[Effect of biofeedback therapy on metabolic syndrome under different levels of job stress].

Objective: To investigate the effect of biofeedback therapy on metabolic syndrome (MS) and the effect of different levels of job stress on the outcome. Methods: The physicians in tertiary hospitals who were diagnosed with MS from January to December, 2016 were divided into biofeedback group and health education group according to different intervention methods, and moderate group, medium group, and high group according to different levels of job stress. A 6-month intervention was implemented from May to October, 2017. A two-way factorial design was used to analyze the main effect of biofeedback on physical and biochemical parameters and the interaction of biofeedback and job stress. Results: After 6 months of intervention, the patients in both the biofeedback group and the moderate group had significantly decreased waist circumference, body mass index, systolic blood pressure (SBP) , diastolic blood pressure (DBP) , and levels of triglyceride (TG) , total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) , and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and a significantly increased level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (all P<0.05) ; the patients in both the health education group and the moderate group had significantly decreased SBP, DBP, and levels of TG, LDL-C, and FPG (P<0.05) . The factorial analysis of variance showed that there was a synergistic interaction between the intervention method and job stress level in SBP, DBP, TG, HDL-C, LDL-C, and FPG among MS patients (P<0.05) . The high group had significantly more improvements in all indices compared with the medium group and the moderate group (P<0.05) . Conclusion: Biofeedback therapy can effectively improve blood pressure, blood lipids, and blood glucose in MS patients, and is more effective for patients with high job stress level.

Parathyroid hormone (1-34) promotes fracture healing in ovariectomized rats with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Ovariectomized (OVX) rats with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) with femur fracture received vehicle, insulin, or insulin plus parathyroid hormone (PTH) treatment for 2 and 3 weeks. Radiography, histomorphometry, histology, and immunohistochemistry in callus were evaluated. INTRODUCTION: Reports about effects of PTH plus insulin on callus formation of osteoporotic fracture with T2DM were limited. This study was designed to investigate the effects of the combination of PTH and insulin on fracture healing in OVX rats with T2DM. METHODS: Two-month-old female rats were randomly divided into five groups: normal fracture (F), OVX fracture (OF), T2DM + OVX fracture (DOF), insulin-treated (2-4 u/daylight, 4-6 u/night, DOFI), and treated with insulin and PTH (50 µg/kg/day, 5 days/week, DOFIP). A closed mid-shaft fracture was established in the right femurs of all rats after 6 weeks of OVX. Rats were euthanized at 2 and 3 weeks post-fracture according to the time schedule, respectively. RESULTS: The administration of insulin alone or insulin combined with PTH significantly increased mineralized bone volume fraction (BV/TV) and connectivity density (Conn.D) compared with those of the DOF group at 3 weeks post-fracture and also increased cartilaginous callus area ratio in the DOFI and DOFIP groups at 2 weeks and bony callus area ratio in the DOFIP groups at both the 2 and 3 weeks post-fracture. CONCLUSIONS: OVX rats with T2DM exhibited a marked delay in the fracture healing process; insulin treatment ameliorated these effects, and the healing process was enhanced following treatment with a combination of insulin and PTH.

[Preliminary analysis of the effects of tailor-made notched music therapy on chronic idiopathic tinnitus].

Objective: Tailor-made notched music was applied to alleviate the symptoms of chronic idiopathic tinnitus and compared its effectiveness with other existing sound treatment of tinnitus. Methods: Subjects (n=43; ears=75 )were recruited during June 2015 to October 2016 from the out-patients of our hospital. These patients had chronic (longer than 6months) and idiopathic tinnitus, with or without significant sensorineural hearing loss. In the prospective design, the patients were randomly divided into group A (treated with tailor-made notched music) and group B (treated with analogous sound masking), and received the treatment for 3 months. The tinnitus scale, tinnitus questionnaire and audiological findings were evaluated before treatment, and at one month and three months after treatment started. Results: After onemonth of treatment, the effective rate between the two groups was 40.9% and 42.9%, there was no significant difference between the two groups (χ(2)= 0.017, P=0.897). The average VAS for patients in group A showed more decrease in group A than in group B(VAS: 1.8 vs. 0.8, the percentage : 29.5% vs. 13.6%), but there was no significant difference between the two groups (t=-1.450, P=0.155). After 3 months of treatment, the effective rates were 68.2% and 23.8%, respectively. There was significant difference between the two groups (χ(2)= 8.503, P=0.004). The difference of the VAS scores between the two groups was statistically significant (t=-3.263, P=0.002), and the VAS score of group A was less.After 3 months of treatment, there was significant decreaseinthe average tinnitus loudness for patients in group A(t=5.569, P<0.01), and there was no significant changein group B(t=-0.953, P=0.374). There was also significant decreasein the scores of tinnitus handicap inventory (THI) (F=7.334, P<0.05), loudness visual analog scale (VAS) (F=20.48, P<0.001), and the proportion of patients with moderate to severe tinnitus(χ(2)=11.289, P<0.05) in the group A, and there was no significant change in group B(F=2.198, F=0.989, χ(2)=1.651; P=0.120, P=0.378, P=0.438>0.05). Conclusions: Our resultssuggest that long-term normalized listening to tailor-made notched music, can significantly reduce the perceived tinnitus loudness in varying degrees and improve the quality of life of patients. The effects and possible mechanism of this method were discussedin this paper.

Calcitonin suppresses intervertebral disk degeneration and preserves lumbar vertebral bone mineral density and bone strength in ovariectomized rats.

UNLABELLED: We investigated the effect of calcitonin (CT) on lumbar intervertebral disk degeneration (LIDD) in rats with ovariectomy-induced osteopenia. CT protected ovariectomized rats from LIDD by, at least in part, modifying extracellular matrix metabolism of the disks and preserving the microarchitecture and biomechanical properties of adjacent vertebrae. INTRODUCTION: The present study aimed to investigate the effect of CT on lumbar vertebral bone mineral density and intervertebral disk degeneration in ovariectomized (OVX) rats. METHODS: We first subjected 50 3-month-old female rats to either OVX (n = 30) or sham (n = 20). Twelve weeks later, ten OVX and ten sham rats were necropsied. The remaining OVX rats began to receive either saline vehicle (OVX + V, n = 10), or salmon CT (OVX + CT, 16 IU/kg/2 days, n = 10). After 12 weeks of treatment, necropsy was conducted and bone mineral density was determined in L3-4 and L5-6 vertebrae. The microstructure and biomechanical properties of L3 vertebrae were detected by micro-computed tomography and compression test, respectively. L5-6 was also used to measure intervertebral disk height and observe intervertebral disk histological changes by Van Gieson staining and histological scores, as well as immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis of matrix metalloprotease (MMP)-1, MMP-13, and collagen II expression. RESULTS: At 12 weeks post-OVX, OVX rats had lower BV/TV and Tb.N and higher intervertebral disk histological score than sham rats. After 24 weeks, OVX + CT rats had higher BMD, BV/TV, Tb.N, and bone biomechanical strength values than OVX + V rats. Histological analysis showed OVX + CT rats had significantly lower disk degeneration scores than OVX + V rats. IHC analysis revealed CT treatment decreased expression of MMP-1 and MMP-13 and increased expression of collagen II compared with OVX + V rats. CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrate that CT-treated OVX rats display less intervertebral disk degeneration and favorable changes in intervertebral disk metabolism, associated with higher trabecular bone mass, better trabecular microarchitecture, and better biomechanical strength when compared to vehicle-treated OVX rats.

Enhancement of bile resistance in Lactobacillus plantarum strains by soy lecithin.

UNLABELLED: This study evaluated the effect of soy lecithin on the bile resistance of Lactobacillus plantarum. Six strains were cultured in MRS broth supplemented with soy lecithin at different concentrations. The strains incubated in MRS broth with 1·0% soy lecithin showed no inhibitory effect on cell growth. After culturing in MRS broth with 0·2-1·0% soy lecithin, the survival rate of harvested cells increased significantly (P < 0·05) in the 0·3% bile challenge compared with the no added soy lecithin group. The cells incubated with 0·6% soy lecithin were able to grow in an MRS broth with a higher bile salt content. The surface hydrophobicity and cell leakage in the bile challenge were assessed to reveal the physical changes caused by the addition of soy lecithin. The cell surface hydrophobicity was enhanced and the membrane integrity in the bile challenge increased after culturing with soy lecithin. A shift in the fatty acid composition was also observed, illustrating the cell membrane change in the soy lecithin culture. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: In this study, we report for the first time the beneficial effect of adding soy lecithin to an MRS broth on subsequent bile tolerance of Lactobacillus plantarum. Soy lecithin had no inhibitory effect on strain viability but significantly enhanced bile resistance. Surface hydrophobicity and cell integrity increased in strains cultured with soy lecithin. The observed shift in the cell fatty acid composition indicated changes to the cell membrane. As soy lecithin is safe for use in the food industry, its protective effects can be harnessed for the development of bile-sensitive strains with health-benefit functions for use in probiotic products.

