OBJECTIVETo observe the impacts on the muscle strength in the patients of stroke-induced acroparalysis treated with Xunjingcuiqi needling technique.

METHODSOne hundred patients were randomized into a Xunjingcuiqi group and a routine acupuncture group, 50 cases in each group. In the routine acupuncture group, the routine acupuncture technique was adopted at the main acupoints, such as Shangxing (GV 23), Baihui (GV 20), Dicang (ST 4), Quchi (LI 11), Huantiao (GB 30) and Zusanli (ST 36), etc. In Xunjingcuiqi group, on the basis of the routine acupuncture technique, Xunjingcuiqi needling technique (pricking technique was quickly applied with the filiform needle along the running course of meridian to promote the conduction of meridian qi) was added. For the patients being hard to feel the needling sensation and with the muscle strength of 0 to 1 degree, Dongzhencuiqi technique was supplemented at shu-stream points of yang meridians (after qi arrival, the needling manipulation with limb movement was given to promote the conduction of meridian qi). The treatment was given once every day in the two groups. Ten treatments made one session. Three sessions of treatment were required. At the end of each session treatment, the muscle strength and clinical efficacy were assessed.

RESULTSIn the 1st, 2nd and 3rd sessions of treatment, 20, 24 and 36 cases achieved the 3 to 5 degrees muscle strength in Xunjingcuiqi group, respectively; and 6, 10 and 15 cases achieved the 3 to 5 degrees muscle strength in the routine acupuncture group. The differences were significant statistically in comparison of the two groups (P < 0.01, P < 0.05). The markably effective rates were 60.0% (30/50), 64.0% (32/50) and 70.0% (35/50) after the 1st, 2nd and 3rd sessions of treatment in Xunjingcuiqi group, respectively; and those were 38.0% (19/50), 44.0% (22/50) and 46.0% (23/50) in the routine acupuncture group, respectively. The differences were significant in the 1st and 3rd sessions of treatment between the two groups (both P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONXunjingcuiqi needling technique combined with routine acupuncture achieves the apparent superior efficacy on acroparalysis induced by ischemic stroke as compared with the simple routine acupuncture. Xunjingcuiqi needling technique obviously improves muscle strength and shortens the duration of sickness.

Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; instrumentation ; methods ; Aged ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Paralysis ; etiology ; therapy ; Qi ; Stroke ; complications ; Treatment Outcome

Objective To investigate the effect of mild hypothermia on brain edema after severe head injury (SHI) and its clinical significance. Methods Thirty-six patients with SHI were randomly divided into conventional therapy group (control group) and mild hypothermia therapeutic group (therapeutic group), with 18 patients in each group. The patients in the therapeutic group were treated with ice-cap, ice-blanket and ice-bag and lytic cocktail Ⅰas adjuvants, and a rectal temperature of 33 ℃ was maintained for 3~5 d. Intracranial pressure (ICP) of all the patients after operation were monitored postoperatively. The size of brain edema was measured with CT on day 0, 1, 3, 7, 14, 21 respectively after SHI. The size of brain edema at the trauma cite and ICP as well as the clinical outcome were compared and analysed. Results ICP of the control and therapeutic groups were（2.87±0.26）kPa and (1.67±0.23) kPa respectively on day 3 (P<0.01), and were (3.15±0.24)kPa and (1.78±0.24) kPa respectively on day 7 after brain injury (P<0.01). The area of brain edema was the largest on day 14 in the control group (140.90±22.95 cm3)and on day 3 in the therapeutic group (95.83±14.97 cm3). At day 14 posttrauma, the edema area in therapeutic group was 42% smaller than that in the control group (P<0.05). The rates of consciousness recovery within a week were 22.2% (4/18) in the control group and 55.6% (10/18) in the therapeutic group (P<0.05). The rates of unfavorable prognosis was 61.1% (11/18) in the control group and 33.3% (6/18) in the therapeutic group. Conclusion Mild hypothermia treatment can improve the prognosis through alleviating brain edema and stabilizing ICP after SHI.

