The changes of neuroactivity of Tui Na (Chinese massage) at Hegu acupoint on sensorimotor cortex in stroke patients with upper limb motor dysfunction: a fNIRS study.

BACKGROUND: Tui Na (Chinese massage) is a relatively simple, inexpensive, and non-invasive intervention, and has been used to treat stroke patients for many years in China. Tui Na acts on specific parts of the body which are called meridians and acupoints to achieve the role of treating diseases. Yet the underlying neural mechanism associated with Tui Na is not clear due to the lack of detection methods. OBJECTIVE: Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to explore the changes of sensorimotor cortical neural activity in patients with upper limb motor dysfunction of stroke and healthy control groups during Tui Na Hegu Point. METHODS: Ten patients with unilateral upper limb motor dysfunction after stroke and eight healthy subjects received Tui Na. fNIRS was used to record the hemodynamic data in the sensorimotor cortex and the changes in blood flow were calculated based on oxygenated hemoglobin (Oxy-Hb), the task session involved repetitive Tui Na on Hegu acupoint, using a block design [six cycles: rest (20 seconds); Tui Na (20 seconds); rest (30 seconds)]. The changes in neural activity in sensorimotor cortex could be inferred according to the principle of neurovascular coupling, and the number of activated channels in the bilateral hemisphere was used to calculate the lateralization index. RESULT: 1. For hemodynamic response induced by Hegu acupoint Tui Na, a dominant increase in the contralesional primary sensorimotor cortex during Hegu point Tui Na of the less affected arm in stroke patients was observed, as well as that in healthy controls, while this contralateral pattern was absent during Hegu point Tui Na of the affected arm in stroke patients. 2. Concerning the lateralization index in stroke patients, a significant difference was observed between lateralization index values for the affected arm and the less affected arm (P < 0.05). Wilcoxon tests showed a significant difference between lateralization index values for the affected arm in stroke patients and lateralization index values for the dominant upper limb in healthy controls (P < 0.05), and no significant difference between lateralization index values for the less affected arm in stroke patients and that in healthy controls (P = 0.36). CONCLUSION: The combination of Tui Na and fNIRS has the potential to reflect the functional status of sensorimotor neural circuits. The changes of neuroactivity in the sensorimotor cortex when Tui Na Hegu acupoint indicate that there is a certain correlation between acupoints in traditional Chinese medicine and neural circuits.

Modified constraint-induced movement therapy enhances cortical plasticity in a rat model of traumatic brain injury: a resting-state functional MRI study.

Modified constraint-induced movement therapy (mCIMT) has shown beneficial effects on motor function improvement after brain injury, but the exact mechanism remains unclear. In this study, amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF) metrics measured by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was obtained to investigate the efficacy and mechanism of mCIMT in a control cortical impact (CCI) rat model simulating traumatic brain injury. At 3 days after control cortical impact model establishment, we found that the mean ALFF (mALFF) signals were decreased in the left motor cortex, somatosensory cortex, insula cortex and the right motor cortex, and were increased in the right corpus callosum. After 3 weeks of an 8-hour daily mCIMT treatment, the mALFF values were significantly increased in the bilateral hemispheres compared with those at 3 days postoperatively. The mALFF signal values of left corpus callosum, left somatosensory cortex, right medial prefrontal cortex, right motor cortex, left postero dorsal hippocampus, left motor cortex, right corpus callosum, and right somatosensory cortex were increased in the mCIMT group compared with the control cortical impact group. Finally, we identified brain regions with significantly decreased mALFF values at 3 days postoperatively. Pearson correlation coefficients with the right forelimb sliding score indicated that the improvement in motor function of the affected upper limb was associated with an increase in mALFF values in these brain regions. Our findings suggest that functional cortical plasticity changes after brain injury, and that mCIMT is an effective method to improve affected upper limb motor function by promoting bilateral hemispheric cortical remodeling. mALFF values correlate with behavioral changes and can potentially be used as biomarkers to assess dynamic cortical plasticity after traumatic brain injury.

