Electroacupuncture relieves postoperative cognitive dysfunction in elderly rats via regulating amp-activated protein kinase autophagy signaling.

Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is a common complication after surgery in elderly patients. Electroacupuncture (EA) has been reported to relieve POCD in animal models, but the mechanism remains fully elucidated. The objective of this work was to clarify whether EA could alleviate POCD via regulating autophagy. In this study, aged rats were assigned into 4 groups: control, surgery (rats underwent exploratory laparotomy to induce POCD), EA + S (rats received EA pre-stimulation before surgery), and EA + S + Chloroquine (CQ) (rats were intraperitoneally injected with CQ before EA stimulation and then underwent surgery). The cognitive function of rats was assessed by Morris Water Maze (MWM) test after surgery, and autophagy in hippocampal tissues of rats was evaluated by western blotting and transmission electron microscope. Results indicated that the MWM test revealed that rats showed reduced platform crossing and increased total swimming distance after surgery. However, this impaired spatial memory was improved by EA and EA plus CQ pre-treatment. Besides, the surgery caused an increased expression in LC3II, Beclin-1, AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), and p-AMPK in hippocampal tissues of rats, while EA and EA plus CQ pre-treatment also reversed this effect. In addition, the surgery-induced increased amount of autophagic vesicles in hippocampal tissues of rats was reduced by EA and EA plus CQ pre-treatment. In conclusion, EA pre-stimulation could effectively attenuate cognitive impairment in aged rats with POCD via inhibiting AMPK signaling-mediated autophagy.

Development of a Hemostatic Urinary Catheter for Transurethral Prostatic Surgical Applications.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate a novel transurethral hemostatic catheter device with an integrated chitosan endoluminal hemostatic dressing (CEHD). Development and implementation of this technology may help address bleeding following surgery such as transurethral resection of prostate (TURP). Bleeding remains the most common complication following TURP, leading to increased morbidity and hospitalization. METHODS: Investigation of hemostasis, delivery, safety and efficacy of the CEHD device is conducted using Female Yorkshire swine (N = 23). Hemostatic efficacy of the CEHD (N = 12) is investigated against a control of gauze (N = 12) in a splenic injury model (3 swine). The delivery, safety, and efficacy of the CEHD device (N = 10) are investigated against Foley-catheter control (N = 10) for 7 days using a swine bladder-neck-injury model. RESULTS: In the splenic injury study, 9/12 CEHD dressings successfully achieved hemostasis within 150 seconds (mean 83 seconds) vs success of 6/12 (mean 150 seconds) for gauze (P = .04). In the 7-day study, the CEHD was successfully deployed in 10/10 animals and all dressings were tolerated without histologic or clinical adverse effect. Hemostasis of the CEHD device was found to be noninferior to control catheters. Noninferiority is attributed to low bleeding rates in the swine bladder neck injury model. CONCLUSION: This investigation successfully demonstrated the feasibility of transurethral deployment of the CEHD in vivo. Routine use of safe and slowly dissolvable CEHDs could reduce the rate of complications and hospitalizations associated with bleeding and blood loss in TURP procedures. Further investigation is warranted.

Protective effect of methylallyl sulfone in the development of cigarette smoke extract-induced apoptosis in rats and HFL-1 cells.

Although the organosulfur compounds from garlic have shown diverse pharmacological activities, the prototype drug was almost undetectable in vivo. As known, methylallyl sulfone (AMSO2) is the main metabolite of some active organosulfur compounds derived from garlic. The purpose of this article was to study the protective effect of AMSO2 on cigarette smoke extract (CSE) induced cell apoptosis in lungs in vivo and in vitro. The male rats were injected intraperitoneally with 900 µL of 100% CSE 3 times for three successive weeks. The rats from treatment groups were injected intraperitoneally with AMSO2 (50 mg/kg/day or 100 mg/kg/day) or DEX (1 mg/kg/day) for 21 days. We observed that pretreatment of AMSO2 effectively reversed apoptosis and oxidative stress in rats induced by CSE. Moreover, CSE-induced apoptosis in the HFL-1 cells was significantly suppressed by pretreated AMSO2 (400 µM) and DEX (0.1 mg/mL). Mechanistic studies suggested that this activity may arise from its effects on the regulation of p38 MAPK, Nrf-2 and Bcl-2/Bax signaling pathways. Overall, the metabolite of active organosulfur compounds AMSO2 might be a potential candidate for the treatment of CSE-induced apoptosis in rats.