Objective To investigate the effect of mild hypothermia on brain edema after severe head injury (SHI) and its clinical significance. Methods Thirty-six patients with SHI were randomly divided into conventional therapy group (control group) and mild hypothermia therapeutic group (therapeutic group), with 18 patients in each group. The patients in the therapeutic group were treated with ice-cap, ice-blanket and ice-bag and lytic cocktail Ⅰas adjuvants, and a rectal temperature of 33 ℃ was maintained for 3~5 d. Intracranial pressure (ICP) of all the patients after operation were monitored postoperatively. The size of brain edema was measured with CT on day 0, 1, 3, 7, 14, 21 respectively after SHI. The size of brain edema at the trauma cite and ICP as well as the clinical outcome were compared and analysed. Results ICP of the control and therapeutic groups were（2.87±0.26）kPa and (1.67±0.23) kPa respectively on day 3 (P<0.01), and were (3.15±0.24)kPa and (1.78±0.24) kPa respectively on day 7 after brain injury (P<0.01). The area of brain edema was the largest on day 14 in the control group (140.90±22.95 cm3)and on day 3 in the therapeutic group (95.83±14.97 cm3). At day 14 posttrauma, the edema area in therapeutic group was 42% smaller than that in the control group (P<0.05). The rates of consciousness recovery within a week were 22.2% (4/18) in the control group and 55.6% (10/18) in the therapeutic group (P<0.05). The rates of unfavorable prognosis was 61.1% (11/18) in the control group and 33.3% (6/18) in the therapeutic group. Conclusion Mild hypothermia treatment can improve the prognosis through alleviating brain edema and stabilizing ICP after SHI.

OBJECTIVETo study the effect of Tiaoxin Recipe (TXR) on learning and memory related gene expression in hippocampus of senescence accelerated mice (SAM).

METHODSChanges of learning and memory related gene expression, including mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), presenile protein 1 and 2 (PS-1, PS-2), tau, APP, apoE and bcl-2 in hippocampus of SAM were determined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The effect of TXR were tested. E2020 was used as the drug for control.

RESULTSCompared with those in the same aged mice, in the 5-month old SAM, levels of gene expression of MR, tau, PS-2 and APP were significantly higher, that of apo-E lower, levels of gene expression PS-1 and bcl-2 were unobviously changed; while in the 12-month old SAM, gene expression of MR and tau were higher, bcl-2 was lower and PS-1, PS-2, apoE and APP were also unobviously changed. Continuously orally taken TXR could correct the abnormality of MR, tau and apoE gene expression in hippocampus of 5-month SAM and that of MR and bcl-2 in 12-month SAM.

CONCLUSIONContinuously orally taken of TXR has the effect of regulating and correcting learning and memory related gene expression in hippocampus of 5-month and 12-month SAM.

Aging ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Animals ; Apolipoproteins E ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Gene Expression ; Hippocampus ; metabolism ; Learning ; drug effects ; Membrane Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Memory ; drug effects ; Mice ; Presenilin-1 ; Presenilin-2 ; tau Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics

As an important neurotransmitter, adenosine displays its functions by acting on the adenosine receptors. Recent studies have shown that the distribution, expression and balance among subtypes of adenosine receptors are closely related with cognitive activities, and changes of adenosine receptors play key roles in neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's disease. It has been pointed out that prolonged activation of adenosine receptors by high level adenosine may lead to the disturbance of balance among adenosine receptor subtypes. This imbalance mainly performed as increased expression of A2a receptor and decreased expression of A1 receptor, and enhancement of the excitatory signals mediated by A2a receptor and weakened inhibitory signals mediated by A1 receptor. Changes of these two subtypes of adenosine receptors may lead to a lot of disorders of neurological activities which developed into dysfunction of cognition to the end. These findings imply that the potential of maintaining the balance among adenosine receptors on the treatment of AD would facilitate both the revealing of the mechanism and the cure of AD.
Adenosine ; physiology ; Alzheimer Disease ; physiopathology ; Humans ; Neurotransmitter Agents ; physiology ; Receptors, Purinergic P1 ; classification ; physiology

Alzheimer' s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia in the elderly. AD is an invariably fatal neurodegenerative disorder with no effective treatment. Senescence-accelerated mouse prone 8 (SAMP8) is a model for studying age-related cognitive impairments and also is a good model to study brain aging and one of mouse model of AD. The technique of cDNA microarray can monitor the expression levels of thousands of genes simultaneously and can be used to study AD with the character of multi-mechanism, multi-targets and multi-pathway. In order to disclose the mechanism of AD and find the drug targets of AD, cDNA microarray containing 3136 cDNAs amplified from the suppression subtracted cDNA library of hippocampus of SAMP8 and SAMR1 was prepared with 16 blocks and 14 x 14 pins, the housekeeping gene beta-actin and G3PDH as inner conference. The background of this microarray was low and unanimous, and dots divided evenly. The conditions of hybridization and washing were optimized during the hybridization of probe and target molecule. After the data of hybridization analysis, the differential expressed cDNAs were sequenced and analyzed by the bioinformatics, and some of genes were quantified by the real time RT-PCR and the reliability of this cDNA microarray were validated. This cDNA microarray may be the good means to select the differential expressed genes and disclose the molecular mechanism of SAMP8's brain aging and AD.
Aging ; genetics ; metabolism ; Alzheimer Disease ; genetics ; metabolism ; Animals ; Disease Models, Animal ; Gene Expression ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Hippocampus ; metabolism ; Male ; Mice ; Models, Animal ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction

OBJECTIVE To establish an in vitro cell model based on patient-specific human neural stem cells to study the pathomechanism of sporadic AD as well as screen candidate drugs.METHODS The peripheral blood cells from sporadic AD patients and cognitive normal controls were repro-grammed into inducedpluripotent stem cells(iPSCs),which were further induced into neural stem cells and neurons. The cell growth curve during the differentiation process was recorded by the IncuCyte ZOOM, and neural stem cells and neurons were identified by immunofluorescence. The apoptosis of neural stem cells and neurons was detected by Click-iT?Plus TUNEL Assay. RESULTS Neural stem cells derived from AD patients and cognitive normal controls can express neural stem cell markers Nes-tin,Sox1,Sox2 and Ki67.TUNEL assay results showed that the number of TUNEL-positive cells in neu-ral stem cells derived from AD patients was significantly higher than that of cognitive normal controls (P<0.01). When neural stem cells were differentiated into neurons, the percentage of MAP2 positive cells in the neural stem cell-derived culture dish of AD patients was significantly higher than the cogni-tive normal controls at day 16 of neuronal differentiation (P<0.01); the TUNEL assay showed that the number of TUNEL-positive cells in AD-derived neurons was significantly greater than that in cognitive normal controls (P<0.01) at day 16 of neuronal differentiation. CONCLUSION Our study revealed that AD-iPSC-derived neural stem cells exhibit premature neuronal differentiation and increased neural apoptosis,which might be relevant to the neuronal loss of AD,thus may provide valuable new tools to screen candidate drugs for the disease and to discover the mechanisms underlying AD pathogenesis.

Objective To prepare a glycerol reference material.Methods The material was prepared and characterized according to the primary standard substance technological specification(JJG 1006- 1994).Glycerol was dissolved in water containing 0.5% sodium azide and dispersed to glass ampules.The homogeneity and stability of this material were tested with an HPLC method.Glycerol concentration was determined by a titration method as specified in the Pharmacopoeia of China.Results The three time measuring result of glycerol reference material was 1.297 5?0.014 3,1.302 0?0.008 9,1.313 7? 0.007 8,respectively.Statistical analysis showed that this material was homogeneous (F=1.462,P=0.166) .It was stable for at least 4 years at 4℃.The assigned reference value was 0.103 6 g/g and the expanded uncertainty was 0.000 4 g/g.Conclusions This material meet the technical requirements of national primary standard reference material.It is approved as the Certified Reference Material (GBW 09149) by General Administration of Quality Supervision,Inspection,Quarantine of the People's Republic of China in May,2006.

By non-steady method,the effective diffusivity of ferrous sulphate within alginate calcium gel entrapped without bacteria was measured.Meanwhile the oxidation ability of entrapped bacteria was analyzed.Experimental results showed that the effective diffusion coefficient of ferrous sulphate decreased with the increase of alginate concentration,the optimum alginate concentration is 2%(W/V).The effect of calcium chloride on the effective diffusivity was neglectable.The incubation of ferrooxidans would pass through 10 hours,and the diffusion coefficient within gel entrapped Thiobacillus ferrooxidans cells was less remarkably than that of ferrous sulphate without entrapped cells.For the entrapped cells,the absolute oxidation time was shortest and the rate change was fastest with the initial Fe concentration 5g/L.The absolute oxidation time was same when the initial Fe concentration was 8g/L and 10g/L.

In order to increase the production of insecticidal crystal proteins Cry1 and Cry2, firstly, Plack-ett-Burman design was applied to evaluate the effectiveness of the related nutrition factors; it was found that the soybean powder and MnSO4?H2O were significant factors for Cry1 production, but the yield of Cry2 wasn’t effected remarkably in such medium. Then the steepest ascent experiment was adopted to approach the optimal region of the medium composition. Lastly, the optimal concentration of the soybean powder and MnSO4?H2O was 11.5 and 0.02 g/L, obtained by response surface methodology (RSM). The final yields of Cry1 and Cry2 was 0.32 mg/mL and 0.11 mg/mL, increasing twice more than that in the medium optimized before. The median lethal concentration (LC50) of optimal medium was 1.09 ?L/mL. The toxicity to Heli-coverpa armigera was significantly enhanced than the old one.