OBJECTIVETo establish a method for studying efficacious materials of traditional Chinese medicines from an overall perspective.

METHODCarthamus tinctorius was taken the example. Its major components were depleted by preparing liquid chromatography. Afterwards, the samples with major components depleted were evaluated for their antioxidant effect, so as to compare and analyze the major efficacious materials of C. tinctorius with antioxidant activity and the contributions.

RESULTSeven major components were depleted from C. tinctorius samples, and six of them were identified with MS data and control comparison. After all of the samples including depleted materials are compared and evaluated for their antioxidant effect, the findings showed that hydroxysafflor yellow A, anhydrosafflor yellow B and 6-hydroxykaempferol-3, 6-di-O-glucoside-7-O-glucuronide were the major efficacious materials.

CONCLUSIONThis study explored a novel and effective method for studying efficacious materials of traditional Chinese medicines. Through this method, we could explain the direct and indirect contributions of different components to the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicines, and make the efficacious material expression of traditional Chinese medicines clearer.

Alkalies ; chemistry ; Antioxidants ; chemistry ; Carthamus tinctorius ; chemistry ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Glucosides ; chemistry ; Mass Spectrometry

Animals ; Apoptosis ; Diabetic Nephropathies ; metabolism ; pathology ; Glucose ; metabolism ; Membrane Potential, Mitochondrial ; Mice ; Mice, Transgenic ; Mitochondria ; pathology ; Podocytes ; cytology

[Objective] To explore the relationship between children ’ s adaptation to kindergarten and their temperament type . [ Methods ] Initial survey: A self-made questionnaire was used to collect the relevant information.After that,a behavior screening questionnaire (BSQ) for 3 to 7 year old children was applied to assess the temperament type of those who were new to the kindergarten .Longitudinal study:Changes in children ’ s behavior in the kindergarten and at home were recorded by using a self-made obser-vation sheet in order to know their adaption situation .All participants were followed up 5 weeks. [ Results] Inadaptation to kindergarten was found to be obvious among children who were new to the kin-dergarten and the time needed for their adaption was one month .Adaption to kindergarten in children with positive temperament was much better than those with negative temperament (P<0.05). [Conclusion] The temperament type of children is correlated to their kindergarten adaption .

As one of the most serious types of psoriasis, pathogenesis of erythrodermic psoriasis (EP) is unclear so far. In this study, we aimed to detect the levels of Th1/Th2 cytokine-associated transcription factors and T-lymphocyte clone in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) derived from EP patients, and gene expression level of T-bet/GATA-3 in skin lesion. The potential role of Th1/Th2 reaction pattern played in the pathogenesis of EP was also discussed. Serum levels of IFN-γ, IL-2, IL-4 and IL-10 were quantified by ELISA among 16 EP patients, 20 psoriasis vulgaris (PV) patients and 15 healthy controls. The expression levels of T-bet/GATA-3 in the skin lesion and PBMCs were examined by real-time qPCR. The ratio of Th1/Th2 was measured by flow cytometry. The levels of IFN-γ, IL-2, IL-4 and IL-10 were higher in EP patients than in the healthy controls. The levels of IL-4 and IL-10 were 69.44±11.45 and 12.62±4.57 pg/mL, respectively, in EP patients, significantly higher than those in PV patients and healthy controls (P<0.05). Flow cytometry revealed the levels of both Th1 and Th2 in PBMCs from EP patients were higher than those in healthy controls, and the Th1/Th2 ratio was dramatically lower than in PV patients (P<0.01). The ratios of IFN-γ/IL-4 and T-bet/GATA-3 in EP patients were both less than 1.0, suggesting a reversal when compared with the other two groups. Our study indicated that the EP patients exerted a Th1/Th2 bidirectional response pattern, and the balance of Th cell subsets inclines to Th2, which might be one of the important mechanisms of EP pathogenesis.

OBJECTIVETo study the risk factors and abusers' characteristics on childhood sexual abuses among female students to provide reference data for preventive measures on child sexual abuse.

METHODSAnnonymous questionnaire survey of 701 adult female students in a college about their personal experience on childhood sexual abuses, their home conditions and abusers' characteristics.

