Objective To study the impact of maternal high-fat diet during pregnancy and lactation on hepatic steatosis in the early life of offspring rats and its possible mechanism. Methods Female Sprague-Dawley rats were fed either a high fat diet (HF) or control (C) diet for 8 weeks before mating and throughout gestation and ifrst 3 weeks of lactation. The expressions of hepatic fatty acid catabolism related genes, including peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα), acyl-CoA syn-thease long-chain family member3 (ACSL3), carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1α(CPT-1α) and 3-hydroxyacyl CoA dehydrogenase (Ehhadh) were determined in offspring liver tissue. The liver pathology was examined in offspring rats at 3 weeks of age. Results Pathohistological ifndings at 3 weeks of age showed that there were diffuse vacuolar degeneration in cytoplasm of hepatocytes and spot necrosis in hepatic lobular in the HF offspring liver. The mRNA expressions of PPARαand Ehhadh genes were markedly increased in the HF offspring as compared to the control group (P<0.05). The mRNA expression of CPT-1αgene was also higher in the HF offspring than that in control group (P=0.19). The level of ACSL3 gene expression, however, was markedly decreased (P<0.05). Conclusions Maternal high fat diet during pregnancy and lactation could result in an increased expression of genes related to hepatic fatty acidβ-oxidation, including PPARα, CPT1αand Ehhadh, but the liver steatosis cannot be reversed in the early life of offspring.

BACKGROUND:Cytokines and neurotrophic factors secreted from human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells secrete have neuroprotective effects on cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury, but there are few reports about intranasal administration of human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cellconditioned medium in the treatment of stroke.
OBJECTIVE:To investigate the protective effects of intranasal administration of human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells-conditioned medium on neurologic function of rats with cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury.
METHODS:Adult rats were subjected to 2 hours of right middle cerebral artery occlusion and the human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells were isolated from the postpartum human cord. We made the conditioned medium of human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells. Ischemic rats were randomized and assigned to three groups and were treated by intranasal routine starting 24 hours after middle cerebral artery occlusion with:(1) saline for control group;(2) Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium/Ham’s nutrient mixture F-12 medium for medium control group;(3) conditioned medium treatment group (10mL/kg) daily for 14 days. Behavioral tests (foot fault test, and modified Neurological Severity Score) were performed before and at 1, 7, 14 days after middle cerebral artery occlusion.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:There was no difference in the behavioral tests among the three groups at postoperatively 1 day (P>0.05). Compared to the control and medium control group rats, respectively, rats in the conditioned medium group significantly improved functional outcome after stroke in days 7 and 14 (P<0.05). There was also no significant difference in functional tests between the control group and medium control group in days 7 and 14 (P>0.05). These results suggest that human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells-conditioned medium via intranasal administration can significantly improve neurologic functional outcome after cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury.

To study the effect of cholesterol and 25-OH-cholesterol on cholesterol metabolism in HepG2 cells and the effect of coptisine (Cop) extracted from Coptidis Rhizoma (CR) in reducing and regulating cholesterol. In this study, TC, TG, LDL-c and HDL-c were measured by biochemical analysis; mRNA and protein expressions of LDLR, HMGCR and CYP7A1 were detected by qRT-PCR and Western blot. According to the results, cholesterol and 25-OH-cholesterol inducing could decrease in mRNA and protein expressions of LDLR and CYP7A1, so as to increase TC and LDL-c contents. However, Cop could up-regulate mRNA and protein expressions of LDLR and CYP7A1 and down-regulate that of HMGCR, so as to reduce TC and LDL-c levels. These findings suggested that Cop has potential pharmacological activity for reducing cholesterol, and may reduce cholesterol by regulating mRNA and protein expressions of key genes involved in cholesterol metabolism, such as LDLR, CYP7A1 and HMGCR. This study laid a firm theoretical foundation for developing new natural drugs with the cholesterol-lowering activity.
Berberine ; analogs & derivatives ; pharmacology ; Cholesterol ; metabolism ; Cholesterol 7-alpha-Hydroxylase ; genetics ; metabolism ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic ; drug effects ; Hep G2 Cells ; Humans ; Hydroxymethylglutaryl CoA Reductases ; genetics ; metabolism ; Receptors, LDL ; genetics ; metabolism ; Triglycerides ; metabolism

Objective Irregular antibody screening and identification are very important to reduce hemolytic reaction.The dis-tribution of irregular antibodies of blood group was analyzed in patients, to provide evidence for using Micro column gel test to detect and identify irregular antibodies transfusion safety. Methods Micro column gel anti-globulin technique was used to screen the irregular an-tibodies and cross-matching in 29770 patients.If the serum had irregular antibodies, the spectrum cells were used to identify the specific-ity of irregular antibodies. Results Among 29 770 patients, 120 cases had irregular antibodies of blood group.The positive rate was 0.4%.The irregular antibodies include Rh system(n=67),MNS system (n=7), Lewis system(n=5),cases of Kidd system(n=3) and undefined specified antibodies(n=38).Among the 120 antibody-positive patients, 70 were female patients and 50 were male patients. Further study showed that the pregnancy history was to the main factor causing irregular antibodies in women (46 positive cases among 70 female patients) . Conclusion The study showed that some patients had irregular antibodies of blood group, especially female patients with pregnancy history.These results suggested that irregular antibody screening and cross-matching by micro column gel method in pa-tients before transfusion had great significance for ensuring the blood transfusion safety.

