Decoding the multifaceted signatures and transcriptomic characteristics of stem cells derived from apical papilla and dental pulp of human supernumerary teeth.

Supernumerary teeth are advantaged sources for high-quality stem cell preparation from both apical papilla (SCAP-Ss) and dental pulp (DPSCs). However, the deficiency of the systematic and detailed comparison of the biological and transcriptomic characteristics of the aforementioned stem cells largely hinders their application in regenerative medicine. Herein, we collected supernumerary teeth for SCAP-S and DPSC isolation and identification by utilizing multiple biological tests (e.g., growth curve, cell cycle and apoptosis, adipogenic and osteogenic differentiation, and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction). Furthermore, we took advantage of transcriptome sequencing and multifaceted bioinformatic analyses to dissect the similarities and diversities between them. In this study, we found that SCAP-Ss and DPSCs showed indistinctive signatures in morphology and immunophenotypes, whereas with diversity in cell vitality and multi-lineage differentiation as well as gene expression profiling and differentially expressed genes-associated gene ontology and signaling pathways. Collectively, our data indicated the diversity of the multifaceted signatures of human supernumerary teeth-derived stem cells both at the cellular and molecular levels, which also supplied new references for SCAP-Ss serving as splendid alternative stem cell sources for regenerative medicine purposes.

Identification of a crustacean ß-1,3-glucanase related protein as a pattern recognition protein in antibacterial response.

Prophenoloxidase (proPO) activating system is an important immune response for arthropods. ß-1, 3-glucanase related protein (previously named as lipopolysaccharide and ß-1, 3-glucan binding protein (LGBP) in crustaceans) is a typical pattern recognition receptor family involved in the proPO activation by recognizing the invading microbes. In this study, we pay special attention to a bacteria-induced ß-1,3-glucanase related protein from red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii, an important aquaculture specie in China. This protein, designated PcBGRP, was found a typical member of crustacean BGRP family with the glucanase-related domain and the characteristic motifs. PcBGRP was expressed in hemcoyes and hepatopancreas, and its expression could be induced by the carbohydrate and bacteria stimulants. The induction by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and ß-1,3-glucan (ßG) was more significant than by peptidoglycan (PG). The response of PcBGRP to the native Gram-negative bacterial pathogen Aeromonas hydrophila was more obvious than to Gram-positive bacteria. Using RNA interference and recombinant protein, PcBGRP was found to protect crayfish from A. hydrophila infection revealed by the survival test and morphological analysis. A mechanism study found PcBGRP could bind LPS and ßG in a dose-dependent manner, and the LPS recognizing ability determined the Gram-negative bacterium binding activity of PcBGRP. PcBGRP was found to enhance the PO activation both in vitro and in vivo, and the protective role was related to the PO activating ability of PcBGRP. This study emphasized the role of BGRP family in crustacean immune response, and provided new insight to the immunity of red swamp crayfish which suffered serious disease during the aquaculture in China.

Identification and characterization of two arasin-like peptides in red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are small effectors in host defense by directly targeting microorganisms or by indirectly modulating immune responses. In the present study, two arasin like AMPs, named as Pc-arasin1 and Pc-arasin2, were identified in red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii with sequence similarity to the arasins found in Hyas araneus. Both Pc-arasins consisted of signal peptide, N-terminal proline-rich region and C-terminal region containing four conserved cysteine residues. The similarity of two Pc-arasins was 44.44%, and Pc-arasin2 contained several additional residues in the N-terminus. Multiple alignment of arasin family suggested the conservation of the C-terminus and the variation of the N-terminus of Pc-arasins. Both AMPs were found hemocytes-specific, and the expression could be induced the challenge of bacteria, espeacially by the pathogenic bacterium Aeromonas hydrophila. Knockdown of each Pc-arasin expression by double strand RNA would suppress the host immunity against A. hydrophila, and the commercially synthetic Pc-arasins could rescue the knockdown consequence. Both synthetic peptide showed broad antimicrobial activity towards 3 Gram-positive bacterium and 3 Gram-negative bacterium, and the minimal inhibitory concentrations varied from 6.25 µM to 50 µM. These results presented new data about the sequence, expression and function of arasin family, and emphasized the role of this family in host immune response against bacterial pathogens. The characterization of Pc-arasins also provided potential of therapeutic agent development for disease control in aquaculture based on these two newly identified AMPs.

