[Regulation of ischemic stroke by circadian rhythm and intervention by traditional Chinese medicine].

Circadian rhythm is an internal regulatory mechanism formed in organisms in response to the circadian periodicity in the environment, which modulates the pathophysiological events, occurrence and development of diseases, and the response to treatment in mammals. It significantly influences the susceptibility, injury, and recovery of ischemic stroke, and the response to therapy. Accumulating evidence indicates that circadian rhythms not only regulate the important physiological factors of ischemic stroke events, such as blood pressure and coagulation-fibrinolysis system, but also participate in the immuno-inflammatory reaction mediated by glial cells and peripheral immune cells after ischemic injury and the regulation of neurovascular unit(NVU). This article aims to link molecular, cellular, and physiological pathways in circadian biology to the clinical consequences of ischemic stroke and to illustrate the impact of circadian rhythms on ischemic stroke pathogenesis, the regulation of NVU, and the immuno-inflammatory responses. The regulation of circadian rhythm by traditional Chinese medicine is reviewed, and the research progress of traditional Chinese medicine intervention in circadian rhythm is summarized to provide a reasonable and valuable reference for the follow-up traditional Chinese medicine research and molecular mechanism research of circadian rhythm.

[Effects of Long-term Fertilization on Soil Nutrient Characteristics and Microbial Resource Restrictions in a Terrace on the Loess Plateau].

Long-term fertilization has an important effect on soil fertility and soil microbial activity. In order to explore the effects of long-term fertilization on soil extracellular enzyme activities and nutrient characteristics in a terrace on the Loess Plateau, we based our investigation on the long-term nutrient localization plot of Ansai Soil and Water Conservation Experimental Station, Chinese Academy of Sciences. We measured the soil physicochemical properties, microbial biomass, and extracellular enzyme activities of six fertilization treatments, which included no fertilization (CK); manure and nitrogen fertilization (MN); manure and phosphate fertilization (MP); manure, nitrogen, and phosphate fertilization (MNP); manure (M); and nitrogen and phosphate fertilization (NP). The results showed that all fertilization treatments significantly increased soil nutrient content and soil extracellular enzyme activities compared with that in CK. Correlation analysis showed that extracellular enzyme activity and soil physicochemical properties had an extremely significant correlation. The redundancy analysis indicated that soil nutrient and soil microbial biomass could explain 79.66% and 74.87% of the variation in soil extracellular enzyme activity and its stoichiometric ratio, respectively. Thus, the effects of fertilization on soil fertility were primarily through influencing soil extracellular enzyme activities indirectly. M, MN, MP, and MNP significantly improved soil organic carbon (SOC); soil total nitrogen (STN); and carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) source enzyme content; however, MNP changed the soil pH, which had an inhibitory effect on microbial activities. Vector analysis showed that the microbial communities of all treatments were in the condition of P limitation. Although MNP could alleviate the extent of P limitation, there was no significant difference between M and MP. Our study indicated that long-term application of manure[7500 kg·(hm2·a)-1]could meet the nutrient requirements of dryland crop growth, and long-term application of manure combined with phosphorus fertilization could alleviate the resource constraints faced by microorganisms. Consequently, our results provide a new insight into improving regional nitrogen excess.

Efficacy on rabbits with arrhythmia: needling acupoint of Neiguan (PC6) at shallow or deep depth, and retaining needles for 10, 20, or 30 min.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effects of Neiguan (PC6) acupuncture at different depths and retention time on arrhythmia duration, myocardial tissue morphology, mRNA expression level of L-type calcium channel α1C subunit and Ca2 + -Mg2 + -AtPase activity in tachirrhythmia model of rabbits. METHODS: The tachyarrhythmia model was made by intravenous injection of barium chloride into the ears of rabbits. A total of 56 healthy adult male New Zealand big-eared white rabbits, apply the random number table method, divided into normal control group (group A), model group (group B), shallow needling Neiguan (PC6) 10 min group (group C), shallow needling Neiguan (PC6) 20 min group (group D), shallow needling Neiguan (PC6) 30 min group (group E), deep needling Neiguan (PC6) 10 min group (group F), deep needling Neiguan (PC6) 20 min group (group G), deep needling Neiguan (PC6) 30 min group (group H), 7 animals in each group. Electrocardiograms were used to collect the duration of arrhythmia; hematoxylin-eosin staining method was performed on myocardial tissue, RT-PCR tested the expression of α1C subunit mRNA, and the activity of Ca2 + -Mg2 + -ATPase were quantified by phosphorus determination method. RESULTS: The duration of arrhythmia in each acupuncture treatment group was shortened to varying degrees. Compare to the model group, the tissue damage from barium chloride inducing was improved in the acupuncture group. Compared to the model group, except for group E, most treatment groups had varying degrees of improvement with significantly down-regulated L-type calcium channel α1C subunit mRNA expressions level and increased Ca2+ -Mg2+ -ATPase activity. CONCLUSIONS: The effect of acupuncture at Neiguan (PC6) with different depths and retention time can reduce the duration of arrhythmia induced by barium chloride relatively, improve the induced pathological changes, down regulate L-type calcium channel α1C subunit mRNA expressions level and increase Ca2 + -Mg2 + -ATPase activity. Both the shallow and deep tissues of Neiguan (PC6) may be involved in transmitting acupuncture information. There is an optimal induction period for shallow needling at Neiguan (PC6) to reach the best therapeutic effect.