Objective To study the effect and mechanisms of berberine (BBR) on the proliferation of papillary thyroid cancer K1 cells induced by high glucose.Methods K1 cells were cultured under 5.5 mmol/L or 25 mmol/L glucose condition with or without different concentration of BBR (0,10,40 and 80 μmol/L) for 24 hours.The proliferations of K1 cells in each condition were detected by MTT.Western blot was used to measure the expression of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrt2),phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K),protein kinase B (Akt) and phosphorylated-Akt (p-Akt).The distribution pattern of Nrf2 in K1 cells was determined using immunofluorescent staining.Results Compared with 5.5 mmol/L condition,the proliferation rate [(126.64 ± 5.41) ％ vs (87.31 ± 3.67) ％],expression levels of PI3K (0.425 ±0.019 vs 0.272 ±0.039),p-Akt/Akt (0.446 ±0.021 vs 0.168 ±0.035) and Nrf2 (0.597 ± 0.014 vs 0.308 ± 0.026),and Nrf2 distribution (93.0％ vs 23.1％) in nuclear of K 1 cells under 25 mmol/L condition were significantly elevated,respectively (all P ＜0.01).Addition of BBR in 25 mmol/L condition dose dependently (10,40,80 μmol/L) lowered the proliferation rate of K1 cells [(111.76 ± 4.10)％,(70.03 ±2.18)％,(32.41 ±3.76)％ vs (126.64 ±5.41)％,all P＜0.05],and suppressed the expression of PI3K,p-Akt/Akt,Nrf2,and Nrf2 nuclear distribution (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions BBR dose dependently inhibited the proliferation of high glucose-induced K1 cells.This effect was associated with the suppression on of PI3K/Akt signaling activation,Nrf2 expression and its nuclear translocation.

A novel method was developed for the rapid determination of multi-indicators in corni fructus by means of near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) based least squares support vector machine was investigated to increase the levels of quality control. The calibration models of moisture, extractum, morroniside and loganin were established using the PSO-LS-SVM algorithm. The performance of PSO-LS-SVM models was compared with partial least squares regression (PLSR) and back propagation artificial neural network (BP-ANN). The calibration and validation results of PSO-LS-SVM were superior to both PLS and BP-ANN. For PSO-LS-SVM models, the correlation coefficients (r) of calibrations were all above 0.942. The optimal prediction results were also achieved by PSO-LS-SVM models with the RMSEP (root mean square error of prediction) and RSEP (relative standard errors of prediction) less than 1.176 and 15.5% respectively. The results suggest that PSO-LS-SVM algorithm has a good model performance and high prediction accuracy. NIR has a potential value for rapid determination of multi-indicators in Corni Fructus.
Algorithms ; Calibration ; Cornus ; chemistry ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Fruit ; chemistry ; Least-Squares Analysis ; Models, Theoretical ; Neural Networks (Computer) ; Quality Control ; Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared ; Support Vector Machine

To explore the antibacterial activity and mechanism of total alkaloids and berberine from Coptidis Rhizoma on Aeromonas hydrophila, and determine the effect of total alkaloids and berberine from Coptidis Rhizoma on minimum inhibitory concentrations, permeability and fluidity of cell membrane, conformation of membrane proteins and virulence factors of A. hydrophila. The results showed that both total alkaloids and berberine from Coptidis Rhizoma had antibacterial activities on A. hydrophila, with minimum inhibitory concentrations of 62.5 and 125 mg · L(-1), respectively. Total alkaloids and berberine from Coptidis Rhizoma could increase the fluidity of membrane, change the conformation of membrane porteins and increase the permeability of bacteria membrane by 24.52% and 19.66%, respectively. Besides, total alkaloids and berberine from Coptidis Rhizoma significantly decreased the hemolysis of exotoxin and the mRNA expressions of aerA and hlyA (P < 0.05, P < 0.01), the secretion of endotoxin and the mRNA expression of LpxC (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). The results suggested that the antibacterial activity of total alkaloids and berberine from Coptidis Rhizoma on A. hydrophila may be related to the bacteria membrane injury. They inhibited the bacterial growth by increasing membrane lipid fluidity and changing conformation of membrane proteins, and reduced the secretion of virulence factors of A. hydrophila to weaken the pathogenicity.
Aeromonas hydrophila ; drug effects ; genetics ; metabolism ; Alkaloids ; pharmacology ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; pharmacology ; Bacterial Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Bacterial Toxins ; biosynthesis ; Berberine ; pharmacology ; Cell Membrane ; drug effects ; genetics ; metabolism ; Coptis ; chemistry ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Membrane Fluidity ; drug effects ; Rhizome ; chemistry