Three STATs are involved in the regulation of the expression of antimicrobial peptides in the triangle sail mussel, Hyriopsis cumingii.

Janus kinase (Jak) and signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) signaling pathway is associated in antiviral and antibacterial immune response. Previous studies primarily investigated the function of STATs in mammals. For most invertebrates, only one STAT was found in each species, such as STAT92E was found in Drosophila melanogaster. The studies, which focus on the functional difference between various STATs in the same species of invertebrate, are limited. In the present study, three STATs (HcSTAT1, HcSTAT2 and HcSTAT3) were identified in triangle shell pearl mussel, Hyriopsis cumingii. Phylogenetic analysis showed that HcSTAT1 and HcSTAT3 were clustered with Homo sapiens STAT5, and HcSTAT2 was clustered with Pinctada fucata STAT and Crassostea gigas STAT6. All three STATs could be detected in all tested tissues (hemocytes, hepatopancreas, gill, mantle and foot), and were induced expression when challenged with Staphylococcus aureus or Aeromonas hydrophilia in hemocytes and hepatopancreas. HcSTAT1 regulated the expression of HcDef, HcWAP, HcThe and HcTNF. The expression of HcWAP and HcTNF was down-regulated in HcSTAT2-RNAi mussel. And HcSTAT3 affected the expression of HcTNF. The study is the first report of different functions in antibacterial immune responses between STATs in mollusks.

A hybrid of bees algorithm and flux balance analysis with OptKnock as a platform for in silico optimization of microbial strains.

Microbial strain optimization focuses on improving technological properties of the strain of microorganisms. However, the complexities of the metabolic networks, which lead to data ambiguity, often cause genetic modification on the desirable phenotypes difficult to predict. Furthermore, vast number of reactions in cellular metabolism lead to the combinatorial problem in obtaining optimal gene deletion strategy. Consequently, the computation time increases exponentially with the increase in the size of the problem. Hence, we propose an extension of a hybrid of Bees Algorithm and Flux Balance Analysis (BAFBA) by integrating OptKnock into BAFBA to validate the result. This paper presents a number of computational experiments to test on the performance and capability of BAFBA. Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis and Clostridium thermocellum are the model organisms in this paper. Also included is the identification of potential reactions to improve the production of succinic acid, lactic acid and ethanol, plus the discussion on the changes in the flux distribution of the predicted mutants. BAFBA shows potential in suggesting the non-intuitive gene knockout strategies and a low variability among the several runs. The results show that BAFBA is suitable, reliable and applicable in predicting optimal gene knockout strategy.

Investigating the effects of imputation methods for modelling gene networks using a dynamic bayesian network from gene expression data.

BACKGROUND: Gene expression data often contain missing expression values. Therefore, several imputation methods have been applied to solve the missing values, which include k-nearest neighbour (kNN), local least squares (LLS), and Bayesian principal component analysis (BPCA). However, the effects of these imputation methods on the modelling of gene regulatory networks from gene expression data have rarely been investigated and analysed using a dynamic Bayesian network (DBN). METHODS: In the present study, we separately imputed datasets of the Escherichia coli S.O.S. DNA repair pathway and the Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell cycle pathway with kNN, LLS, and BPCA, and subsequently used these to generate gene regulatory networks (GRNs) using a discrete DBN. We made comparisons on the basis of previous studies in order to select the gene network with the least error. RESULTS: We found that BPCA and LLS performed better on larger networks (based on the S. cerevisiae dataset), whereas kNN performed better on smaller networks (based on the E. coli dataset). CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the performance of each imputation method is dependent on the size of the dataset, and this subsequently affects the modelling of the resultant GRNs using a DBN. In addition, on the basis of these results, a DBN has the capacity to discover potential edges, as well as display interactions, between genes.

Going beyond compliance: A qualitative study of the practice of surgical safety checklist.

