Yin scores and yang scores: A new method for quantitative diagnostic evaluation in traditional Chinese medicine research.

Objective: To develop and evaluate a method for quantitative evaluation of yin and yang (yin and yang scores) in human subjects for the purposes of research. This method aims to classify subjects into groups allowing future quantitative testing of key research questions such as: do different groups of patients respond differently to acupuncture treatments or Chinese herb formulas?

Methods: In a pilot study of inter-rater reliability, 12 volunteers were each successively interviewed and examined by 6 acupuncturists on the same day. Each acupuncturist gave each volunteer a score for yin and a score for yang on a scale of -10 to +10, zero representing a "balanced" score.

The role of recombinant human M-CSF, IL-3, GM-CSF and calcitriol in clonal development of osteoclast precursors in primate bone marrow.

Evidence suggests that among the myeloid colony-stimulating factors (CSFs), macrophage-CSF (M-CSF) is important in normal development of osteoclasts. To understand the role of M-CSF and other myeloid CSFs on clonal growth of osteoclast progenitors, isolated monkey bone marrow cells expressing the CD34 antigen were grown in soft agar or methylcellulose cultures in the presence of recombinant human M-CSF, granulocyte-macrophage CSF (GM-CSF), interleukin-3 (IL-3), calcitriol and various combinations of these factors. Day-10 to day-20 colonies were stained for tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) in order to identify putative osteoclast progenitors.

Modulation of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase expression by calcitriol in CSF-induced macrophage colonies.

The osteoclast is thought to be a hemopoietically derived cell, but questions exist about which hemopoietic growth factors are responsible for proliferation of osteoclast precursors. Experiments were thus performed to see if recombinant human colony-stimulating factors (CSFs) influenced the expression of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP), an osteoclast marker enzyme, by monkey bone marrow colonies in vitro. In addition, the effect of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (calcitriol) on CSF-induced colony growth and TRAP expression was also determined.