Urtica plants have been used as traditional Chinese folk medicine for a long time. Studies showed that Uritica plants had obvious hypoglycemic effect by stimulating insulin secretion, influencing the intestinal absorption of glucose, inhibiting α-glucosidase activity, eliminating free radicals, resisting lipid peroxidation and so on. In this article, the research advances in hypoglycemic effect of Urtica plant and its mechanism are reviewed.

AIM: To observe the role of confocal microscopy in infectious keratitis management.
METHODS:Totally 466 patients (467 eyes) diagnosed as infectious keratitis from January 2010 to December 2013 were retrospectively studied. the corneas were examined early by in vivo confocal microscopy. The characteristics of their images and clinical features were studied and summarized.
RESULTS:All patients were recorded, the average age was 54. 4±13. 0 years, in which 264 cases (56. 7%) were male, and 202 cases ( 43. 3%) were female. In the 466 patients, 190 (40. 8%) were fungal keratitis, 148 (31. 8%) were viral keratitis, 125 (26. 8%) were bacterial keratitis and 3 ( 0.6%) were acanthamoeba keratitis. There were fungal hyphae in the images of fungal keratitis. Amebic cysts were found in acanthamoeba keratitis.
CONCLUSION:Confocal microscope can help the early diagnose and treatment of infectious keratitis. It is a noninvasive imaging technique that provides high resolution images of ocular structures at a cellular level and infectious keratitis represents one of its most important clinical uses.

Production of bioethanol using starch as raw material has become a very prominent technology. However, phytate in the raw material not only decreases ethanol production efficiency, but also increases phosphorus discharge. In this study, to decrease phytate content in an ethanol fermentationprocess, Saccharomyces cerevisiae was engineered forheterologous expression of phytase on the cell surface. The phy gene encoding phytase gene was fused with the C-terminal-half region of α-agglutinin and then inserted downstream of the secretion signal gene, to produce a yeast surface-display expression vector pMGK-AG-phy, which was then transformed into S. cerevisiae. The recombinant yeast strain, PHY, successfully displayed phytase on the surface of cells producing 6.4 U/g wet cells and its properties were further characterized. The growthrate and ethanol production of the PHY strain were faster than the parent S. cerevisiae strain in the fermentation medium by simultaneous saccharification and fermentation. Moreover, the phytate concentration decreased by 91% in dry vinasse compared to the control. In summary, we constructed recombinant S. cerevisiae strain displaying phytase on the cell surface, which could effectively reduce the content of phytate, improve the utilization value of vinasse and reduce the discharge of phosphorus. The strain reported here represents a useful novel engineering platform for developing an environment-friendly system for bioethanol production from a corn substrate.
6-Phytase ; metabolism ; Biofuels ; Ethanol ; chemistry ; Fermentation ; Industrial Microbiology ; Saccharomyces cerevisiae ; metabolism ; Starch ; chemistry ; Zea mays ; chemistry

Objective To analyse the relationship between Calpain10 gene UCSNP43 and UCSNP44 poly morphisms and diabetes in familial type 2 diabetes mellitus of Uygur in Xinjiang.Methods Sixty-two Uygur type 2 diabetic families were enrolled.The polymorphisms of Calpain10 gene UCSNP43 and UCSNP44 were measured by SNP-stream of gene chip.Results (1) The heritability of the first degree relative and the second degree relative in Uygur familial type 2 diabetes were 0.578 and 0.032.(2)There was no difference between UCSNP43 and UCSNP44 polymorphisms of the first and second degree relatives in familial type 2 diabetes mellitus.(3)The carriers of USCNP43 AA genotype had higher body mass index and fasting insulin than GG and GA genotypes carriers.Conclu sion With the downgrading of the familial relationship,the heritability of type 2 diabetes mellitus was decreasing. The carriers of UCSNP43 AA genotype might have higher insulin resistance than those with GG and AG genotypes.

