Objective: To study the chemical constituents from Dendrobium hancockii. Methods: The compounds were isolated and purified by column chromatography and preparative HPLC, and their structures were elucidated by spectral analysis. Results: A total of nine compounds were isolated from D. hancockii and the structures were identified as 3,α-dihydroxy-4,5,3’- trimethoxybibenzyl (1), 3,4’,5-trihydroxy-3-methoxybibenzyl (2), 4,4’-dihydroxy-3,5,3’-trimenthoxybibenzyl (3), 4,3’-dihydroxy- 3,5’-dimethoxybibenzyl (4), 7-hydroxy-2-methoxy-1,4-phenanthrenequinone (5), 2,5-dihydroxy-4-methoxyphenanthrene (6), 2,5-dihydroxy-4,9-dimethoxyphenanthrene (7), nobilone (8), and crepidatuol B (9). Conclusion: Compound 1 is a new compound named dendrohanol A, and compounds 2-9 are isolated from this plant for the first time.

Objective To study the chemical constituents of Dendrobium bellatulum. Methods The compounds were isolated and purified by column chromatography and preparative HPLC, and their structures were elucidated by spectral analysis. Results Fifteen compounds were isolated and identified as 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy-3,6-dimethylbenzoic acid (1), 4’,5-dihydroxy-3,3’- dimethoxybiphezyl (2), 3,3’-dihydroxy-4,5-dimethoxybiphezyl (3), dihydroconiferyl dihydro-p-coumarate (4), aloifol I (5), batatasin III (6), dendrosinen B (7), 2,5,7-trihydroxy-4-methoxy-9,10-dihydrophenanthrene (8), p-hydroxyphenyl-propionic acid (9), p-hydroxycinnamic acid (10), ferulic acid (11), caffeic acid (12), dendrosinen D (13), neoolivil (14), and 3-hydroxymethyl-9- methoxy-2-(4’-hydroxy-3’,5’-dimethoxyphenyl)-2,3,6,7-tetrahydrophenanthro [4,3-b] furan-5,11-diol (15). Conclusion All compounds are isolated from D. bellatulum for the first time, and compound 1 is isolated from the family Orchidaceae for the first time.

Neural network plasticity is fundamental for learning and memory. Its abnormal change underlies some neural diseases. Measurement of the plasticity of cortex can help understand the mechanism of plasticity, and provide a quantitative way to observe the neural process of natural aging and neurodegenerative diseases, which may lead to a new approach for evaluation of anti-aging drugs and new medical treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, a systematic method was established based on whisker pairing (WP) experiment to measure the network plasticity in the barrel cortex in rat. WP experiment is a classical experiment to study the effect of innocuous bias of the flow of sensory activity from the whiskers for certain periods in awake and behaving rats on the receptive field organization in S1 barrel cortex neurons. In the experiment, one pair of adjacent whiskers D2 and D3 remained intact while others were being trimmed throughout a certain period. After that, receptive fields of single cells in the contralateral barrel were analyzed by post-stimulus time histogram after certain days of WP and compared with the controls. In the control group, response magnitudes to surrounding whiskers D1 and D3 deflection were not significantly different. However, after WP, a bias occurred in response to paired surrounding whisker D3 relative to the opposite trimmed surrounding whisker D1. In this study, by comparing the bias degree in rats in different groups after WP, a quantitative method was established to compare cortical plasticity. Example of corical plasticity comparison between adolescent and mature rats was employed in this paper to illustrate our method. The key techniques of this method such as the identification of D2 barrels, supragranular (L2-3) and barrel layer (L4) in real-time were described in details. The feasibility of this approach was further verified by compendious report of results and our previous study regarding cortical plasticity comparison between adolescent and mature rats.
Animals ; Neuronal Plasticity ; Rats ; Somatosensory Cortex ; physiology ; Vibrissae

OBJECTIVEStudy blood vessel injury and gene expression indicating vascular endothelial cell apoptosis induced by mannitol with and without administration of anti-oxidative vitamins.

METHODSHealthy rabbits were randomly divided into four groups. Mannitol was injected into the vein of the rabbit ear in each animal. Pre-treatment prior to mannitol injection was performed with normal saline (group B), vitamin C (group C) and vitamin E (group D). Blood vessel injury was assessed under electron and light microscopy. In a second experiment, cell culture specimen of human umbilical vein endothelial cells were treated with mannitol. Pre-treatment was done with normal saline (sample B), vitamin C (sample C) and vitamin E (sample D). Total RNA was extracted with the original single step procedure, followed by hybridisation and analysis of gene expression.

RESULTSIn the animal experiment, serious blood vessel injury was seen in group A and group B. Group D showed light injury only, and normal tissue without pathological changes was seen in group C. Of all 330 apoptosis-related genes analysed in human cell culture specimen, no significant difference was seen after pre-treatment with normal saline, compared with the gene chip without pre-treatment. On the gene chip pre-treated with vitamin C, 45 apoptosis genes were down-regulated and 34 anti-apoptosis genes were up-regulated. Pre-treatment with vitamin E resulted in the down-regulation of 3 apoptosis genes.

