β-Elemene induces apoptosis and autophagy in colorectal cancer cells through regulating the ROS/AMPK/mTOR pathway / 中国天然药物

β-Elemene is an effective anti-cancer ingredient extracted from the genus Curcuma (Zingiberaceae familiy). In the present study, we demonstrated that β-elemene inhibited the proliferation of colorectal cancer cells and induced cell cycle arrest in the G2/M phase. In addition, β-elemene induced nuclear chromatin condensation and cell membrane phosphatidylserine eversion, decreased cell mitochondrial membrane potential, and promoted the cleavage of caspase-3, caspase-9 and PARP proteins, indicating apoptosis in colorectal cancer cells. At the same time, β-elemene induced autophagy response, and the treated cells showed autophagic vesicle bilayer membrane structure, which was accompanied by up-regulation of the expression of LC3B and SQSTM1. Furthermore, β-elemene increased ROS levels in colorectal cancer cells, promoted phosphorylation of AMPK protein, and inhibited mTOR protein phosphorylation. In the experiments in vivo, β-elemene inhibited the tumor size and induced apoptosis and autophagy in nude mice. In summary, β-elemene inhibited the occurrence and development of colon cancer xenografts in nude mice, and significantly induced apoptosis and autophagy in colorectal cancer cells in vitro. These effects were associated with regulation of the ROS/AMPK/mTOR signaling. We offered a molecular basis for the development of β-elemene as a promising anti-tumor drug candidate for colorectal cancer.

Expression of Semaphorin 3A after spinal cord injury / 中国骨伤

OBJECTIVE@#To investigate expression of Semaphorin 3A in rats after spinal cord injury and explore possible mechanism of inhibiting of axonal regeneration after SCI.@*METHODS@#Forty healthy female SD rats, 8 weeks old, weighing (210.00±9.88) g, were randomly divided into control group(20 rats in group A) and model group(20 rats in group B). In control group, removal of T@*RESULTS@#After a simple spinal cord transection injury, hemorrhagic necrosis, localized edema, neurodegeneration, necrosis, and cyst formation occurred in the injured area, and glial scar formation occurred in glial cells. Semaphorin 3A expression levels in control group was low in the gray matter area. There was no expression of Semaphorin 3A in the injured area of spinal cord injury in model group 3 days after operation. On the 14th day, the expression of Semaphorin 3A in the injured area of spinal cord injury increased significantly and was at a high level. On the 28th day, the expression of Semaphorin 3A was moderate. On the 42th day, the positive expression of Semaphorin 3A returned to normal level.@*CONCLUSION@#The increased expression of Semaphorin 3A after spinal cord injury may be one of the mechanisms that inhibit axonal regeneration.

Preparation and release mechanism of tectorigenin intragastric floating sustained-release tablets / 中国中药杂志

To investigate the preparation technology and release mechanism of tectorigenin intragastric floating sustained-release tablets. The tablet was produced by wet granulation compression method, with hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (HPMCK15M), cross-linked polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVPP), octadecanol and sodium bicarbonate as excipient. The prescriptions were screened and optimized by orthogonal experimental design with in vitro floating capacity and drug release characteristics as the evaluation indexes. The optimization results were as follows: tectorigenin 33.3%, HPMCK15M 16.7%, PVPP 20.0%, octadecanol 13.3%, sodium bicarbonate 5%, and starch gel 10.7%. The prepared tablet can be floated within 10 s in the artificial gastric juice, lasting for 12 h in vitro, with a cumulative release rate of 70% in 10 h. The analysis of Rritger-Peppas equation showed that the sustained-release tablet had two advantages of both drug diffusion and skeleton dissolution. The tablet had good appearance and compressibility, as well as favorable floating capacity and drug release characteristics.

