[Effect of Erxian Decoction on cyclophosphamide-induced oligospermia in mice].

Objective: To study the effect of Erxian Decoction (EXD) on oligospermia (OS) induced by cyclophosphamide in mice. METHODS: Eighty 6-week-old male Kunming mice were randomly divided into five groups of equal number, normal control, OS model control, and low-, medium- and high-dose EXD, the former two groups treated intragastrically with normal saline and the latter three with EXD at 3, 6 and 12 g per kg of the body weight qd for 30 days. From the 21st day of administration, the mice of the normal control group were injected intraperitoneally with saline and those of the other four groups with cyclophosphamide at 80 mg per kg of the body weight qd for 5 consecutive days. At 24 hours after the last gavage, the bilateral epididymides of the mice were collected and sperm suspension prepared for determination of the sperm count and motility, and the bilateral testes were harvested for histomorphological observation and measurement of the concentrations of superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MAD) and glutathione (GSH) in the testis tissue. RESULTS: Compared with the normal controls, the mice of the OS model control group showed significant decreases in epididymal sperm concentration (ï¼»9.31 ± 1.32ï¼½ vs ï¼»3.32 ± 1.13ï¼½×107/ml, P <0.01) and motility (ï¼»44.75 ± 8.12ï¼½% vs ï¼»25.95 ± 11.41］， P<0.01) and the concentrations of SOD (ï¼»37.27 ± 0.99ï¼½ vs ï¼»14.23 ± 1.99ï¼½ U/mg prot, P <0.01) and GSH (ï¼»101.55 ± 8.74ï¼½ vs ï¼»58.77 ± 8.93ï¼½ µmol/L, P <0.01) but an obvious increase in the MDA level (ï¼»2.21 ± 0.65ï¼½ vs ï¼»2.61 ± 0.15ï¼½ nmol/mg prot, P <0.05) in the testis tissue. In comparison with the OS model controls, the mice treated with low-, medium- and high-dose EXD exhibited significantly increased epididymal sperm concentration (ï¼»8.34 ± 2.59ï¼½, ï¼»8.59 ± 1.10ï¼½ and ï¼»8.41 ± 1.47ï¼½×107/ml) (P <0.01) and motility (ï¼»36.04 ± 12.33ï¼½%, ï¼»38.87 ± 13.13ï¼½% and ï¼»41.90 ± 8.09ï¼½%) (P <0.01) and concentrations of SOD (ï¼»22.99 ± 1.11ï¼½, ï¼»20.82 ± 1.81ï¼½ and ï¼»21.33 ± 1.66ï¼½ U/mg prot) (P <0.01) and GSH (ï¼»104.74 ± 2.47ï¼½, ï¼»98.61 ± 12.98ï¼½ and ï¼»108.89 ± 5.85ï¼½ µmol/L) (P <0.01) but decreased level of MDA (P <0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Erxian Decoction can improve cyclophosphamide-induced reduction of sperm concentration and motility, which might be associated with its abilities of resisting oxidation and reducing oxidative stress injury.

Complexity decline of hippocampal CA1 circuit model due to cholinergic deficiency associated with Alzheimer's disease.

A hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is cholinergic system dysfunction, directly affecting the hippocampal neurons. Previous experiments have demonstrated that reduced complexity is one significant effect of AD on electroencephalography (EEG). Motivated by these, this study explores reduced EEG complexity of cholinergic deficiency in AD by neurocomputation. We first construct a new hippocampal CA1 circuit model with cholinergic action. M-current IM and calcium-activated potassium current IAHP are newly introduced in the model to describe cholinergic input from the medial septum. Then, by enhancing IM and IAHP to mimic cholinergic deficiency, how cholinergic deficiency influences the model complexity is investigated by sample entropy (SampEn) and approximate entropy (ApEn). Numerical results show a more severe cholinergic deficit with lower model complexity. Furthermore, we conclude that the decline of SampEn and ApEn is due to the greatly diminished excitability of model neurons. These suggest that decreased neuronal excitability due to cholinergic impairment may contribute to reduced EEG complexity in AD. Subsequently, statistical analysis between simulated AD patients and normal control (NC) groups demonstrates that SampEn and auto-mutual-information (AMI) decrease rates significantly differ. Compared to NC, AD patients have a lower SampEn and a less negative AMI decline rate. These imply a low rate of new-generation information in AD brains with cholinergic deficits. Interestingly, the statistical correlation between SampEn and AMI is analyzed, and they have a large negative Pearson correlation coefficient. Thus, AMI reduction rates may be a complementary tool for complex analysis. Our modeling and complex analysis are expected to provide a deeper understanding of the reduced EEG complexity resulting from cholinergic deficiency.

Age-effects of sport education model on basic psychological needs and intrinsic motivation of adolescent students: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: This study explores the age effects of the sport education model(SEM) on the impact of basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, relatedness) and intrinsic motivation (interest, enjoyment, satisfaction) among adolescent students. METHOD: Retrieval of relevant literature from PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). The search period ranged from the starting year to January 7, 2024. Subsequently, literature screening, data extraction, and quality assessment will be conducted, and data analysis will be performed using "Review Manager 5.4" software. RESULT: Overall, SEM has a positive and statistically significant impact on the basic psychological needs (MD = 0.36,95% CI [0.22, 0.50]) and intrinsic motivation (MD = 0.75, 95% CI [0.58, 0.93]) of adolescent students (P<0.01). Subgroup analysis revealed age effects on the impact of SEM on the basic psychological needs of adolescent students: pre-peak height velocity (PRE-PHV) (MD = 0.39, 95% CI [0.23, 0.56], I2 = 45%, P<0.01), mid-peak height velocity (MID-PHV) (MD = 0.22, 95% CI [0.01, 0.42], I2 = 82%, P<0.05), post-peak height velocity (POST-PHV) (MD = 1.27, 95% CI [0.79, 1.74], I2 = 0%, P<0.01). Similarly, age effects were found for intrinsic motivation: MID-PHV (MD = 0.86, 95% CI [0.62, 1.11], I2 = 68%, P<0.01), POST-PHV (MD = 0.56, 95% CI [0.40, 0.72], I2 = 0%, P<0.01). CONCLUSION: The SEM is an effective approach to enhancing the basic psychological needs and intrinsic motivation of adolescent students. However, it exhibits age effects among students at different developmental stages. Specifically, in terms of enhancing basic psychological needs, the model has the greatest impact on POST-PHV students, followed by PRE-PHV students, while the improvement effect is relatively lower for MID-PHV students. The enhancement effect on intrinsic motivation diminishes with increasing age.