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization Surgical Safety Checklist (SSC) is a tool designed to enhance team communication and patient safety. When used properly, the SSC acts as a layer of defence against never events. In this study, we performed secondary qualitative analysis of operating theatres (OT) SSC observational notes to examine how the SSC was used after an intensive SSC re-implementation effort and drew on relevant theories to shed light on the observed patterns of behaviours. We aimed to go beyond assessing checklist compliance and to understand potential sociopsychological mechanisms of the variations in SSC practices. METHODS: Direct observation notes of 109 surgical procedures across 13 surgical disciplines were made by two trained nurses in the OT of a large tertiary hospital in Singapore from February to April 2022, three months after SSC re-implementation. Only notes relevant to the use of SSC were extracted and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Data were coded following an inductive process to identify themes or patterns of SSC practices. These patterns were subsequently interpreted against a relevant theory to appreciate the potential sociopsychological forces behind them. RESULTS: Two broad types of SSC practices and their respective sub-themes were identified. Type 1 (vs. Type 2) SSC practices are characterized by patience and thoroughness (vs. hurriedness and omission) in carrying out the SSC process, dedication and attention (vs. delegation and distraction) to the SSC safety checks, and frequent (vs. absence of) safety voices during the conduct of SSC. These patterns were conceptualized as safety-seeking action vs. ritualistic action using Merton's social deviance theory. CONCLUSION: Ritualistic practice of the SSC can undermine surgical safety by creating conditions conducive to never events. To fully realize the SSC's potential as an essential tool for communication and safety, a concerted effort is needed to balance thoroughness with efficiency. Additionally, fostering a culture of collaboration and collegiality is crucial to reinforce and enhance the culture of surgical safety.

Degradation of chlorpyrifos in humid tropical soils.

The insecticide chlorpyrifos is extensively used in the humid tropics for insect control on crops and soils. Chlorpyrifos degradation and mineralization was studied under laboratory conditions to characterize the critical factors controlling the degradation and mineralization in three humid tropical soils from Malaysia. The degradation was fastest in moist soils (t1/2 53.3-77.0 days), compared to dry (t1/2 49.5-120 days) and wet soils (t1/2 63.0-124 days). Degradation increased markedly with temperature with activation energies of 29.0-76.5 kJ mol(-1). Abiotic degradation which is important for chlorpyrifos degradation in sub-soils containing less soil microbial populations resulted in t½ of 173-257 days. Higher chlorpyrifos dosages (5-fold) which are often applied in the tropics due to severe insects infestations caused degradation and mineralization rates to decrease by 2-fold. The mineralization rates were more sensitive to the chlorpyrifos application rates reflecting that degradation of metabolites is rate limiting and the toxic effects of some of the metabolites produced. Despite that chlorpyrifos is frequently used and often in larger amounts on tropical soils compared with temperate soils, higher temperature, moderate moisture and high activity of soil microorganisms will stimulate degradation and mineralization.

The Function and Modification of Human Defensin 5.

The antibacterial and antiviral functions of human defensin 5 lay the foundation for its role as a core host protective component. In addition, HD5 also has the function of inhibiting tumor proliferation and immune regulation. However, everything has two sides; cytotoxic and proinflammatory properties may exist, while HD5 performs physiological functions. Accordingly, the modification and engineering of HD5 are particularly important. Therefore, this review summarizes the role of HD5 in various aspects of host defense, as well as modification of HD5 to ameliorate the biological activity, with a view to promoting the clinical use of HD5.

Steroid hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone promotes CTL1-mediated cellular immunity in Helicoverpa armigera.

Mermithid nematodes, such as Ovomermis sinensis, are used as biological control agents against many insect pests, including cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera). However, given the host's robust immune system, the infection rate of O. sinensis is low, thus restricting its widespread use. To understand the host defense mechanisms against mermithid nematodes, we identified and characterized a protein involved in the recognition of O. sinensis, the potential O. sinensis-binding protein C-type lectin 1 (HaCTL1a and/or HaCTL1b), which was eluted from the surface of O. sinensis after incubation with H. armigera plasma. HaCTL1b is homologous to the previously reported HaCTL1a protein. HaCTL1 was predominantly expressed in hemocytes and was induced by the steroid hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone through ecdysone receptor (HaEcR) or ultraspiracle (HaUSP), or both. Binding assays confirmed the interactions of the HaCTL1 proteins with O. sinensis but not with Romanomermis wuchangensis, a parasitic nematode of mosquito. Moreover, the HaCTL1 proteins were secreted into the hemocoel and promoted hemocyte-mediated encapsulation and phagocytosis. A knockdown of HaEcR and/or HaUSP resulted in compromised encapsulation and phagocytosis. Thus, HaCTL1 appears to modulate cellular immunity in the defense against parasitic nematodes, and the 20-hydroxyecdysone-HaEcR-HaUSP complex is involved in regulating the process.

