OBJECTIVE: To explore the effects of Bushen Jianpi Huoxue Recipe, a compound traditional Chinese herbal medicine for tonifying the kidney, invigorating the spleen and promoting blood circulation, on tibial stress injuries in rabbits. METHODS: Thirty-five mature male rabbits were used in the experiment, and randomly divided into 7 groups: sedentary control (SC) group, 1-week exercise (E-1W) group, 2-week exercise (E-2W) group, 3-week exercise (E-3W) group, 4-week exercise (E-4W) group, 3-week exercise and 1-week Chinese herbal medicine treatment (EMT-1W) group, and 4-week exercise and 2-week Chinese herbal medicine treatment (EMT-2W) group. There were 5 rabbits in each group. A rabbit model of tibial stress injuries was established by stimulating the rabbits to jump and run within a high-voltage and low-current electronic cage. Radiologic features, bone scintigraphy, histology and electron microscopy of rabbit tibia were observed, and the content of blood parathyroid hormone (PTH), bone gla protein (BGP) and testosterone was detected by using radioimmunoassay method. RESULTS: After 2-week exercise, changes in histology and osteocytes had a tendency towards stress injuries. Serum PTH and BGP levels were remarkably increased, while serum testosterone level was lower than that in the SC group. Three- and four-week continuous exercise resulted in tibial stress injuries, and the positive changes were observed in X-ray features and radionuclide images. Compared with E-3W group, the levels of serum BGP and testosterone were decreased remarkably. A series of positive results such as prevailing negativeness of X-ray features and radionuclide images, increasing process of osteogenesis, typical osteogenic phase of osteocytes and favorable transformation of biochemical markers was shown in EMT-1W and EMT-2W groups. It also showed remarkable rising levels of serum BGP and testosterone and remarkable reducing level of serum PTH in EMT-1W and EMT-2W groups as compared with E-1W and E-2W groups. CONCLUSION: Bushen Jianpi Huoxue Recipe can prevent and treat exercise-induced tibial stress injuries by stimulating new bone formation and increasing serum testosterone level.

Objective: To study the effects of vitamin A deficiency (VAD) on brain development, learning and memory ability in young rats. Methods: A model of VAD in female rats and the offsprings were established. The growth and development, learning and memory ability, protein content, cell proliferative cycle of cortex and hippocampus, and hippocampus cell ultrastructure changes under electron microscopy of young rats were detected. Results: (1) The weights gain in VAD rats were decreased compared with the control. (2) The learning and memory scores in VAD rats was significantly lower than those of the control. (3) The protein content of cortex and hippocampus in VAD rats were significantly lower than those of the control. (4) The cell proliferative index (PI) of cortex and hippocampus in VAD rats were higher than those of the control. (5) The synapses between hippocampus pyramidal cells and the small bubbles in synapses in VAD rats were significantly decreased compared with the control. The astrocytes of hippocampus in VAD rats were significantly increased. Degeneration was observed in many astrocytes in VAD rats. Conclusion: VAD can affect the brain development and the ability of learning and memory in young rats.

Objective:To study the relationship between dietary vitamin A intake and plasma vitamin A concentration , and establish the theoretical basis for dietary intake predicting vitamin A nutritional status . Methods:By using cluster sampling , 492 children aged 2-7 years in kindergartens in Banan district of Chongqing were selected .A cross-sectional nutrition and health survey was conducted , including the clinical examination , anthropometry , laboratory test and dietary survey .Results: Among the children surveyed, 229 were boys, and 263 girls, the mean age was (4.54 ±0.87) years, height (107.50 ± 7.20) cm, and weight (18.42 ±3.41) kg, the mean value of plasma vitamin A was (1.04 ±0.30)μmol/L.The prevalence of marginal vitamin A deficiency ( MVAD) was 43.5%.No cases of severe clinical vitamin A deficiency were found (plasma vitamin A≤0.35μmol/L).Clinical examination found no conjunctiva, corneaor skin abnormalities, and no Bitot’s spots.Prevalence of the last two weeks colds were 27.4% (135/492), no diarrhea and other gastrointestinal or digestive diseases were found .The proportion of insufficient dietary vitamin A intake ( <600 μg RE/d) was as high as 50.0%.By using correlation analysis, plasma retinol concentrations were related to dietary vitamin A intake (r=0.162, P<0.001), and to dietary energy intake (r=0.107, P=0.017).After adjustment for the effects of other non-dietary factors on vitamin A deficiency , the multivariate logistic regression showed that vitamin A-rich foods of liver intake=0 g/d (OR=1.95, 95% CI:1.05-3.61, P=0.034), vitamin A-rich fruits intake=0 g/d (OR =1.55, 95% CI: 1.03 -2.33, P =0.034), vitamin A-rich vegetables intake<200 g/d (OR=3.47, 95%CI:1.37-8.75, P=0.009) were important risk factors of vitamin A deficiency .But we had not found the correlation between the intake of meat , eggs and milk and vita-min A deficiency .Conclusion:Dietary factors may be the major risk factor of vitamin A deficiency in the three kindergartens .The dietary vitamin A intakes are significantly related to plasma retinol concentra-tions, and the vitamin A-rich foods intakes can predict the body ’ s vitamin A nutritional status .

This study aims to construct the recombinant lentivirus vector containing specific small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting rat CREB binding protein(CBP)gene and to identify its function of inhibiting the expressions of acetylated histone in primarily cultured hippocampal neurons. Firstly, we constructed four kinds of recombinant lentivirus siCBP. And then we used them to infect the primarily cultured hippocampal neurons, and performed real-time PCR, western blot respectively to detect the expressions of CBP. Afterwards, the most effective lentivirus siCBP was used to infect the primarily cultured hippocampal neurons, and then the HAT activity and protein expressions of acetylated histone Ac-H3, Ac-H4 of the neurons were examined. By using PCR, endonuclease cutting and gene sequencing, we confirmed that the target genes were correctly cloned in lentivirus vector. Besides, CBP mRNA and protein expressions in neurons were found to be with varying degrees of decreases after infections of the four kinds of lentivirus siCBP. Furthermore, the representative and most effective lentivirus GR806 could effectively inhibit the HAT activity and the protein expressions of Ac-H3, Ac-H4 in neurons. It provides the experimental basis for the subsequent application of siCBP to clarify the effects and corresponding molecular mechanism of the CBP-dependent histone acetylation on learning and memory function in hippocampus.
Acetylation ; Animals ; CREB-Binding Protein ; metabolism ; Genetic Vectors ; Hippocampus ; cytology ; Histones ; metabolism ; Lentivirus ; Memory ; Neurons ; metabolism ; Primary Cell Culture ; RNA, Messenger ; RNA, Small Interfering ; Rats ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction