Objective: To study the effect of total flavonoids of astragalus (TFA) on adjuvant arthritic (AA) rats and its mechanism. Methods: The volume of non-injected hind paw of AA rats, serum malondialdehyde (MDA) content, interleukin-1(IL-1) and nitrite (NO - 2) produced from articular synoviocytes were measured. Results: It was obseved that serum levels of MDA and the levels of IL-1 and NO - 2 from synoviocytes increased in AA rats, and the degree of the secondary inflammatory reaction of AA rats appeared to be directly correlated with serum levels of MDA and IL-1. Treatment of whole (d0～27) or partial (d12-18 or d18-24) course of AA rats with TFA (20 mg/kg/d,ig) could not only markedly inhibit the inflammatory reaction in AA rats, but also reduce their enhanced serum lipid peroxides (LPO), IL-1 and NO production from synoviocytes. Conclusion: TFA has significant therapeutic effects on AA rats, which might be related to both of anti-oxidative effect and the reduced production of IL-1 and NO from synoviocytes.

The liver is one of the most important organs which regulate lipid metabolism in the body. Hepatic steatosis is a major manifestation of metabolic syndrome and is associated with an imbalance between lipid synthesis and decomposition. There are gender and age differences in the prevalence of fatty liver, suggesting that sex hormones may play a crucial role. This review summarizes current literatures on the regulation of hepatic lipid metabolism by sex hormones and their receptors. In females, estradiol binds to estrogen receptors to reduce liver fat production and fatty acid intake, while enhancing lipolysis and cholesterol secretion. In males, testosterone reduces adipogenesis and promotes fat breakdown through androgen receptors. These findings suggest that sex hormones and their receptors can serve as potential targets for preventing hepatic steatosis.

Objective : To investigate the sex difference of the effects of chronic pregnancy stress on depression-like behavior in offspring adolescent mice and whether the amygdala is involved in mediating depression-like behavior and its possible mechanism． Methods : Male and female of C57BL /6J mice were put in cage together．Pregnant mice were randomly divided into normal control group ( CON group) and chronic pregnancy stress group ( CPS group) ．The day of delivery was recorded as post-natal day(PND0) ．The offspring of different groups were divided into Female group and Male groupaccording to sex，respectively．From PND35，the depressive-like behavior of off- spring was monitored in different groups．Morphological structure of basolateral amygdala (BLA) cone neurone was observed by Golgi-Cox staining，and apoptosis of BLA neurone was detected by TUNEL．Serum corticotrophin-relea- sing hormone ( CRH) was detected by ELISA．The level of protein associated with amygdala mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and phosphorylated mammalian target of rapamycin ［p-mTOR ( Ser2448) ］was detected by Western blot. Results : Depression-like behavior was appeared in different sexual offspring by chronic pregnancy stress，and there was an interaction between chronic pregnancy stress and gender．In the forced swimming test，the immobility time of offspring in the CPS group prominently increased(Female: P＜0. 05，Male: P＜0. 001) ．Interest- ingly，compared with female offspring ，despairing behavior of male offspring was much more clearly observed in CPS group(P＜0. 05) ．Compared with offspring of CON group，the rate of sucrose preference was significantly re- duced in the female offspring of CPS group(P＜0. 05) ，while no obvious difference was observed in the male off- spring．Compared with the CON group，the density of neuronal dendrite branches in the BLA of offspring mice in the CPS group decreased(Female: P＜0. 01，Male : P＜0. 01) and the degree of neuronal apoptosis increased( Fe- male: P＜0. 001，Male : P ＜0. 001) ，the expression level of p-mTOR in amygdala of offspring mice in CPS group significantly decreased(Female: P＜0. 001，Male: P＜0. 001) ．Chronic pregnancy stress increased the serum CRH level of offspring mice(P＜0. 001) ，and the gender had significant influence on serum CRH level，the serum CRH level of female in CPS group was higher than that of male(P＜0. 05) ． Conclusion Chronic pregnancy stress leads to depression-like behavior in offspring adolescent mice，and the depression-like behavior has gender differences. In addition，chronic pregnancy stress leads to dendrite atrophy and apoptosis of BLA neurons in offspring mice，and the mechanism may be that the activation of mTOR in the amygdala of offspring mice is inhibited．CRH may be in- volved in mediating sex differences in depression-like behavior and BLA neuron damage in offspring induced by chronic pregnancy stress.