The concentrations of berberine (BBR) and 8-cetylberberine (8-BBR-C16) in rat plasma and tissue were determined by RP-HPLC. Both the plasma pharmacokinetics characteristic and tissue distribution differences of BBR and 8-BBR-C16 were compared to provide experimental data for the mechanism research and further drug development. After the oral administrations of BBR and 8-BBR-C16 at the dose of 80 mg x kg(-1) for rats, the pharmacokinetics result showed that compared with BBR, the C(max) and AUC(0-t), of 8-BBR-C16 increased by 2.8 times and 12.9 times respectively, t1/2 extended from 3.61 h to 11.90 h. The tissue distribution result showed that compared with BBR, the concentration of 8-BBR-C16 in various organizations increased and the retention time extended remarkably. The maximum concentration was achieved in lung and the highest concentration in it was 3 731.82 ng x g(-1). After being derived, the C(max) in plasma and bioavailability of 8-BBR-C16 increased remarkably and the circulation time in vivo extended. The drug concentration in tissue increased remarkably, and the distribution ratio changed too, with strong targeting selection in lung.

Aim To find the material foundation of treatment for diabetes in Coptidis Rhizoma ( RC ) . Methods The antihyperglycemic effect of RC alka-loids ( berberine, coptisine, palmatine, epiberberine, and jatrorrhizine) was evaluated in spontaneity diabe-tes KK-Ay mice. Results After 40 days′ oral admin-istration ( 225 mg · kg-1 · d-1 , ig ) , berberine and coptisine significantly suppressed the elevated fasting blood glucose level and ameliorated the glucose toler-ance . Body weight gain of KK-Ay mice was significant-ly decreased in the epiberberine-treated group. Berber-ine improved insulin resistance and jatrorrhizine in-creased the SOD activity, decreased the MDA level. Conclusions These results indicate that the main an-tihypoglycemic effect constituents are berberine and coptisine, while they show different mechanisms. Pal-matine, epiberberine and jatrorrhizine display different potential roles in the treatment of diabetes. The meth-ylene-dioxy groups at the C-2 , C-3 , C-9 and C-10 po-sitions are indispensable for antihyperglycemic effect of RC alkaloids.

Aim To study the hypnotic effect of five alkaloids extracted from Rhizoma Coptidis (berberine , coptisine,palmatine,epiberberine,jatrorrhizine )in mice,and preliminarily explore its underlying mecha-nism.Methods The experiments of locomotor activity and hypnosis induced by suprathreshold and subthresh-old doses of pentobarbital sodium were used to evaluate the effect of drugs on sleep behavior in mice.Then, HPLC-FLD was used to detect the contents of NE,DA and 5-HT on PCPA mice model.Results Compared with control group,berberine and coptisine notably in-hibited spontaneous activity in behavioral experiments (P <0.05),and increased the sleeping percentage of mice under subthreshold dose of pentobarbital sodium. Berberine and coptisine shortened the period of sleep latency,and prolonged the sustained period of sleeping at suprathreshold dose in mice (P <0.05 or P <0.01 ).Other alkaloids had no significant differences in sleep latency and period of sleep observed in this current experiment.Compared with PCPA mice model group,berberine and coptisine remarkably increased the contents of NE and 5-HT (P <0.01 ),but they had no effects on DA.Conclusions Berberine and coptisine may play a sedative and hypnotic role in PC-PA mice by increasing contents of 5-HT and NE in hy-pothalamus,and the sedative and hypnotic effects of berberine are stronger than those of coptisine.Other alkaloids have no effects on sleeping in mice.

