Pharmacological actions and mechanism of saponins from Dioscorea nipponica / 中国中药杂志

Dioscorea nipponica, a famous traditional Chinese medicine, belongs to the Dioscoreaceae family and has been widely distributed in the north, northeast and Qinghai regions of China. With its root and rhizome as an important herb material, it has been applied in China for several thousand years. Traditional Chinese medicine reported that this plant had been used for relieving cough and asthma, eliminating rheumatic aches, alleviating pain and improving blood circulation. Modern pharmacology studies have confirmed that saponins, the major active compounds in this herb, have shown various pharmacological actions including anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory,lipid-lowering, anti-fungal and anti-virus activities. Therefore, the studies on saponins from D. nipponica are valuable and promising. In this present research, the pharmacological actions, therapeutic effects and mechanism of saponins from D. nipponica were summarized in order to provide the theoretical basis for the further research.

Study on the risk of age-related diabetes mellitus among 8280 cases with metabolic syndrome patients and normal persons in Beijing / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective To investigate the impact of age on patients with metabolic syndrome (MS) and normal persons. Methods Data was gathered from 8280 persons including 4873 males and 3407 females who were randomly selected. All subjects were devided into normal group and MS group. According to the interval of ten years, the subjects were devided into seven age groups, to calculate the difference of impaired fasting glycaemia (IFG) between patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and normal people, as well as the related portions. Results (1) The risk of IFG and DM appeared to be different among age groups among the target subjects as well as in the normal and the MS groups (P<0.05). (2) Among the whole subjects, the overall prevalence of IFG was increasing with age. The prevalence of DM had an increasing trend with age augment in 20-79 years group, whereas a decreasing trend appeared in people over 80 years of age. (3) For normal persons, the prevalence of IFG and DM were all increasing with age augment in 20-79 years group, and then decreasing with age augment in the over-80-years group. (4)For MS patients, the prevalence of IFG had an increasing trend with age augment in 20-69 years group, whereas a decreasing trend appeared in people over 70 years of age. There was no tendency of variation with age augment in DM.Conclusions (1) For normal persons, high prevalence rates of IFG and DM were correlated to age augment, especially in senior persons. (2) For MS patients, high prevalence of IFG was also correlated to age augment, but no association between prevalence of DM and age augment was seen. (3)Age from 70 to 79 years appeared to be in high risk with MS.

Effects of five-year intensive multifactorial intervention on the serum amyloid A and macroangiopathy in patients with short-duration type 2 diabetes mellitus / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>A five-year follow-up study of intensive multifactorial intervention was undertaken to assess the changes of circulating serum amyloid A (SAA) levels and the incidence of atherosclerosis (AS) in patients with short-duration type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) without macroangiopathy, and whether intensive multifactorial intervention could prevent or at least postpone the occurrence of macroangiopathy.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Among 150 patients with short-duration T2DM, 75 were assigned to receive conventional outpatient treatment (conventional group) and the others underwent intensive multifactorial integrated therapy targeting hyperglycemia, hypertension, dyslipidemia and received aspirin simultaneously (intensive group).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Plasma SAA levels were higher in diabetic patients than those in healthy control subjects, and decreased obviously after intensive multifactorial intervention. The levels of SAA were positively correlated with body mass index (BMI), waist hip ratio (WHR), triglyceride (TG), high sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and common carotid intima-media thickness (CC-IMT). The standard-reaching rates of glycemia, blood pressure and lipidemia were significantly higher in intensive group than those of conventional group. The incidence of macroangiopathy decreased by 58.96% in intensive group compared with conventional group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Intensive multifactorial intervention may significantly reduce the SAA levels and prevent the occurrence of AS in short-duration patients with T2DM. SAA might be one of the risk factors of T2DM combined with AS.</p>

Association of SelS mRNA expression in omental adipose tissue with Homa-IR and serum amyloid A in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Tanis was reported as a putative receptor for serum amyloid A (SAA) involving glucose regulated protein in insulin regulated resistance. It was found to be dysregulated in diabetic rats (Psammomys obesus, Israeli sand rat) and its homologue for humans is SelS/AD-015. The present study analyzed mRNA expression of SelS in omental adipose tissue biopsies from patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and age- and weight-matched nondiabetic patients, the relationship of SelS mRNA with Homa-IR and serum SAA level.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Human omental adipose tissues from ten cases of type 2 diabetic patients and twelve cases of nondiabetic individuals were analyzed for the expression level of SelS mRNA by semiquantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Homa-IR estimated by standard formula and SAA level by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>SelS mRNA expression, Homa-IR and serum SAA were higher in T2DM sufferers than in nondiabetic control group. SelS mRNA level was positively correlated with Homa-IR and SAA level in each group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>SelS protein may be involved in insulin resistance in Chinese with T2DM by acting as the SAA receptor, thus playing an important role in the development of T2DM and atherosclerosis.</p>