Sustained-release pellets of nifedipine using microcrystals combined with MCC-based matrix.

The purpose of this study was to prepare sustained-release pellets of nifedipine (NSPs) based on MCC matrix. Wet-milling and extrusion-spheronization techniques were employed to prepare the microcrystals and pellets, respectively. The drug release mechanism and the influencing factors were investigated.

Improved oral bioavailability of core-shell structured beads by redispersion of the shell-forming nanoparticles: preparation, characterization and in vivo studies.

In order to increase the dissolution rate and oral bioavailability of bifendate, coated beads with core-shell structure were prepared via a combination use of wet media milling method and bead layering process. Hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC-SL) and sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) were found to be the best pair to stabilize the nanosuspension during milling process. A 10:1 ratio of mixture of mannitol and SLS was chosen as most suitable coating matrix to maintain the redispersability of dried nanoparticles in the shell of beads.

Cortical network properties revealed by SSVEP in anesthetized rats.

Steady state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP) are assumed to be regulated by multiple brain areas, yet the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. In this study, we utilized multi-channel intracranial recordings together with network analysis to investigate the underlying relationships between SSVEP and brain networks in anesthetized rat. We examined the relationship between SSVEP amplitude and the network topological properties for different stimulation frequencies, the synergetic dynamic changes of the amplitude and topological properties in each rat, the network properties of the control state, and the individual difference of SSVEP network attributes existing among rats.

Why do we need to use a zero reference? Reference influences on the ERPs of audiovisual effects.

Using ERPs in the audiovisual stimulus, the current study is the first to investigate the influence of the reference on experimental effects (between two conditions). Three references, the average reference (AR), the mean mastoid (MM), and a new infinity zero reference (IR), were comparatively investigated via ERPs, statistical parametric scalp mappings (SPSM), and LORETA. Specifically, for the N1 (170-190 ms), the SPSM results showed an anterior distribution for MM, a posterior distribution for IR, and both anterior and posterior distributions for AR.

Attentional orienting and response inhibition: insights from spatial-temporal neuroimaging.

Attentional orienting and response inhibition have largely been studied separately. Each has yielded important findings, but controversy remains concerning whether they share any neurocognitive processes. These conflicting findings may originate from two issues: (1) at the cognitive level, attentional orienting and response inhibition are typically studied in isolation; and (2) at the technological level, a single neuroimaging method is typically used to study these processes.

Numb modulates the paracellular permeability of intestinal epithelial cells through regulating apical junctional complex assembly and myosin light chain phosphorylation.

Numb is highly expressed throughout the crypt-villus axis of intestinal mucosa and functions as cell fate determinant and integrator of cell-to-cell adhesion. Increased paracellular permeability of intestinal epithelial cells is associated with the epithelial barrier dysfunction of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). The apical junctional complex (AJC) assembly and myosin light chain (MLC) phosphorylation regulate adherens junctions (AJ) and tight junctions (TJ).

Brain oscillations and electroencephalography scalp networks during tempo perception.

In the current study we used electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate the relation between musical tempo perception and the oscillatory activity in specific brain regions, and the scalp EEG networks in the theta, alpha, and beta bands. The results showed that the theta power at the frontal midline decreased with increased arousal level related to tempo. The alpha power induced by original music at the bilateral occipital-parietal regions was stronger than that by tempo-transformed music.

[Clinical efficacies of scleral tunnel sutureless trabeculectomy plus phacoemulsification and intraocular lens implantation].

Objective: To explore the clinical efficacies of scleral tunnel sutureless trabeculectomy plus phacoemulsification and intraocular lens implantation in the treatment of glaucoma and cataract.

Methods: A total of 49 cataract patients with glaucoma (52 eyes) from our hospital during the period of February 2009 to June 2012. Their visual acuities were < 0.

Simultaneous determination by LC-MS/MS of 25-methoxydammarane-3β,12β,20-triol epimers and active metabolites in rat plasma after intravenous administration.