Objective:To investigate the effect of silver diamine fluoride(SDF)on the bonding strength between dentine and glass ion-omer cement(GIC).Methods:1 2 extracted sound molars were prepared into dintine samples and distributed into sound dentine group and demineralized dentine group.According to the treatment methods,the samples in each group were respectively divided into 3 sub-groups:A(control group),B[coated with 38% Ag(NH3 )F2 ]and C(SDF treatment with additional lighting-curing)(n =20).Then a hand-mixed conventional glass ionomer cement Fuji IX was placed on the dentine surface.After 24 h,micro tensile bond strength test and scanning electron microscope (SEM)analysis were conducted.Results:The bonding strength of demineralized dentine was higher than that of sound dentine(P <0.01 ).SDF with additional lighting-curing treated dentine showed a higer bonding strength value than only SDF treated dentin(P <0.01 ).Conclusion:SDF may improve the bonding between dentine and GIC.

Pulsed field gel electrophoresis(PFGE)is a new type technique of gel electrophoresis which can be used to separate large DNA molecules.It has been widely applied to the karyotype analysis,identification of species groups,genetic orientation and genetic analysis for fungi.This article describes the principle,development and general manipulative procedure of PFGE,and elaborates the application in the molecular research of fungi.

On the base of element and metabolism balancing,the mathematic model of the human-like collagen expression phase with recombinant Escherichia coli BL21 was developed and the unknown parameters in the model were estimated with the method of nonlinear optimization.The model was in agreement with the growth kinetics and the metabolic kinetics,and the key calculated parameters of ?h,?p and mx were 1.173 mol?C-mol-1,293.814 mol?C-mol-1 and 17.878 mol?C-mol-1?h-1 respectively.This model could preferably predict the macroscopic reaction rates,and in the synthesis phase of human-like collagen,the specific growth rate should be controlled at 0.04 h-1 with controlling glucose feeding rate to gain the highest specific production rate of human-like collagen.

Puff-balls is a very distinctive macro-fungi in biodiversity.It is used to be a styptic,repellent and alexipharmic in China.This paper simply summarizes the puffball′s taxonomy in the fungi and its distribution in the world; and emphasizes on its composition,food uses,medical uses,herbalism studies and progress of researches on clinical applications.And it points out the patent prospect and current problems of the puff-balls.

The study aims to investigate the embryo-fetus development toxicity of the novel PPAR-δ agonist HS060098 on SD rats. The pregnant rats that were randomly divided into the solvent control group (1% hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose water solution) and HS060098 suspension groups (10, 30 and 100 mg x kg(-1) xd(-1)) were orally administered with HS060098 suspension or vehicle during the gestation of 6 -15 days (GD6-15). At termination (GD20), female rats were sacrificed. The pregnant females were evaluated by corpora lutea count, implantation sites, existence and death of embryos. Fetal sex, weight, externals, variations and malformations of viscus and skeleton were observed. The results show that there were no significant abnormality in maternal general conditions and fetal appearance as well as viscera, but in the 100 mg x kg(-1) x d(-1) group, the maternal weight gain decreased greatly (P < 0.01) and the skeletal ossification delayed remarkably (P < 0.01); in the 30 mg x kg(-1) xd(-1) group, the fatal and litter number of incompletely ossified sternebrae II was higher than those of the control group (P < 0.05); the skeletal malformations occurred in all dose groups, which indicate that the novel PPAR-δ agonist HS060098 had maternal toxicity and adversely effected fetal skeletal development under the experimental conditions.
Animals ; Bone and Bones ; drug effects ; Embryonic Development ; drug effects ; Female ; Fetal Weight ; PPAR delta ; agonists ; Pregnancy ; Rats ; Toxicity Tests

Toxicogenomics (TGx) refers to a set of technologies that assess genome-wide responses after toxic agent exposure. Altered gene expression patterns that are caused by specific exposures reveal how toxicants may disrupt cellular processes and lead to side effects. Development and application of " omics" technology facilitate the toxicogenomic research which sharing and interpretation of the enormous amount of biological information generated in toxicologic field. In recent years TGx has been widely valued and successfully applied as an effective research tool to evaluate the toxic effects of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Here we reviewed current progress in the field of TGx and focused on its application in traditional Chinese medicine safety evaluation, especially in revealing the mechanism, finding potential toxic biomarkers and studying compatibility detoxification of TCM.
Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; adverse effects ; Safety ; Toxicogenetics