AIM: To observe the antifungal action of Huanglian Pikang tincture (HPT). METHODS: An anifungal experiment was performed in vitro. RESULTS: HPT had obvious antibacterial actions for the trichophyton rubrum, T. interdigital, epidermophyton floccosum, candida albicans and lessened the colonies (n=5, P

OBJECTIVE: To synthesize magnetic thermosensitive hydrogel and study its heat effect under alternating magnetic field in vitro. METHODS: PLGA-PEG-PLGA triblock copolymer was synthesized by ring-opening polymerization of D, L-lactide and glycolide with PEG1500 in the presence of stannous iso caprylate. Magnetic thermosensitive hydrogel of different concentrations were prepared using different currents. The influences of the concentration of magnetic fluid and current of magnetic field on the heat effect were separately observed. RESULTS: The synthetized PLGA-PEG-PLGA triblock copolymer was excellently temperature sensitive. It retained the thermo-sensitivity of original hydrogel when the magnetic fluid was loaded. The 5, 10 and 20 min heating ability of magnetic fluid was positively linearly correlated with its concentration (r=0.9985, 0.9893 and 0.9711, respectively, n=3) and current of magnetic field (r=0.9948, 0.9977 and 0.9994, respectively, n=4). CONCLUSION: The magnetic thermosensitive hydrogel has excellent temperature sensitivity. When alternating magnetic field is applied, the temperature of the system can rise and reach above LCST of hydrogel. The temperature can be controlled by changing the concentration of magnetic fluid and the current of magnetic field. Copyright 2012 by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

Descending activation pathways in spinal cord are essential for inducing and modulating autokinesis, but whether the effects of general anesthetic agents on the descending pathways are involved in initiation of skeletal muscle relaxation or not, as well as the underlying mechanisms on excitatory amino acid receptors still remain unclear. In order to explore the mechanisms underlying etomidate's effects on descending activation of spinal cord motoneurons (MNs), the conventional intracellular recording techniques in MNs of spinal cord slices isolated from neonatal rats (7-14 days old) were performed to observe and analyze the actions of etomidate on excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) elicited by electrical stimulation of the ipsilateral ventrolateral funiculus (VLF), which was named VLF-EPSP. Etomidate at 0.3, 3.0 (correspond to clinical concentration) and 30.0 µmol/L were in turn perfused to MN with steadily recorded VLF-EPSPs. At low concentration (0.3 µmol/L), etomidate increased duration, area under curve and/or half-width of VLF-EPSP and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor-mediated VLF-EPSP component (all P < 0.05), as well as amplitude, area under curve and half-width of non-NMDA receptor-mediated VLF-EPSP component (all P < 0.05), or decreased amplitude and area under curve of VLF-EPSP, its NMDA receptor component, and non-NMDA receptor component (all P < 0.05). However, at 3.0 and 30.0 µmol/L, it was only observed that etomidate exerted inhibitory effects on amplitude and/or duration and/or area under curve of VLF-EPSP (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01) with concentration- and time-dependent properties. Moreover, NMDA receptor-mediated VLF-EPSP component was more sensitive to etomidate at ≥ 3.0 µmol/L than non-NMDA receptor-mediated VLF-EPSP component did. As a conclusion, etomidate, at different concentrations, exerts differential effects on VLF-EPSP and glutamate receptors mediating the synaptic transmission of descending activation of MNs in neonatal rat spinal cord in vitro.
Anesthetics, Intravenous ; pharmacology ; Animals ; Animals, Newborn ; Efferent Pathways ; physiology ; Electric Stimulation ; Etomidate ; pharmacology ; Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials ; drug effects ; physiology ; Female ; In Vitro Techniques ; Male ; Motor Neurons ; physiology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate ; drug effects ; physiology ; Spinal Cord ; physiology

OBJECTIVE: To develop an UPLC method for simultaneous determination of seven components in Gardenia jasminoides, ie, gardoside, shanzhiside, deacetyl asperulosidic acid methyl ester, gardenoside (RG), genipin-1-β-D-gentiobioside, chlorogenic acid, and gardenoside to evaluate the quality of Gardenia jasminoides. METHODS: ACQUITY UPLC HSS T3 column was used for the UPLC analysis. The mobile phase was acetonitrile-0.05% phosphoric acid solution. Gradient elution was conducted at a flow rate of 0.2 mL·min-1. The column temperature was maitained at 30℃ and detection wavelength was set at 238 nm. A linear model was obtained through principal component analysis (PCA), and the scores of the principal components were used to evaluate the quality of Gardenia jasminoides Alba decoction pieces comprehensively. RESULTS: The seven components could be well separated from each other with good specificity, precision, repeatability, linearity, recovery rate and stability. The 25 Gardenia jasminoides Ellis samples and two Gardenia jasminoides Ellis var.grandiflora Nakai samples conformed to the quality requirements in the chapter of gardoside, shanzhiside, deacetyl asperulosidic acid methyl ester, gardenoside(RG), genipin-1-β-D-gentiobioside, chlorogenic acid, gardenoside. As the comprehensive evaluation shown, the quality of wild Gardenia jasminoides samples from Jiangxi province was better; Gardenia jasminoides from inland provinces excelled those from coastal provinces; and Gardenia jasminoides across Jiangxi province were of stable and higher quality. CONCLUSION: The method established in this study can effectively assay geniposide, gardoside, shanzhiside, deacetyl asperulosidic acid methyl ester, gardenoside and genipin gentiobioside in Gardenia jasminoides, thus it can be used for the quality control of Gardenia jasminoides.

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the effects of prenatal stress on neurological functions after middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in adult offspring rats.

METHODSPregnant rats were randomly assigned to prenatal stress treatment, which was exposed to restraint three times daily in the last week of pregnancy, and no prenatal stress treatment. Adult male offspring rats were subjected to transient focal cerebral ischemia by MCAO. They were randomly divided into four groups: sham group, prenatal stress + sham group, MCAO group and prenatal stress + MCAO group (n = 10). After 24 hours of reperfusion, the neurological deficits were evaluated. The infarct size, cell apoptosis and expression of Caspase 3, cleaved Caspase 3 and Bcl-2 were detected.

RESULTSCompared with MCAO group, the neurological deficits, infarct size and apoptotic cells in prenatal stress + MCAO group were increased significantly (all P < 0.05). The expressions of Caspase 3 and cleaved Caspase 3 were much greater in prenatal stress + MCAO group than those of MCAO group, while the expression of Bcl-2 was significantly decreased in prenatal stress + MCAO group compared with MCAO group (all P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONPrenatal stress might exacerbate neuroloeical deficits in the offspring rats after MCAO by increasing cell apoptosis.

Animals ; Apoptosis ; Caspase 3 ; metabolism ; Female ; Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery ; physiopathology ; Ischemic Attack, Transient ; physiopathology ; Male ; Pregnancy ; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects ; physiopathology ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 ; metabolism ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Stress, Physiological

Delirium and cognitive impairment are common in the intensive care units (ICU). The Confusion Assessment Method Inten-sive Care Unit (CAM-ICU), Intensive Care Delirium Screening Checklist (ICDSC), Cognitive Test for Delirium (CTD), Nursing Delirium Scale (Nu-DESC) and Delirium Rating Scale (DRS) are recommended to assess delirium. CAM-ICU and ICDSC are the best in the reliabili-ty, validity, sensitivity and specification. Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Abbreviated Mental Status Examination (AMSE), the Johns Hopkins Adapted Cognitive Exam are used commonly for cognitive impairment, and Johns Hopkins Adapted Cognitive Exam is one of the suitable scales for ICU as it is simple, comprehensive, and with higher reliability and validity.

