Dioscin, a typical saponin, is widely present in the family of Dioscoreaceae, Liliaceae, Caryophyllaceae and Rosaceae, especially in Dioscoreaceae, including Discorea nipponica Makino, Dioscorea zingiberensis C. H. Wright and Dioscorea panthaica Prain et Burkill. Traditional Chinese medicine reported that dioscin plays a role in expectorant, relaxing the muscles and stimulating the blood circulation, aiding digestion and diuresis. With the development of science and technology in recent years, some new extraction and separation techniques and methods have been applied to the study of dioscin, and more and more pharmacological effects were found. Modern pharmacology studies have confirmed that dioscin had some activities on desensitization, anti-inflammatory, lipid-lowering, anti-tumor, hepatoprotection and anti-viral. After oral administration, dioscin is metabolized to diosgenin, which is the true active ingredient and is an important raw material to synthesize steroid hormone drugs. Therefore, the studies on dioscin are valueable and promising. In this review, we make a summary on the researches of dioscin including the extraction technology, separation and prepara- tion, chemical synthesis, drug metabolism, determination and pharmacological researches.
Animals ; Biological Products ; adverse effects ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Diosgenin ; adverse effects ; analogs & derivatives ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Plant Extracts ; adverse effects ; chemistry ; pharmacology

No abstract available.
Animals ; Gonadal Steroid Hormones* ; Rats*

The construction of nano-bionic drug delivery system based on cells or cellular components is a research hotspot of novel drug delivery systems at present. The nano-bionic drug delivery system can integrate the characteristics not only high drug loading and controlled release of nano-carriers, but also good biocompatibility, low immunogenicity and natural targeting from bionic components of cell, and it can also integrate with flexible morphology from living cells. Among them, nano-bionic drug delivery system based on macrophages possesses a good prospect of clinical application because of phagocytic function, inherent tendency, deep penetration ability and potential in cell therapy of macrophages in the treatment of tumors. Based on this, this paper reviews the drug loading strategies of nano-bionic drug delivery system based on macrophages and its application in tumor therapy, so as to provide reference for the development of novel drug delivery systems.

No abstract available.
Depression, Postpartum* ; Female ; Postpartum Period*

OBJECTIVE: This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of the isolation methods of inner cell mass from mouse blastocyst, types of feeder cells and treatment time of mitomycin C on the formation rate of ICM colony. METHODS: The inner cells were isolated by conventional immunosurgery, partial trophoblast dissection with syringe needles and whole blastocyst co-culture method. Commercially available STO and primary cultured mouse embryonic fibroblast (pMEF) feeder cells were used, and mitomycin C was treated for 1, 2 or 3 hours, respectively. The formation rate of ICM colony was observed after isolation of ICM and culture of ICM on the feeder cells for 7 days. RESULT: The ICM colony formation rate on STO were significantly higher in partial trophoblast dissection group (58%) than that in immunosurgery (12%) or whole blastocyst culture (16%) group (p<0.05). The formation rate on pMEF feeder layer was higher in partial trophoblast dissection (88%) and whole blastocyst culture (82%) group than that in immunosurgery (16%) group (p<0.05). When mitomycin C treated to pMEF for 2 hours, the formation rate of 88% was significantly higher than those of other conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Above results showed that the efficient isolation method of ICM from blastocyst was the partial trophoblast dissection and the appropriate treatment time of mitomycin C was 2 hours. However, the subculture of ICM colony and characterization of stem cells should be carried out to confirm the efficacy of the partial trophoblast dissection method.
Animals ; Blastocyst ; Coculture Techniques ; Feeder Cells* ; Fibroblasts ; Mice* ; Mitomycin* ; Needles ; Stem Cells ; Syringes ; Trophoblasts

OBJECTIVETo study the anticancer action of Zuojinwan in mice transplanted with sarcoma 180 in vivo, and detect the activities of five kinds of tumor markers (TM) including acid phosphotase (ACP), alkaline phosphotase (AKP), creatine kinase (CK), aldolase (ALD) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in serum compared with Coptis chinensis and Evodia rutaecarpa.

METHODThe transplanted S180 tumor mice model was established, and the mice were divided randomly five groups. The extract of Zuojinwan (850.8 mg kg(-1)), C. chinensis (729.2 mg kg(-1)) and E. rutaecarpa (121.6 mg kg(-1)) were administrated, respectively for 10 d. Then, the changes of body weight, spleen index of mice, the inhibition rates of tumor, and the increase of life span (ILS) were all tested. In addition, the activities of ACP, AKP, CK, ALD and LDH on different test groups were also determined.

