OBJECTIVE To investigate the protective effect of total saponins from stems and leaves of Panax ginseng (GSLS) on cisplatin (CDDP)-induced kidney damage in mice and its possible mechanism. METHODS Thirty-two male ICR mice were randomly divided into normal control group, CDDP group, and GSLS(150 and 300)+CDDP groups. GSLS was administered to mice by oral gavage once a day for 7 d. On the 7th day, a single injection of CDDP 20 mg·kg-1 was given 1 h after GSLS 150 and 300 mg·kg-1 before GSLS 150 and 300 mg·kg-1 continued to be given for 3 d. Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine (CRE) , catalase (CAT) in renal tissue, reduced glutathione (GSH), tumor necrosis factorα(TNF-α) and interleukin 1β(IL-1β) of cisplatin induced mice were detected after 72 h. HE and PAS staining were used to observe the renal histopathological changes;While TUNEL and Hoechst33258 staining were employed to observe apoptosis in kidney tissues. RESULTS Compared with normal control group, CDDP group had a significant reduction in relative body mass (P<0.05), and the level of GSH and CAT in kidney tissues (P<0.05). The level of CRE, BUN, TNF-α, and IL-1βin serum and renal indexes significantly increased (P<0.05, P<0.01), especially BUN and CRE that respectively doubled and quadrupled. CDDP group developed glomerulus swelling, renal tubular expansion and epithelial cell necrosis. Trans?parent tube type of tube cavity appeared, the nucleus pycnosis disappeared, but renal interstitial edema and inflammatory cell infiltration appeared. There was a large amount of glycogen deposition and high expressions of TUNEL positive cells and Hoechst33258 positive cells. Compared with CDDP group, the levels of BUN and CRE in GSLS treatment group significantly decreased (P<0.05, P<0.01) in serum, glycogen deposition was reducted and apoptosis of renal tubular epithelial cells decreased in kidney tissues (P<0.05). The level of TNF-α, IL-1β(P<0.05) and the degree of renal tissue necrosis were significantly reduced (P<0.05) in CDDP+GSLS 300 group, but there was a significant increase in the level of CAT and GSH (P<0.05). CONCLUSION GSLS can protect against mouse kidney injury induced by cisplatin. The mechanism may be related to oxidation, reduced inflammation reaction and resistance to apoptosis.

Objective To investigate the impact of suppressor of cytokine signaling 1 (SOCS1) overexpression on dendritic cells (DC) functions and its therapeutic effect on acute liver failure (ALF) in mice.Methods Bone marrow derived dendritic cells (BMDC) from C57BL/6 mice were transfected with lentivirus encoding SOCS1 and negative control lentivirus at a MOI=50, and labeled as DC-SOCS1and DC-VNG, respectively after 96 hours of successful transduction.Then DCs were stimulated with lipopolysaccharides(LPS)1 mg/L and collected for flow cytometry analysis of surface costimulatory molecules, allogeneic mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) and western blot test of Janus kinase (JAK)/signaling transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) pathway.Afterwards, 90 mice were randomly assigned into 4 groups including 12 in normal control group, 26 in ALF group, 26 in treatment groups with DC-SOCS1 and 26 with the treatment of DC-VNG.All were received tail vein injection with normal saline, modified DC-VNG and DC-SOCS1 suspended in normal saline, respectively.Twelve hours after injection, LPS (10 μg/kg)/D-GaIN (600 mg/kg) were injected intraperitoneally to induce ALF model.The mortality, serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST), liver pathology and proportion of splenic regulatory T cells of each group were observed.Means in different groups were compared with one-way ANOVA analysis.Categorical variables were analyzed with x2 test.Variables were examined with normality test and homogeneity of variance with LSD test.Results The results of mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) revealed that T cell proliferation ratio in DC-SOCS1 group with mixture ratio of 100∶1 were (25.87±0.38)%, which was lower than that of mixture ratio of 10∶1 in the mDC group ([84.29±3.25]%) with statistical significance (x2=49.821, P<0.01);interleukin (IL)-10 concentration was higher than that in mDC group with mixture ratio of 10∶1 with statistical significance (F=20.112, P<0.05);IL-6 concentration was also lower with statistical significance (F=47.718, P<0.05).Compared to imDC, expression of JAK2 (t=0.525,0.523 and 0.489, respectively, all P<0.01), signal transduction factors and activation of transcription factors-1 (STAT1) (t=0.442,0.400 and 0.402, respectively, all P<0.01) and SOCS1 (t=0.322,0.363 and 1.090, respectively, all P<0.01) of mDC, DC-VNG and DC-SOCS1 after LPS stimulation increased significantly.Furthermore, the expressions of phosphorylated STAT1 (p-STAT1) and phosphorylated JAK2 (p-JAK2) of DC-SOCS1 were much lower than those of the mDC, with statistically significant difference (t=-3.840 and 0.254, respectively, both P<0.01).Pathological analysis revealed that there existed moderate hepatic cells necrosis and less immune cell infiltration in DC-SOCS1 group accompanied with higher regulatory T lymphocytes proportion than those in ALF group and DC-VNG group.Survival rate of ALF with DC-SOCS1 treatment group was significantly higher than that of ALF group with statistical difference (x2=12.87, P<0.05).Conclusions DC-SOCS1could sustain an immature state and exhibit as regulatory DC through negative regulation of JAK2/STAT1 pathway with overexpression of SOCS1.Infusion of DC-SOCS1 could ameliorate ALF by inhibiting aggressive inflammation response with increased proportion of regulatory T cells in mice, which shows good therapeutic effect for ALF mice.

