Myocardial ischemic post-conditioning attenuates ischemia reperfusion injury via PTEN/Akt signal pathway.

Objectives: To investigate whether myocardial ischemic post-conditioning attenuates ischemia reperfusion injury via PTEN/Akt signal pathway.

Design: Forty-five male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups: Sham, Ischemia reperfusion (I/R) and Ischemic post-conditioning (IPost) group. After the experiment finished, myocardial infarction area was examined.

Neurogenic effect of VEGF is related to increase of astrocytes transdifferentiation into new mature neurons in rat brains after stroke.

To study the cellular mechanism of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-enhanced neurogenesis in ischemic brain injury, we used middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) model to induce transient focal ischemic brain injury. The results showed that ischemic injury significantly increased glial fibrillary acidic protein immunopositive (GFAP(+)) and nestin(+) cells in ipsilateral striatum 3 days following MCAO. Most GFAP(+) cells colocalized with nestin (GFAP(+)-nestin(+)), Pax6 (GFAP(+)-Pax6(+)), or Olig2 (GFAP(+)-Olig2(+)).

Striatal astrocytes transdifferentiate into functional mature neurons following ischemic brain injury.

To determine whether reactive astrocytes stimulated by brain injury can transdifferentiate into functional new neurons, we labeled these cells by injecting a glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) targeted enhanced green fluorescence protein plasmid (pGfa2-eGFP plasmid) into the striatum of adult rats immediately following a transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) and performed immunolabeling with specific neuronal markers to trace the neural fates of eGFP-expressing (GFP(+)) reactive astrocytes. The results showed that a portion of striatal GFP(+) astrocytes could transdifferentiate into immature neurons at 1 week after MCAO and mature neurons at 2 weeks as determined by double staining GFP-expressing cells with βIII-tubulin (GFP(+)-Tuj-1(+)) and microtubule associated protein-2 (GFP(+)-MAP-2(+)), respectively. GFP(+) neurons further expressed choline acetyltransferase, glutamic acid decarboxylase, dopamine receptor D2-like family proteins, and the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunit R2, indicating that astrocyte-derived neurons could develop into cholinergic or GABAergic neurons and express dopamine and glutamate receptors on their membranes.

New striatal neurons form projections to substantia nigra in adult rat brain after stroke.

Previous studies have demonstrated that newborn striatal neurons can functionally integrate with local neural networks in adult rat brain after injury. In the present study, we determined whether these newly generated striatal neurons can develop projections to the substantia nigra, a target of striatal projection neurons. We used 5'-bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) and a retroviral vector expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) combined with multiple immunostaining labels of newborn striatal neurons, and nigral microinjection of fluorogold (FG) to trace the striatonigral projection in adult rat brain at different weeks following a transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO).

Study on canceration law of gastric mucosal dysplasia based on syndromes of Chinese medicine.

Objective: To study the syndrome evolution law of Chinese medicine (CM) in the patients with gastric mucosal dysplasia.

Methods: Three hundred and twenty four gastric mucosal dysplasia patients with deficiency and excess correlation syndromes were enrolled by a multi-center collaboration for two years' clinical follow-up to detect the levels of tumor supplied group of factors (TSGF) and carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA).

Results: Among the 324 cases, 29 cases turned cancer in the two years, and the canceration rate was 9.

Effect of Jinguo Weikang Capsule on proto-oncogene expression of gastric mucosa in rats with gastric precancerous lesions.

Objective: To study the effect of Jinguo Weikang Capsule [see text] on the gene expression of H-ras, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), P53 and C-myc of the gastric mucosa in rats with gastric precancerous lesions, and to investigate the action mechanism of JWC on gastric precancerous lesions.

Methods: A rat model with paratypical proliferation of the gastric epithelium mucosa was established by using 60Co irradiation. Rats were divided into the normal group, model group, high-, medium-, low-dose JWC treatment groups, and the vitacoenzyme control group, and were treated for 30 days.

A clinical study of Suogudan granule in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: To study the clinical efficacy of Suogudan Granule (SGDG) in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: Ninety patients with RA were randomly divided into the treated group and the control group. The treated group was administered orally with SGDG 6 g each time, thrice a day, while the control group with the combined therapy of Fenbid Capsules 0.