Objective To screen serum biomarkers in patients with hepatocelhlar carcinoma by using surface-enhanced laser desorption and ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry(SELDI-TOF-MS)technique and to evaluate its clinical implication in the patients whose alpha-fetoprotein were negative in the sera. Methods Proteomic spectra were generated by mass spectroscopy in 112 cases, including 57 cases AFP-negative hepatocellular carcinoma,and 55 cases of healthy control. The consequence was analyzed and the characteristic preteomic peaks was selected by using Biomarker Wizard. Results Seven low expressed potential biomarker were indentified with the mass-to-charge ratio of 4.2×103, 4.1×103, 6.7×103, 5.7×103, 6.5×103, 6.9×103, 5.8×103. The sensitivity for diagnosing hepatic cancer were 88.23 % and specificity was 92.31%. These peaks were not correlated with age, sex, tumor mass size, pathology grading and cirrhosis in hepatocellular carcinoma. Conclusion SELDI-TOF-MS offers a unique platform for the proteomic detection of hepatocellular carcinoma.It also offers an auxiliary diagnosis method to the patients whose alpha-fetoprotein are negative in the serum.

OBJECTIVETo examine the effect of childhood abuses on adolescents' psychology and behaviors related to harmful dietary pattern.

METHODSAnonymous questionnaire study on childhood abuses, adolescents' psychology and behaviors regarding their dietary patterns was conducted among 5141 students in 9 middle schools in 2 areas of Anhui province.

RESULTSAmong 5141 students, 29.9% reported having severe childhood physical abuse, 64.8% having intermediate childhood physical abuse, 51.4% having mental abuse, 5.3% having physical contact sexual abuse and 24.5% having non-physical contact sexual abuse. In junior, senior middle schools and vocational schools, the incidence rate of severe childhood physical abuse, physical contact sexual abuse and non-physical contact sexual abuse among male students was higher than that among female students. In total, the incidence rate of childhood mental abuse among female students (53.1%) was higher than that among male students (49.8%) and with significant difference (chi2 = 5.484, P < 0.05). The incidence rate of 5 kinds of childhood abuses among junior middle school students was relatively low, and the incidence rate of intermediate childhood physical abuse and mental abuse was higher among senior middle school students. The incidence rate of 9 among the 11 kinds of psychology and behaviors related to harmful dietary pattern among female students in the middle schools and vocational schools was higher than that among male students. By unconditional multivariate logistic regression model, results showed that the childhood abuses was among the 11 kinds of psychological and behavioral risk factors related to harmful dietary pattern.

CONCLUSIONChildhood abuses had negative effects on dietary behaviors in adolescents.

Adolescent ; Adolescent Behavior ; Child ; Child Abuse ; psychology ; China ; epidemiology ; Feeding Behavior ; Feeding and Eating Disorders ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Mental Disorders ; epidemiology ; Risk Factors

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effects of microRNA-144 (miR-144) expression on H9C2 (2-1) myocytes.

METHODSMiR-144 was up-regulated in primary cultured H9C2 (2-1) myocytes through transfection. Cells transfected with Lipofectamine(TM) 2000 and its mixture with miRNA synthesized randomly as blank control and negative control respectively. The up-regulation of miR-144 was confirmed by real-time PCR. Cell apoptosis was evaluated by means of CCK-8, Caspase-3 and flow cytometry.

RESULTSReal-time PCR results showed that the miR-144 expression was obviously increased in miR-144 up-regulation group (2178.84 ± 838.52) compared with negative (2.06 ± 0.73) and blank (1.00 ± 0.00) control group (all P < 0.01). The proliferation was lower, the activity of Caspase-3 was elevated and the apoptosis rates were significantly increased in miR-144 up-regulation group compared with negative and blank control group, while no significant difference was found between the latter 2 groups.

CONCLUSIONMiR-144 mimics may selectively up-regulate the expression of miR-144 in myocardial cells and consequently promote apoptosis and inhibit proliferation in myocardial cells.

Animals ; Apoptosis ; genetics ; Caspase 3 ; metabolism ; Cell Line ; MicroRNAs ; genetics ; metabolism ; Muscle Cells ; metabolism ; Rats ; Sincalide ; metabolism ; Transfection