Objective To observe the ultrastructural changes of end-plate and gastrocnemius muscle of rats with spastic palsy after injected with botulinum toxin type A in order to provide scientific base of histomorphology for clinical use of botulinum toxin type A.Methods Wistar rats′ pyramidal tracts in experiment group were injured by electric current 2.5 mA for 30 s,twice,but 36 normal control rats were only drilled hole in skull(control group).Seventy-two rats were successful in building spastic palsy model.Botulinum toxin type A (6 U/kg) were injected into right gastrocnemius muscles of 36 spastic palsy rats (group B),and physiological saline were injected into the same muscles in 36 spastic palsy rats as control(group A).Control group were not injected.The rats of group A,group B were sacrificed on 3,7,15,30,60 and 90 days after botulinum toxin therapy,and right gastrocnemius muscles was separated for histological analysis.Results Under the electron microscope,the structure of muscle fiber in group B had changed(Z line rupture,disorder and abolition,myofilament lysis,triad tract diso-rder,vacuolar degeneration) and these changes in group B occurred earlier and were severer than those in group A.There was compensatory hypertrophy of muscle fiber at later stages in group B.During the first 15 days after botulinum toxin type A injection,there were many synaptic vesicle without pre-synaptic membranes near terminal portion of nonmedullated nerve fibers.Following this,between 15 to 30 days,there were many folds similar to postsynaptic membranes in the cellular membranes and there were many grains in it.But there was no synaptic vesicle and pre-synaptic membranes near them.Compensatory hypertrophy and atrophy of muscle fiber coexist at 90 days after injection in group B.Conclusions Injection of botulinum toxin type A maybe induce the sprout of nerve and degeneration of the partial postsynaptic where there are many grains.It also accelerates muscle atrophy,but it induces compensatory hypertrophy of muscle fiber at later stage.It implies that injection of botulinum toxin type A can improve spasm symptom of the gastrocnemius muscles and this is good for muscle fiber repairing.

Biomarkers ; metabolism ; Cholesterol ; metabolism ; Coronary Disease ; Humans

ObjectiveTo investigate the clinical features, mechanism and cerebral functional correlation of hemianopic anosognosia.Methods16 patients with homonymous visual field defects due to ischemic infarcts were examined on visual field and MMSE. The neuropsychological tests were administered such as hemianopic awareness and visual neglect. The facts were analyzed with the location of ischemic infarct documented by MRI or CT. Results10 of 16 patients with hemianopia had anosognosia of their visual deficit. 8 of 13 right side lesion patients had hemianopic anosognosia. 2 of 3 left side lesion patients had hemianopia anosognosia. 3 of 6 awareness hemianopia patients had visual hemineglect. 7 of 10 hemianopic anosognosia patients had larger infarction of middle cerebral artery. 3 else had smaller infarction in the occipital lobe or in the connective area between the occipital and temporal lobes.ConclusionsThere is no specific cortical area for conscious visual perception. Visual awareness is processed by a distributed network including multiple cortices and subcortices. Both hemispheres are involved in visual processing and conscious awareness.

Calbindin 2 ; metabolism ; Heart Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; MyoD Protein ; metabolism ; Myogenin ; metabolism ; Rhabdomyosarcoma, Embryonal ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery

Background Radiofrequency thermocoagulation is one of the effective therapies for trigeminal neuralgia.Corneal nerve is important substance of radiofrequency thermocoagulation ocular surface,which support the normal structure and function of cornea.Most of corneal nerves come from ophthalmic branch of trigeminal nerve.However,the change of ocular surface microenvironment following radiofrequency thermocoagulation treatment in the patient with trigeminal neuralgiais unclear.Objective This study was to analyze ocular surface change after radiofrequency thermocoagulation therapy in patients with trigeminal neuralgia.Methods Twenty-eight eyes of 28patients with trigeminal neuralgia underwent radiofrequency thermocoagulation therapy were enrolled in this study.The contralateral eyes were regarded as the control group.The central corneal sensitivity,function of lacrimal secretion (Schiemer 1 test),tear break-up time(BUT),corneal fluorescence staining and laser scanning confocal microscopic examination were performed before and after surgery in operative eyes and compared with the fellow eye.Informed consent was obtained before any relevant medical procedure from each patient.Results No significant differences was found before surgery in the central corneal sensitivity,the Schiemer Ⅰ test,BUT,corneal fluorescence staining and densities value of corneal subepithelial nerve plexus between the treating eyes and fellow eyes(Z =-1.511,-1.119,-0.428,-0.378,-0.854; P =0.131,0.263,0.669,0.705,0.393).1n the third day after radiofrequencythermocoagulation therapy,compared with pre-treatment,no significant differences were seen in BUT result,Schirmer Ⅰ test and the score of ocular surface fluorescence staining (Z =-0.620,-0.315,-1.732;P =0.535,0.753,0.083).Corneal sensitivity and subbasal nerve density were lowed 3 days after surgery (Z =-2.708,-2.813 ; P =0.007,0.005).One month after treatment,differences of all indexes mentioned above showed statistical significance between treating eyes and fellow eyes(Z=-3.888,-2.373,-3.311,-2.535 ; P =0.000,0.018,0.001,0.011).The corneal subepithelial nerve was thinner and sparse and dendritic cells on the cornea were found in the eyes received radiofrequency thermocoagulation therapy.Conclusions The secretion of tears and the stability of tear film are poorer and the corneal sensitivity and subbasal nerve density are affected in a certain extent in the eye received radiofrequency thermocoagulation therapy.