1. The pharmacokinetics of the 25-OCH3-PPD epimers and active metabolites in rat plasma after a single intravenous (i.v.

Enhanced membrane-tethered mucin 3 (MUC3) expression by a tetrameric branched peptide with a conserved TFLK motif inhibits bacteria adherence.

We investigated whether a synthetic tetrameric branched peptide based on the conserved TFLK motif from mammary-associated serum amyloid A3 (M-SAA3) is more efficient than the monomeric peptide at up-regulating MUC3 expression and examined the possible mechanism(s) and biological significance of this process. We used standard solid-phase methods to synthesize a tetrameric branched peptide (sequence GWLTFLKAAG) containing a trilysine core, termed the TFLK-containing 10-mer BP. The aberrant expression of transcription factors was analyzed using a transcription factor protein/DNA array.

Four new coumarinolignoids from seeds of Solanum indicum.

Activity-guided fractionation of seeds of Solanum indicum for anti-HBV activity led to the isolation of two novel coumarinolignoid alkaloids (indicumines A-B, 1-2) and two new coumarinolignoids (indicumines C-D, 3-4), together with four known coumarins (5-8). Their structures were established on the basis of spectroscopic data. The two novel coumarinolignoid alkaloids shows anti-HBV activities through specifically inhibiting the secretion of HBsAg in HepG2.

H. pylori induces the expression of Hath1 in gastric epithelial cells via interleukin-8/STAT3 phosphorylation while suppressing Hes1.

Chronic gastritis associated with Helicobacter pylori is a leading cause of gastric intestinal metaplasia (IM), which arises from abnormal cell differentiation of the epithelium in the gastric mucosa. However, the mechanisms involved in H. pylori-mediated IM remain elusive.

CpG oligodeoxynucleotides discriminately enhance binding capacity of human naïve B cells to Hepatitis B virus epitopes.

CpG oligodeoxynucleotides (CpG ODN) have the potential to enhance the antigen-presenting cells function of human naïve B cells. In this study, we aim to define the effect of CpG ODNs on the binding capacity of human naïve B cells for different Hepatitis B virus (HBV) epitopes. Three HLA-A2 restricted epitopes were selected to incubate with CpG ODN-primed human naïve B cells.

Ascl2 knockdown results in tumor growth arrest by miRNA-302b-related inhibition of colon cancer progenitor cells.

Background: Achaete scute-like 2 (Ascl2), a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor, controls the fate of intestinal stem cells. However, the role of Ascl2 in colon cancer progenitor cells remains unknown. The cell line HT-29 (47.

FATS expression is associated with cisplatin sensitivity in non small cell lung cancer.

Background: Although the survival benefit of cisplatin-based adjuvant chemotherapy has been proven for patients with non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the resistance to cisplatin and its dose-dependent side effects remain a challenge. Improvement in survival and reduction of side effects require a biomarker capable of defining the response to cisplatin treatments in patients with NSCLC. FATS is a newly identified tumor suppressor involved in DNA damage-induced carcinogenesis.

The rat IgGFcγBP and Muc2 C-terminal domains and TFF3 in two intestinal mucus layers bind together by covalent interaction.

Background: The secreted proteins from goblet cells compose the intestinal mucus. The aims of this study were to determine how they exist in two intestinal mucus layers.

Methodology/principal Findings: The intestinal mucosa was fixed with Carnoy solution and immunostained.

Numb modulates intestinal epithelial cells toward goblet cell phenotype by inhibiting the Notch signaling pathway.

Numb was originally identified as an important cell fate determinant that is asymmetrically inherited during mitosis and controls the fate of sibling cells by inhibiting the Notch signaling pathway in neural tissue. The small intestinal epithelium originates from the division of stem cells that reside in the crypt, which further differentiate into goblet cells, absorptive cells, paneth cells, and enteroendocrine cells. However, Numb's involvement in the differentiation process of intestinal epithelium is largely unknown.

Differential consequences of orienting attention in parallel and serial search: an ERP study.