RESULTSA total number of 701 female students were surveyed. 115 (22.11%) experienced non-physical contact sexual abuses before the age of 18, including 26 (3.71%) who suffered from attempted and 8 (1.14%) were forced with genital or anal sexual intercourse. 117 (16.69%) said they had suffered from sexual abuse before the age of 16. Most abusers were males (99.4%) and only a small percentage of them (3.2%) used violence. Most non-physical contact sexual abuses were from strangers (78.7%), while 71.3% of physical contact abuses were from acquaintances including 12.5% of them were teachers, 17.5% were neighbors and 21.3% were relatives. The risk factors of child sexual abuses were: frequent use of violence, bad hobbies and poor health conditions of parents, tight family relationships, and living in remarried families. Having well-educated fathers was a preventive factor.

CONCLUSIONStudies on childhood sexual abuses among females revealed that the incidents were not rare, and family environment played an important role.

Adult ; Child ; Child Abuse, Sexual ; statistics & numerical data ; China ; Family Relations ; Female ; Humans ; Risk Factors ; Students ; statistics & numerical data ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Universities

OBJECTIVETo explore the changes of metabolites in brain after treatment by analysis on 1H-MRS examination of the hippocampus and prefrontal lobe in the healthy volunteers and the depression patients.

METHODSSeventy-five cases of mild and moderate depression were randomly divided into groups A, B and C, 25 cases in each group. The group A was treated with oral administration of Prozac capsule, 20 mg/d; the group B by electroacupuncture for 30-40 min and the needle was retained for 1 h, once each day, with main points Baihui (GV 20), Yin-tang (GV 29) and adjuvant acupoints selected; the group C by combination of the treatment methods in the groups A and B. They were treated for 6 weeks. Use PROBE-J sequence at the MRI system on Single Voxel of ROI of each lateral of hippocampus and frontal lobe in the depression patients of the 3 groups. Compare the differences of N-acetylasp artate/creatine (NAA/Cr) and choline/creatine (Cho/Cr) between the healthy volunteers and the patients before and after treatment.

RESULTSBefore treatment, NAA/Cr in the bilateral hippocampus decreased in the 3 groups as compared with the control group, and after treatment, NAA/Cr in the bilateral hippocampus of the group B and in the right hippocampus of the group C increased compared with that before treatment (P < 0.05), and NAA/Cr in the left hippocampus of the group C significantly increased as compared with that before treatment (P < 0.01). Before treatment, Cho/Cr in the bilateral prefrontal lobe in the 3 groups increased as compared with that in the control group (P < 0.05), after treatment, Cho/Cr in the bilateral prefrontal lobes of the groups A, B and C significantly decreased as compared with that before treatment (P < 0.05, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONThere are differences in contents of metabolites in corresponding parts in bilateral frontal lobes and hippocampus between the depression patient and healthy person.

Adult ; Choline ; metabolism ; Creatine ; metabolism ; Depression ; diagnostic imaging ; metabolism ; therapy ; Electroacupuncture ; Female ; Frontal Lobe ; diagnostic imaging ; metabolism ; Hippocampus ; diagnostic imaging ; metabolism ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Radiography ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effect of Shuyusan decoction on neuropeptide Y (NPY) and serotonin (5-HT) expression in the hippocampus and plasma of rats with chronic mild unpredictable stressors depression.

METHODSFifty Wistar rats were randomly divided into 5 groups, namely the normal control group, model group, fluoxetine group, and high- and low-dose Shuyusan groups. Except for those in the normal control group, all the rats were subjected to chronic mild unpredicted stress for 21 consecutive days with corresponding treatments. Open-field test was used to assess the behavioral changes of the rats. The content of NPY in the hippocampus and plasma was detected by competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and immunocytochemistry was used to determine the expression of 5-HT in the hippocampus.

RESULTSNPY levels in the hippocampus and plasma was significantly decreased in the model group as compared with that in the normal control group (P<0.05). Treatments with fluoxetine and high-dose Shuyusan both significantly increased NPY levels in the hippocampus and plasma in the depressive rats (P<0.05), resulting also in significantly increased 5-HT-immunoreactive neurons in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus and the average optical density (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONShuyusan decoction can effectively increase plasma and hippocampus NPY levels and the number of 5-HT-positive neurons in the cerebral cortex and happocampus of rats with chronic mild unpredictable stress-induced depression.

Animals ; Depression ; etiology ; metabolism ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Female ; Hippocampus ; metabolism ; Male ; Neurons ; metabolism ; Neuropeptide Y ; metabolism ; Random Allocation ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Serotonin ; metabolism ; Stress, Physiological

OBJECTIVETo detect the self-assembly morphology of sodium hyaluronate injection on mica using atomic force microscopy(AFM).

METHODSAtomic force microscopy with nanometer resolution was used to observe the self-assembly morphology of different concentrations of sodium hyaluronate injection on mica at room temperature.