Amounts of researches show that EPO is characterized with neurotrophic and neuroprotective manner, especially in brain stroke, which attracts a large numbers of researchers to study it. With the accumulating researches on its neuroprotection, many related mechanisms were revealed, such as antioxidant, anti-apoptosis, angiogenesis, anti-inflammatory, which suggests a multiple targets role of EPO on brain stroke. However, because of the high risk of thromboembolism in clinical administration of rhEPO and its analogs, the herbs are potential to be a replacer for its less side effects. Many researchers suggested that a larger of herbs were founded having the action of increasing the endogenous EPO in the model of anemia and cerebral ischemia. At the same time, there herbs were also proved that they had the action of against cerebral ischemia while some without considering the role of EPO in the reports. Considering of the action of promoting EPO of these herbs and the neural protection of EPO, this essay mainly summarizes the studies of herbs promoting EPO in the cerebral ischemia and discusses the mechanism of regulating the EPO of these herbs, for the aim of finding the potential drugs against cerebral ischemia.
Animals ; Brain Ischemia ; drug therapy ; genetics ; metabolism ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Erythropoietin ; genetics ; metabolism ; Humans ; Neuroprotection ; drug effects ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry

A reliable method for simultaneous determinition of eleven representative components (neochlorogenic acid, chlorogenic acid, cryptochlorogenic acid, isochlorogenic acid B, isochlorogenic acid A, isochlorogenic acid C, shanzhiside, geniposidic acid, genipin-1-β-D-gentiobioside, geniposide and secoxyloganin) in combination of chromatographic fingerpint analysis for Reduning injection was developed by ultra high-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC). The method was performed on an Agilent ZORBAX SB-C18 anlytical column (3. 0 mm x 100 mm, 1. 8 µm) with a guard column of Agilent UPLC Guard ZORBAX SB-C18 (3.0 mm x 5 mm) at the column temperature of 30 °C. The gradient mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile (A)-0. 1% phosphoric acid (B) with a flow rate of 0. 4 mL . min-1. The injection volumn was 2 µL. The detection wavelengths were set at 324 nm and 238 nm for quantit tive analysis and 225 nm for fingerpint chromatography. Neochlorogenic acid, chlorogenic acid, cryptochlorogenic acid, isochlorogenic acid B, isochlorogenic acid A, isochlorogenic acid C, shanzhiside, geniposidic acid, genipin-1-β-D-gentiobioside, geniposide and secoxyloganin were baseline seperated with good linearity relationships (r >0. 999) between concentration and peak areas over the linear ranges. The average recoverys of the investigated compounds were 103.5%, 100. 2%, 103. 3%, 102. 8%, 101. 3%, 102. 8%, 97. 36%, 99. 62%, 98. 16%, 102. 8%, 99. 27%, respectively. Reduning injection of forty-five batches was analyzed by UPLC finge print chromatography. Thirty batches were selected to generate the reference fringerprint chromatography with fourteen common peaks. The similarity values between the reference fringerprint chromatography and the remaining fifteen batches were higher than 0. 99. The developed method was fast, accurate and sensitive. It could be used as a reference for the quality control of multiple components determination and fingerprint chromatography for Reduning injection in future.
Chlorogenic Acid ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; standards ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; methods ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; standards ; Glucosides ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; standards ; Iridoids ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; standards ; Quality Control ; Reference Standards ; Reproducibility of Results ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Time Factors

OBJECTIVETo establish a rapid quantitative analysis method for the content of chlorogenic acid and solid content in the extraction liquid concentration process during the production of Reduning injection by using the near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, in order to reflect the concentration state in a real-time manner and really realize the quality control of concentrating process of the extraction and concentration process.

METHODThe samples during the Jinqing extraction liquid concentration process were collected. After the removal of abnormal samples, the spectra pretreatment and the wave band selection, the quantitative calibration model between NIR spectra and chlorogenic acid HPLC analytical value and solid content was established by using PLS algorithm, and unknown samples were predicted.

RESULTThe correlation coefficients between the chlorogenic acid content and the solid content were respectively 0.992 1 and 0.994 0, and the correlation coefficients of the verification model were respectively 0.994 4 and 0.998 4, with the root mean square error of calibration (RMSEC) of 0.814 6 and 2.656 1 and the root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 0.704 6 and 1.876 7 respectively, and the relative standard errors of predictions (RSEP) were 6.01% and 2.93% respectively.

CONCLUSIONThe method is simple, rapid, nondestructive, accurate and reliable, thus could be adopted for the fast monitoring of the chlorogenic acid content and the solid content during the concentration process of Reduning injection extraction liquid.

Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Quality Control ; Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared ; methods

OBJECTIVETo observe the effect of Ginkgo Leaves Tablet (GLT) on memory quotient (MQ) of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients.

METHODSOne hundred and thirteen patients were randomly assigned to the control group (55 cases) and the treatment group (58 cases). Patients in the control group received dietetic therapy and physical exercises, while those in the treatment group additionally took GLT, 19.2 mg each time, three times daily. The treatment course was 12 months for all. The MQ of all the patients was assessed by WMS-RC before treatment,at 6-month of treatment, and 12-month of treatment.

RESULTSCompared with the control group, the improvement of MQ increased in the treatment group 0.5 and 1 year after treatment (P < 0.05). The clinical efficiency of MQ obviously increased in the treatment group (48.28% and 50.00%), showing statistical difference when compared with the control group (30.91% and 27.27%, P < 0.05, P < 0.01). There was statistical difference in added scores of recognition, regeneration, understanding, and recitation test at 6-month of treatment and 12-month of treatment between the treatment group and the control group (P < 0.05, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONGLT was effective in improving MQ of MCI patients, especially in improving recognition, regeneration, understanding, and recitation test.

Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Cognitive Dysfunction ; drug therapy ; psychology ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Ginkgo biloba ; chemistry ; Humans ; Male ; Memory ; Middle Aged ; Phytotherapy