Dissipation of acephate, chlorpyrifos, cypermethrin and their metabolites in a humid-tropical vegetable production system.

BACKGROUND: High amounts of insecticides are often used in intensive tropical vegetable production systems. Their persistence and residues in vegetables and soils need to be studied to ensure food safety and environmental stability. The dissipation of acephate, chlorpyrifos, cypermethrin and their metabolites was studied in green mustard [Brassica juncea (L.) Coss.] and soils. Two treatments, Impact 75 (acephate) and Agent 505 (cypermethrin plus chlorpyrifos), were applied 4 times at weekly intervals. RESULTS: Dissipation of acephate, chlorpyrifos and cypermethrin in green mustard and topsoils followed first-order kinetics, with half-lives of between 1.1 and 3.1 days in green mustard and between 1.4 and 9.4 days in topsoils (26 degrees C). Higher vapour pressure of insecticides and higher rainfall appeared to stimulate dissipation from the vegetable, with least effect of rainfall on chlorpyrifos. Dissipation rates in the vegetable were faster or similar (cypermethrin) to rates observed for temperate areas. Preharvest intervals of 13, 4 and 3 days were required for acephate, chlorpyrifos, cypermethrin and their metabolites to comply with the tolerance levels. The pesticide dissipation rates in soils varied by less than a factor of 3 between sites. The metabolites methamidophos and TCP derived from acephate and chlorpyrifos amounted to less than 10 and 25% by mass of the parent compounds in soils. Vegetable shading possibly retarded pesticide degradation in soil. CONCLUSION: The dissipation of pesticides and their metabolites in the vegetable was rapid and faster than the dissipation in temperate climates. The degradation rates of pesticides in the soil were equal to or slightly faster than the degradation rates in temperate soils.

Molecular cloning and characterization of a C-type lectin from the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera.

C-type lectins participate in pathogen recognition and other defense responses in innate immunity as well as in cell-cell interactions. A new cDNA encoding a 335-residue polypeptide containing two tandem C-type lectin domains was cloned from the haemocytes of Helicoverpa armigera (Ha-lectin). Northern hybridizations revealed that the mRNA of Ha-lectin was expressed constitutively in haemocytes, and was up-regulated following injections of bacteria, yeast, or virus. Ha-lectin expression was also induced in the fat body when larvae were injected with bacteria, yeast or 20-hydroxyecdysone and a non-steroidal ecdysone agonist, RH-2485. The Ha-lectin was detected in granular haemocytes. The recombinant protein (rHa-lectin) expressed in Escherichia coli had hemagglutinating and sugar-binding activities. The native Ha-lectin protein was identified in haemocytes and plasma using a polyclonal antiserum raised against rHa-lectin by immunoblotting techniques. All together, our results suggest that the Ha-lectin gene is involved in innate immunity, and may also participate in the molting process.

Identification of genes differentially expressed during larval molting and metamorphosis of Helicoverpa armigera.

BACKGROUND: Larval molting and metamorphosis are important physiological processes in the life cycle of the holometabolous insect. We used suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) to identify genes differentially expressed during larval molting and metamorphosis. RESULTS: We performed SSH between tissues from a variety of developmental stages, including molting 5th and feeding 6th instar larvae, metamorphically committed and feeding 5th instar larvae, and feeding 5th instar and metamorphically committed larvae. One hundred expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were identified and included 73 putative genes with similarity to known genes, and 27 unknown ESTs. SSH results were further characterized by dot blot, Northern blot, and RT-PCR. The expression levels of eleven genes were found to change during larval molting or metamorphosis, suggesting a functional role during these processes. CONCLUSION: These results provide a new set of genes expressed specifically during larval molt or metamorphosis that are candidates for further studies into the regulatory mechanisms of those stage-specific genes during larval molt and metamorphosis.

Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction for determination of plasmid copy number in bacteria.

