Inflammasomes are multi-protein complexes that trigger the activation of caspase-1 and the maturation of interleukin-1β ( IL-1β) , which are critical for inflammation and control of pathogen infection. Inflammasomes are involved in and regulate diversified diseases due to its capability to sense multiple danger signals. In this review, we present the activation and regulation mechanisms for different inflammasomes and discuss how genetic mutations in inflammasome-related genes or abnormal activity of in-flammasomes lead to diseases. Insights into the role of inflammasome in various human diseases will provide sound theoretical basis and effective treatment strategy for these disease.

Breast Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Neoadjuvant Therapy

Objective: To evaluate 2D CDUS ultrasound in estimating lesions of carotid and femoral arteries in diabetes mellitus. Methods: Forty patients were divided into 3 groups by age. We detected their carotid and femoral arteries using two dimensional and PW Doppler ultrasonography. The lesions degree were assessed according to U B 6 classification. Results: Higher incidence and more serious degree of arteries lesions occurred in diabetes mellitus than those in control group ( P 40 years old than in group ≤40 years old in diabetes mellitus ( P

Objective To explore the therapeutic effect of focused ultrasound(FU)on chronic cervicitis unitarily and its influential factors.Methods Three hundred and thirteen patients of chronic cervicitis were treated with the device of CZF model focused ultrasound.The therapeutic effects in 300 cases with complete records,as well as the relationship between the diameter of cervical erosion and the exposure time to FU were analyzed.Results The effective rates of FU in treatment of chronic cervicitis unitarily were 100.0%(53/53),95.2%(120/126)and 91.7%(111/121),respectively,for mild,moderate and severe cases.The overall effective rate was 94.7%(284/300).With other parameters of FU unchanged,the exposure time to FU showed an exponential relationship with the diameter of erosion,and the regression equation was D=31.71e~(0.4808t)(R~2=0.9966).Conclusions The controllability and achievement ratio of FU to treat cervical erosion could be enhanced when exposure time and manners were fully considered based on the diameter and type of cervical erosion.A satisfactory therapeutic efficacy could be achieved with FU to treat cervical erosion unitarily.

ObjectiveTo investigate the effect and mechanism of ischemic preconditioning (IP)on preservation/reperfusion injury of rat liver graft.MethodsOne hundred and twenty eight male Sprague Dawley rats undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation were randomly divided into 4 groups: group A (control group), group B (IP group), group C (adenosine,Ado group), and group D (inhibitor of NO synthesis,NAME group).ResultsPosttransplantation one week survival rate, 2 hrs reperfusion serum NO, and hepatic tissue adenosine in IP group and Ado group were 88%(7/8) and 88%(7/8), (33 0?6 1)??mol/l and (29 1?6 5)??mol/l, ( 7 2? 1 8)??mol/g and (5 7?1 3)??mol/g, respectively, while in control group they were 38%(3/8),( 15 4? 3 0)?mol/l, and (3 69?0 54)??mol/g, respectively(all P 0 05). However, hepatic tissue adenosine level was (5 56?1 19)??mol/g, higher than that in control group( P

OBJECTIVE To analyze the value of modified sinus CT score in olfactory function evaluation before and after functional endoscopic sinus surgery in chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps(CRSwNP). METHODS Fifty-four patients who underwent functional endoscopic sinus surgery for CRS with nasal polyps were enrolled in this prospective study by inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria. T&T methods and olfactory function VAS were used to analyze the subjective olfactory function and were performed preoperatively and at 6 months after surgery. In modified sinus CT score, middle turbinate and superior turbinate associated olfactory cleft areas were used to evaluate the anterior olfactory cleft score(AOCS) and posterior olfactory cleft score(POCS). Sinus CT scans Lund-Mackay scores were also collected before surgery. The correlation between the status of the olfactory cleft on CT, Lund-Mackay score and the preoperative and postoperative olfactory results were investigated.RESULTS Among 54 patients, there were 36 male and 18 female, with average age of 47.9 years old(from 24 to 67 years). There were 30 patients followed 6 months after surgery. The findings of olfactory cleft opacification and the CT Lund-Mackay scores had a positive correlation with preoperative olfactory results(P<0.001). The olfactory cleft opacification showed a stronger correlation with the preoperative olfactory results than the CT Lund-Mackay score. The AOCS was more significantly correlated with the postoperative olfactory results than the other parameters.CONCLUSION Preoperative CT findings, especially the anterior portion of the olfactory cleft had a statistically significant association with the postoperative olfactory results in patients with CRS with nasal polyps.

Objective: To investigate the clinical effect of Xinqingning (XQN), a preparation of rhubarb, combined with low dose continuous gastrointestinal dialysis in treating uremia. Methods: Patients of uremia were divided into three groups at random, 18 patients in group A were treated with 1000 ml gastrointestinal dialysate (non-absorbed mannitol solution) orally 2-3 times a day, 20 patients in group B treated with the same therapy as that in group A, also combined with XQN 5-10 tablets 3 times per day and 19 patients in group C treated with orally taken coated aldehyde oxystarch 5-10 g, 3 times a day. The therapeutic course for the three groups was 11 months. The changes in clinical manifestation, renal function, nutritional condition, and electrolytes before and after treatment were observed. Results: After treatment, significant improvement was revealed in aspects of uremic symptoms, quality of life, nutritional condition, serum creatinine, urea nitrogen, serum phosphate, uric acid, CO2 combining power, creatine clearance, body weight and arm muscular circumference in group A and B, as compared with those in group C. In comparison of group A with B, group B showed a lower serum triglyceride and a slower progression of chronic renal failure (CRF). All the criteria were not improved in group C and with serum creatinine being raised significantly. Conclusion: XQN combined with low dose continuous gastrointestinal dialysis therapy was definitely effective in treating uremia. It provides a new therapeutic means of non-replacement therapy for CRF with uremia.