Objective To evaluate the Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) for detecting the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in brain trauma patients with normal mini-mental state examination (MMSE) scores.Methods Fifty brain trauma patients with normal MMSE scores hospitalized from January 2013 to June 2014 were subjected to the MoCA test.The patients were classified as cognitive impairment group scored less than 26 on the MoCA and cognitive normal group scored 26 or above on the MoCA.Differences in MMSE and MoCA scores of the two groups were compared.Receiver operative characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine the optimal cut-off scores in screening for MCI.Results Overall MMSE and MoCA scores were (27.84 ± 0.89) points and (23.24 ± 2.90) points.There was a positive correlation between MoCA and MMSE total scores (r =0.355 2,P ＜ 0.05).MCI was found in 79％ of the brain trauma patients using the MoCA.MMSE total score and subscores were all similar between the two groups.MoCA total score and subscores of attention,language,abstraction and delayed recall were much higher in cognitive normal group than in cognitive impairment group (P ＜0.05),but there were no significant differences in visuospatial,naming and oritention domains.Area under the ROC curve for MoCA(0.871 ± 0.038) was larger compared with MMSE (0.796 ± 0.054) (Z =3.592,P ＜ 0.05).The optimal cut-off scores of MoCA and MMSE for the identification of MCI were 25.5 and 28.5 respectively.Conclusions MoCA and MMSE total scores are positively correlated.MoCA is a better detector for the identification of MCI in brain trauma patients than the MMSE.

Objective Post-transcription RNA interference (RNAi) is more and more widely applied in multigene therapy.This study aimed to establish an subcutaneous xenotransplanted tumor (SXT) model of human HT-29 colon carcinoma in nude mice and investigate the effects of the survivin shRNA-APC double gene co-expression lentiviral vector on the growth of SXT.Methods Thirty-five nude mice were equally divided into five groups, double-gene survivin shRNA, survivin shRNA, APC, empty vector, and blank, and injected into the left anterior axillary with respective stably transfected cell lines and human HT-29 colon carcinoma cells, all at 2×106/mL, to establish an SXT model of human HT-29 colon carcinoma.The inhibition rate of tumor growth was calculated by measuring the size and weight of the SXT, the expressions of survivin mRNA and protein in the tumor tissue detected by real time PCR and immunohistochemistry respectively, and the apoptosis of the HT-29 colon carcinoma cells determined by TUNEL.Results The mean size and weight of the SXT were significantly reduced in the double-gene survivin shRNA-APC, survivin shRNA, and APC groups as compared with the blank and empty vector groups (P<0.05), though increased in the survivin shRNA and APC groups in comparison with the double-gene group (P<0.05).The expressions of survivin mRNA and protein in the tumor tissue were remarkably lower in the double-gene survivin shRNA-APC, survivin shRNA, and APC groups than in the blank and empty vector groups (P<0.05), even lower in the double-gene group than in the survivin shRNA, and APC groups (P<0.05).The apoptosis rate of the HT-29 colon carcinoma cells was markedly up-regulated in the double-gene survivin shRNA-APC ([56.72±3.17]%), survivin shRNA ([33.64±2.03]%), and APC groups ([31.19±1.79]%) as compared with the blank ([9.89±0.31]%) and empty vector groups ([10.06±0.43]%) (P<0.05), even more significantly in the double-gene than in the survivin shRNA and APC groups (P<0.05).Conclusion The survivin shRNA-APC double gene co-expression lentiviral vector can reduce the expression level the survivin gene, promote the apoptosis of colon carcinoma cells, and suppress the growth of the subcutaneous xenotransplanted tumor.

The academic origin of homogeny of spleen and pancreas is explained from the aspect of Chinese medicine.The authors think spleen faihng to spread essence is the basic pathogenesis to diabetes mellitus.Spleen function of spreading essence is impaired.Thus essence of water and grain could not be spread in the whole body but amass sugar-turbidity,which manifests high blood sugar.Differentiating diabetes mellitus from the viewpoint of spleen,invigorating spleen and benefiting Qi could help spleen to ascend clear.Invigorating spleen-yin and clearing endogenous heat are used.The liver and kidney should be considered.The methods of dissipating phlegm and activating blood circulation could be combined.The treating idea of treating spleen is treating pancreas should be used in preventing and treating diabetes mellitus.

Female ; Histiocytosis, Langerhans-Cell ; pathology ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn