Xiaoyao Pill Improves the Affective Dysregulation of Sleep-deprived Female Mice by Inhibiting Brain Injury and Regulating the Content of Monoamine Neurotransmitter.

BACKGROUND: Sleep curtailment is a serious problem in many societies. Clinical evidence has shown that sleep deprivation is associated with mood dysregulation, formation of false memory, cardio-metabolic risk factors and outcomes, inflammatory disease risk, and all-cause mortality. The affective disorder dysregulation caused by insufficient sleep has become an increasingly serious health problem. However, to date, not much attention has been paid to the mild affective dysregulation caused by insufficient sleep, and there is no clear and standard therapeutic method to treat it. The Xiaoyao Pill is a classic Chinese medicinal formula, with the effect of dispersing stagnated hepatoqi, invigorating the spleen, and nourishing the blood. Therefore, it is most commonly used to treat gynecological diseases in China. In the present study, the effects of the Xiaoyao Pill on affective dysregulation of sleep-deprived mice and its underlying molecular mechanisms were investigated. METHODS: Forty adult female mice were used in the present study. The sleep deprivation model was established by improving the multi-platform water environment method. After 7 consecutive days of sleep deprivation, the mice were administrated low (LXYP, 0.32mg/kg) and high (HXYP, 0.64 mg/kg) doses of the Xiaoyao Pill for two weeks. Then, the body weight, behavioral deficits, and histopathology were evaluated. Meanwhile, the expression of c-fos protein and the concentrations of monoamine neurotransmitters in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex were determined after two weeks of treatment. RESULTS: Xiaoyao Pill treatment significantly increased body weight and sucrose consumption and decreased the irritability scores of the sleep-deprived mice. Meanwhile, Xiaoyao Pill treatment prevented brain injury and inhibited the expression of c-fos protein in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. In addition, HXYP treatment significantly upregulated the levels of NE in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex (p < 0.01). LXYP treatment significantly up-regulated the levels of 5-HT in the prefrontal cortex. Meanwhile, both HXYP and LXYP treatment significantly upregulated the levels of DA in the prefrontal cortex (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01) of sleep-deprived mice. CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrates that Xiaoyao Pill treatment prevented the behavioral deficits of mice induced by sleep deprivation by promoting the recovery of brain tissue injury and up-regulating the levels of NE, 5-HT, and DA in the brain tissue.

Kinetic and multidimensional profiling of accelerated degradation of oil sludge by biostimulation.

Biostimulation, which employs nutrients to enhance the proliferation of indigenous microorganisms and therefore the degradation of contaminants, is an effective tool for treatment of oil-contaminated soil. However, the evolution of microbial ecology, which responds directly to stimulation procedures and intrinsically determines the degradation of oil contaminants, has rarely been explored, particularly in the context of biostimulation. In this study, the effects of biostimulation procedures including the regulation of the C : N : P ratio, as well as application of surfactants and electron acceptors in the degradation of crude oil contaminants and the evolution of the microbial community were examined simultaneously to provide ecological insights into the biostimulation. The real-time PCR showed that biostimulation promoted the proliferation of bacteria, with Gammaproteobacteria showing the greatest increase. However, the proliferation of fungi was inhibited by the accumulation of the degradation products. The degradation of polar compounds of crude oil contaminants was characterized by negative-ion electrospray ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (negative-ion ESI FT-ICR MS), showing a biased increase in the relative abundance of naphthenic acids. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that different species in oil sludge have different degradation rates during biostimulation. The addition of fertilizers with surfactants and electron acceptors profoundly stimulated the indigenous microorganisms with N1, O1 and O2 species as substrates while those with O3 and O4 species were little affected. An enriched abundance of alkB genes was observed during the degradation of saturated hydrocarbons. Monitoring the kinetics of the microbial community, functional genes and degradation offers a comprehensive view for the understanding and optimization of the biostimulation process.