Objective To investigate the brain magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)findings in 33 patients with neuromyelitis optica(NMO).Methods Patients who fulfilled the latest diagnostic criteria of NMO and whose brain MRI did not satisfied with diagnostic criteria of multiple sclerosis(MS)were enrolled.All the patients underwent brain MRI and spinal cord scannings and subsequent images analysis.Results Thirty-three patients with NMO were included to study.Five out of 33(15.2%)patients did not have brain parenchymal abnormalities,28 out of 33 patients(84.8%)were detected to have brain abnormal findings.Brain parenchymal lesions were well-defined in 22 patients(66.7%),no non-specific or atypical brain parenchymal lesions were found in the supratentorium or infratentorium in the other 6 cases(18.2%).However,brain MRI disclosed macroscopic,symmetrical diffuse FLAIR and T2-visible hyperintensity in deep white matter.Fifteen cases had more than one lesion(≥2 lesions),and the other 7 cases had single lesion.Supratentorial lesions were mostly punctate or small dots in nonspecific hyperintensity in juxtacortical,subcortical and deep white matter regions,a few were atypical patches.In the infratentorium,brainstem was an easily involved region(14/33,42.4%),especially in medulla(7/33,21.2%).Conclusions Brain MRI abnormalities are common in Chinese NMO,and brain lesions do not exclude the diagnosis of NMO.The observations of brain lesions are helpful to improve and revise diagnostic criteria of NMO.

Objective To explore the values of diffusion-weighted imaging(DWI)and apparent diffusion coefficient(ADC)measurements in various lesions of multiple sclerosis(MS).Methods Sixty patients with clinically diagnosed remitting-relapsing MS(RRMS)were included to undergo conventional brain MRI and DWI scans.the lesions were included when the diameter was more than 5 mm.mean ADC values were measured for various lesions of MS.The statistical analyses were performed to determine the differences of mean ADC values among various lesions of MS.and to compare the correlation between ADC values of lesions and Expanded Disability Status Scale(EDSS)scores.Results (1)The ADC value of hypointense lesions was significantly higher than that of isointense lesions(F=55.90,P<0.05),the ADC values were(127.5 ±9.3)×10-5mm2/s and(95.7 ±6.3)×10-5mm/s respectively.The nodular enhancing lesions had a significantly lower ADC value than the ring-enhancing lesions(F=64.18,P<0.01).the ADC values were(114.7 ±12.3)×10-5mm2/s and(140.7 ±11.0)×10-5mm2/s respectively.The ADC value of confluent lesions was substantially higher that of discrete lesions(t=9.04,P<0.01).the ADC values were(141.4±6.5)×10-5mm2/s and(105.4±13.9)×10-5mm2/s respectively.(2)No correlation between ADC of lesions and EDSS scores was found(r=0.35,P>0.05).Conclusion DWI and quantitative ADC are useful to explain the pathological changes in different lesions and to monitor the disease duration of MS.

