S., and artesunate solution by Guilin Pharmaceutical Corporation.rabbit anti-mouse Fas (SC-716), rabbit anti-mouse FasL and Technology (No. SCXK 2004-2007).Complete Freud adjuvant (SIGMA, U.S. No. 093K8932); artesunate solution (Guilin Pharmaceutical Cor); rabbit anti-mouse Fas (SC-716), rabbit anti-mouse FasL multi-antibody (SC-834), goat anti-mouse IgG-HRP multimer, rabbit anti-mouse P53 (M3566) multi-antibody, Bcl-2 (sc-7382) multi-antibody, rabbit anti-mouse Bax (sc-7480) multi-antibody, ABC compound reagent kit and DAB coloring reagent all acquired from Santa Cruz biotechnology (Santa Cruz, USA); methotrexate (MTX) purchased from Shanghai Hualian Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.; microscope and image analysis system obtained from Leica (Leica,Germany); microtome (Leica, Germany).METHODS: Fifty rats were randomly divided into six groups: normal group (n =8), model group (n =8), high dose artesunate group (n =8), low dose artesunate group (n =8), artesunate plus methotrexate (MTX) group (n =8), and MTX group (n =8). ①Model construction was referred to literature: Except the normal group with 0.1 mL normal saline, all rats were injected with 0.1 mL complete Freund's adjuvant into the right voix pedis to establish the models of adjuvant arthritis. Since the 13th day after modeling, high and low dose artesunate groups were intraperitoneally injected with 40 and 20 mg/kg artesunate, respectively everyday; artesunate plus MTX group was intraperitoneally injected with 20 mg/kg artesunate everyday and 0.4 mg/kg MTX every three days; MTX group with 0.4 mg/kg MTX solution every three days;model group with 1 mL normal group everyday. ②The arthrosis index (Al) of each group was evaluated before and 13 days after administration; the expressions of Fas/FasL, Bcl-2, and Bax in synovial membrane tissue were examined by immunohistochemistry.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES : Al and the expression of Fas/FasL, Bcl-2, and Bax in synovial membrane tissue of each group.RESULTS: Fifty rats were involved in the result analysis. ①Thirteen days after administration, the Al of each experiment group (including model control) was remarkably lower than that before treating (P ＜ 0.01). The Al of eachexperiment group was significantly lower than that in model control group (P ＜ 0.01). ②The expression of Fas/FasL in high and low dose artesunate groups and artesunate plus MTX group was up-regulated significantly compared with that in model group (P ＜ 0.01). There was no statistically significant difference in the expression between MTX group and model group (P ＞ 0.05); the expression of Bcl-2 was significantly down-regulated but Bax up-regulated in two artesunate groups,artesunate plus MTX group and MTX group compared with that in model group (P ＜ 0.05).CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that artesunate could alleviate adjuvant arthritis, up-regulate the expression of Fas/FasL and Bax, but down-regulate that of Bcl-2, in which the induction of synoviocyte apoptosis may be one of the mechanisms.

Ideal ecological condition for the growth of Ophiopogon japonicus(L. f) Ker-Gawl. is a warm and moist environment. It is generally planted along the banks of Fujing River,460～520m above sea level. The best soil will be brown and sandy with complicated parent material,rich in mineral,calcium and organic matters,neutral and vivid with bacterial activity. It has a deep soil horizon,shallow water level,loosely composed on the surface while tightly beneath,good permeation for both air and water. Such a concert among soil,water,air,heat and manure will result in a high yield of the plant to satisfy the demand of high quality product.

