Esculetin protects against early sepsis via attenuating inflammation by inhibiting NF-κB and STAT1/STAT3 signaling.

Esculetin, a natural derivative from the traditional and widely-used Chinese medicinal herb Cortex Fraxini, has a variety of pharmacological effects, especially in anti-inflammation. However, it is not clear whether esculetin has a therapeutic effect on sepsis. This study aimed to investigate the anti-inflammatory and protective effects of esculetin on early sepsis. The results showed that the lung injury was significantly relieved with the treatment of esculetin, accompanied with the restrained production of inflammatory factors including IL-1ß, IL-6, TNF-α, CCL2 and iNOS during the early phase of E.coli-induced sepsis. Of note, activation of NF-κB and STAT1/STAT3 signals, the main upstream signals of many inflammatory factors, were attenuated by esculetin in both lung tissues from septic mice and LPS-stimulated macrophage. These findings suggested that the protection of esculetin against early sepsis should be related to its anti-inflammatory effect, which was at least partly due to its inhibition on NF-κB and STAT1/STAT3 signaling pathway in macrophage. Thus, esculetin could serve as a potential therapeutic agent by rebalancing innate immune response in macrophage for the treatment of early sepsis.

[Quality control of Dandeng Tongnao Ruanjiaonang based on UPLC fingerprint combined with chemical pattern recognition].

To establish the ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) fingerprint of Dandeng Tongnao Ruanjiaonang and conduct a systemic, comprehensive quality evaluation of the drug by combining with a chemical pattern recognition method. In this study, Waters UPLC ultra-high performance liquid chromatography instrument and ACQUITY UPLCHSS T3 chromatographic colum n were employed to perform the separation with acetonitrile-0.1% formic acid aqueous solution as the mobile phase for gradient elution; and the detection wavelength was set at 256 nm to establish the UPLC fingerprint of 10 batches of Dandeng Tongnao Ruanjiaonang. Then, the further quality assessment of the drug was carried out by similarity evaluation, Cluster Analysis(CA), Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA). Finally, 77 peaks were recognised as common peaks in the fingerprint, and 15 peaks of them were identified using standard references. The similarity value of these 10 batches of drugs was all above 0.960, indicating a relatively stable quality. But minor differences were still discovered between the batches of the drug by CA and PCA. Finally, 6 common peaks were recognised as the quality makers using OPLS-DA method. The analysis method established in this study was scientific, accurate, reliable and simple; fingerprint combined with chemical pattern recognition technique can be used to systematically and comprehensively evaluate the drug quality of Dandeng Tongnao Ruanjiaonang; what's more, it could also provide a reference for the quality control of traditional Chinese medicine and its preparations at the same time.

[Nitrogen and phosphate pollution characteristics and eutrophication evaluation for typical urban landscape waters in Hefei City].

To understand the water environment regimes of the city-circling water system in Hefei City, six typical landscape waters were chosen to investigate pollution characteristics of nitrogen and phosphate and evaluate water eutrophication level according to the monitoring data of water physicochemical characteristics and chlorophyll content from September 2012 to July 2013. Study results showed that (1) the six waters mentioned above have been seriously polluted by nitrogen and phosphorus loadings, with the monthly mean values of total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) concentrations far exceeding the universally accepted threshold values of water eutrophication; (2) the nitrogen contents in the waters of Nanfeihe River, Heichiba and Yuhuatang scenic spots exhibited a markedly monthly variation, and both TP and PO(3-)(4)-P in Nanfeihe River showed a fluctuated characteristic with high concentrations while presenting a significant upward trend in Yuhuatang scenic spot; (3) the average values of TN/TP ratios for Yuhuatang and Heichiba scenic spots were 104.7 and 158.3, respectively, and the ratios for Baohe Park, Yinhe Park, Xiaoyaojin Park, and city segment of Nanfeihe River were 16.8, 18.7, 6.4 and 16.8, respectively, indicating that the scenic waters of Yuhuatang and Heichiba were phosphate-limited whereas Xiaoyaojin Park was nitrogen-limited; (4) all the six scenic waters were, in general, subsumed under just two broad categories, namely Hechiba scenic spot and Nanfeihe River, which were seriously polluted, and clustered together, and the others fall into the second class; and (5) water eutrophication appraisal result indicated that the six waters were all in the state of eutrophication, and could be arranged in the order of eutrophication level, Yinhe Park > Heichiba scenic spot > city segment of Nanfeihe River > Xiaoyaojin Park > Yuhuatang scenic spot > Baohe Park.