Pinoresinol diglucoside exhibits protective effect on dexamethasone-induced osteoporosis in rats

Purpose: To investigate the effect of pinoresinol diglucoside (PDG) on dexamethasone-induced osteoporosis in rats.Methods: Sixty Wistar rats were randomly and equally divided into normal, control, alendronate and PDG (10, 20 or 40 mg/kg) groups. Bone tissue parameters, including length, transverse diameter, weight, bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD), were determined using vernier caliper, electronic balance and single photon bone mineral density meter. Serum biochemical indices, including Ca2+, inorganic phosphorus (IP), IL-6, TNF-α and alkaline phosphatase (ALP), were determined using colorimetry and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Osteoprotegerin (OPG) and receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL) proteins were detected by Western blot.Results: PDG (10, 20 or 40 mg/kg) increased significantly (p < 0.05 or 0.01) transverse diameter (3.64 – 3.79 vs. 3.31 mm), weight (0.73 – 0.78 vs. 0.67 g), BMC (0.16 – 0.23 vs. 0.12 g/cm), BMD (0.27 – 0.35 vs. 0.22 g/cm2) of right femur, serum Ca2+ level (2.16 – 2.39 vs. 1.94 mmol/L), and OPG level of left femur, compared with those in the control group. PDG (10, 20 or 40 mg/kg) reduced significantly (p < 0.05 or 0.01) serum IP (1.34 – 1.14 vs. 1.76 mmol/L), IL-6 (103.25 – 95.38 vs. 108.74 ng/L), TNF-α (87.46 – 82.05 vs. 92.38 ng/L), ALP (334.79 – 276.32 vs. 486.45 U/L) levels or activities, and RANKL level of left femur, compared with those in the control group.Conclusion: PDG exhibits a protective effect on dexamethasone-induced osteoporosis by increasing bone mass and regulating bone metabolism. Thus, PDG may be a candidate drug for treating osteoporosis.Keywords: Pinoresinol diglucoside, Osteoporosis, Bone mass, Bone metabolism, Dexamethasone, Osteoprotegeri

Entropy-Based Model for Interpreting Life Systems in Traditional Chinese Medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treats qi as the core of the human life systems. Starting with a hypothetical correlation between TCM qi and the entropy theory, we address in this article a holistic model for evaluating and unveiling the rule of TCM life systems. Several new concepts such as acquired life entropy (ALE), acquired life entropy flow (ALEF) and acquired life entropy production (ALEP) are propounded to interpret TCM life systems. Using the entropy theory, mathematical models are established for ALE, ALEF and ALEP, which reflect the evolution of life systems. Some criteria are given on physiological activities and pathological changes of the body in different stages of life. Moreover, a real data-based simulation shows life entropies of the human body with different ages, Cold and Hot constitutions and in different seasons in North China are coincided with the manifestations of qi as well as the life evolution in TCM descriptions. Especially, based on the comparative and quantitative analysis, the entropy-based model can nicely describe the evolution of life entropies in Cold and Hot individuals thereby fitting the Yin–Yang theory in TCM. Thus, this work establishes a novel approach to interpret the fundamental principles in TCM, and provides an alternative understanding for the complex life systems

Accurate and Efficient Estimation of Small P-values with the Cross-Entropy Method: Applications in Genomic Data Analysis

Small $p$-values are often required to be accurately estimated in large scale genomic studies for the adjustment of multiple hypothesis tests and the ranking of genomic features based on their statistical significance. For those complicated test statistics whose cumulative distribution functions are analytically intractable, existing methods usually do not work well with small $p$-values due to lack of accuracy or computational restrictions. We propose a general approach for accurately and efficiently calculating small $p$-values for a broad range of complicated test statistics based on the principle of the cross-entropy method and Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling techniques. We evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm through simulations and demonstrate its application to three real examples in genomic studies. The results show that our approach can accurately evaluate small to extremely small $p$-values (e.g. $10^{-6}$ to $10^{-100}$). The proposed algorithm is helpful to the improvement of existing test procedures and the development of new test procedures in genomic studies.Comment: 34 pages, 1 figure, 4 table

The Effect-enhancing and Toxicity-reducing Action of the Extract of Herba Scutellariae Barbatae for Chemotherapy in Hepatoma H22 Tumor-bearing Mice