Abstract Digital eye strain can affect not only adolescents visual health, but also sleep quality. In order to provide a reference for safeguarding adolescents visual health and physical health, the paper reviews the direct correlation, feedback correlation, mediating role and the mechanisms between their digital eye strain and sleep quality, as well as proposes some strategies to reduce digital eye strain and improve sleep quality, such as screen time limits, adjusting the brightness and contrast of electronic screen devices, maintaining correct posture and viewing distance, increasing eye nutrition and protection, establishing a regular sleep routine, avoiding the use of electronic screen devices before bedtime, creating a comfortable and quiet sleep environment, and paying attention to the effects of diet and exercise.

Objective To investigate the intervention effects ofYinao Jieyu Prescription on the behaviors and damages in hippocampal CA1 area of the rats with post-stroke depression (PSD).Methods Totally 168 SPF male SD rats were randomly divided into normal group, sham-operation group, stroke group, PSD group, Western medicine group and TCM group. There were 24 rats in the normal group and sham-operation group, and 30 rats in the other groups. Rats in the normal group received no intervention. Rats in the sham-operation group received no suture. Rats in the stroke group were given middle cerebral artery occlusion operation and normally fed after operation. Rats in the PSD group, Western medicinal group and TCM group were made into PSD models by chronic immobilization stress for one week and individual battery to the end. At the inception of modeling, Western medicine group received fluoxetine hydrochloride for gavage; TCM group receivedYinao Jieyu Prescription for gavage; other groups received distilled water for gavage, once a day. At the end of week 2, 4, and 8, the morphology of the hippocampal CA1 area in each rat was observed by microscope after HE stained.Results Except for the week 2, at the same time point, the behavior scores of the rats in the TCM group were higher than those in the PSD group. At the same time point, the CA1 region of the hippocampus in the TCM group was more complete than the PSD group, and the cells were arranged neatly and in normal morphology.ConclusionYinao JieyuPrescription can improve the symptoms of PSD rats, and has protective effects on hippocampal CA1 area.

Deciphering the metabolites of multiple components in herbal medicine has far-reaching significance for revealing pharmacodynamic ingredients.However,most chemical components of herbal medicine are secondary metabolites with low content whose in vivo metabolites are close to trace amounts,making it difficult to achieve comprehensive detection and identification.In this paper,an efficient strategy was proposed:herb-derived metabolites were predicted according to the structural characteristics and metabolic reactions of chemical constituents in Corydalis Rhizoma and chemical structure screening tables for metabolites were conducted.The fragmentation patterns were summarized from represen-tative standards combining with specific cleavage behaviors to deduce structures of metabolites.Ion abundance plays an important role in compound identification,and high ion abundance can improve identification accuracy.The types of metabolites in different biological samples were very similar,but their ion abundance might be different.Therefore,for trace metabolites in biological samples,we used the following two methods to process:metabolites of high dose herbal extract were analyzed to char-acterize those of clinical dose herbal extracts in the same biological samples;cross-mapping of different biological samples was applied to identify trace metabolites based on the fact that a metabolite has different ion abundance in different biological samples.Compared with not using this strategy,44 more metabolites of clinical dose herbal extract were detected.This study improved the depth,breadth,and accuracy of current methods for herb-derived metabolites characterization.