Previous research has linked attentional effects (such as inhibition of return; IOR) to serial visual search. We investigated different modes of visual search (serial vs. parallel) and demonstrated that the attentional set induced by the type of search greatly influences these attentional effects.

Electrophysiological explorations of the cause and effect of inhibition of return in a cue-target paradigm.

Facilitation and inhibition of return (IOR) are, respectively, faster and slower responses to a peripherally cued target. In a spatially uninformative peripheral cueing task, facilitation is normally observed when the interval between the cue and target stimulus, the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), is shorter than 250 ms, while IOR is normally observed when an SOA greater than 250 ms is used. Since Posner and Cohen's (Attention and performance X, 1984) seminal study, IOR has become an actively investigated component of orienting.

[Study on midterm follow-up results of arthroscopic debridement for knee osteoarthritis].

Objective: To evaluate the effect of arthroscopic debridement for knee osteoarthritis.

Methods: The medical records of 56 patients (56 knees) who underwent arthroscopic debridement procedures for knee osteoarthritis from 2000 to 2004 were reviewed. Among the patients, 15 patients were male and 41 patients were female,ranged in age from 39 to 76 years, with an average of (55.

MMN evidence for asymmetry in detection of IOI shortening and lengthening at behavioral indifference tempo.

Most behavioral investigations indicated an indifference interval of 500-700 ms, at which the detection of inter-onset interval (IOI) shortening and lengthening are equally difficult and no perceptual bias would be expected. However, some event-related potential (ERPs) studies showed that even at this behavioral indifference time, the detection of shortening and lengthening might rely on different aspects of information processing. This work was aimed to investigate whether the pre-attentive processing of local tempo perturbations, i.

[Grading treatment of hip osteoarthritis].

Objective: To investigate therapeutic effects of intra-articular injection of sodium hyaluronate, arthroscopy and total hip replacement for the treatment of different severity hip osteoarthritis.

Methods: Eighty-nine patients were treated with the three methods from June 2004 to August 2008. There were 33 males and 56 females, ranging in age from 30 to 72 years, averaged 51.

Neuroelectric source imaging using 3SCO: a space coding algorithm based on particle swarm optimization and l0 norm constraint.

The electroencephalogram (EEG) neuroelectric sources inverse problem is usually underdetermined and lacks a unique solution, which is due to both the electromagnetism Helmholtz theorem and the fact that there are fewer observations than the unknown variables. One potential choice to tackle this issue is to solve the underdetermined system for a sparse solution. Aiming to the sparse solution, a novel algorithm termed 3SCO (Solution Space Sparse Coding Optimization) is presented in this paper.

Biotransformation of 20(S)-protopanaxadiol by Mucor spinosus.

Biotransformation of 20(S)-protopanaxadiol (1) by the fungus Mucor spinosus AS 3.3450 yielded eight metabolites (2-9). On the basis of NMR and MS analyses, the metabolites were identified as 12-oxo-15alpha,27-dihydroxyl-20(S)-protopanaxadiol (2), 12-oxo-7beta,11alpha,28-trihydroxyl-20(S)-protopanaxadiol (3), 12-oxo-7beta,28-dihydroxyl-20(S)-protopanaxadiol (4), 12-oxo-15alpha,29-dihydroxyl-20(S)-protopanaxadiol (5), 12-oxo-7beta,15alpha-dihydroxyl-20(S)-protopanaxadiol (6), 12-oxo-7beta,11beta-dihydroxyl-20(S)-protopanaxadiol (7), 12-oxo-15alpha-hydroxyl-20(S)-protopanaxadiol (8), and 12-oxo-7beta-hydroxyl-20(S)-protopanaxadiol (9), respectively.

A multi-component decomposition algorithm for event-related potentials.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) are evoked activities of the brain related to specific events. They can be estimated by averaging across many trials aligned to a specific event onset time point, such as the stimulus, the response, or other behaviorally significant markers. If a single trial includes more than one such event (marker), as in all reaction-time tasks, the cross-contamination of components related to different events may mislead the explanation of ERPs.