Primary Study for the Therapeutic Dose and Time Window of Picroside II in Treating Cerebral Ischemic Injury in Rats

The aim of this study was to explore the optimal therapeutic dose and time window of picroside II for treating cerebral ischemic injury in rats according to the orthogonal test. The middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) models were established by intraluminally inserting a thread into middle cerebral artery (MCA) from left external carotid artery (ECA). The successful rat models were randomly divided into 16 groups according to the orthogonal layout of [L16(45)] and treated by injecting picroside II intraperitoneally with different doses at various times. The neurological behavioral function was evaluated by Bederson’s test and the cerebral infarction volume was measured by tetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining. The expressions of neuron specific enolase (NSE) and neuroglial mark-protein S-100 were determined by immunohistochemisty assay. The results indicated that the optimal compositions of the therapeutic dose and time window of picroside II in treating cerebral ischemic injury were ischemia 1.5 h with 20 mg/kg body weight according to Bederson’s test, 1.0 h with 20 mg/kg body weight according to cerebral infarction volume, 1.5 h with 20 mg/kg body weight according to the expressions of NSE and S-100 respectively. Based on the principle of the minimization of medication dose and maximization of therapeutic time window, the optimal composition of the therapeutic dose and time window of picroside II in treating cerebral ischemic injury should be achieved by injecting picroside II intraperitoneally with 20 mg/kg body weight at ischemia 1.5 h

Identification, abundance and seasonal variation of anthropogenic organic aerosols from a mega-city in China

PM2.5 aerosols were collected in Nanjing, a typical mega-city in China, during summer and winter 2004 and were characterized for aromatic and cyclic compounds using a GC/MS technique to understand the air pollution problem. They include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), hopanes, phthalates and hydroxy-PAHs (OH-PAHs). PAHs, hopanes and OH-PAHs presented higher concentrations in winter (26–178, 3.0–18, and 0.013–0.421 ng m−3, respectively) than in summer (12–96, 1.6–11, and 0.029–0.171 ng m−3, respectively) due to an enhanced coal burning for house heating and atmospheric inversion layers developed in the cold season. In contrast, phthalates are more abundant in summer (109–368 ng m−3, average 230 ng m−3) than in winter (33–390 ng m−3, average 170 ng m−3) due to an enhanced evaporation from plastics during the hot season and the subsequent deposition on the pre-existing particles. Generally, all the identified compounds showed higher concentrations in nighttime than in daytime due to inversion layers and increased emissions from heavy-duty trucks at night. PAHs, hopanes and phthalates in Nanjing aerosols are 5–100 times more abundant than those in Los Angeles, USA, indicating a serious air pollution problem in the city. Concentrations of OH-PAHs are 1–3 orders of magnitude less than their parent PAHs and comparable to those reported from other international cities. Source identification using diagnostic ratios of the organic tracers suggests that PAHs in Nanjing urban area are mainly derived from coal burning, whereas hopanes are more attributable to traffic emissions