Objective To establish the quality standard of Alisma plantago-aquatica through comparing systematically the changes of HPLC fingerprint of 23-alisol B and 24-alisol A, and other corresponding components as well. Methods The gradient elution mode was applied in chromatographic separation and data were analyzed by "Computer Aided Similarity Evaluation" software and DPS statistic software. Results Total quality of A. plantago-aquatica was the best when grow-seedling was at 25th, June, transplanting at 10th, September, and collecting at 22nd, December in the same year. Conclusion Total quality will drop along with the postponement of grow-seedling stage, transplanting stage, and collecting stage.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the impact of disinfection quality in surgical dressing room on the healing of wound with dressing exchanges in order to implement procedures to prevent nosocomial infection. METHODS A retrospective investigation was performed and cases of poor surgical wound healing from Jan 2006 to Dec 2007 were collected and analised. Effective measures were taken to enhance the management and surveillance in the dressing room. RESULTS After taking the prevention procedure,the passing rate of disinfection was increased. Before implementing the prevention procedure the passing rates of air,surface and finger cultured were 83.3%,83.3% and 75.0%,respectively,After taking the prevention procedure the passing rates of above were all 100.0%.The rate of poor wound healing decreased from 4.16% to 1.59%. CONCLUSIONS The disinfection quality of dressing room has direct effects on the wound healing. The management of dressing room disinfection should be emphasized to cut down the nosocomial infections of wound.

Objective To develop an HPLC method to determine the contents of chrysophanol, emodin, physcion, aloe-emodin, sennoside A, and sennoside B simultaneously in the aerial part of Rheum tanguticum Maxim.ex Balf. Methods The analysis was achieved with an Agilent ZORBAX SB-C18 analytic column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) by gradient elution of methanol-0.1％ phosphoric acid in water gradient elution system (0 min, 70％ B; 5 min, 65％ B;8–16 min, 60％ B; 18–23 min, 55％ B; 25–30 min, 45％ B; 32–39 min, 35％ B; 49–57 min, 24％ B; 65–72 min, 20％ B). The flow rate was 1.0 mL/min; detection wavelength was 254 nm; the column temperature was room temperature; the quantification used external standard method. Results The peak areas and concentrations of chrysophanol, emodin, physcion, aloe-emodin, sennoside A, and sennoside B showed good linear relationship within a certain concentration range (r≥0.9995); the RSD of precision was 0.75％–1.17％; the RSD of repeatability was 0.99％–2.06％; the RSD of stability was 0.97％–1.76％; the average recoveries were 99.7％–100.4％. The results showed that there were differences in content between the root and aerial part of Rheum tanguticum Maxim.ex Balf. Conclusion HPLC method for simultaneous determination of contents of 6 contents of the aerial part of Rheum tanguticum Maxim.ex Balf can be used as the references for quality control.

This study was aimed to establish a method for quality control of Tibetan medicine Shi-Wei Xiao-Shi-San (SWXSS). Thin layer chromatography (TLC) was established for the qualitative determination. Cinnamal and piperine were determined by HPLC. The separation was performed on Phenomenex C18 column (4.6 mm × 250 mm, 5μm). The results showed that TLC can be used in the identification of pomegranate seed and Terminalia chebula. The linear ranges of cinnamal and piperine were within the range of 0.06-0.37μg and 0.05-0.33μg, respectively. And the standard line was Y=9.273 2×106X-2.348 2×105, r=0.999 8;Y=7.315×103X-3.857, r=1.000 0. It was concluded that the identification method was specific, accurate and practical, which can be applied in the quality control of SWXSS.

Objective:To explore the relationship of CDH17 expression with clinico-pathological features and the correlation be-tween the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of CDH17 gene and genetic susceptibility of gastric carcinoma (GC). Methods:A tissue microarray was performed to simulate the dynamic process of invasion and metastasis of GC. Immunohistochemical staining was performed to detect the expression of CDH17 protein, and PCR-based LDR was performed to detect the 2 SNP loci (rs2514813 and rs3214050) genotypes of CDH17 gene. Results: The expression of CDH17 protein in GC was more significantly up-regulated and greatly increased in the intestinal type than in the diffuse type. The expression of CDH17 protein in GC was positively correlated with the histological grading (P<0.01) and was not associated with the survival (P=0.209). With the progression of the cancer invasion, the expression of CDH17 protein in GC showed a downtrend from the gastric mucosa layer to the invasive front edge. The frequencies of the C and T alleles and the CC, CT, and TT genotypes at the CDH17 rs3214050 locus between the GC patients and the control groups were significantly different (P<0.01). However, no significant differences were observed at rs2514813 (P>0.05). The individuals with the T al-leles had longer survival time than those with the CC genotype (P<0.01). Conclusion:The up-regulation of CDH17 expression is in-volved in the maintenance of histological phenotype and progression of GC. Individuals with T alleles at the CDH17 rs3214050 locus have decreased risk of GC and had better prognosis (OR=0.762, 95%CI:0.619-0.937), thereby suggesting that screening for these alleles would help with the assessment of genetic susceptibility and prognosis of GC in the Fujian population.