The effects of soy protein on chronic kidney disease: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: There is a growing body of evidence to indicate that soy protein consumption may have a beneficial effect on kidney function. We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the effects of soy protein consumption compared with animal protein consumption in patients with pre-dialysis chronic kidney disease (CKD). SUBJECTS/METHODS: We conducted a structured electronic search of the databases PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library and Chinese Biological Medicine for randomized controlled trials published up to March 2014. The outcome measures were serum creatinine (SCR), triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), calcium (Ca) and phosphorus concentrations. Weighted or standard mean differences were calculated for net changes using random-effects models. RESULTS: The meta-analysis consisted of nine trials, comprising 197 subjects. Soy protein intake significantly reduced SCR and serum phosphorus concentrations. The mean difference was -6.231 µmol/l (95% confidence interval (CI): -11.109, -1.352 µmol/l) for SCR (P=0.012) and -0.804 (95% CI: -1.143, -0.464 µmol/l) for serum phosphorus (P=0.00). It also significantly reduced serum TG, with a pooled estimated change of -0.223 mmol/l (95% CI: -0.396, -0.051 mmol/l; P=0.011) after the exclusion of one trial indicated by sensitivity analyses. No statistically significant effects were observed for TC (-0.135 mmol/l (95% CI: -0.289, 0.019 mmol/l)) or Ca (0.023 mmol/l (95% CI: -0.016, 0.062 mmol/l)). CONCLUSIONS: The meta-analysis suggested a protective effect of soy protein consumption on SCR and serum phosphorus concentrations in pre-dialysis CKD patients. It may also have a significant effect on lowering serum TG concentrations. However, nonsignificant effects on TC and Ca were observed. Evidence was limited because of the relatively small number of available trials and subjects.

Apoptosis of human gastric cancer cells line SGC 7901 induced by garlic-derived compound S-allylmercaptocysteine (SAMC).

BACKGROUND: Epidemiological and experimental carcinogenesis studies provide evidence that components of garlic (Allium sativum) have anticancer activity. Hepatocellular carcinoma is highly malignant and metastatic. Currently, there is no effective chemotherapy for patients with advanced Hepatocellular carcinoma leading to an urgent need to seek for novel therapeutic options. AIM: To investigate the effect of cell growth, cell apoptosis of Garlic-Derived Compound S-Allylmercaptocysteine (SAMC) on Human Gastric Cancer Cells Line SGC 7901 cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The SGC 7901 cells were cultured with different concentration's SAMC. Cell viability was detected by AO/EB staining. JNK and P38 pathway were assayed by PCR (polymerase chain reaction). RESULTS: The best concentration of SAMC (300 µM) for induction SGC 7901 apoptosis was confirmed through cell viability. The PCR assay demonstrated that JNK and P38 pathway play important role in apoptosis of SGC 7901 cells. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicated that SAMC can inhibit cell proliferation and induct apoptosis of SGC 7901 cells via JNK and P38 pathway.

Building a disease risk model of osteoporosis based on traditional Chinese medicine symptoms and western medicine risk factors.

In the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) cross-sectional survey conducted by our team, we were interested in determining the risk factors of osteoporosis. To analyze this TCM study, we had to deal with three statistical problems: (1) a very large number of potential risk factors, (2) interactions among potential risk factors, and (3) nonlinear effects of some continuous-scale risk factors. To address these analytic issues, we used two data mining methods, support vector machine recursive feature elimination and random forest; to deal with the curse of high-dimensional risk factors, we applied another data mining technique of association rule learning to discover the potential associations among risk factors. Finally, we employed the generalized partial linear model (GPLM) to determine nonlinear effects of an important continuous-scale risk factor. The final GPLM model shows that TCM symptoms play an important role in assessing the risk of osteoporosis. The GPLM also reveals a nonlinear effect of the important risk factor, menopause years, which might be missed by the generalized linear model.

Variable selection using the optimal ROC curve: an application to a traditional Chinese medicine study on osteoporosis disease.

In biomedical studies, there are multiple sources of information available of which only a small number of them are associated with the diseases. It is of importance to select and combine these factors that are associated with the disease in order to predict the disease status of a new subject. The receiving operating characteristic (ROC) technique has been widely used in disease classification, and the classification accuracy can be measured with area under the ROC curve (AUC). In this article, we combine recent variable selection methods with AUC methods to optimize diagnostic accuracy of multiple risk factors. We first describe one new and some recent AUC-based methods for effectively combining multiple risk factors for disease classification. We then apply them to analyze the data from a new clinical study, investigating whether a combination of traditional Chinese medicine symptoms and standard Western medicine risk factors can increase discriminative accuracy in diagnosing osteoporosis (OP). Based on the results, we conclude that we can make a better diagnosis of primary OP by combining traditional Chinese medicine symptoms with Western medicine risk factors.