CONCLUSIONVitamin C can protect vascular endothelial cells from mannitol-induced injury.

Animals ; Antioxidants ; pharmacology ; Apoptosis ; Endothelial Cells ; cytology ; pathology ; Gene Expression Regulation ; Humans ; Mannitol ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Nucleic Acid Hybridization ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; Oligonucleotide Probes ; chemistry ; Oxidation-Reduction ; Rabbits ; Vitamins ; metabolism

AIMTo observe protective effects and involved mechanism of ginsenoside Rb3 on hypoxic/ischemic brain injury, using cultured hippocampal neurons, rat hippocampal slices and intact animals.

METHODS(1) Mice were tightly closed in glasses of 150 ml, and then survival time of them was observed. (2) During simulated ischemia and after reoxygenation, changes of orthodromic population spikes (OPS) in the area CA1 of hippocampal slice were investigated. (3) By using histochemistry, the expressions of NOS in CA1 area of rat hippocampus after hypoxic exposure were observed. (4) Using LDH detection, tests of total NOS, iNOS and cNOS activity, the protective effects of ginsenoside Rb3 were investigated on cultured hippocampal neurons treated with hypoxia.

RESULTS(1) Given ginsenoside Rb3 (10 mmol/L), mice survived significantly longer than that of control group. (2) The occurrence of HIP (hypoxic injury potentials) decreased after administration of ginsenosides Rb3 (60 micromol/L) in many slices, while the recovery rate and amplitude of OPS after reoxygenation were significantly higher than those of the control group. (3) In CA1 area of rat hippocampus, NOS-positive neurons increased at the end of 24 h hypoxia and further 24 h reoxygenation, while the number of NOS-positive neurons decreased after treatment with ginsenoside Rb3. (4) The LDH leakage rate of cultured rat hippocampal neurons increased at the end of hypoxia, while it decreased after treatment with Rb3. Moreover the total NOS, especially iNOS activity of these neurons also decreased.

CONCLUSIONGinsenoside Rb3 has a significant protective effect on hypoxic-ischemic injury of neurons, and this involves the stabilization of the cell membrane, the inhibition of the expression and activity of NOS, especially iNOS activity.

Animals ; Cell Survival ; drug effects ; Female ; Ginsenosides ; pharmacology ; Hypoxia-Ischemia, Brain ; metabolism ; Lactate Dehydrogenases ; metabolism ; Male ; Membrane Potentials ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred ICR ; Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II ; metabolism

In vitro electrical neurophysiological and behavioural studies have shown that diabetes mellitus negatively affects hippocampal function. In this study, by using in vivo extracellular recording, the spontaneous neural activity was obtained from hippocampus of anaesthetized rats in both streptozotocin-induced diabetes group and normal control group. Temporal relationship between neuronal firing and slow oscillation (1-4 Hz) of local field potentials (LFPs) in hippocampus was analyzed using coherence and phase locking measurement. Lower coherence value (0.617+/-0.028) was observed in diabetic rats than that in control rats (0.730+/-0.024) (P=0.005). Furthermore, phase-locking measurement using von Mises fitting parameterized by a concentration parameter kappa showed a lower degree (kappa= 0.347+/-0.113) of temporal coordination between neuronal spiking and slow oscillation of LFPs in the hippocampus of diabetic rats than that of normal ones (kappa= 1.174+/-0.134) (P<0.001). Both approaches demonstrated that diabetes can indeed impair the temporal coordination between neuronal spiking and slow oscillation of population activity in hippocampus. This observed neural coordination impairment may serve as a network level mechanism for diabetes-induced memory deterioration.
Action Potentials ; Animals ; Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental ; physiopathology ; Hippocampus ; physiopathology ; Memory ; Oscillometry ; Rats

Objective To explore the roles of frequency domain OCT in measuring the retinal thickness around the optic disc and optic disc parameters in early glaucoma diagnosis.Methods The optic disc parameters and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness in the 40 healthy volunteers (control group) and 85 cases of primary open angle glaucoma (POAG),including 36 patients as the early glaucoma subgroup and 49 patients as the glaucoma evolutum subgroup,were measured by frequency domain OCT.Then,the correlation analysis of RNFL thickness,optic disc parameters and the mean deviation (MD) of visual field in each group was performed,and the area under the curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of RNFL thickness around the optic disc and optic disc parameters in the diagnosis of glaucoma.Results The RNFL thickness and the complete cycle mean RNFL thickness in the temporal,upper,nasal and inferior quadrant in the glaucoma patients were significantly lower than those in the controls (all P ＜ 0.05),and the above indexes in the glaucoma evolutum subgroup were significantly decreased compared with those in the early glaucoma subgroup (all P ＜ 0.05).There were statistically significant differences in the optic disc parameters between the groups except the optic disc area (all P ＜ 0.05).Pearson correlation analysis showed the RNFL thickness and the complete cycle mean RNFL thickness in the temporal,upper and inferior quadrant were negatively correlated with the MD in the glaucoma patients (all P ＜ 0.05),and the parameter of optic cup volume and cup/disc area ratio were positively correlated with the MD (both P ＜ 0.05),and the rim area,rim volume and disc volume were negatively correlated with MD (all P ＜ 0.05).The ROC curve analysis showed that the largest area under the curve of RNFL thickness in the inferior quadrant of the optic disc region was 0.886,and the specificity and sensitivity was 0.775 and 0.924,respectively.Moreover,the area under the curve of the optic cup/optic disc area was the largest,with sensitivity and specificity of 0.741 and 0.815,respectively.Conelusion OCT for measuring optic disc structure and RNFL thickness can be used for early diagnosis of glaucoma,and it has a high sensitivity and specificity.

