Adult ; Female ; Food Industry ; manpower ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Smoking ; epidemiology ; Thiocyanates ; urine

Air ; analysis ; Air Pollutants, Occupational ; analysis ; Electrophoresis, Capillary ; Esters ; analysis ; Phthalic Acids ; analysis ; Sensitivity and Specificity

Objective To screen out the PI3K/Akt pathway related genes in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) subjected to cyclic strain. Method VSMCs of rat aorta were subjected to cyclic strain (10 %, 1 Hz) by using a FX-4000T system. Phosphorylation of Akt was examined by Western blotting. Suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) method was employed to analyze the differently expressed cDNA sequence between the strained VSMCs pretreated with and without wortmannin, a specific inhibitor of PI3K. These fragments were ligated with T vectors, screened through the blue-white screening system to establish cDNA library, and was sequenced and analyzed in GenBank with BLASTN search.Result Level of Akt phosphorylation of VSMCs was significantly enhanced by the mechanical strain compared with the control. Ten different expressed sequence tags (EST) were gained after sequencing 30 clones randomly selected from 54 white clones. There may be six genes related with the mechanical strain and cell signal PI3K/Akt, such as High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), Neural precursor cells expressed (Nedd4a), Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (CDK5), Histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3), Ubiquitin-like 1 (Uble1a) and Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein H1 (hnRNP). Conclusion SSH is an effective and reliable approach to screen out the genes related with the mechanical strain and PI3K/Akt pathway in VSMCs.

The combination of medicinal properties refers to expression forms of elements with active properties combined according to a specific sequence. The mode of medicinal property combination refers to the compatible relationship multiple medicinal property combinations. In this paper, based on the mode, safflower, Taohong Siwu decoction, Xuefu Zhuyu decoction and Buyang Huanwu decoction were taken for example to study the characteristics of the compatibility among single herb, herbal pairs and prescriptions. The authors discovered the similarities and differences among them, interpreted the self-similarity in medicinal property combinations of traditional Chinese medicines, and analyzed the compatible relationship among multiple medicinal property combinations, so as to bring forth new ideas in discovering the correlation between the compatibility study mode of traditional Chinese medicines based medicinal property combinations and the efficient compatibility of medicinal property combination.
Drug Combinations ; Drug Prescriptions ; Drug Therapy ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional

Rhubarb is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), wildly used in treating the disease of hyperlipidemia. However, its components are complicated, so that it is still difficult to clear the specific roles of its various components in blood lipids regulation in. So we decide to systematically study the anti- hyperlipidemia mechanism of rhubarb. We integrated multiple databases, based on entity grammar systems model, constructed molecular interaction network between the chemical constituents of rhubarb and hyperlipidemia. The network includes 231 nodes and 638 edges. Thus we infer the interactions of active targets and disease targets to clarify the anti-hyperlipidemia mechanism. And find that rhubarb can promote excretion of cholesterol; inhibit clotting factors and improve blood circulation; inhibit the release of inflammatory cytokines and maintain fat metabolism balance; inhibit cholesterol and triglyceride synthesis; and other ways to achieve lipid-lowering effect. Thus this study provides reference for novel drug development and component compatibility, and also gives a new way for the systematically study of acting mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine.
Animals ; Databases, Factual ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; chemistry ; Gene Regulatory Networks ; drug effects ; Humans ; Hyperlipidemias ; drug therapy ; genetics ; metabolism ; Hypolipidemic Agents ; administration & dosage ; chemistry ; Lipid Metabolism ; Rheum ; chemistry ; Signal Transduction ; drug effects

BACKGROUND:Intensity-time (I/T) curve examination is a monitoring technology used for diagnosis of nerve damage,muscle disease and prognostic evaluation using current stimulation and qualitative or quantitative analysis.It also has significance to the diagnosis of lumbar disc herniation (LDH).Whether it can be used in LDH prognostic evaluation is poorly understood.OBJECTIVE:To explore the effectiveness of I/T curve in diagnosis and prognostic evaluation of LDH.METHODS:I/T curves of 113 LDH patients were measured by CX-3 electrodiagnostic equipment,and the results were compared with their unaffected sides and analyzed after physiotherapy.A total of 253 curves were measured,including 107 biceps femoris,101 gastrocnemius and 45 tibialis anterior muscle curves.All patients were sequential treated by traction,medium frequency,ultrashort wave,electric acupuncture as well as infrared radiation following I/T diagnosis,once a day,10 days for a course,with 10 days interval in 3 courses,I/T curves were performed after 3 courses.The therapeutic effect was evaluated by using I/T results combined with clinical symptom and physical signs.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:The first estimated percentage by I/T curved line were 36.36% (controlled by normal nerve),62.85% (controlled by part of the denervated),0.79% (controlled by the completely denervated) and 63.64% (controlled by total abnormal nerve).After the physiotherapy,the effectiveness of the complete recovery was 92.86% by the normal nerve as well as 58.82% by the abnormal nerve.Above all,the practical value could be concluded from the diagnosis,evaluation and effectiveness of LDH used by I/T curve line.The therapeutic effectiveness controlled by the normal nerve is much better than that controlled by the abnormal.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is the most common cause of congenital infection, resulting in birth defects such as microcephaly. In this study, RT-PCR and Western Blotting were performed to quantify the regulation of endogenic nerve growth factor expression in neuroglia cells by HCMV infection. The results showed that basal, endogenous NGF expression in U251 was unchanged during early HCMV infection. NGF expression is strongly down-regulated during the latent phase of infection. These results suggest that HCMV can depress the NGF expression in U251 cells.