ObjectiveTo investigate the effect-enchancing and toxicity-reducing action of the extract of Ban Zhi Lian (Herba Scutellariae Barbatae, EHSB) for chemotherapy in hepatoma H22 tumor-bearing mice.MethodsThe tumor-bearing mice were divided into 6 groups randomly: a model group, a high dose EHSB group, a low dose EHSB group, a 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) group, a 5-FU+high dose EHSB group and a 5-FU+low dose EHSB group, and with a normal group set as the controls. All the groups were treated for 10 days. The life prolongation rate, toxic reactions of chemotherapy, WBC count, the body weight, tumor weight, thymus index and spleen index, and phagocytic function of intra-abdominal macrophages were investigated in the H22 tumor-bearing mice.ResultsThe increase of the body weight in both the 5-FU+EHSB groups was significantly higher than that in the 5-FU group, with the toxic reactions such as anorexia, abdominal distension and emaciation significantly alleviated. Growth of the tumor was significantly inhibited in the high dose EHSB group, the 5-FU group, the 5-FU+high dose EHSB group, and the 5-FU+low dose EHSB group. The survival time in the 5-FU+high dose EHSB group and the 5-FU+low dose EHSB group was significantly prolonged as compared with that of the 5-FU group. The life prolongation rate was 98.72% in the 5-FU+high dose EHSB group and 52.11% in the 5-FU+low dose EHSB group. Growth of the transplanted tumor was significantly inhibited in the high dose EHSB group, the 5-FU group, the 5-FU+high dose EHSB group, the 5-FU+low dose EHSB group. The tumor inhibition rate in the high dose EHSB group, the 5-FU group, the 5-FU+high dose EHSB group and the 5-FU+low dose EHSB group was 36.98%, 42.26%, 65.28% and 52.45%, respectively. 5-FU combined with a high-dose EHSB could significantly enhance the tumor inhibition rate (P<0.05). The thymus index and the spleen index significantly increased in the high dose EHSB group, and atrophy of the immunological organs induced by chemotherapy was improved in the 5-FU+high dose EHSB group and in the 5-FU+low dose EHSB group. The WBC count decreased significantly in the 5-FU group, but increased in both the 5-FU+EHSB groups. The phagocytic function of intra-abdominal macrophages was increased in both the 5-FU+EHSB groups, with the phagocytic rate and the phagocytic index increased by 78.55% and 81.63% in the 5-FU+high dose EHSB group and by 43.97% and 44.90% in the 5-FU+low dose EHSB group.ConclusionsEHSB can significantly enhance the tumor inhibition rate of 5-FU, reduce the toxic effects, prolong the survival time, and improve immune function in the H22 tumor-bearing mice

Clinical features and surgical effect of vireoretinal diseases with contralateral blindness

AIM: To investigate the clinical characteristics and surgical results of vireoretinal diseases in 68 patients with contralateral blindness(solitary eye). <p>METHODS: A total of 68 patients(68 eyes)with contralateral blindness were enrolled in this retrospective consecutive study. The clinical characteristics, surgical procedures and temponade materials chosen, preoperative and postoperative visual acuity, complications and prognosis were analyzed. The follow-up ranged from 4 months to 5 years, with an average of(11.30±9.57)months. At the last follow-up, the surgical effects were evaluated.<p>RESULTS:After operation, visual acuity increased significantly. The number of eyes with vision of 0.05 or better increased from 22 eyes(32.4%)preoperative to 60 eyes(88.2%)postoperative, and that of 0.3 or better from 3 eyes(4.4%)to 37 eyes(54.4%). The best-corrected visual acuity before and after surgery also differed significantly(<i>t</i>=8.986, <i>P<</i>0.01). <p>CONCLUSION: With vitreoretinal surgery, visual impairment or loss due to vitreoretinal diseases can be avoided in most patients with contralateral blindness

Scale Dependence of Twist-3 Quark-Gluon Operators for Single Spin Asymmetries

We derive the scale dependence of twist-3 quark-gluon operators, or ETQS matrix elements, at one-loop. These operators are used to factorize transverse single spin asymmetries, which are studied intensively both in experiment and theory. The scale dependence of two special cases are particularly interesting. One is of soft-gluon-pole matrix elements, another is of soft-quark-pole matrix elements. From our results the evolutions in the two cases can be obtained. A comparison with existing results of soft-gluon-pole matrix elements is made.Comment: typo in Eq.(10) corrected, references adde