OBJECTIVETo investigate the therapeutic effect of Dachaihutang on the development of atherosclerosis (AS) in rabbits and its possible mechanism by detecting the expression level of carnitine patmitoyl transferase-1 (CPT-1) in vascular smooth muscle layer of atherosclerotic rabbits, and search the new way and evidence for AS cures.

METHODThirty six male New Zealand white rabbits were divided randomly into control group, model control group, simvastatin group and Chinese traditional medicine dachaihutang group. After 9 weeks and 20 weeks of treatment, serum total cholesterol (TC) and triglyceride (TG) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels were examined. At the end of 25 th weeks, histological changes in ascending aorta were studied by HE staining and histomorphometric analysis. The gene expression of CPT-1 in vascular smooth muscle layer of thoracic aorta was detected by semi-quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

RESULTCompared with model control group, in dachaihutang group serum TC and TG and LDL levels attenuated. Pathomorphology indicated that intima and media (I + M) became thinned, and the ratios of the thickness of intima to media(I/M) and the area of intima to media (SI/SM) were decreased (P < 0.05). Aortic intimal proliferation in Dachaihutang group was associated with a marked increase in CPT-1 expression in vascular smooth muscle layer of thoracic aorta. Compared to simvastatin group, except TG value, other values were higher in Dachaihutang group, however, there were no significant differences between the two groups.

CONCLUSIONThese findings suggest that early treatment with Dachaihutang not only induces a significant regression of arterial lesions of high cholesterol diet rabbits, but also has a crucial inhibited genesis and development of atherosclerosis effect by up-regulating CPT-1 expression in vascular smooth muscle layer.

Animals ; Aorta ; cytology ; drug effects ; enzymology ; Atherosclerosis ; drug therapy ; enzymology ; genetics ; Carnitine O-Palmitoyltransferase ; genetics ; metabolism ; Disease Models, Animal ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Gene Expression ; drug effects ; Humans ; Male ; Myocytes, Smooth Muscle ; drug effects ; enzymology ; Rabbits ; Random Allocation

The purpose of this study was to identify the tick species native to Xindi Township,Yumin County,Xinjiang,China.Preliminary morphological identification of parasitic ticks collected from animals in the area was conducted with an ultra-depth of field three-dimensional VHX 600 digital stereo microscope.Total DNA of the ticks was extracted,amplified by PCR based on the COI and ITS2 gene loci,and the posi-tive PCR products were sequenced.The sequence were a-ligned with reference sequences from the NCBI database were aligned with the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool.A genet-ic phylogenetic tree was generated with the neighbor-joining method of MEGA 7.0 software to determine the evolutionary biological characteristics of ticks.Morphological identification showed that the ticks collected from Xindi Township of Yu-min County were consistent with the characteristics of Hya-lomma asiaticum.An evolutionary tree based on the COI and ITS2 gene sequences showed that the ticks collected in this study were clustered with known H.asiaticum sequences.The PCR products of COI and ITS2 were sequenced and compared,which confirmed that the collected tick species were H.asiaticum,in agreement with the morphological and molecular biological results.These findings help to clarify the distribution of ticks in Xindi Township of Xinjiang,and provide basic data for the analysis of tick genetic and evolutionary characteristics,as reference for surveillance and control of ticks in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.