A Study of the Wound Healing Mechanism of a Traditional Chinese Medicine, Angelica sinensis, Using a Proteomic Approach

Angelica sinensis (AS) is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine that has been formulated clinically to treat various form of skin trauma and to help wound healing. However, the mechanism by which it works remains a mystery. In this study we have established a new platform to evaluate the pharmacological effects of total AS herbal extracts as well as its major active component, ferulic acid (FA), using proteomic and biochemical analysis. Cytotoxic and proliferation-promoting concentrations of AS ethanol extracts (AS extract) and FA were tested, and then the cell extracts were subject to 2D PAGE analysis. We found 51 differentially expressed protein spots, and these were identified by mass spectrometry. Furthermore, biomolecular assays, involving collagen secretion, migration, and ROS measurements, gave results that are consistent with the proteomic analysis. In this work, we have demonstrated a whole range of pharmacological effects associated with Angelica sinensis that might be beneficial when developing a wound healing pharmaceutical formulation for the herbal medicine

Pituitary macroadenoma co-existent with supraclinoid internal carotid artery cerebral aneurysm: a case report and review of the literature

With improved angiographic techniques and magnetic resonance angiography available today, an increasing number of incidental aneurysms are being detected. Occurrence of an intracranial aneurysm together with a pituitary adenoma presents tremendous risk to the patient, particularly when the aneurysm lies near the operative field

Positive Effect of Severe Nakagami- m

This paper investigates the positive effect of severe Nakagami-m fading on the performance of multiuser transmit antenna selection/maximal-ratio combining (TAS/MRC) systems with high selection gain. Both amount of fading (AF) and symbol error rate (SER) of M-QAM are derived as closed-form expressions for integer m. For arbitrary m, the AF and the SER are expressible as a single infinite series of Gamma function and Gauss hypergeometric function, respectively. The analytical results lead to the following observations. First, the SER performance can demonstrate the positive effect of severe Nakagami-m fading on multiuser TAS/MRC systems with high selection gain. Second, the AF performance only exhibits the negative impact of severe fading regardless of high selection gain. Last, the benefit of severe fading to the system performance diminishes at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)

THE EFFECT OF INSULIN AND CARBOHYDRATE SUPPLEMENTATION ON GLYCOGEN REPLENISHMENT AMONG DIFFERENT HINDLIMB MUSCLES IN RATS FOLLOWING PROLONGED SWIMMING

In the present study we investigated the interactive effects of insulin and carbohydrate on glycogen replenishment in different rat hindlimb muscles. Forty male Sprague Dawley rats were assigned to 5 groups, including 1) sedentary control with carbohydrate supplement (2 g glucose · kg body wt-1), 2) sedentary rats with 16 hours recovery, carbohydrate and insulin (0.5 U · kg body wt-1), 3) swimming without recovery, 4) swimming with 16 hours recovery and carbohydrate supplement, and 5) swimming with 16 hours recovery, carbohydrate and insulin. The swimming protocol consisted of two 3 h swimming sections, which were separated by a 45 min rest. The insulin and carbohydrate were administered to the rats immediately after exercise. At the end of the experiment, the soleus (S), plantaris (P), quadriceps (Q) and gastrocnemius (G) were surgically excised to evaluate glycogen utilization and replenishment. We observed that glycogen utilization was significantly lower in G and Q than S and P during swimming (p <0.05), and S showed the greatest capacity of glycogen resynthesis after post-exercise recovery (p <0.05). In the sedentary state, the glycogen synthesis did not differ among hindlimb muscles during insulin and carbohydrate treatments. Interestingly, with insulin and carbohydrate, the glycogen resynthesis in S and P were significantly greater than in Q and G following post-exercise recovery (p <0.05). We therefore concluded that the soleus and plantaris are the primary working muscles during swimming, and the greatest glycogen replenishment capacity of the soleus during post-exercise recovery is likely due to its highest insulin sensitivity

Printed Modified Bow-Tie Dipole Antenna for DVB/WLAN Applications

A printed modified bow-tie dipole antenna which consists of asymmetric-feed and inserted slots is presented to apply to the DVB and WLAN systems. This antenna combines omnidirectional radiation pattern, broad bandwidth, and band rejection in an easy way to fabricate. Experimental results of the constructed prototype indicate that the VSWR 2.5 : 1 bandwidths achieve 166.7%, 28.57%, and 23.63% at 660 MHz, 2450 MHz, and 5500 MHz, respectively