Tripterygium wilfordii has exihibited multiple pharmacological activities, such as anti-inflammatory, immune modulation, anti-tumor and anti-fertility. T. wilfordii have been used for the therapy of inflammation and autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, immune complex nephritis and systemic lupus erythematosus clinically. However, it is well known that T. wilfordii has small margin between the therapeutic and toxic doses and could cause serious injury on digestive, reproductive and urogenital systems. Among all the organs, liver is one of the most remarkable targets of T. wilfordii-induced toxicities, and the damage is more serious than others. It is generally accepted that T. wilfordii-induced liver injury is a result of the combined effects of toxic elements of T. wilfordii. It is reported in several studies that the mechanism of T. wilfordii-induced liver injury may be related to lipid peroxidation, cell apoptosis and immune damage, and so on. Licorice is one of the most commonly used Chinese herbal medicine, with effects of heat- clearing and detoxicating, anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective, reconciling various drugs, and so on. Licorice often accompany T. wilfordii in clinical application which can significantly reduce the liver injury induced by T. wilfordii. The attenuated effect is exact, but the mechanism is still a lack of in-depth study. This paper reviews the studies on T. wilfordii-induced liver injury and the related mechanism as well as licorice and other traditional Chinese medicine accompany T. wilfordii to reduce the injury in recent years, so as to provide reference for related research in the future.
Animals ; Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury ; etiology ; prevention & control ; Glycyrrhiza ; Humans ; Inactivation, Metabolic ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Tripterygium

Objective To study the short-term(≤1 year) effect of video-thoracoscope in the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) accompanied with pneumothorax.Methods 52 COPD cases with pneumothorax from June 2005 to June 2007 were divided into thoracoscope group(n=28) and open heart group(n=24).The patients were followed up at 1,6 and 12 month after surgery,for determination of BODE index,including body mass index,air block,difficulty in respiratory and motor ability.Results No operative death and servere complicatins occurred.Pneumothorax did not relapse.One month after surgery,air block was[(58.62±15.73)% vs (50.12±11.38)%],difficulty in respiratory was[(1.04±0.37)s vs( 1.72±0.45)s] and motor ability was [(387.32±52.07)m vs (318.35±61.52)m] in thoracoscope group and open heart group (P<0.05).At the six month after surgery,body mass index was[(27.19±2.18)kg/m2 vs (20.90±2.35)kg/m2] in thoracoscope group and open heart group(P<0.05);At the 12 month after operation,there was no significant difierence in BODE index between the two groups(P>0.05).Conclusions Video-thoracoscope in treating COPD with pneumothorax can remarkably improve the quality of life early after surgery.

Objective To evaluate left ventricular wall motion changes after successful pereutaneous coronary artery intervention (PCI) in patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI) by velocity vector imaging (VVI). Methods Twenty patients with acute MI, 16 anterior MI and 4 inferior MI,were studied by VVI within 3 days before PCI, 1 week and 3 months after PCI. The VVI parameters included peak systolic myocardial velocity (Vsys), peak systolic strain (εsys), maximal strain (εmax), peak systolic strain rate ( SRsys), isovolumic relaxation strain rate(SRivr),segmental ejection fraction (sEF), time to peak of velocity (TPKvel),and time to peak of strain (TPKε). Results Compared with that before PCI,εsys, SRsys, sEF, PSI, SRivr/SRsys, and TPKε were improved one week after PCI,and were further significantly improved at 3 months follow-up. Conclusions The VVI parameters can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of PCI shortly after the procedure and during long-term follow-up.

OBJECTIVETo assess the quality of orthodontic clinical trials published in 4 major dental journals in the past 10 years and establish the reference standard for orthodontic clinical trials and quality control of dental journals.

METHODSAll the clinical trials published in Chinese Journal of Stomatology, West China Journal of Stomatology, Journal of Practice Stomatology and Chinese Journal of Orthodontics from 1999 to 2008 were searched. The demographic information of the papers was extracted and the quality of the clinical trials according to the consolidated standards of reporting trials (CONSORT) was assessed.

RESULTSFour hundred and ninety-four clinical trials were retrieved, and 21.3% (105/494) of them were supported by grants. For the study design, only 26.1% (129/494) were prospective studies, and 3.8% (19/494) were randomized clinical trials. It was hard to evaluate precisely due to the lack of information about the details of the study designs. For the randomized clinical trials, the lack of details for randomization, allocation concealment, blinding and intention to treat compromised the quality.

CONCLUSIONSThe general quality of clinical trials in orthodontics is poor. It needs to be improved both in the clinical study design and the paper writing.