Animals ; Apoptosis ; drug effects ; Cell Line, Tumor ; DNA Damage ; Doxorubicin ; pharmacology ; Fas Ligand Protein ; Gene Expression Regulation ; drug effects ; Humans ; Liver Neoplasms, Experimental ; drug therapy ; metabolism ; pathology ; ultrastructure ; Membrane Glycoproteins ; genetics ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Mice, Nude ; Necrosis ; Sulfinic Acids ; pharmacology ; Tumor Necrosis Factors ; genetics ; Up-Regulation ; bcl-2-Associated X Protein ; genetics

OBJECTIVETo analyze the prevalence and risk factors of metabolic syndrome (MS) in Xinjiang Uygur adults.

METHODSWith cluster random sampling, investigations including questionnaire, physical examination and blood testing were performed among 3442 Uygur adults among in Kashgar of Xinjiang on November 2010. Prevalence of MS in groups with different characteristics were calculated and non-conditional logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the risk factors.

RESULTSThe prevalence of MS was 21.2% (728/3442), and the age-adjusted prevalence was 18.5%. The prevalence among males and females was 14.5% (245/1694) (age-adjusted prevalence 12.7%) and 27.6% (483/1748) (age-adjusted prevalence 24.4%) respectively (P < 0.05). The prevalence of MS among 18 to 24 years old and 65 years old and above were 4.3% (21/490) and 28.9% (109/377) respectively. The prevalence of MS increased with age (χ(2) = 204.13, P < 0.05). The prevalence of low blood HDL-C, central obesity, hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia and hyperglycemia was 57.5% (1978/3442), 44.5% (1531/3442), 27.5% (948/3442), 20.2% (696/3442) and 8.6% (297/3442) respectively. Compared to age group 18 - 24, the risk of MS occurrence was higher in age group 25 - 34, 35 - 44, 45 - 54, 55 - 64 and 65 years-old above, the according OR (95%CI) values were 2.29 (1.38 - 3.81), 6.91 (4.31 - 11.09), 10.81 (6.72 - 17.40), 12.52 (7.74 - 20.26) and 10.20 (6.20 - 16.78), respectively. Smoking also increased the risk of MS (OR = 2.35, 95%CI: 1.64 - 3.37).

CONCLUSIONThe prevalence of MS in Xinjiang Uygur was in high level; The prevalence of MS is higher in female than in male; The risk factors of MS included female, age and smoking.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Metabolic Syndrome ; ethnology ; Middle Aged ; Minority Groups ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo describe the prevalence of anemia and yearly trends (1993-2003) among women who came to the hospitals or maternal and child health units for premarital examinations in 6 counties of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.

METHODSData were obtained from the records of the premarital examinations in perinatal health care surveillance system that had been established since 1992 in these areas. We reviewed hemoglobin levels of those women who were enrolled in the perinatal health care surveillance system from 1993 to 2003. Anemia was defined according to the WHO (2001) criterion. We calculated the prevalence of anemia and analyzed the yearly trends based on the data of hemoglobin concentration.

RESULTSIn the period of 1993-2003, there were 82 995 anemia cases identified among 193,434 women with an overall anemia rate as 42.9%. The rates of anemia were high (65.5%) in 1993 but low (25.8%) in 2003. 99.7% of the anemic women whose hemoglobin concentration were between 80-119.9 g/L. Time trend analysis indicated a significant decline on anemia rate while monthly analysis showed that the prevalence rates were high (48.2%) in September and low in March (39.5%). The results also showed that the prevalence rates of anemia were relatively higher in farmers and workers in rural enterprises, and lower in Han ethnicity than minorities. The higher prevalence rates of anemia were presented among the women with less education, lower body mass index, or at older age.

CONCLUSIONFor those premarital women in 6 counties of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, the overall anemic rate presented a significant downward trend between 1993 and 2003 while the prevalence of anemia remained high, especially for the women with less education, lower body mass index or older ages.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Anemia ; epidemiology ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Premarital Examinations ; Young Adult