[Effect of electro-acupuncture on clinical outcomes and ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome in in vitro fertilization and embryo transplantation].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of electro-acupuncture (EA) on clinical outcomes and the occurrence of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) in in vitro fertilization and embryo transplantation. METHODS: Totally 109 patients who routinely received in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) at Reproductive Center were assigned to the control group (56 cases) and the EA group (53 cases) according to even and odd-numbered date. Patients in the control group received controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) referring to GnRH-a long protocol. On the basis of COH, those in the EA group received EA from the day of Gn injection to the day of embryo transfer. Estradiol (E2), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and angiotensin (AT) II were measured in all patients on the day of hCG injection, the day of ovum pick up (OPU), and the day of embryo transfer (ET), respectively. The oocyte retrieval rate, good quality embryo rate, clinical pregnancy rate, the abortion rate, and the occurrence of OHSS were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, serum E2 levels on the day of OPU and the day of ET were significantly lower in the EA group (P < 0.05). On the day of OPU levels of VEGF and IL-6 also significantly decreased (P < 0.05). Serum levels of VEGF and IL-6 reached the highest line on the day of hCG in the two groups, and then showed a decreasing trend. Compared with the control group at the same time point, serum levels of VEGF and IL-6 obviously decreased on on the day of OPU, hCG, and ET (P < 0.05). The occurrence of OHSS and the canceling rate of transplant cycle were significantly lower in the EA group than in the control group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: EA, as an adjunctive therapy, could reduce the occurrence of OHSS in IVF. Besides, it did not decrease good embryo rates and pregnancy rates in IVF-ET, which might be associated with lowering local vascular permeability of ovaries.

Daucosterol promotes the proliferation of neural stem cells.

Neural stem cells (NSCs) are self-regenerating cells, but their regenerative capacity is limited. The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of daucosterol (a sterolin) on the promotion of NSC proliferation and determine the corresponding molecular mechanism. Results of cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay showed that daucosterol significantly increased the quantity of viable cells and the effectiveness of daucosterol was similar to that of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and epidermal growth factor (EGF). Flow cytometry detection of CFSE-labeled (CFSE, carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester) NSCs showed that Div Index (or the average number of cell divisions) and % Divided (or the percentage of cells that divided at least once) of the cells were increased, indicating that daucosterol increased the percentage of NSCs re-entering the cell cycle. mRNA microarray analysis showed that 333 genes that are mostly involved in the mitotic cell cycle were up-regulated. By contrast, 627 genes that are mostly involved in differentiation were down-regulated. In particular, insulin-like growth factor I (IGF1) was considered as an important regulatory gene that functionally promoted NSC proliferation, and the increased expression of IGF1 protein was validated by ELISA. In addition, the phosphorylation of AKT was increased, indicating that the proliferation-enhancing activity of daucosterol may be involved in IGF1-AKT pathway. Our study provided information about daucosterol as an efficient and inexpensive growth factor alternative that could be used in clinical medicine and research applications.

Pinching spine: A potential treatment for depression.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether pinching spine (PS, i.e. , a traditional Chinese manipulative therapy) is beneficial to ameliorating the depressive state (including behavioral deficit, retardative weight gain and decreased sucrose consumption) in a rat model of depression induced by chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) and to explore the candidate mechanism of action. METHODS: PS was performed on rats' spine once daily for 1 week after exposure to CUS. The open-field test, body weight measuring, and sucrose intake test were applied on different dates: before stress (d0), at the end of stress (d21) and after PS treatment (d28), respectively. Then the rats' hippocampuses were performed genome-wide microarray analysis, and the expression levels of several genes were evaluated by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). RESULTS: Exposure to CUS resulted in decreases of behavioral activity and sucrose consumption, which were reversed significantly after PS treatment. The expression of several genes relevant to energy metabolism, anti-oxidation, and olfactory receptor, etc., were down-regulated, while the expression of those relevant to hemostasis, immunity-inflammation, and restriction of activities and ingestion, etc., were up-regulated in hippocampuses of rats exposed to CUS. PS treatment significantly inverted these changes. Furthermore, increase or decrease in gene expression evaluated by realtime PCR was concordant with up-regulated or down-regulated expression evaluated by microarray analysis. CONCLUSION: PS showed a potential antidepressant-like effect, of which the action mechanism might be due to gene expression regulation in hippocampus.

Microarray Analysis of mRNA and MicroRNA Expression Profile Reveals the Role of ß -Sitosterol-D-glucoside in the Proliferation of Neural Stem Cell.

Neural stem cells (NSCs) are self-regenerating cells, but their regenerative capacity is limited. The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of ß -sitosterol-D-glucoside (BSSG) on the proliferation of hippocampal NSCs and to determine the corresponding molecular mechanism. Results of CCK-8 assay showed that BSSG significantly increased NSC proliferation and the effectiveness of BSSG was similar to that of basic fibroblast growth factor and epidermal growth factor. mRNA expression profiling showed that 960 genes were differentially expressed after NSCs were treated with BSSG. Among the 960 genes, IGF1 is considered as a key regulatory gene that functionally promotes NSC proliferation. MicroRNA (miRNA) expression profiling indicated that 30 and 84 miRNAs were upregulated and downregulated, respectively. miRNA-mRNA relevance analysis revealed that numerous mRNAs including IGF1 mRNA were negatively regulated by miRNAs with decreased expression, thereby increasing the corresponding mRNA expression. The increased expression of IGF1 protein was validated by ELISA. Picropodophyllin (PPP, an inhibitor of IGF-1R) inhibition test confirmed that the proliferation-enhancing effect depended on IGF1. This study provided information about BSSG as an efficient and inexpensive growth factor alternative, of which the effect is closely involved in IGF1.