Objective:To investigate the correlation of Mena protein expression with the invasion and metastasis of Mena SNPs with genetic susceptibility in gastric cancers (GC). Methods:A tissue microarray that simulates the invasion and metastasis process of GC was created, and immunohistochemistry was performed to detect the expression of Mena protein. The Mena gene 5 SNP loci geno-types of 188 healthy people and 389 GC patients were assayed using PCR-based LDR analysis. Results:The expression of Mena pro-tein in GC was significantly upregulated and greatly increased in the intestinal-type and mixed-type GC than that in the diffuse-type and was negatively related to the invasion and metastasis of GC. Patients with Mena overexpression had better prognosis. The frequen-cies of the A and G alleles, as well as the AA, AG, and GG genotypes, at the Mena SNP rs3795443 locus were significantly different be-tween patients with gastric carcinoma and the control groups (OR=2.1489,95%CI 1.4607~3.1613, P<0.01). The frequencies of these five Mena gene SNP loci were not significantly related with the survival of patients with gastric carcinoma. Conclusion:The upregula-tion of Mena expression is involved in maintaining the histological phenotype, invasion, metastasis, and prognosis of gastric adenocarci-noma. Individuals with GG and AG genotypes at the Mena rs3795443 locus have increased risk of gastric carcinoma, which suggests that screening for this genotype would be helpful in assessing the genetic susceptibility of gastric carcinoma.

Purpose To investigate the expression of Par3, Par6 and aPKC in gastric carcinoma and their significance. Method Ex-pression of Par3, Par6 and aPKC, by using immunohistochemistry, was detected in different sites of gastric carcinoma ( including the gastric carcinoma in gastric mucosa, the central area and the invasive front of gastric carcinoma) and the lymph node metastasis, using normal gastric mucosa as controls. Results Expression of Par3, Par6 and aPKC in different sites of gastric carcinoma was lower than in that of normal gastric mucosa (P<0. 01). Expression of Par3, Par6 and aPKC was obviously lower in gastric carcinoma with gastric phenotype than in that with intestinal phenotype and mixed phenotype of gastric carcinoma (P<0. 05, P<0. 01, P<0. 01);the rate of down-regulation of Par6 and aPKC in gastric carcinoma with invasion to ectoptygma and out of ectoptygma was obviously higher than that in gastric carcinoma which located at mucosa and under mucosa (P both<0. 01), and the rate of down-regulation of Par6 in gas-tric carcinoma with lymph node metastasis was obviously lower than that with no lymph node metastasis ( P>0. 05 ) . Conclusions The down-regulation expression of Par3, Par6 and aPKC may promote the carcinogenesis and progression of gastric carcinoma.

Purpose Investigating the significance of ZO-1 different domains in the invasion and metastasis of gastric carcinoma (GC).Methods A tissue microarray that simulates the invasion and metastasis process of GC was created,and immunohistochemistry was performed to detect the expression of ZO-1 (α-pan),ZO-1 (α +) and ZO-1 (ZU5).Results The GC cell exhibited aberrant expression of ZO-1 (α-pan),ZO-1 (α +) and ZO-1 (ZU5) from membrane translocated to cytoplasm or no expression.The aberrant degree was increased with the invasion,however,was decreased in metastatic lymph node.The aberrant expression was associated with histological types.Conclusion The aberrant expression of ZO-1 (α-pan),ZO-1 (α +) and ZO-1 (ZU5),from membrane translocated to cytoplasm or no expression suggest that domains of PDZ3,GUK,SH3,ZU5 and alpha motif in ZO-1 might be involved in the invasion and metastasis of GC and maintaining of GC phenotype.The aberrant expression of these domains may be the one mechanism of ZO-1 involved in EMT or MET.