Evaluation of effect of horticultural therapy on improving mental health in university students / 中国学校卫生

Objective@#To investigate the effectiveness of horticultural therapy on improving university students mental health problems and to provide evidence to support the application of horticultural therapy in the prevention and treatment of university students mental health.@*Methods@#From March to May 2022,a before-and after paired design was used with a blank control group, mental health screening abnormalities were recruited from a comprehensive university in Hebei Province, including 57 in the intervention group and 21 in the control group, and the Symptom Checklist-90(SCL-90) score and hair cortisol were included as outcome indicators, which was measured by enzyme linked immunoassay Elisa double antibody sandwich method.@*Results@#The total SCL-90 scores of the intervention group decreased ( t=4.28, P <0.01) and were significantly lower compared with the control group( t=-2.66, P <0.01), while no significant difference was observed in the control group( t=0.29, P >0.05), and the difference between the pre and post measures on each dimension of the SCL-90 was significantly lower in the intervention group (all P <0.01); the difference between the pre and post measures of hair cortisol contentration in the intervention group was statistically significant( Z= -2.75, P <0.05), and the hair cortiso contentration in pre measure group was lower than that of control group( Z=-3.48, P < 0.01 ). In contrast, the difference between pre and post measurements of hair cortisol in the control group was not significant( Z= -0.75 , P >0.05).@*Conclusion@#Horticultural therapy can improve the psychological symptoms of university students is suitable for psychological interventions in the university population and is beneficial to the health and well being of university students.

Dynamic Changes of Arc Expression in Dorsal Striatum of Mice After Self-Administration of Sucrose.

Region-specific plasticity in the striatal circuit plays an important role in the development and long-term maintenance of skills and sequential movement procedures. Studies investigating the molecular substrates that contribute to the plasticity changes during motor skill processes have documented a transition in expression from the dorsomedial striatum (DMS) to the dorsolateral striatum (DLS); however, few studies have explored the expression pattern of molecular substrates in the dorsal striatum during progression of instrumental learning. To address this issue, the activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated protein (Arc) expressions in the subregional dorsal striatum were analyzed during the early and late learning phases of the 10-day sucrose self-administration process. We found that Arc protein is primarily detected in the DMS only in the initial learning stage; however, it is expressed in the DLS during both early and late learning stages. Moreover, Arc expression in the DMS correlated with the number of rewards received later in the training. These data indicated that the Arc expression in subregions of the dorsal striatum shows region-specific transfer and that Arc expression in the DMS contributes to obtaining reward in later learning stage during the process of instrumental learning.

Physicochemical Properties, Microstructure, and Antioxidant and Anti-inflammation Effects of Four Major Polysaccharides from Tremella / 中国药学杂志

OBJECTIVE: To isolate four polysaccharides from Tremella and study their physicochemical properties, microstructures, antioxidant activities and anti-inflammation effects. METHODS: The polysaccharides were purified using water extraction method, DEAE-Sepharose CL-6B and Sephadex G-100. The physicochemical properties and microstructures were studied using high-performance size-exclusion chromatography (HPSEC), gas chromatography (GC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis. Anti-inflammation activities of the polysaccharides were identified using real time quantitative PCR. RESULTS: Four kinds of major polysaccharides (TABW-Ⅱ, TFBW-Ⅱ, TEPW-Ⅱ and TSPW-) were purified from water-extraction crude polysaccharides from Tremella. TABW-Ⅱ, TFBW-Ⅱ, TEPW-Ⅱ and TSPW- were homogeneous with relative molecular mass 26×103, 11×103, 21×103 and 356×103, respectively, and they consisted mainly of glucose and mannose. TEM reveale that their molecular morphologies were linear, and TSPW- had more extended structure with entangled chains. Compared with vitamin C (Vc), TSPW- showed more noticeable scavenging effects of superoxide (EC50=0.127 mg•mL-1) and hydroxyl (EC50=0.088 mg•mL-1) radicals (P<0.05). TSPW- also showed the highest inhibitory effects of TNF-α, IL-6 and COX-2 mRNA expressions in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 mouse macrophage cells, and the inhibitory effects were more than 95% at 150 μg•mL-1 TSPW-. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that TSPW- with entangled and extended liner structures have more obvious antioxidant and anti-inflammation effects than other major polysaccharides from Tremella family. Furthermore, this study indicates the potential utilization of Tremella polysaccharides in anti-inflammatory agents.