OBJECTIVE: To assess the impacts of electroacupuncture (EA) on the gait, oxidative stress, inflammatory reaction, and protein degradation in the rats of denervated skeletal muscle atrophy, and explore the potential mechanism of EA for alleviating denervated skeletal muscle atrophy. METHODS: Forty male SD rats, 8 weeks old, were randomly assigned to a sham-surgery group, a model group, an EA group, and a p38 MAPK inhibitor group, with 10 rats in each group. The right sciatic nerve was transected to establish a rat model of denervated skeletal muscle atrophy in the model group, the EA group and the p38 MAPK inhibitor group. In the sham-surgery group, the nerve was exposed without transection. One day after successful modeling, the rats in the EA group received EA at "Huantiao" (GB30) and "Zusanli" (ST36) on the right side, using a continuous wave with a frequency of 2 Hz and current intensity of 1 mA, for 15 min in each session, EA was delivered once a day, 6 times a week. In the p38 MAPK inhibitor group, the rats received the intraperitoneal injection with SB203580 (5 mg/kg), once a day, 6 times a week. The intervention was composed of 3 weeks in each group. After the intervention completion, the CatWalk XT 10.6 animal gait analysis system was used to record the gait parameters of rats. The wet weight ratio of the gastrocnemius muscle was calculated after the sample collected. Using HE staining, the fiber morphology and cross-sectional area of the gastrocnemius muscle were observed; ELISA was employed to measure the content of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1β, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α in the gastrocnemius muscle; the biochemical hydroxyamine method was adopted to detect the content of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MDA) in the gastrocnemius muscle; with immunohistochemistry and Western blot used, the expression of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK), phosphorylated (p)-p38 MAPK, muscle atrophy F-box gene (Atrogin-1), muscle RING finger 1 (Murf-1), nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) was detected in the gastrocnemius muscle. RESULTS: Compared to the sham-surgery group, in the model group, the standing duration, the swing time and the step cycle were increased (P<0.001), the footprint area of the maximum contact time, the print area, the average intensity of the maximum contact time, the average intensity, the swing speed, and the step length were decreased (P<0.001); the wet weight ratio of gastrocnemius muscle and fiber cross-sectional area were reduced (P<0.001); the content of IL-6, IL-1β, TNF-α and MDA in gastrocnemius muscle elevated (P<0.001), and that of SOD reduced (P<0.001); the positive and protein expression of p-p38 MAPK, Atrogin-1 and Murf-1 elevated (P<0.001) and that of Nrf2 and HO-1 dropped (P<0.001). When compared with the model group, in the EA group and the p38 MAPK inhibitor group, the standing duration, the swing time and the step cycle decreased (P<0.01), the footprint area of the maximum contact time, the print area, the average intensity of the maximum contact time, the average intensity, the swing speed, and the step length increased (P<0.01); the wet weight ratio of gastrocnemius muscle and fiber cross-sectional area were improved (P<0.01, P<0.05); the content of IL-6, IL-1β, TNF-α and MDA in gastrocnemius muscle dropped (P<0.05, P<0.01), and that of SOD elevated (P<0.01, P<0.05); the positive and protein expression of p-p38 MAPK, Atrogin-1 and Murf-1 dropped (P<0.01, P<0.05) and that of Nrf2 and HO-1 increased (P<0.01, P<0.05). CONCLUSION Electroacupuncture may alleviate skeletal muscle atrophy in denervated skeletal muscle atrophy rats by mediating the p38 MAPK activity, thereby suppressing oxidative stress, inflammatory reaction, and protein degradation.
Animals ; Electroacupuncture ; Male ; Rats ; p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases/genetics* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Muscular Atrophy/metabolism* ; Muscle, Skeletal/metabolism* ; Humans ; Signal Transduction ; Superoxide Dismutase/genetics* ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha/genetics* ; Oxidative Stress ; MAP Kinase Signaling System ; Acupuncture Points

