New therapy with XLQ® to suppress chronic prostatitis through its anti-inflammatory and antioxidative activities.

Chronic prostatitis is a common urological disease. The etiology of this disease and effective therapy for its treatment are yet to be elucidated. We investigated the functions of XLQ® in chronic nonbacterial prostatitis using a complete Freund's adjuvant-induced rat model. Prostates and blood samples were collected for further evaluation after oral gavage with XLQ ® or a vehicle for 4 weeks. The results showed that XLQ ® significantly decreased the prostate index, ameliorated the histopathologic changes, and reduced CD3+ and CD45+ cell infiltration in the prostate stroma. Further study showed that XLQ ® suppressed the expression of proinflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-1ß, IL-2, IL-6, IL-17A, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, and tumor necrosis factor-α. XLQ ® showed a strong antioxidant capacity by enhancing the activities of antioxidative enzymes (e.g., total superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase) and decreasing the level of lipid peroxidation products (malondialdehyde). Moreover, XLQ ® can suppress the activation of nuclear factor-κB and P38-mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathways. In summary, XLQ ® has affirmative effects on chronic prostatitis, which could be attributed to its anti-inflammatory and antioxidative capacities. On the basis of these results, XLQ ® can be developed as an effective and safe therapy for chronic prostatitis.

[In vitro autotetraploid induction and analysis on DNA methylation diversity of Platycodon grandiflorum].

In order to investigate the epigenetic variations between diploid and autotetraploid of Platycodon grandiflorus. The diploid buds of P. grandiflorus were soaked in the mixture of different concentration colchicines and 0.002 g•mL ⁻¹ dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO)．The identification of autotetraploid plants were based on morphological characteristics, chromosome number and flow cytometry. And then the level and pattern of DNA methylation explored by using the technology of methylation sensitive amplified polymorphism (MSAP)．The result demonstrated that the buds soaked in 0.2% colchicines and 0.002 g•mL ⁻¹ DMSO solution for 12 h was ideal conditions to induce autotetraploid of P. grandiflorus, with induction rate of 32.0%.The diploid and tetraploid plants existed distinctly differences in morphological indexes.Totally,1 586 bands were amplified by 20 pairs of selective primers, of which 764 and 822 bands were detected in diploid and autotetraploid respectively. The total methylation ratio,full methylation ratio and hemimethylated ratio were 91.25%,61.25% and 30.65% in diploid of P. grandiflorus,respectively.However,the total methylation ratio,full methylation ratio and hemimethylated ratio of autotetraploid of P. grandiflorus were 86.13%,54.38% and 31.75%, respectively. Compared with diploid, the genomic DNA total methylate ratio and full methylation ratio of autotetration plants decreased by 6.02% and 7.14%.But the hemimethylated ratio of autotetraploid was higher than that of diploid, which more than 1.6%. All this results indicated that DNA methylation patterns have adjusted during the polyploidy process．.