RESULTZuojinwan could inhibit the S180 tumor growth significantly with the inhibition rate of 50.54% and the ILS of mice reached to 64.91%. Meanwhile, the activities of ACP (126.72 +/- 11.16) U 100 mL(-1) and AKP (67.27 +/- 13.49) U 100 mL(-1) were increased, and the activities of CK (20.65 +/- 4.28) U mL(-1), ALD (319.13 +/- 53.87) U L(-1) and LDH (1,029.04 +/- 468.56) U L(-1) were decreased significantly by Zuojinwan treated group compared with C. chinensis and E. rutaecarpa treated groups (P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONIn the prescription of Zuojinwan, the enhancement of compatibility of anticancer activity was observed by the interaction of C. chinensis and E. rutaecarpa. The mechanism might be in according with to influence the activities of the five kinds of tumor markers (TM) in mice serum.

Acid Phosphatase ; blood ; Alkaline Phosphatase ; blood ; Animals ; Antineoplastic Agents ; pharmacology ; Biomarkers, Tumor ; metabolism ; Coptis ; chemistry ; Creatine Kinase ; blood ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Evodia ; chemistry ; Female ; Fructose-Bisphosphate Aldolase ; blood ; L-Lactate Dehydrogenase ; blood ; Male ; Mice ; Neoplasm Transplantation ; Random Allocation ; Sarcoma 180 ; blood ; drug therapy ; pathology

OBJECTIVE: To establish the evaluation system of the quality of oocytes on the basis of the incidence of cumulus cells apoptosis, to investigate the relationships between the incidence of cumulus cells and the outcomes of IVF-ET. METHOD: Thirth-four cycles undergoing controlled ovarian hypersimulation for IVF-ET with tubal infertility (23 cycles) or unexplained infertility (11 cycles) were included in this study. Cumulus cell masses surrounding mature oocyte and co-culture of embryos with autologous cumulus cells during IVF-ET process. The incidence of apoptosis in cumulus cells was assessed by apoptosis detection kit fluorescein. The effect of co-culture using cumulus cells and the incidence of cumulus cells apoptosis. RESULTS: The results were as follows: 1. The incidence of apoptosis in cumulus cells markedly increased in patients aged 40 or over, while the fertilization rate was greatly decreased in those age group. 2. Apoptosis in cumulus cells was found in both the fertilized oocytes and unfertilized oocytes, but the incidence of apoptosis was higher in unfertilized oocytes. 3. There is no clear correlation between apoptosis in cumulus cells and the number of oocytes retrieved. However, the incidence of apoptosis was increased when the number of oocytes retrieved was 5 and fewer in comparison with 6~10. 4. Embryo grade was significantly affected by the incidence of apoptosis in cumulus cells. 5. Pregnancy rate of IVF-ET per cycle was 29.4%, and the pregnant group had the higher fertilization rate and a significantly lower incidence of apoptosis in cumulus cells compared with the nonpregnant group. 6. When cumulus cells were used as helper cells in the co-culture of the embryo, in vitro activity of cumulus cells based on morphological change and proliferation did not influence the quality of embryo, but was closely associated with the implantation rate and pregnancy rate, which was enhanced when morphological changes and proliferation of cumulus cells was more active. 7. This difference in the outcome of IVF-ET according to in vitro activity of cumulus cells used for co-cultue was not associated with the incidence of apoptosis in cumulus cells, but rather had likely relations with the different secretion pattern of protein, which may be an embryotrophic factor by cumulus cells. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the incidence of apoptosis in cumulus cells can be used in predicting oocyte qualities and the outcomes of IVF-ET. And the effect of co-culture largely depends on the in vitro activity of cumulus cells as well.
Apoptosis ; Coculture Techniques ; Cumulus Cells* ; Embryonic Structures ; Fertilization ; Fluorescein ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infertility ; Oocytes ; Pregnancy Rate ; T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer

No abstract available.
Female* ; Humans ; Krukenberg Tumor*

No abstract available.
Anemia, Hemolytic* ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Premature* ; Vitamin E* ; Vitamins*

No abstract available.
Pregnancy Rate* ; Pregnancy*