Effects of Dietary Resveratrol, Bile Acids, Allicin, Betaine, and Inositol on Recovering the Lipid Metabolism Disorder in the Liver of Rare Minnow Gobiocypris rarus Caused by Bisphenol A.

The fatty liver is one of the main problems in aquaculture. In addition to the nutritional factors, endocrine disrupter chemicals (EDCs) are one of the causes of fatty liver in fish. Bisphenol A (BPA) is a plasticizer widely used in the production of various plastic products and exhibits certain endocrine estrogen effects. Our previous study found that BPA could increase the accumulation of triglyceride (TG) in fish liver by disturbing the expression of lipid metabolism-related genes. How to recover the lipid metabolism disorder caused by BPA and other environmental estrogens remains to be explored. In the present study, Gobiocypris rarus was used as a research model, and 0.01% resveratrol, 0.05% bile acid, 0.01% allicin, 0.1% betaine, and 0.01% inositol were added to the feed of the G. rarus that exposed to 15 µg/L BPA. At the same time, a BPA exposure group without feed additives (BPA group) and a blank group with neither BPA exposure nor feed additives (Con group) were setted. The liver morphology, hepatosomatic index (HSI), hepatic lipid deposition, TG level, and expression of lipid metabolism-related genes were analyzed after 5 weeks of feeding. The HSI in bile acid and allicin groups was significantly lower than that in Con group. The TG in resveratrol, bile acid, allicin, and inositol groups returned to Con level. Principal component analysis of TG synthesis, decomposition, and transport related genes showed that dietary bile acid and inositol supplementation had the best effect on the recovery of BPA-induced lipid metabolism disorder, followed by allicin and resveratrol. In terms of lipid metabolism-related enzyme activity, bile acid and inositol were the most effective in recovering BPA-induced lipid metabolism disorders. The addition of these additives had a restorative effect on the antioxidant capacity of G. rarus livers, but bile acids and inositol were relatively the most effective. The results of the present study demonstrated that under the present dosage, bile acids and inositol had the best improvement effect on the fatty liver of G. rarus caused by BPA. The present study will provide important reference for solving the problem of fatty liver caused by environmental estrogen in aquaculture.

Anxiolytic Effect of Alcohol-Water Extracted Suanzaoren-Wuweizi Herb-Pair by Regulating ECS-BDNF-ERK Signaling Pathway Expression in Acute Restraint Stress Male Rats.

Herb-pairs are the basic units of composition in Chinese herbal formulae, where the bridge linking Chinese medicine and prescription consists of two Chinese medicine herbs. The Suanzaoren-Wuweizi herb-pair (SWHP) is commonly used as a sedative or tranquilizer. SWHP has been demonstrated to exert an antianxiety effect in animal models of anxiety. However, little information about its mechanism is available and the effects of SWHP have not been investigated. This study examined the effects of SWHP on ameliorating anxiety-like behaviors by regulating endocannabinoids system (ECS)-brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)-extracellular regulated protein kinases (ERK) signaling pathway expression, induced by restraint stress (RS) procedures. The antianxiety effects of SWHP on RS rats were then examined through the open-field test (OF) and the elevated plus maze test (EPM). The concentration of BNDF, ERK1/2, p-ERK1/2, cAMP-response element binding protein (CREB), and p-CREB expression in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of the rats was then measured by western blot. The number of positive cells of CB1 and CB2 in the rats' hippocampus CA1 region was measured by immunohistochemistry. These results gave compelling evidence that SWHP could modify anxiety-like behaviors of RS rats through regulation of the ECS-BDNF-ERK signaling pathway. Our study demonstrated that SWHP improved anxiety-like behaviors in RS rat models by regulating the ECS-BDNF-ERK signaling pathway. The findings indicate that SWHP may have a therapeutic application in the RS model of anxiety disorder, which proposes a potential new direction for research into anxiety disorders regarding mechanisms and the development of novel antianxiety drugs.

Prevalence of DSM-5 somatic symptom disorder in Chinese outpatients from general hospital care.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to explore the prevalence of somatic symptom disorder (SSD) according to DSM-5 criteria in Chinese outpatients from general hospital departments. METHODS: This multicentre cross-sectional study enrolled 699 patients from outpatient departments, including the neurology, gastroenterology, Traditional Chinese Medicine [TCM] and psychosomatic medicine departments, in five cities in China. The structured clinical interview for DSM-5 (SCID-5) for SSD was administered by trained clinical professionals to diagnose SSD. RESULTS: SSD was diagnosed in 33.8% (236/697) of all enrolled patients. The prevalence of SSD differed significantly among the departments (χ2 = 34.049, df = 2, p ≤0.001). No differences were found between SSD patients and non-SSD patients in terms of gender, residence, marital and living statuses, family income, education, employment status and lifestyle factors. However, patients with SSD reported higher levels of depression, health-related and general anxiety, lower physical and mental quality of life, higher frequency of doctor visits, increased time devoted to physical symptoms and longer duration of somatic symptoms. In a binary linear regression analysis, SSD was significantly associated with an increase in health-related anxiety, time devoted to symptoms and impact of somatic symptoms on daily life. The explained variance was Nagelkerke R2 = 0.45. CONCLUSION: There is a high prevalence of SSD in Chinese general hospital outpatient clinics. The diagnosis is associated with high levels of emotional distress and low quality of life. There is a danger of over-diagnosis if we include the mild and moderate forms of SSD. Future studies are warranted to investigate the prevalence of SSD in inpatient departments and the development of psychological interventions for these patients.

Identification of Bioactive Chemical Markers in Zhi zhu xiang Improving Anxiety in Rat by Fingerprint-Efficacy Study.

Zhi zhu xiang (ZZX for short) is the root and rhizome of Valeriana jatamansi Jones, which is a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) used to treat various mood disorders for more than 2000 years, especially anxiety. The aim of the present work was to identify the bioactive chemical markers in Zhi zhu xiang improving anxiety in rats by a fingerprint-efficacy study. More specifically, the chemical fingerprint of ZZX samples collected from 10 different regions was determined by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and the similarity analyses were calculated based on 10 common characteristic peaks. The anti-anxiety effect of ZZX on empty bottle stimulated rats was examined through the Open Field Test (OFT) and the Elevated Plus Maze Test (EPM). Then we measured the concentration of CRF, ACTH, and CORT in rat's plasma by the enzyme-linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA) kit, while the concentration of monoamine and metabolites (NE, DA, DOPAC, HVA, 5-HT, 5-HIAA) in the rat's cerebral cortex and hippocampus was analysed by HPLC coupled with an Electrochemical Detector. At last, the fingerprint-efficacy study between chemical fingerprint and anti-anxiety effect of ZZX was accomplished by partial least squares regression (PLSR). As a result, we screened out four compounds (hesperidin, isochlorogenic acid A, isochlorogenic acid B and isochlorogenic acid C) as the bioactive chemical markers for the anti-anxiety effect of ZZX. The fingerprint-efficacy study we established might provide a feasible way and some elicitation for the identification of the bioactive chemical markers for TCM.