A method for determination of plasmid copy number (PCN) in bacteria by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QPCR) was developed as an alternative to current PCN assays. Conventional methods for PCN estimation are generally not of high throughput, laborious, have low reproducibility, require large amounts of biological samples and are applicable only for a narrow dynamic range. Real-time QPCR, using the ABI Prism 7000, was able to sensitively detect the quantity of the pUC ori based plasmid, NS3, transformed into Escherichia coli host, DH5alpha, to be 411+/-6.1. The PCN of pBR322 plasmid DNA in DH5alpha was estimated to be 40+/-0.6 which is within its previously reported PCN range of approximately 30 to 70. QPCR was found to show good reproducibility and high sensitivity in detecting a two fold difference in template concentration, and a wide linear dynamic range covering 0.5 pg to 50 ng of DNA. PCNs of DH5alpha bearing plasmids pBR322 and NS3 computed from real-time QPCR assay were validated by that of agarose gel assay, and a marginal difference of only 13.0% and 10.7% was found for the two plasmids respectively. The QPCR assay was able to detect changes in PCN of plasmid producing DH5alpha during the course of a 2 l batch fermentation.

[Apoptosis and gene FasL expression induced by carbon disulfide in rat sertoli cells].

OBJECTIVE: To study apoptosis and gene FasL expression induced by carbon disulfide in sertoli cells of male rats. METHODS: Sertoli cells were exposed to different concentrations of CS(2) (0, 0.36, 0.72, 1.44 micromol/ml) for 24 hours. Survival rate, apoptosis rate, expression level of gene FasL were measured using MTT, FCM, and RT-PCR methods respectively. RESULTS: Sertoli cell survival rate decreased as the concentration of CS(2) increased. The survival rate (73.34% +/- 1.39%) was significantly lower than the control group (99.98% +/- 5.48%) when the concentration of CS(2) > or = 1.44 micromol/ml (P < 0.05). Apoptosis rate increased as the CS(2) concentration increased. Apoptosis rate (7.93% +/- 0.43%) was significantly higher when the concentration of CS(2) > or = 1.44 micromol/ml (P < 0.05). Expression level of the FasL significantly increased as the concentrations of CS(2) (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: CS(2) is cytotoxic to sertoli cells. It could cause apoptosis of sertoli cells.

[Study on the reproductive effects of carbon disulfide in male rats and their subgeneration].

OBJECTIVE: To study reproductive toxicity of carbon disulfide and the effects of their subgeneration. METHODS: 40 male rats were randomly divided into four groups. It took ten weeks for the rats to breath CS2 in different densities (0, 50, 250, 1250 mg/m3). Five rats were randomly chosen from the controlling group, high and low dosage group, put them together with female rats for copulation in the ninth week. We observed the pregnant rates, miscarry counts, resorption counts, the numbers and body weight of their subgeneration, weight of the placenta, length of the body, length of the tail, length of the belly, the distance from the rectum to the genital, the effects of the sketetion and the purtenunce. In the eleventh weeks, we measured testide coefficient and testide horizontal of male rats, epididymal weight, sperm count, sperm motility and its classification, the ratio of sperm deformity, etc. RESULTS: The pregnant rats of the dosage groups were all lower than the control group, but the differences were not statistically significant. The data of the high dosage group was obviously lower than the control group (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). The body weight and the organ coefficient were all lower than the control group, but only brain coefficient of the high group between the control group were statistically significant (P < 0.05). Teside coefficient of the high dosage group obvioulsly decreased than the control group (P < 0.05). Epididymal weight, sperm count, sperm molitity and incidence rate of ospermia of middle and high dosage group obviously decreased than control group. CONCLUSION: The effects of CS2 in distortion rate and abnormal data of growth are possibly related to the decrease in sperm quality and quantity.

A review on the computational approaches for gene regulatory network construction.

Many biological research areas such as drug design require gene regulatory networks to provide clear insight and understanding of the cellular process in living cells. This is because interactions among the genes and their products play an important role in many molecular processes. A gene regulatory network can act as a blueprint for the researchers to observe the relationships among genes. Due to its importance, several computational approaches have been proposed to infer gene regulatory networks from gene expression data. In this review, six inference approaches are discussed: Boolean network, probabilistic Boolean network, ordinary differential equation, neural network, Bayesian network, and dynamic Bayesian network. These approaches are discussed in terms of introduction, methodology and recent applications of these approaches in gene regulatory network construction. These approaches are also compared in the discussion section. Furthermore, the strengths and weaknesses of these computational approaches are described.

Differential Bees Flux Balance Analysis with OptKnock for in silico microbial strains optimization.

Microbial strains optimization for the overproduction of desired phenotype has been a popular topic in recent years. The strains can be optimized through several techniques in the field of genetic engineering. Gene knockout is a genetic engineering technique that can engineer the metabolism of microbial cells with the objective to obtain desirable phenotypes. However, the complexities of the metabolic networks have made the process to identify the effects of genetic modification on the desirable phenotypes challenging. Furthermore, a vast number of reactions in cellular metabolism often lead to the combinatorial problem in obtaining optimal gene deletion strategy. Basically, the size of a genome-scale metabolic model is usually large. As the size of the problem increases, the computation time increases exponentially. In this paper, we propose Differential Bees Flux Balance Analysis (DBFBA) with OptKnock to identify optimal gene knockout strategies for maximizing the production yield of desired phenotypes while sustaining the growth rate. This proposed method functions by improving the performance of a hybrid of Bees Algorithm and Flux Balance Analysis (BAFBA) by hybridizing Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm into neighborhood searching strategy of BAFBA. In addition, DBFBA is integrated with OptKnock to validate the results for improving the reliability the work. Through several experiments conducted on Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, and Clostridium thermocellum as the model organisms, DBFBA has shown a better performance in terms of computational time, stability, growth rate, and production yield of desired phenotypes compared to the methods used in previous works.

Degradation and mineralization kinetics of acephate in humid tropic soils of Malaysia.

Acephate is poorly sorbed to soil, thus the risk of leaching to the aquatic environment is high if it is not quickly degraded. The effect of soil moisture, temperature, microbial activity and application rate on acephate degradation has been studied in three Malaysian soils to examine and identify critical variables determining its degradation and mineralization kinetics. First-order kinetics could be used to describe degradation in all cases (r(2)>0.91). Acephate degraded faster in air-dry (t((1/2)) 9-11 d) and field capacity (t((1/2)) 10-16d) soils than in the wet soils (t((1/2)) 32-77 d). The activation energy of degradation was in the range 17-28 kJ mol(-1) and significantly higher for the soil with higher pH and lower clay and iron oxide contents. Soil sterilization caused a 3- to 10-fold decrease in degradation rates compared to non-sterile soils (t((1/2)) 53-116 d) demonstrating that acephate degradation is mainly governed by microbial processes. At 5-fold increase in application rates (25 microg g(-1)), half-life increased slightly (t((1/2)) 13-19 d) or was unaffected. Half-life from acephate mineralization was similar to those from degradation but much longer at the 5-fold increase in acephate application rates (t((1/2)) 41-96 d) demonstrating that degradation of metabolites is rate limiting. Thus, application of acephate should be restricted or avoided during wet seasons with heavy rainfall and flooded soil as in paddy cultivation. Sandy soils with low microbial activity are more prone to acephate leaching than clay soils rich in humic matter.

[Influence of astragalus and zinc sulfate on the viscosity in erythrocyte membrane during intestinal ischemia - reperfusion(I/R) injury].

AIM: To study the influence of astragalus and zinc sulfate on the viscosity in erythrocyte membrane during intestinal I/R and their mechanism of action. METHODS: Models of rabbits intestinal I/R injury were made. The effect of astragalus and zinc sulfate on the viscosity and malondialdehyde (MDA) in erythrocyte membrane, superoxide dismutase (SOD) in erythrocyte, oxidase (XO) in plasma and MDA tissues homogenate were observed. RESULTS: The administration of astragalus and zinc sulfate decreased viscosity and MDA and XO, prevented the reduction of SOD, and alleviated I/R injury. CONCLUSION: Lipid peroxidation injury of the erythrocyte membrane was one of the pathogenesis of I/R injury, and astragalus and the zinc sulfate possessed effects of anti-lipid peroxide, stabilized erythrocyte membrane, increased red blood cell deform ability and raised microcircular perfusion.