Objective To evaluate the accuracy and clinical application value of the fluorescence quantitative PCR melting curve meth-od for detecting fungal nucleic acid.Methods 460 suspected or confirmed patients with respiratory fungal infections were enrolled in the study.The fluorescence quantitative PCR melting curve method was used as the test method,and the fungal 26S rRNA gene nucleic acid detection kit combined with Sanger sequencing was used as the reference method.Sputum samples from each study subject were collected and detected by the test method and reference method,respectively.The Kappa value of the two methods was calculated to evaluate the consistency of the results.Results Compared with the reference method,the overall conformity rate of the test method was 92.83%(427/460).Compared with the reference method,the positive conformity rates,negative conformity rates,and overall conformity rates of the test method for detecting 8 fungi,including Candida albicans,Candida glabrata,Candida krusei,Candida trop-icalis,Candida parapsilosis,Cryptococcus neoformans,Candida guilliermondii,and Aspergillus,were 97.34%(183/188),97.06%(264/272),and 97.17%(447/460),100.00%(33/33),99.77%(426/427),and 99.78%(459/460),100.00%(16/16),99.55%(442/444),and 99.57%(458/460),98.11%(52/53),99.75%(442/444),and 99.57%(458/460),95.08%(58/61),99.50%(397/399),and 98.91%(455/460),100.00%(9/9),99.56%(449/451),and 99.57%(458/460),85.00%(17/20),99.32%(437/440),and 98.70%(454/460),and 97.59%(81/83),97.88%(369/377),and 97.83%(450/460),respectively.The Kappa values for the consistency evaluation of the two methods'detection results were both greater than 0.8.Upon retesting the inconsistent re-sults of the two methods,it was found that 53.7%(22/41)of the detection results were consistent with the test method,and the others were consistent with the reference method.Conclusion The fluorescence quantitative PCR melting curve method can simultaneously detect 8 kinds of fungi,and the detection results are highly consistent with the reference method.It has unique advantages in fungal de-tection and important clinical application value.

Objective To investigate the mechanism of rapamycin inhibiting the differentiation and proliferation of newborn porcine pancreatic adult stem cells, and to explore the therapeutic methods that may effectively reduce the side effects of rapamycin. Method Porcine NPCCs were treated with rapamycin alone or in combination with IGF-Ⅱ, and the caspase-3 and [ 3 H ]-thymidine uptake assays were performed to detect apoptosis and proliferation. The expression of insulin, PDX-1, NeuroD/Beta2, and Foxo1, a downstream transcription factor of IGF-Ⅱ, were analyzed by RT-PCR and Western blot to evaluate the differentiation ability of pancreatic adult stem cells. Results The NPCCs treated with rapamycin inhibited the proliferation ofβ-cells, increased apoptosis, reduced insulin secretion, inhibited the expression of PDX-1 and NeuroD/Beta2, and decreased the expression of IGF-Ⅱ. Foxo1 expression and induction of Foxo1 from the cytoplasm to the nucleus of the ectopic. The combined treatment of rapamycin and IGF-Ⅱcan reduce the side effects of rapamycin, inhibit the decrease ofβ-cell number and insulin content, repair the expression of insulin, PDX-1, NeuroD/Beta2, inhibit Foxo1 expression and intracellular ectopic. Conclusion Aberrant expression of IGF-Ⅱ and Foxol genes is the key inducing factor of rapamycin inhibiting the proliferation and differentiation of NPCCs, and IGF-Ⅱtreatment can effectively reduce the side effects of rapamycin on NPCCs differentiation.

Ninety-one patients over 60 year old with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM) were selected from our outpatient department. The patients of experimental group uploaded their blood glucose data detected with glucometers, and obtained integrated management called " Mobile Health(M-health)" management such as medicines,diet,exercise from medical groups. The patients of control group got medical care in a traditional way without receiving other interventions. Regular follow-up was conducted in 2 groups every 3 months. The results showed that 3 months later,postprandial 2h plasma glucose in the experimental group was significantly improved compared with that of control group (P<0.05). Six months later, postprandial 2h plasma glucose and HbA1Clevels in the experimental group showed a decline comparing to the baseline, showing a statistical significance compared with control group(P<0.05). These results suggest that smartphone-based telemedicine is helpful of blood glucose control in elderly T2DM patients.

Calculation of cardiac hemodynamic parameters is based on accurate detection of feature points in impedance cardiogram. According to these parameters, doctors can determine heart conditions, so it is very important to accurately detect the feature point of impedance differential signals. This article presents a process in which we used wavelet threshold method to de-noise signals, and then detected the feature points after six layers wavelet decomposition by using bior3. 7. The experimental data were collected from healthy persons in our laboratory and twenty two clinical patients in Chongqing Daping Hospital by using KF_ICG instrument. The results indicated that this method could precisely detect feature points whether it was from healthy people or clinical patients. This helps to achieve the application of noninvasive detection cardiac hemodynamic parameters in clinical treatments by using impedance method.
Cardiography, Impedance ; Electric Impedance ; Heart ; physiology ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Wavelet Analysis