Clinical Trials as Topic ; standards ; Evidence-Based Dentistry ; Humans ; Orthodontics ; standards ; Periodicals as Topic ; Quality Control ; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic ; Research Design

China ; epidemiology ; Deficiency Diseases ; epidemiology ; Health Status ; Humans ; Iodine ; deficiency

Animals ; Captopril ; pharmacology ; Heart Failure ; metabolism ; Male ; Myocytes, Cardiac ; metabolism ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 ; metabolism ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; bcl-2-Associated X Protein ; metabolism

This study was aimed to construct the CD14 eukaryotic expression vector, establish the transgeneic CD14 positive cell line in order to facilitate the establishment of a mouse model of antibody targeting therapy for human acute monocytic leukemia (AML-M(5)). Total RNA extracted from peripheral blood mononuclear cells was treated with RNAase-free DNAase, the human CD14 gene was cloned and sequenced through the RT-PCR and T-A clone techniques. Eukaryotic expressional vector pcDNA3.1(+)/CD14 was constructed by cleaving with double restriction endonuleases and ligating with T4 ligase. A murine melanoma cell line B16 was transfected with the pcDNA3.1(+)/CD14 recombinant with Superfect transfection reagent. Positive clones were selected by G418 and the expression of human CD14 on the transfectant was confirmed by flow cytometry (FCM). The results indicated that the sequence of the human CD14 cDNA cloned was exact to be same as the one from GenBank database. The recombinant pcDNA3.1(+)/CD14 was identified with double-enzyme cleaving. The expression of the human CD14 on the transfectant (B16/CD14) was confirmed by FCM. In conclusion, the murine cell line B16/CD14 fransfected with human CD14 gene has been established which can be used for the study of human AML-M(5) antibody targeting therapy with mouse model.
Animals ; Antigens, Neoplasm ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Eukaryotic Cells ; metabolism ; Gene Transfer Techniques ; Genetic Vectors ; genetics ; Humans ; Leukemia, Monocytic, Acute ; genetics ; Lipopolysaccharide Receptors ; genetics ; Melanoma, Experimental ; genetics ; metabolism ; pathology ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Transfection ; Tumor Cells, Cultured

This study was aimed to investigate the genetic characteristics, identification method and transfusion strategy of rare blood type B(A). The rare blood group B(A) was typed by serological technique, PCR-SSP genotyping and sequencing of exon 6, 7 of ABO blood group. The genetic characteristics and molecular mechanism of B(A) blood group were also analyzed. Blood group compatibility test was conducted between blood donors of B(A) and recipients by clinical transfusion. The results showed that both forward and reverse grouping did not match the 3 cases of serological result in their family survey, while all of the 3 cases were grouped as AB blood group by forward grouping, B blood group by reverse grouping with serological result and B(A)04/001 group were genotyped by ABO genotyping. The patient of B blood group was transfused by 1 bag of washed red blood cells of donor of B(A) under closely monitoring, the patient's condition changed, and a mild adverse transfusion reaction was appeared. Washed red blood cell of O blood group was transfused into B(A) patient without blood transfusion reaction. It is concluded that the forward ABO serological grouping and reverse ABO serological grouping are not compatible, that may be verified by family survey and molecular biological methods. If in some cases transfusion therapy was applied, and group B(A) can not be transfused to the patient with group B or AB. Thus, transfusion compatibility or autologous transfusion can be adopted to transfuse to the patient from group B(A).
ABO Blood-Group System ; genetics ; immunology ; Adult ; Base Sequence ; Blood Grouping and Crossmatching ; Genotype ; Humans ; Male ; Transfusion Reaction

OBJECTIVETo elucidate the interference effect of Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate (EGCG) on targets of Activator Protein-1 (AP-1) signal transduction pathway activated by EB virus encoded latent membrane protein 1 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cell lines.

METHODSSurvival rate of cells was determined by MTT assay. AP-1 and CyclinD1 activation were analyzed by promoter luciferase reporter system. Nuclear translocation of JNK was analyzed by indirect immunofluorescence. Protein expression and phosphorylation were observed by Western blot.

RESULTSEGCG inhibited the survival of CNE1 and CNE-LMP1 cells and the activity of AP-1 caused by LMP1 in CNE-LMP1 cells. EGCG also inhibited the nuclear translocation of JNK and the phosphorylation of c-Jun. It also inhibited cyclinD1 promoter activity and cyclinD1 expression.

CONCLUSIONEGCG inhibits AP-1, JNK, c-Jun and cyclinD1 which are key targets on AP-1 signal transduction pathway. The results may explain the molecular mechanism of action of EGCG against nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; metabolism ; pathology ; virology ; Catechin ; analogs & derivatives ; pharmacology ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Survival ; drug effects ; Herpesvirus 4, Human ; Humans ; JNK Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases ; metabolism ; MAP Kinase Kinase 4 ; Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Kinases ; metabolism ; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; virology ; Phosphorylation ; drug effects ; Protein Transport ; drug effects ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-jun ; metabolism ; Signal Transduction ; drug effects ; Transcription Factor AP-1 ; metabolism ; Viral Matrix Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; physiology

Tetraselmis subcordiformis, a marine green alga, can produce hydrogen by photobiologically hydrolyzing seawater with hydrogenase. In this study, the preliminary purification of the enzyme was explored by ammonium sulfate precipitation, and the impact of sodium dithionite, beta-mercaptoethanol and glycerol on the enzyme stability during the process was investigated. The experimental results illustrated that sodium dithionite provided significant protection on the hydrogenase by depleting oxygen, while glycerol, a protectant against the structure instability of the enzyme, also presented protection. Crude enzyme with specific activity of 0.557 U/mg protein was extracted using 60%-70% saturated ammonium sulfate solution supplemented with 200 mmol/L sodium dithionite and 5% glycerol, and the hydrogenase recovery yield was about 30%.
Ammonium Sulfate ; chemistry ; Chemical Precipitation ; Chlorophyta ; enzymology ; Enzyme Stability ; Hydrogen ; metabolism ; Hydrogenase ; isolation & purification ; metabolism ; Seawater