Objective To determinate the toxic elements in Radix Astragali by ICP-MS. Methods The elements of Cu, As, Cd, Hg, Pb, Al, Cr, Sn, Ba in Radix Astragali were analyzed by ICP-MS. Results There were toxic elements in Radix Astragali. The concentration of Cu, As, Cd, Hg and Pb were not over the limits of Chinese Pharmacopoeia, but the concentration of Al, Cr and Ba were over the levels of other elements obviously. Conclusions There are difference of residues of the 9 kinds of toxic elements. It’s necessary to establish the determination methods of toxic elements (especially Al, Sn, Cr and Ba) in Chinese herbal medicines and the limits of the related toxic elements.

Transient ischemic attack (TIA) is a high-risk signal of acute ischemic cerebrovascular diseases, indicates a significant increase in the risk of ischemic stroke, especially within 7 days.Risk assessment and stratification are important in patients with TIA.A variety of simple prediction scales were developed based on the risk factors for stroke in patients with TIA, such as the California scale, ABCD scale, and ABCD2 scale.Among them, the ABCD scale score is used most commonly, but as its application becomes more and more common, the defects of this scale are also increasingly apparent.In recent years, some derived scales of ABCD score were introduced in order to improve the sensitivity and specificity of prediction.This article reviews the evolution, contents, characteristics, and predictive value of the ABCD score and its derived scales in the prediction of stroke risk in patients with TIA.

A new UPLC method was developed for the simultaneous determination of eleven characteristic flavonoid glycosides in Ginkgo biloba leaves. The natural occurrence of flavonoid glycosides in Ginkgo biloba leaves within one vegetative season was investigated for the first time. The analysis was performed on an Agilent ZORBAX Eclipse Plus C18 column (50 mm x 4.6 mm, 1.8 microm), the mobile phase A was acetonitrile, the mobile phase B was 0.4% phosphate aqueous solution in a gradient elution at a flow rate of 0.6 mL x min(-1), the detection was carried out at 360 nm. The result showed that eleven flavonoid glycosides had good linearity with good average recovery, separately. The method was proved to be accurate, rapid and good reproducible for the quality evaluation of Ginkgo biloba leaves, and provide an easy and rapid means for the quantitative analysis of flavonoid glycosides and their content fluctuation with seasons.

OBJECTIVE:To study the feasibility of overflow dissolution method for evaluating the drug in vitro sustained re-lease performance. METHODS:Overflow dissolution method was established by simulating the drugs elimination in vivo. Using Nifedipine sustained-elease tablets(Ⅰ)from 2 different manufacturers as model drug A,B,concentration-time curve,cumulative release rate- time curve,release velocity-time curve of model drugs in release pool at 3 different overflow speed (0,1.50,3.00 mL/min)were investigated. RESULTS:When overflow speed was 0,the cumulative dissolution was consistent with that of the con-ventional dissolution method. As the overflow speed increased,cmax of drug A,B was decreased [A:(8.89±0.20),(5.21±0.04), (3.51±0.03)μg/mL;B:(7.62±0.05),(4.80±0.09),(2.89±0.04)μg/mL];cumulative release rate was increased [A:(85.47± 2.45)%,(94.29 ± 2.44)%,(96.04 ± 2.56)%;B:(73.28 ± 1.13)%,(78.46 ± 1.94)%,(82.50 ± 1.69)%] ;tmax was ahead (A:1.5,1.0,0.5 h;B:2.0,1.0,0.5 h). CONCLUSIONS:Overflow dissolution method has avoided the inhibition of too large drug concentration on drug release,making complete drug release and more accurate evaluation of in vivo sustained release performance of the preparation.