At present, studies on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) properties are mostly restricted to a single or two kinds of medicinal properties, but deviated from the holism of the theoretical system of TCMs. In this paper, the characteristics of pharmacological effects of different property combinations of TCMs distributing in the stomach meridian were take as the study objective. The data of properties of TCMs distributing in the stomach meridian was collected from the Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China (2005). The data of pharmacological effects of TCMs distributing in the stomach meridian was collected from all of literatures recorded in Chinese Journal Full-text Database (CNKI) since 1980, Science of Chinese Materia Medica (Yan Zhenghua, People's Medical Publishing House, 2006) and Clinical Science of Chinese Materia Medica (Gao Xuemin, Zhong Gansheng, Hebei Science and Technology Publishing House, 2005). The corresponding pharmacological effects of property combinations of TCMs distributing in the stomach meridian was mined by the method of association rules. The results of the association rules were consistent with the empirical knowledge, and showed that different medicinal property combinations had respective pharmacological characteristics, including differences and similarities in pharmacological effects of different medicinal property combinations. Medicinal property combinations with identical four properties or five tastes showed similar pharmacological effects; whereas medicinal property combinations with different four properties or five tastes showed differentiated pharmacological effects. However, medicinal property combinations with different four properties or five tastes could also show similar pharmacological effects. In this study, the medicinal property theory and the pharmacological effects of TCMs were combined to reveal the main characteristics and regularity of pharmacological effects of TCMs distributing in the stomach meridian and provide a new way of thinking and method for revealing the mechanism action of TCMs distributing in the stomach meridian and discovering the pharmacological effects of TCMs distributing in the stomach meridian.
Databases, Factual ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Meridians ; Stomach ; drug effects ; Stomach Diseases ; drug therapy

AIM:To investigate the dependence of the adrenoceptor regulation on oxidative stress in the rats with cardiac injury induced by high sympathetic activity .METHODS: Healthy SD rats were randomly divided into 7 groups:control, model, propranolol (Pro), prazosin (Praz), Pro+Praz, vitamin E (VE) and Pro+Praz+VE.The rats were intraperitoneally injected with norepinephrine ( NE) for continuous 16 d to reproduce cardiac injury , and treated with the respective drugs .During the experimental process , the body weight was recorded .At the end of the experiments , the following parameters were measured:the ventricular remodeling indexes ( cardiac index and hydroxyproline of the left ven-tricle), histopathologic examination , oxidative/antioxidative indexes [MDA, SOD, catalase (CAT), GSH-Px and total an-tioxidant capacity (T-AOC)], and energy metabolism (Na+-K+ATPase and Ca2+-Mg2+ATPase).RESULTS: The in-crease of body weight in model group was significantly slower than that in control group after 9 d of treatment (P<0.05). The cardiac index and left ventricular hypertrophy were significantly increased .Oxidation/antioxidation and energy metabo-lism were disturbed.In Pro, Praz, Pro+Praz and VE groups, the body weight, cardiac index, left ventricular fibrosis and oxidative/antioxidative dysfunction were ameliorated .Pro, Praz and Pro +Praz increased the activity of Na +-K+ATPase and Ca2+-Mg2+ATPase.Treatment with Pro+Praz showed the best result in all of the indexes (P<0.05).CONCLU-SION:The dependence of adrenoceptor regulation plays an important role in the formation of oxidative stress in the process of rat cardiac injury induced by high sympathetic activity .

Objective To explore the inhibitory effect of curcumin on LPS-induced inflammation and the activation of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4 )/NADPH oxidase/reactive oxygen species (ROS)signaling pathway in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs).Methods Primary VSMCs were cultured and divided into control group, LPS group,LPS + curcumin 5 μmol/L group,LPS + curcumin 10 μmol/L group and LPS + curcumin 30 μmol/L group.Cell activity was observed by MTT assay.The secretion of tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α)and interleukin-1 (IL-1)was measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)kits.The mRNA expressions of TLR4 and p22phox were detected by real-time PCR.Expression of intracellular ROS was measured by flow cytometry. Results The activities of VSMCs were not significantly affected by curcumin at the concentration between 0 and 80 μmol/L.Curcumin (5,10 and 30 μmol/L)significantly inhibited LPS-induced oversecretion of TNF-αand IL-1, as well as overexpression of TLR4 and p22phox at the mRNA and protein levels,and ROS production in VSMCs in a concentration-dependent manner.Conclusion Curcumin has a concentration-dependent inhibitory effect on the secretion of inflammatory cytokine,overexpressions of TLR4 and p22phox,and production of ROS in VSMCs stimulated by LPS.Furthermore,curcumin may partly depend on TLR4/NADPH oxidase/ROS signaling pathways to inhibit inflammation in LPS-induced VSMCs.