Observations on ozone treatment of excess sludge.

This work experimentally studied the effects of ozonation treatment on waste sludge. During the treatment process, various parameters characterizing sludge were investigated. A substantial reduction in the volume of sludge and the release of intracellular and extracellular materials were observed. With the increase of ozone dose, the settleability and water content of sludge improved obviously, but the filterability of sludge deteriorated drastically. In addition, the evolution of particle size was evaluated, which proved the breakup of sludge flocs and cells. There existed a threshold of ozone dose which was 0.04 gO(3)/gMLSS in this work. Above the threshold, the soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD), protein, carbohydrate, total nitrogen and total phosphorus in supernatant increased remarkably and the electron transport system (ETS) sludge activity decreased. Organic nitrogen and organic phosphorus occupied the main part of total nitrogen and total phosphorus in the supernatant.

A unique mRNA initiated within a middle intron of WHSC1/MMSET encodes a DNA binding protein that suppresses human IL-5 transcription.

Human interleukin (IL)-5 gene transcription is regulated by several transcription factor binding sites, including CLE 0, GATA, and a region from position -123 to -92 known as response element (RE)-II. By expression cloning, a partial protein was identified that bound to concatamers of RE-II. Recombinant protein derived from this initial complementary DNA (cDNA) encoding the partial protein specifically bound to RE-II-containing oligonucleotides in electromobility shift assays. The complete sequence (3,649 bp) was determined by 5' rapid amplification of cDNA ends and comparisons to existing ESTs, and found to be identical to the 3' half of Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome candidate 1, (WHSC1; also known as Multiple Myeloma SET domain [MMSET]). The full-length protein contains an SET domain and two plant homeodomain-type zinc fingers. Transcription initiation of RE-II binding protein (RE-IIBP) messenger RNA (mRNA) uniquely occurred within the middle of WHSC1 near a region that exhibits complex mRNA splicing. RE-IIBP reactive polyclonal antisera identified proteins in human T-cell nuclear protein extracts of 62 and 66 kD that were consistent with the length of the longest open reading frame in RE-IIBP. In contrast, WHSC1 is predicted to encode a protein of 136 kD. In activated human Jurkat and murine D10.G4.1 T cells, expression of full-length and truncated forms of RE-IIBP repressed RE-II promoter activity of a 5X-RE-II luciferase reporter construct by as much as 75%. In addition, RE-IIBP expressed in activated D10.G4.1 T cells inhibited endogenous murine IL-5 production. The repressor activity of RE-IIBP is consistent with the presence of an SET domain that is found in other proteins that act as gene silencers.

Asitrocin, (2,4)-cis- and trans-asitrocinones: novel bioactive mono-tetrahydrofuran acetogenins from Asimina triloba seeds.

Asitrocin (1) and the mixture of (2,4)-cis- and trans-asitrocinones (2 and 3), new bioactive Annonaceous acetogenins, were isolated from the seeds of Asimina triloba by activity-directed fractionation using the brine shrimp lethality test. Asitrocin and the mixture of (2,4)-cis- and trans-asitrocinones have a configuration of erythro/trans/threo from C-15 to C-20, the mono-THF moiety with two flanking hydroxyl groups. The structures were determined by spectroscopic methods. These acetogenins showed potent bioactivities in the brine shrimp lethality test (BST) and among six human solid tumor cell lines with notable selectivity for the prostate (PC-3) and the pancreatic (MIA PaCa-2) cell lines at 10-100 times the potency of adriamycin.

[Effects of Astragalus polysaccharides and ginsenosides of Ginseng stems and leaves on lymphocytes membrane fluidity and lipid peroxidation in traumatized mice].

From days 0 to 3 posttrauma, daily administration of Astragalus polysaccharides (250mg/kg,ip) and ginsenosides of ginseng stems and leaves (50mg/kg,sc) can elevate significantly the lymphocytes membrane fluidity of plasmalemma, mitochondria and microsome from spleen,thymus and mesenteric lymph nodes in traumatized mice, reduce lipid peroxide levels, and increase superoxide dismutase activities in serum and lymphocytes from traumatized mice.