Objective To establish a GC method for simultaneous determine of camphor, borneol and bornyl acetate in Shenling Baizhu Powder. Methods Capillary column was used with 100% methyl polysiloxane as stationary phase. The temperature-programmed was as follows:starting temperature of 60 ℃, 5 ℃/min, rose to 130 ℃, kept for 5 minutes, followed by 20 ℃/min up to 230 ℃, and kept for 5 minutes. Results The average recovery rate of camphor was 99.87%, RSD was 1.3%, and good linear relationship was showed in the range of 0.003 77-0.150 8 μg (r=0.999 9). The average recovery of borneol was 100.71%, RSD was 2.1%, and good linear relationship was showed in the range of 0.002 411-0.096 4 μg (r=0.999 9). The average recovery rate of bornyl acetate was 101.95%, RSD was 1.3%, and good linear relationship was showed in the range of 0.003 02-0.121 1 μg (r=0.999 9). Conclusion The method is simple, reliable, accurate, and can effectively control the quality of Amomi Fructus in Shenling Baizhu Powder.

Objective:To explore the association of tumor associated macrophages (TAM) with tumor invasiveness, metastasis and prognosis in cardia carcinoma tissues.Methods:The cancer tissues and pericarcinomatous tissues of 100 patients with cardia carcinoma who underwent D2 radical operation in the First Hospital of Putian City from January 2014 to January 2015 were collected. M2-type TAM was marked with CD163. The tissue microarray was made and the expression of CD163 in microarray tissues was detected by using immunohistochemistry. The median number of CD163 positive cells in all cancer tissues was taken as the cut-off value. The patients with the mean number of CD163 positive cells ≥ the cut-off value were those with high TAM infiltration, and vice versa. The association of TAM infiltration with clinicopathological features and prognosis was analyzed, and Cox proportional hazards model was used for multivariate analysis of survival.Results:The positive cell median number of CD163 in cardia carcinoma tissues was higher than that in adjacent tissues [the median number ( P25, P75): 32/high power field (HP) (16/HP, 46/HP) vs. 6/HP (4/HP, 11/HP)], and the difference was statistically significant ( Z = -35.044, P < 0.01). There were 48 cases in low invasive group (< 32/HP) and 52 cases in high invasive group (≥32/HP). The proportion of patients with high TAM infiltration in serosa and extraserosa was higher than that in mucosa and muscle [60.9% (39/64) vs. 36.1% (13/36)], and the proportion of patients with high TAM infiltration for patients with lymph node metastasis was higher than that for patients without lymph node metastasis [61.8% (42/68) vs. 31.3% (10/32)], and the proportion of patients with high TAM infiltration for those with TNM stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ was higher than that for those with TNM stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ [64.4% (38/59) vs. 34.1% (14/41)], and the differences were statistically significant (all P < 0.05). The median overall survival time of high TAM group was shorter than that of low TAM group [24.00 months (95% CI 17.25-43.50 months) vs. 62.00 months (95% CI 34.00-68.00)], and the difference in overall survival was statistically significant (χ 2 = 18.137, P < 0.01). Lymph node metastasis ( HR = 0.301, 95% CI 0.105-0.862, P = 0.025), TNM staging ( HR = 8.404, 95% CI 2.810-25.133, P < 0.01) and TAM infiltration level in cancer tissues ( HR = 4.277, 95% CI 2.372-7.712, P < 0.01) were independent influencing factors for overall survival of patients. Conclusions:TAM plays an important role in the invasion and metastasis of cardia carcinoma and can be used as an independent predictor of biological behavior and prognosis in cardia carcinoma.