Objective To investigate the prevalence, etiology, rehabilitation demands and service condition of hearing disorders based on the whole population in Jilin Province, China. Methods Using the probability proportion to size (PPS) sampling, 9246 (93.3%) out of 9909 residents sampled form 36 counties were targeted for investigation from August, 2014 to January, 2015, followed the WHO Ear and Hearing Disorders Survey Protocol. The hearing loss and disability were classified as WHO recommended and Classification and Grading Criteria of Disability (GB/T 26341-2010). Results The standardized prevalence of hearing loss and disability was 16.41%and 4.78%, re-spectively. Age, sex, residence, occupation and marriage status, education level and household income were significantly associated with hearing loss prevalence, while nationality was not. The main etiologies included non-infectious disease (47.33%), ear disease (14.17%), un-known causation (13.89%), and noise (8.59%). Among all people with hearing loss, those who accepted intervention service accounted for 11.02%. Among all people with hearing disability, those who used hearing aids accounted for 5.58%, and 0.67%used artificial cochlea. Con-clusion Demographics and socioeconomic factors are significantly associated with the prevalence of hearing loss. The main etiology con-tains non-infectious disease, ear disease and noise. Both the rate of service utilization among people with hearing loss and the rate of adopt-ing hearing aids among people with hearing disability are low. It is needed to do more in prevention and rehabilitation of hearing impairment.

Objective To investigate the current popularity of ERCP training in China.Methods A questionnaire-based survey was performed on a professional survey website.A total of 48 questions were designed,including personal information,training information,current status of ERCP performance and sug-gestions to ERCP training.The questionnaire was completed anonymously by physicians who fulfilled full-time ERCP training in any Chinese endoscopy center for at least 1 year before.Results A total of 464 phy-sicians,from all the regions of mainland China,among which 362 people completed all the questions.More than two thirds trainees thought that they had got fruitful training and 27.4% trainees had their ERCP vol-umes greatly increased and 64.3% trainees increased practice.According to related index,the physicians who were competent in routine ERCP performance were 84.5%,with outstanding operators of 12.2%.Con-clusion China has made great progress in the training program of ERCP technique in recent decades,but problems still remain such as various admission standard,insufficient training duration,incomprehensive program,as well as lack of evaluation and follow-up system.

Objective: To observe the differential expression of miRNAs between human dental pulp stem cells(DPSCs) and stem cells from the apical papilla(SCAPs). Methods: DPSCs and SCAPs were isolated by immune-magnetic binding specific STRO-1 antibody separation system. Osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation of DPSCs and SCAPs were tested by ALP assay, alizarin red staining(ARS) and Oil Red O staining. Differential miRNA expression of DPSCs and SCAPs was screened by the Next generation sequencing. Target genes and their possible roles of these differential miRNAs were predicted using biological information analysis. Results: The results revealed that 7 miRNAs(hsa-miR-224-5p, hsa-miR-1247-5p, hsa-miR-3065-3p, hsa-miR-452-5p, hsamiR-767-5p, hsa-miR-4284, hsa-miR-146a-5p) were downregulated while no miRNAs was upregulated in SCAPs compared with DPSCs. 27 target genes which mainly involved in the cell migration, differentiation and apoptosis were found. Conclusion: Downregulation of some specific miRNAs might be related to the stemness of SCAPs.

Objective To design water-equivalent plastic scintillator detector for the measurement of absorbed dose in tumor radiotherapy.Methods The concentration of ZrO2to be doped in polystyrene was estimated according to the empirical formula,and then the Monte Carlo program Geant 4(GEometry And Tracking 4)was used to simulate the energy deposition and transport process of X-rays with different energies in water,solid water RW34(composed of 2.1 wt％TiO2doping polystyrene)and different concentrations of ZrO2particles doped in polystyrene.The dose and attenuation coefficients were compared among different materials at different depths of water.Results The doses at different depths and the attenuation coefficient of polystyrene(doped with about 0.4 wt％ZrO2nanoparticles)were much more consistent with those of water and even exhibit much better water-equivalence than RW34.Conclusions The simulation results provide the basis for the development of water-equivalent scintillator.

Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) analysis has pioneered genome-wide gene discovery and expression profiling. In order to establish a gene expression index in the rice cultivar indica, we sequenced and analyzed 86,136 ESTs from nine rice cDNA libraries from the super hybrid cultivar LYP9 and its parental cultivars. We assembled these ESTs into 13,232 contigs and leave 8,976 singletons. Overall, 7,497 sequences were found similar to existing sequences in GenBank and 14,711 are novel. These sequences are classified by molecular function, biological process and pathways according to the Gene Ontology. We compared our sequenced ESTs with the publicly available 95,000 ESTs from japonica, and found little sequence variation, despite the large difference between genome sequences. We then assembled the combined 173,000 rice ESTs for further analysis. Using the pooled ESTs, we compared gene expression in metabolism pathway between rice and Arabidopsis according to KEGG. We further profiled gene expression patterns in different tissues, developmental stages, and in a conditional sterile mutant, after checking the libraries are comparable by means of sequence coverage. We also identified some possible library specific genes and a number of enzymes and transcription factors that contribute to rice development.
Arabidopsis ; genetics ; DNA, Complementary ; metabolism ; Databases as Topic ; Expressed Sequence Tags ; Gene Library ; Genome, Plant ; Genomics ; methods ; Multigene Family ; Open Reading Frames ; Oryza ; genetics ; Quality Control ; Software

【Objective】 To study the clinical practice and early outcome of percutaneous full-endoscopic modified posterior lumbar interbody fusion（mPLIF）combined with pedicle screw fixation through paraspinal muscle clearance. 【Methods】 A retrospective study was conducted to analyze the clinical data of patients with lower lumbar spinal diseases treated from May 2019 to April 2020. All the enrolled patients received mPLIF combined with pedicle screw fixation through paraspinal muscle clearance. The follow-up period was more than 1 year； the general parameters included age， gender， duration of disease， diagnosis of disease， surgery segment， and postoperative hospitalization time. Operation parameters included operation time and blood loss. We obtained the clinical parameters such as visual analogue scale （VAS） score for back and lower extremity， Oswestry disability index （ODI） score， and Macnab satisfaction score at the last follow-up. We evaluated the imaging parameters including intervertebral disc height， segmental lordosis angle， lumbar lordosis angle， as well as fusion outcome of patients with single segmental lumbar disease. In addition， intraoperative and postoperative complications were recorded. 【Results】 Totally 18 patients met the inclusion criteria， among whom 8 were male and 10 were female， with the average age of （53.3±8.3） years old and the average duration of disease being （28.9±36.6） months. Among them 16 patients were diagnosed as lumbar degenerative disease and the other 2 had lumbar disc infection. One patient received L3-L4 and L4-L5 intervertebral fusion； the others had one-segmental fusion， among which 11 cases were L4-L5 and 6 cases were L5-S1. The average operation time was （207.8±31.7） min， and the average blood loss was （25.6±7.8） mL， and the mean postoperative hospitalization time was （6.56±2.30） days. VAS scores of back and lower extremities at postoperative 1 week， 6 months and the last follow-up were statistically significantly improved from the preoperative scores. ODI scores at postoperative 6 months and the last follow-up were also statistically significantly improved. The rate of excellent and good according to the Macnab criteria was 94.4%. For the 17 single-level fusion patients， intervertebral height was significantly higher postoperatively and at the last follow-up compared with that of the preoperative one （P<0.05）. Segmental lordosis angle was bigger postoperatively and at the last follow-up （P>0.05）， which was not statistically significant. Lumbar lordosis angle was significantly bigger postoperatively （P<0.05） and bigger at the last follow-up， but with no statistical significance （P>0.05）. The fusion rate at the last follow-up was 88.2%. The cage broke in the process of implantation in one patient. A cage retroposition occurred in one patient at the follow-up. 【Conclusion】 Percutaneous full-endoscopic modified posterior lumbar interbody fusion combined with pedicle screw fixation through bilateral paraspinal muscle clearance by one incision showed excellent clinical outcomes in treating many kinds of lower lumbar diseases. This operation should be an excellent option for lower lumbar fusion.