RESULTSThe self-assembly morphology of 0.001, 0.01, and 0.1 mg/ml sodium hyaluronate injection on mica featured piebald, reticular and dendritic structures, respectively. At 1 and 5 mg/ml, sodium hyaluronate injection displayed bacilliform and spherical structures on mica, respectively; the diameter and height of the particles of 5 mg/ml sodium hyaluronate was 197.97±78.48 nm and 30.79±18.67 nm, significantly greater than those of 0.1 mg/ml sodium hyaluronate injection (49.52±11.93 nm and 5.37±1.59 nm, respectively, P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe self-assembly morphology of sodium hyaluronate injection on mica varies with its concentration. The piebald and reticular structure may facilitate the function of sodium hyaluronate, and the dendritic feature resembles the representative model of diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA).

Aluminum Silicates ; chemistry ; Hyaluronic Acid ; administration & dosage ; chemical synthesis ; chemistry ; Microscopy, Atomic Force ; Nanostructures ; Surface Properties

OBJECTIVETo study on clinical therapeutic effect and safety of electroacupuncture and Fluoxetine for treatment of mild or moderate depression with physical symptoms.

METHODSSeventy-five cases were randomly divided into a western medicine group (group A), an electroacupunctue group(group B) and an electroacupuncture plus medicine group (group C), 25 cases in each group. The group A were treated by oral Fluoxetine, 20 mg each day; the group B by electroacupuncture with Baihui (GV 20) and Yintang (EX-HN 3) selected as main points; the group C by oral administration of Fluoxetine plus electroacupunctue. HAMD depression scale was used for assessment of clinical therapeutic effect and TESS adverse reaction scale was used for adverse reactions.

RESULTSThe clinical effective rate was 78.3% in the group A, 82.6% in the group B and 91.7% in the group C, with significant differences between group C and A, group C and B (P < 0.05). Groups B and C had significant therapeutic effects in improvement of physical symptoms, and the adverse reaction of Fluoxetine in the group C was less than that in the group A.

CONCLUSIONElectroacupuncture can significantly improve physical symptoms and relieve adverse reactions of Fluoxetine. Electroacupuncture combined with Fluoxetine has a better therapeutic effect on depression with mild or moderate physical symptoms, with less adverse reactions.

Adult ; Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation ; therapeutic use ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Depression ; therapy ; Electroacupuncture ; Female ; Fluoxetine ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged

OBJECTIVETo observe therapeutic effects and mechanisms at different acupoint groups for treatment of the depression rat.

METHODSFifty Wistar rats were randomly divided into a normal group, a model group, a body acupoint group, a scalp acupoint group and a Fluoxetine hydrochloride group, 10 cases in each group. Depression rat model was established by using chronic unpredictable mild stress stimulation combined with lonely breeding for 21 days. EA (2 Hz, 1 mA, 20 min) was given at "Taichong" (LR 3), "Neiguan" (PC 6) and "Zusanli" (ST 36) in the body point group and "Baihui" (GV 20), "Yintang" (EX-HN 3), "Sishencong" (EX-HN 1) in the head point group, once daily, and Fluoxetine hydrochloride was given to the Fluoxetine hydrochloride group by intragastric administration, 2 mg/kg, once daily, for 21 days. Body weight of the rat was recorded, and the sucrose-intake test and forced swimming test were conducted one day before the experiment and on the 7th, 14th and 21st day of the experiment, and the open field test was conducted one day before the experiment and on the 21st day. p-CREB expression in the hippocampus of the rats were observed on the 22nd day.

RESULTSAs compared with the model group, in the head point group and the Fluoxetine group, the crossing and rearing movement times, the relative volume of sucrose-intake and p-CREB expression in the hippocampus increased significantly, and the duration of immovability in forced swimming test shortened significantly (P<0.05). The relative volume of sucrose-intake increased and the duration of immovability in forced swimming test in the body point group significantly shortened (P<0.05), but the crossing and rearing movement times and p-CREB expression in the hippocampus did not insignificantly increase (P>0.05), with no significant differences among the treatment groups (P>0.05).

CONCLUSIONEA at the head acupoints can improve behavioral activities and increase positive neuron number of p-CREB in the hippocampus of the depression rat, and selection of acupoints is of important role in treatment of depression.

Acupuncture Points ; Animals ; Body Weight ; Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein ; analysis ; Depression ; metabolism ; psychology ; therapy ; Electroacupuncture ; Hippocampus ; chemistry ; Male ; Motor Activity ; Phosphorylation ; Random Allocation ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Swimming