Objective To observe the clinical effect on sleep improvement about acupoint application in treating the chronic insomnia of Liver-stagnation and Spleen-deficiency Syndrome.Methods A total of 68 patients with chronic insomnia with Liver-stagnation and Spleen-deficiency Syndrome were randomly and blindly divided into treatment group and control group by registration order. In the treatment process, 1 was eliminated and 33 were completed in the treatment group, 2 were eliminated and 32 were completed in the control group. The treatment group underwentAn Mian Tietherapy half an hour before bed and the control group underwent placebo therapy in the same way of treatment group. Two groups were treated for 40 days and followed-up visit six months. The change of Pittsburgh Sleep Quality (PSQI), Index Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and TCM Syndromes Scale were detected.Results The clinical total effective rate of treatment group was 72.7% and the control group was 9.4%, and the difference was statistically significant (χ2=46.977,P<0.01). The PSQI scores after treatment (7.55 ± 1.52vs. 13.90 ± 2.44,t=148.165), and follow up 1 month (8.97 ± 2.51vs. 13.17 ± 2.79,t=37.926) in the treatment group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P<0.01). The ISI scores after treatment (7.03 ± 3.37vs. 20.89 ± 4.40,t=73.75), and follow up 1 month (9.81 ± 3.16vs. 19.41 ± 3.66,t=40.79) in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P<0.01). The TCM Syndromes Scale scores after treatment (2.05 ± 1.09vs. 6.98 ± 1.23,t=17.116), and follow up 1 month (4.06 ± 1.59vs. 6.83 ± 0.91,t=68.055) and follow up 6 month (5.12 ± 1.84vs. 7.19 ± 1.07,t=27.716) in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P<0.01).Conclusions Acupoint application could obviously change the sleep quality and Chinese medicine symptom in chronic insomnia of Liver-stagnation and Spleen-deficiency Syndrome.

BACKGROUND:Cel cryopreservation is required for clinical use of stem cel s, and the current process of cryopreservation however may be harmful to cel viability, pluripotency and differentiation capacity.
OBJECTIVE:To explore the effect of fructose and dithiothreitol on pluripotency and osteogenesis of cryopreserved bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s.
METHODS:Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s were isolated from the bone marrow of Sprague-Dawley rats and pretreated with fructose (200μmol/L), dithiothreitol (500μmol/L) or combined components before cryopreservation. Then the cel s were cryopreseved for 6 months and the morphology of cel s was observed by inverted microscopy. The cel viability was evaluated by MTT, and real-time PCR was used to detect the mRNA expression of Nanog, OCT4 and Sox2. Alkaline phophatase activity assay and alizarin red staining were utilized to detect the osteogenic capacity of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Images captured by inverted microscopy showed no significant difference in cel morphology between groups. The MTT results indicated that fructose and combined pretreatment could promote the cel viability of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s after cryopreservation, while the real-time PCR results demonstrated that dithiothreitol significantly facilitated the expression of Naogo and Sox2 in bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s. Moreover, ALP activity assay and alizarin red staining confirmed the positive effects of fructose, dithiothreitol and combined pretreatment on osteogenic capacity of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s after cryopreservation, and the best effects were found after pretreatment with dithiothreitol and combined components. Overal , these findings indicate that fructose pretreatment is beneficial for cel viability of cryopreseved bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s, and dithiothreitol contributes to maintaining the pluripotency and osteogenesis capacity of cryopreseved bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s.

OBJECTIVETo establish a quantitative method with precolumn derivatization for determining the contents of six common amino acids in Banlangen Keli by UPLC.

METHODUsing 6-acetamido-4-hydroxy-2-methyl quinoline as the derivating agent, we determined the contents of arginine, threonine , alanine, gamma aminobutyric acid, proline, and valine. The UPLC analysis was performed on a Waters AccQ Tag TM Ultra C18 column (2.1 mm x 100 mm, 5 microm) with mobile phase AccQ Tag Ultra Eluent A and AccQ Tag Ultra Eluent B gradient elution at a flow rate of 0.7 mL x min(-1). The column temperature was 55 degrees C and detection wavelength was 260 nm.

RESULTThe linear ranges of arginine, thremine, alanine, gamma aminobutyric acid, proline, and valine were 4. 15549.86 microg (r = 0.999 9), 0.595-5.95 microg (r = 0.999 8), 0.445-4.45 microg (r = 0. 999 9), 0.515-5. 15 pg (r = 0.999 9), 8.858-106.3 microg (r = 0.999 9) , 0.585-5. 85 microg (r = 0.999 8). Their average recoveries were 100.6%, 98.35%, 100.2%, 98.44%, 98.34%, 98.18% with RSD 1.8%,1.9%, 2.0%, 2.4%, 1.5% and 2.0%, respectively (n = 6). The contents of amino acids were different in samples from five productive enterprises.

CONCLUSIONThe method is efficient, good reproducible, sensitive, and accurate.