Role of Platelets in Acute Lung Injury After Extracorporeal Circulation in Cardiac Surgery Patients: A Systemic Review.

In vitro circulation (cardiopulmonary bypass, CPB) has been widely used in heart surgery. In the past, it was believed that the reduction of platelet count and impaired platelet function during cardiac surgery were the main causes of acute lung injury (ALI). ALI is a life-threatening clinical syndrome in critically ill patients due to an uncontrolled systemic inflammatory response resulting from direct injury to the lung or indirect injury in the setting of a systemic process. Platelets have an emerging and incompletely understood role in a myriad of ALI after extracorporeal circulation in cardiac surgery patients. An electronic literature search was performed using Pubmed, Scopus and Cinahl investigating ALI, pathogenesis, and role of platelets, treatment and management for ALI patients. Many studies have shown that in vitro circulation is a nonphysiological process that can lead to a decrease in the number of platelets and impaired platelet function, as well as varying degrees of lung damage. The relationship between the effects of in vitro circulation on platelets and acute lung injury is still controversial. This review article discusses the role of platelets in lung injury after cardiopulmonary bypass and resent development in the management of ALI.

An online pH detection system based on a microfluidic chip.

An online pH detection system is very critical in monitoring the sudden change of pH, especially in strongly acidic and alkaline conditions. We developed a pH sensing chip which works in the range of 5 M [H+]-pH 3.0 and pH 6.0-2 M [OH-] with response time of 90 s. The sensing chip was formed by coating a pH sensing membrane onto the wall of a microfluidic chamber. The pH sensing membrane was prepared by chemically immobilizing m-Cresol purple in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The pH detection system consisted of light source, pH sensing chip and photodiode (PD). Once the pH of fluid flowing in the sensing chip changed, the intensity of transmitted light changed. The intensity of transmitted light was converted to voltage, which was the function of pH value, by the PD. A feed-forward artificial neural network (ANN) with error back-propagation training algorithm was employed to model the behavior of the pH sensor and read out pH values of unknown solutions. The pH detection system shows high stability with increasing the ionic strength. It also possesses properties of repeatability, reversibility and long life-time. These advantages make the proposed pH detection system a promising solution for online detection of pH values in harsh conditions.

Determination of Epimedin B in Rat Plasma and Tissue by LC-MS/MS: Application in Pharmacokinetic and Tissue Distribution Studies.

A simple, sensitive, and specific liquid chromatography tandem mass-spectrometric method was developed and validated for the determination of epimedin B in rat plasma and tissue samples. After being processed with a protein precipitation method, these samples were separated on an Agilent Eclipse XDB-C18 column with an isocratic mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid aqueous solution (32 : 68, v/v). The calibration curve of epimedin B was linear over the concentration range from 1 to 500 ng/mL in plasma and tissue homogenate. The method was then applied to pharmacokinetic and tissue distribution studies after a single oral administration of Herba Epimedii extract to SD rats. Results showed that epimedin B reached the plasma peak concentration at 0.4 h and the terminal elimination half-life was 1.6 h in rat plasma, and the plasma area under the curve from time zero to infinity (AUC0-∞ ) was 14.35 µg/L·h. The concentration distribution of epimedin B in rat tissue was in the following order: liver > ovary > womb > lung > kidney > spleen > heart > brain, indicating that the compound could be widely distributed in rat, and the reproductive system may be the principal target of epimedin B for female rat.

[In vivo study of Chuankezhi metabolism in rat].

To study the metabolic products of main compounds of Chuankezhi injection in rat, 12 Sprague Dawley rats were classed into 2 groups, a blank control group and an intermuscular administration group, respectively. Rat feces and urine samples were collected from 0−24 h and 24−48 h after administration. All the samples were ultrasonically treated with methanol and then analyzed using LC-LTQ Orbitrap MSn. By comparison with the total ion chromatogram of samples from the blank control group, the metabolites in the samples of drug-treated group were screened. These metabolites were further analyzed by multistage product ion scanning and comparison of retention time with reference substances. As a result, a total of 12 flavonoid metabolites were tentatively identified from the rat feces and no metabolite was discovered in the rat urine. Epimedin C and icariin were detected in the rat blood samples after 30 min of administration, but their metabolites and other original flavones were not detected. Furthermore, no original flavones and their metabolites were detected in rat blood samples after 2 and 4 h of administration. The potential metabolism paths were further characterized and the principal in vivo transformation of flavones from Chuankezhi injection were deglycosylation, dehydration, methylation, oxidation and isomerization in rats.

Species differentiation and quality assessment of Radix Paeoniae Rubra (Chi-shao) by means of high-performance liquid chromatographic fingerprint.

There are two species under the monograph of Radix Paeoniae Rubrae ("Chi-shao" in Chinese) in Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2005 edition-Paeonia lactiflora Pallas and Paeonia veitchii Lynch. Due to different species and growing conditions, there are significant chemical differences between the two species, which may result in the improper clinical usage under the same name. Chemical pattern expressed by high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) fingerprint analysis can play an important role in species differentiation and quality control of Radix Paeoniae Rubra. In the present work, HPLC fingerprints of two kinds of Radix Paeoniae Rubra have been established and analysed with chemometric methods including similarity evaluation and principal component analysis. Both of the fingerprint common patterns of the two species comprise 13 characteristic peaks, nine of which were common peaks of the two species. However, significant differences between the roots of P. veitchii and P. lactiflora exist not only in the content of certain constituents, especially phenolic acids but also in peak-to-peak ratios expressed by the fingerprint patterns. According to the recent pharmacological studies on polyphenolic constituents, root originating from P. veitchii may possess better efficacy and quality than that from P. lactiflora. Our research reveals that further pharmacological investigation is very necessary to determine whether the two species should be embodied under the same monograph in Chinese Pharmacopoeia.