It is of great clinical significance to investigate noninvasive glucose detection. As one of the most potential methods, the noninvasive glucose detection based on near-infrared has become a hot research area recently. In this paper the principles and research methods of noninvasive glucose detection based on near-infrared spectrum are introduced. With the comparison between the research status at home and abroad in recent years, we summarize and discuss crucial issues in near-infrared noninvasive glucose detection, such as the selection of measurement method, selection of measurement position and choice of wavelength, and, furthermore, setting up models.
Blood Glucose ; analysis ; Diabetes Mellitus ; blood ; Humans ; Monitoring, Physiologic ; methods ; Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared ; instrumentation ; methods

OBJECTIVETo observe the effects of Qufengtongluo Recipe (QFTLR) on the expressions of cell cycle regulatory proteins in rat mesangial cells (MCs) in vitro and investigate the mechanism by which QFTLR inhibits MC proliferation.

METHODSUsing the methods of serum pharmacology, we studied the expressions of cell cycle regulatory proteins in rat MCs treated with QFTLR by laser scanning confocal microscope and immunohistochemistry.

RESULTSCompared with the normal control cells, the cells challenged with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) showed significantly enhanced expressions of cyclin D1, CDK2, and P21 (P<0.01) and obviously lowered protein expression of P27 (P<0.01). Treatment of the LPS-challenged cells with QFTLR and benazepril both resulted in significantly attenuated expressions of cyclin D1, CDK2, and P21 and obvious increase of P27 expression (P<0.05 or P<0.01), but QFTLR produced stronger effects than benazepril in regulating of cyclinD1, P21 and P27 protein expressions (P<0.05 or P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONQFTLR inhibits rat MC proliferation in vitro possibly by down-regulating the cellular expressions of cyclin D1, CDK2, and P21 and up-regulating the expression of P27 protein.

Animals ; Cell Line ; Cyclin D1 ; metabolism ; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 2 ; metabolism ; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p21 ; metabolism ; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p27 ; metabolism ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Gene Expression Regulation ; drug effects ; Mesangial Cells ; cytology ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

The power and signal transmission technology is one of the key technologies in neuroprosthetic research. This paper proposes firstly the related theory of power and signal transmission technology in neuroprosthetic, then summarizes the three key aspects of the power and signal transmission technology in neuroprosthetic. After analyzed the development of the inductive wireless power harvesting technology, the wireless telemetry technology and the wireless power harvesting telemetry technology, the emphasis on research contents will be proposed and discussed, which will help accelerate the further research of prosthetic.
Electric Power Supplies ; Electrodes, Implanted ; Humans ; Neural Prostheses ; Prosthesis Design ; instrumentation ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted ; instrumentation ; Telemetry ; instrumentation ; Wireless Technology ; instrumentation

Non-invasive blood glucose monitoring will be the development direction for detecting the blood glucose concentration of body in time. In this way, the concentration of the blood glucose can be controlled effectively, then the complicating diseases of diabetes can be reduced, so it is of great significance for diagnosis and treatment of diabetes. The recent developments of non-invasive blood glucose concentration monitoring technologies, including basic principles, results of verification test and instruments, are discussed, especially three methods with instruments facing market. The existing problems of these methods are also discussed. Finally, some difficult points of current non-invasive blood glucose monitoring methods are further discussed and the future trend of the technologies has been pointed out according to the above analysis.
Biosensing Techniques ; instrumentation ; methods ; Blood Glucose ; analysis ; Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring ; instrumentation ; methods ; Diabetes Mellitus ; blood ; Equipment Design ; Humans

This review summarized the progress of researches on the active locomotion system for capsule endoscope, analyzed the moving and controlling principles in different locomotion systems, and compared their merits and shortcomings. Owing to the complexity of human intestines and the limits to the size and consumption of locomotion system from the capsule endoscope, there is not yet one kind of active locomotion system currently used in clinical practice. The locomotive system driven by an outer rotational magnetic field could improve the commercial endoscope capsule, while its magnetic field controlling moving is complex. Active locomotion system driven by shape memory alloys will be the orientated development and the point of research in the future.
Animals ; Biomimetic Materials ; Capsule Endoscopes ; Equipment Design ; Humans ; Locomotion ; Magnetics ; instrumentation ; Micro-Electrical-Mechanical Systems ; instrumentation ; Motion ; Robotics ; instrumentation