Clinical application of continuous douche and vacuum sealing drainage in refractory tissue, bone and joint infections after debridement / 中国骨伤

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore effect and the application value of continuous douche and vacuum sealing drainage (VSD) in refractory tissue, and joint infections after complete debridement.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>As retrospective analysis of treatment time and restoration or recurrence, from Jan. 2006 to Dec. 2007, 61 cases of refractory tissue, bone and joint infections underwent continuous douche and VSD combined with the treatment of anti-inflammatory and rehabilitation training after debridement in our hospital. The 61 patients included 39 males and 22 females with age ranging from 10 to 58 years with an average of (35 +/- 12) years, among whom 61 identified to have ankle ulcers combined with infections,open fracture combined with infections, sacrococcygeal pressure ulcers combined with infections, infections after hip replacement, infections after open fracture, and infections after skin avulsion postoperation were 11, 15, 9, 3, 5 and 18 cases respectively. The course was from 2 weeks to 11 months with an average of 4 months.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>In all 61 patients,the mean healing time was 17, 36, 42, 24, 32, 29 and 28 days in ankle ulcers and infections, tibia and fibula open fracture and infections, femoral shaft fracture and infections, sacrococcygeal pressure ulcers and infections, infections after hip replacement, infections after open fracture, and infections after skin avulsion postoperation respectively. The replacement of VSD was 1, 2-4, 3-5, 1-3, 2-4, 2-3 and 1-3 times in each group respectively. There was no wound recurrence except for 2 cases with recurrent in 61 cases with external fixation nail hole semi-pathological fracture in 1 case of femoral shaft fracture and infection and 1 case of tibia and fibula fracture and infection after follow-up at least one year.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Application of continuous douche and VSD can effectively decrease incidence of complications and promote the refractory tissue, bone and joint infections wound growth, healing and considerably shorten the healing time.</p>

Reactive astrocytes and nestin expression in adult rats following spinal cord compression injury / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the expressions of nestin and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and their association with reactive astrocytes following spinal cord injury in adult rats.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Adult rats with compression injury of the spinal cord were divided into 7 groups (n=6) and examined at 1, 3, and 5 days and at 1, 2, 4 and 8 weeks after the injury. The recovery of the locomotor function after the injury was evaluated with Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan (BBB) scale, and the degree and scope of the spinal injury were assessed using toluidine blue staining. Immunohistochemistry, double immunofluorescent labeling and an image analysis system were employed to observe nestin and GFAP expression and cell proliferation in different regions of the spinal cord.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The bilateral hind limb locomotor function of the rats declined severely 24 h after the spinal cord injury and underwent substantial recovery in 1 or 2 weeks after the injury, but followed by rather slow recovery afterwards. Toluidine blue staining of the spinal cord 24 h after the injury showed significant pathological changes in the neurons. The extension of the tissue injury increased with time till 1 week after the spinal cord injury. The site of injury and the adjacent tissues presented with markedly increased nestin and GFAP expressions 24 h after the injury, and nestin+/GFAP(-) cells dominated in the ependymal region around the central canal, whereas nestin+/GFAP+ dominated in the in other regions, showing significant difference from the control group. Nestin and GFAP expression reached the peak level 3 to 7 days after the injury and declined gradually till reaching nearly the control level at 2 weeks.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Compression injury of the spinal cord induces up-regulated expressions of nestin and GFAP, and nestin expression is positively correlated to the reactive astrocytes, which, along with the neural stem cells, respond to spinal nerve injury and possibly play a role in repair of the central nervous system injury.</p>

Clinical observation on effect of gufusheng capsule in treating early stage Legg-Calve-Perthes disease / 中国中西医结合杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the clinical efficacy of Gufusheng capsule (GFSC) in treating early stage Legg-Calve-Perthes disease.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Adopting randomized single controlled trial, 45 cases with Legg-Calve-Perthes disease in early stage were randomly divided into 2 groups, 23 patients in the control group were treated with arthrectomy hip synovial membrane excision of affected lateral, femoral head decompression and transplantation of muscle-bone flap from ileum, above treatment were also given to the 22 patients in the treated group but combined with orally taking of GFSC. The treatment course for both groups was 6 months.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Short-term effect after 6 months' treatment showed that the total effective rate in the treated group and the control group was 90.9% and 78.3% respectively, and the excellent rate was 72.7% and 60.9% respectively. The pain visual analogue scoring, clinical symptom and syndrome scoring markedly decreased before and after treatment, showing significant difference between the two groups (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). Long-term effect after 1-year to 4-year follow-up showed that the total effective rate and excellent rate between the treated group and the control group was significantly different ( chi2 = 8. 5976, P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>GFSC has marked effect in alleviating pain and ameliorating function of hip joint, being an effective compound recipe for treatment of early stage Legg-Calve-Perthes disease. Therefore, it is worthy of researching and developing furthermore.</p>