[Summary] Glucagon-like peptide-1 ( GLP-1 ) as a new treatment of type 2 diabetes, not only has hypoglycemic effect, but also plays an important role in the regulation of lipid metabolism. GLP-1 plays a unique role in regulating lipid metabolism via lipid absorption and transport, fat formation and decomposition, hepatic lipid metabolism, and cholesterol transport.

Humans ; Tuberculosis, Hepatic

The status of breastfeeding and in-hospital health education during pregnancy was surveyed in 32 maternity and children health care hospitals at provincial and municipal levels.A total of 1105 cases were assigned into hospital health education (A,n =872) and control (B,n =233) groups according to whether the women received the hospital health education of breastfeeding during pregnancy.Their differences in breastfeeding knowledge,attitudes and early feeding behavior were compared and analyzed by x2 test and binary logistic regression.Mothers in the group A were at higher levels of breastfeeding knowledge and had a higher proportion of breastfeeding at Day 1 (82.3％).The rate of exclusive breastfeeding in-hospital was significantly higher in group A than that in group B (51.1％ vs.32.3％).After adjusting for in-hospital health education,health education during pregnancy had significant effects on breastfeeding in the first days for group A:breastfeeding in the first 24 hour (OR =2.076,95％CI:1.474-2.924) and exclusive in-hospital breastfeeding (OR =2.105,95％ CI:1.529-2.898).

The research was carried out to establish HPLC fingerprints of Tibetan medicinal herb "Songdi" (Saxifraga umbellulata var. pectinata), and to provide reference for identification an quality control of it. It was performed on an Amethyst-C18-P (4.6 mm x 250 mm, 5 microm) column with the mobile phase of methanol-0.4% formic acid in a linear gradient mode at a flow rate of 1.0 mL x min(-1). The column temperature was 30 degrees C, and the detection wavelength was set at 254 nm. The software for chromatographic fingerprint was applied to analyse the pattern analysis, the common peaks and similarity. Cluster analysis was done based on the common peaks data of 33 samples from different plant species and sources by SPSS software. Ten common chromatographic peaks were identified by fingerprint, showing a low similarity in constituent and variety. Flavonoids and saponins were the principal components. The number and area of peaks were affected by the collection sources and method. The high similarity are showed by the samples derived from the same area with high accuracy and high purity. The method is so simple, exclusive, stable and high repeatable that it can provide reference for identification and quality assessment of "Songdi" (S. umbellulata var. pectinata).
Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; methods ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; analysis ; Medicine, Tibetan Traditional ; Quality Control ; Saxifragaceae ; chemistry

Objective To investigate the drug induced liver injure(DILI)associated with Chinese herbal medicine and herbal related food supplements.Methods From 1982 to 2005.8.9 consecutive pa- tients were diagnosed as DILI based on their medication history,clinical manifestation,liver function and other laboratory tests.The final retrospection confirmatory diagnosis was made according to the interna- tional scoring system for DILI.Results The 82 DILI patients(28 men,54 females,age ranging from 16 to 81 years old)accounted for 2.2% of hospitalized patients with liver dysfunction.Among those patients with DILI,30.5% was caused by weight reducing drugs or food supplements,12.2% by drugs of derma tology,8.5% by drugs for cardiovascular disease,8.5% by drugs of rheumatology,7.3% by drugs of gynecology,6.1% by drugs for liver disease,6.1% by blood-lipids modulators,3.7% by drugs for thy- roid disease,3.7% by drugs for hyperplasia of mammary glands and 13.4 % by the others.The duration of medication was from 6 clays to 6 months and the incubation period was from 6 days to 3 months.DILI could be classified as acute hepatocellular injury(36.59%),acute cholestasis(39.02%)and mixtures (24.39%).About 10% patients were accompanied by allergic manifestations.All patients recovered rap- idly after stopping the relevant medicine.Conclusion Chinese herbal medicine and herbal related food supplements are a common cause of DILI in China.The awareness and monitoring improving DILI during herbs treatment is a critical issue in daily practice.

OBJECTIVETo detect the expression level of interleukin 17 (IL-17) in the plasma and colonic mucosa of patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), and to explore the synergistic mechanism of qingchang huashi recipe (QHR) combined with Mesalazine.

METHODSRecruited were 24 mild or moderate UC patients of damp-heat inner accumulation syndrome (DHIAS). Their samples of intestinal tissues were histologically graded. They were assigned to the combination group and the Western medicine (WM) group, 12 in each group. Besides, another 12 healthy volunteers were recruited as the healthy control group. QHR combined Mesalazine were given to patients in the combination group, while those in the WM group took Mesalazine. The therapeutic course for all was 3 months. By the end of treatment the expression level of IL-17 in the plasma and colonic mucosa was detected using ELISA. The infiltration of IL-17 in the intestinal mucosal tissue was detected by immunohistochemical SP method.

RESULTSThe expression level of IL-17 in the plasma and colonic mucosa was significantly higher in UC patients than in healthy controls (P <0. 05). The higher the histological grading the higher the expression level. The expression level of IL-17 in plasma and colonic tissues decreased after treatment in the two treatment groups (P < 0.05). Besides, the expression level of IL-17 was lower in the combination group than in the WM group (P <0.05).

CONCLUSIONQHR combined Mesalazine could synergically enhance the effect and effectively inhibit intestinal inflammation through down-regulating the expression of IL-17.

Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal ; therapeutic use ; Colitis, Ulcerative ; drug therapy ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Immunologic Factors ; metabolism ; Inflammation ; metabolism ; Interleukin-17 ; metabolism ; Intestinal Mucosa ; drug effects ; Intestines ; metabolism ; Mesalamine ; therapeutic use

Objective To evaluate the role and efficacy of preventing bone mineral loss in patients with endometriosis treated by gonadotrophin-releasing hormone analogues (GnRH-a) combined with addback therapy.Methods Prospective,randomized controlled studies of the use of GnRHa with add-back therapy in treatment of endometriosis were enrolled in this study from Medline,Embase,Cochrane library,China National Knowledge Internet (CNKI),Chinese Biological Medicine Disk (CBM) and Data Base of Wanfang.After quality assessment and data extraction,meta-analysis were conducted in the change of BMD,reproductive hormone (E2) and visual pain score (VAS) by Stata 11.0 software.Results A total of 785patients from 13 randomized controlled trail (RCT) studies enrolled in this study after exclude no following up,poor quality and repeat published studies.377 patients were in group of GnRH-a with add-back treatment and 408 patients were in group of GnRna alone.The findinds were showed in meta-analysis:(1) there was a significant difference in percentage change of bone mineral density (BMD) between two groups,the addback therapy was more effective in prevention of bone loss which was (SMD =0.223,95％ CI:0.003 to 0.443,P =0.047).(2) There was no significant difference in the level of reproductive hormone between two groups (SMD =-0.053,95％ CI:-0.479 to 0.373,P =0.807).(3) There was also no significant difference in the visual pain score between the two groups (SMD =-0.157,95％ CI:-0.474 to 0.160,P=0.332).Conclusions GnRH-a with add-back therapy have been shown to be more effective in preventing loss of BMD than GnRH-a treatment alone.However,the long term effect of preventing BMD should be studied.

Objective To compare the diagnostic efficacy of the V/Q scan and CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA) for the detection of acute pulmonary embolism (PE) in elderly patients.Methods Fortyfour patients (age ≥60 years old) with suspected acute PE underwent V/Q scan and CTPA.The diagnosis of PE by V/Q scan was based on the criteria of prospective investigation of PE diagnosis (PIOPED) Ⅱ and the prospective investigative study of acute PE diagnosis (PISA-PED).The final diagnosis was made clinically.The sensitivities,specificities and accuracies of PIOPED Ⅱ,PISA-PED,CTPA and Wills score were calculated and compared using x2 and Fisher's exact tests.Kappa analysis was used to analyze the diagnostic accordance rate of PIOPED Ⅱ and PISA-PED.Results The sensitivities of PIOPED Ⅱ,PISA-PED and CTPA in the diagnosis of PE were 70.00％ (14/20),84.62％ (22/26) and 65.22％ (15/23),respectively (x2 =0.069-1.545,all P＞0.05).The sensitivity of Wills score was significantly lower (23.08％,3/13).The specificity of CTPA (93.75％,15/16) was significantly higher than those of PIOPED lⅡ and PISAPED (80.00％,12/15 and 61.11％,11/18,both P＜0.05).The accuracies of PIOPED Ⅱ,PISA-PED and CTPA were 74.29％ (26/35),75.00％ (33/44) and 76.92％ (30/39),respectively (x2 =0.005-0.070,all P＞0.05).The accuracy of Wills score was significantly lower (52.17％,12/23).The diagnostic accordance rate of PIOPED Ⅱ and PISA-PED criteria was 77.14％(27/35),Kappa=0.547,P＜0.05.Conclusion V/Q scan and CTPA have no significant difference for the diagnosis of PE in the elderly patients.

BACKGROUND:The discovery and concept of pulp tissue-derived stem cells is beneficial to the understanding of tooth development and regeneration and repair mechanisms from the cellular level. OBJECTIVE:To understand the induced differentiation capacity and induced conditions in vitro of human dental pulp stem cells into neuron-like cells. METHODS:Pulp tissue was separated from human healthy third molars. Single cellsuspensions were prepared and seeded into 6-wel plates containing alpha-modified minimum essential medium supplemented with 15%fetal bovine serum. Subconfluent cultures (first passage) of colony forming cells were induced with butylhydroxy anisole, forskolin,β-mercaptoethanol, basic fibroblast growth factor. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Immunofluorescence and reverse transcription-PCR assay showed that human dental pulp stem cells positively expressed stro-1, Col-I, dentin sialoprotein after 2 weeks of induction. Nestin and neuron-specific enolase were strongly expressed, but the gingival fibroblasts were negatively expressed. It indicates that adult stem cells in human dental pulp have a high neuron-like celldifferentiation potential under a certain inductive condition.

Objective To discover the reciprocal regulation and its molecular mechanism of estro-gen, IL-6 and IL-8 in ovarian cancer cells. Methods Based on our previous studies, the effect of 17β-estradiol (E2) on the expression levels of IL-6, IL-8 and their respective receptors was investigated. Mean-while, the effect of IL-6/IL-8 on estrogen receptor (ER) expression and estrogen-dependent transcriptional activation was analyzed. Gene expression profile analysis revealed that CAOV-3 and OVCAR-3 cells, which express ER, IL-6 and IL-8 receptors, were suitable models for this study. Results We found that E2 not only enhanced IL-6/IL-8 secretion via NF-κB signaling pathway, but also modulated IL-6 and IL-8 receptors expression. Tamoxifen (Txf), an ER antagonist, completely abolished E2-stimulated IL-6/IL-8 expression. On the other hand, in the absence of estrogen, both cytokines increased ERα expression, decreased ERβ ex-pression, and activated estrogen-dependent transcriptional activation, which was completely blocked by Txf. Pretreatment of OVCAR-3 with p38 MAPK, MEK1/2 or ErbB2 MAPK inhihitors, respectively, IL-6-media-ted ER activation was blocked, while IL-8-indueed ER activation was blocked by Src inhibitor. Conclusion These data suggest that estrogen, IL-6 and IL-8 may form a mutual amplifying signaling which contributes to the growth and development of ovarian carcinoma.