In this paper, the process performance indexes (PPIs) P(p) and P(pk) were introduced and applied to evaluate the process capability and quality consistence of Chinese medicine products. The historical quality analysis data of Qingkailing injection were collected and taken as the research object. The confidence intervals of P(p) and P(pk) were estimated based on the Bootstrap sampling methods. Results showed that the value and width of the confidence interval P(p) of were smaller that of P(pk) suggesting that the P(pk) index was more sensitive than P(p) in process capability analysis. Within the production period concerned, the P(pk) values estimated from different quality indexes of Qingkailing injection, such as baicalin, cholic acid, geniposide and total nitrogen, were 1.122, 2.055, 1.564 and 0.891, respectively. It could be found that the cholic acid had the highest process capability, followed by the geniposide and baicalin. The total nitrogen had the lowest process capability, indicating that it is necessary to reinforce the quality management of total nitrogen related manufacturing processes. The case studies demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of PPIs, which are convenient to be used in production practice of Chinese medicine.
Chemistry, Pharmaceutical ; methods ; standards ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; standards ; Injections ; Quality Control

BACKGROUND: Auditory evoked potential P50 (AEP-P50) is a cerebroeilectrophysiological index to directly reflect normal inhibitory function of brain.OBJECTIVE: To observe the changes of AEP-P50 of sensory gating (SG)in model rats with Alzheimer disease (AD).DESIGN: Randomized controlled animal study.SETTING: Neuroscience Institute of Kunming Medical College.MATERIALS: A total of 24 healthy female SD rats, aged 4-6 months,weighing 200-300 g, were randomly divided into experimental group, control group and normal group with 8 in each group. Morris water maze was consisted of round pool and lucite plant. Pool was divided into platform,left, right and bilateral quadrants. METHODS: The experiment was carried out in the Neuroscience Institute of Kunming Medical College from September 2003 to March 2005. ① Experimental group: Bilateral fimbria-fornix was transected to induce AD models; control group: Except fimbria-fornix, cortex and callus were transected; normal group: Rats were not treated with any operation. ② One week after modeling, all rats were tested with Morris water maze which contained localizing navigational ability and spatial seeking ability in order to determine successful models. Each rat was trained 4 times a day for successive 5 days. The duration from putting in pool to finding out platform was regarded as the escape latency (EL) which could reflect localizing navigational ability. Swimming trace of rats which searched platform within 1 minute could reflect spatial seeking ability. ③ AEP-P50 was recorded with "condition (C)-test (T)" auditory double clicks stimuli, additionally,differences of AEP-P50 among the three groups were compared at the same time. C-P50 amplitude, T-P50 amplitude, T/C and absolute value of difference of S2-S1 amplitude were calculated. Measurement data were compared with one-way analysis of variance among groups and with t test intergroup.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: ① Morris water maze, I.e., comparison between localizing navigational ability a nd spatial seeking ability; ② comparison of AEP-P50 of rats among three groups.RESULTS: All 24 rats were involved in the fin al analysis. ① results of Morris water maze: With increase of training time, mean latency was shortened. The latency was decreased in the first 3 days and then stabilized gradually. Latency in experimental group was longer than that in normal group and control group (P ＜ 0.05). Swimming traces in normal group and control group were located at platform quadrant, and they were accounted for 45.23% and 39.7% of total quadrant, respectively. There was significant difference as compared with other quadrants (P ＜ 0.01). Swimming traces of rats in experimental group were accounted for 28.31%, 29.84%,20.47% and 21.38% in platform, right, bilateral and left quadrants, respectively; however, there was not significant difference (P ＞ 0.05). Swimming trace was randomly located in four quadrants. ② Results of AEP-P50 of SG: C-P50 amplitude and absolute value of difference of S2-S1 amplitude were (21.00±2.85), (15.26±4.07) μV in control group and (17.04±5.32), (10.85 ±4.24) μV in normal group, which were obviously higher than those in experimental group [(9.67±3.77), (2.89±2.61) μV, P ＜ 0.01].T-P50 amplitude and C-P50 amplitude were 0.25±0.18 in control group and 0.39±0.16 in normal group, which were lower than those in experimental group (0.92±0.41, P ＜ 0.01).CONCLUSION: ① Transection of bilateral fimbria-fornix can be used to establish AD animal models successfully. ② AD model rats whose bilateral fimbria-fornix is transected have deficiency of SG.

By summarizing the recent literatures on brain mechanisms with acupuncture intervention based on blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD)-functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the BOLD-fMRI examination and analysis methods, the points to be acupunctured, the corresponding meridian activation regions, the specific intensity range, functions and indications of the acupoints, the manifestation of 'bi-directional regulation' characteristics, fMRI performance of chronergy, laterality and needling qi of acupuncture were reviewed to provide the ideas for future research in this area.