Objective To investigate the therapeutic effects and mechanisms of interleukin-10 (IL-10) gene-modified dendritic cells (DC-IL-10) in mice with liver fibrosis. Methods DC-IL-10 was constructed in vitro, the phenotype and function of which were evaluated by flow cytometry. BALB/c mice were treated with intraperitoneal injection of carbon tetrachloride(CCl4)to establish liver fibrotic model. DC-IL-10 was administrated via tail vein. Animals were divided into 4 groups including normal dendritic cell (DC) control , liver fibrosis only, negative lentiviral transfection DC (DC-mock) and DC-IL-10. Liver function, cytokine secretion, T lymphocyte differentiation and liver histomorphology were tested. Real-time PCR and western blot were used to analyze the effect of DC-IL-10 on Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway and its role in liver fibrosis. Results When compared with DC control and DC-mock, the expression of DC-IL-10 surface stimulating molecules (major histocompatibity complex-Ⅱ, CD80, CD86) were significantly decreased (F=14.708, 22.503, 12.595, respectively, all P<0.05), and DC-IL-10 significantly inhibited T lymphocyte proliferation (F=50.295, P<0.05). When compared with liver fibrosis group, serum alanine aminotransferase and aspartate transaminase were decreased in DC-IL-10 treated group (all P<0.05), other parameters including inflammatory factors (tumor necrosis factor α, IL-6, IL-1β) reduced (all P<0.05), the proportion of regulatory T cells (Treg) increased (F=6.742, P<0.05), pathological damage improved, the expression of Wnt3a, α-SMA and β-catenin mRNA and protein significantly reduced in DC-IL-10 treatment group(all P<0.001). Conclusions DC-IL-10 induces elevation of Treg for immune tolerance, as well as inhibition of inflammatory response, block of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, which translates into improvement of liver fibrosis.

Objective To observe the effect of hypoxia on the expression of epithelial growth factor receptor (EGFR) and cell apoptosis of breast and cervical cancer xenografts in nude mouse models.Methods The nude mouse models with MCF-7 and HeLa xenografts were established.The degree of hypoxia and EGFR expression were observed by confocal microscopy.The influence of EGFR expression on cell apoptosis under hypoxia was observed by TUNEL assay.Results EGFR expression was either up-regulated or down-regulated in the MCF-7 and HeLa cells with high degree of hypoxia.Furthermore,the degree of apoptosis was reduced in tumor tissues with high EGFR expression compared with that in those with low expression of EGFR.Conclusion The hypoxia in MCF-7 and HeLa cells exerts heterogeneous effect on EGFR expression.Under hypoxic conditions,EGFR exoression is negatively correlated with cell apoptosis.

OBJECTIVE Gestational rhinitis(GR) is a relatively common condition in women during pregnancy.Patients with GR often complain of nasal obstruction and rhinorrhea.The exact mechanism of GR are not clear.Safe and effective treatments for this disease have not been found to date.The aim of this study is to find an appropriate treatment method for GR.METHODS Thirty patients with GR were randomly divided into two groups.There were 15 patients in hypertonic saline group with a mean age of 28.73 years (range 24-31 years),and 15 patients in normal saline group with a mean age of 25.93 years (range 24-31 years).Hypertonic saline group was treated using 3.0％ saline with a temperature of 40℃ nasal irrigation,and normal saline group was treated with 0.9％ saline with a temperature of 40℃ nasal irrigation.The duration of the intervention period was 4 weeks.Visual Analog Scale(VAS) was used to evaluate the nasal symptoms including nasal obstruction and rhinorrhea,and the health-related quality of life was assessed with the 12-item Short Form Health Survey version 2.0(SF-12v2).Contents of histamine(HIS) and acetylcholinesterase(ACHE) in nasal lavage fluid(NLF) was assessed before and after 4-week treatment in the two groups in the study.RESULTS There were 28 patients completed the study.The total VAS scores of nasal symptoms including nasal obstruction and rhinorrhea decreased,and SF-12v2 score increased in the hypertonic saline group after 2-week,3-week and 4-week interventions.Furthermore,ACHE in NLF was also increased after 4-week treatment,but HIS showed no statistical changes.The VAS scores of nasal obstruction and rhinorrhea and SF-12v2 score after 2-week,3-week and 4-week interventions,and the contents of HIS and ACHE in NLF after 4-week treatment showed no statistical differences in the normal saline nasal irrigation group.There were statistical differences in the VAS scores of nasal obstruction and rhinorrhea,SF-12v2 score and ACHE in NLF after 4-week treatment,and no significant differences in the content of HIS in NLF between the 2 groups.CONCLUSION Hypertonic saline nasal irrigation is a safe and effective treatment for GR.