Anti-Inflammatory and Immunomodulatory Effects of Paeonia Lactiflora Pall., a Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine

In China, Korea, and Japan, a decoction of the dried root without bark of Paeonia lactiflora Pall. has been used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, hepatitis, dysmenorrhea, muscle cramping and spasms, and fever for more than 1200 years. A water/ethanol extract of the root is now known as total glucosides of peony (TGP), which contains more than 15 components. Paeoniflorin is the most abundant ingredient and accounts for the pharmacological effects observed with TGP in both in vitro and in vivo studies. The analgesic effect of TGP was confirmed in various animal models of pain, which may be mediated partly by adenosine A1 receptor. The direct anti-inflammatory effects of TGP were observed in animal models of both acute and subacute inflammation, by inhibiting the production of prostaglandin E2, leukotriene B4, and nitric oxide, and by suppressing the increase of intracellular calcium ion concentration. TGP was also reported to have protective effects of cells against oxidative stress. In vitro, dual effects of TGP were noted on the proliferation of lymphocytes, differentiation of Th/Ts lymphocytes, and the production of proinflammatory cytokines and antibodies. In vivo, TGP inhibited the delayed-type hypersensitivity in immuno-activated mice, and enhanced the delayed-type hypersensitivity in immuno-suppressed mice. In adjuvant arthritis rats, paeoniflorin exerted immunosuppressive effects. The beneficial effects of TGP in treating rheumatoid arthritis were verified by randomized controlled trials. The adverse events of TGP were mainly gastrointestinal tract disturbances, mostly mild diarrhea

Research on Wavelet Based Autofocus Evaluation in Micro-vision

AbstractThis paper presents the construction of two kinds of focusing measure operators defined in wavelet domain. One mechanism is that the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) coefficients in high frequency subbands of in-focused image are higher than those of defocused one. The other mechanism is that the autocorrelation of an in-focused image filtered through Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) gives a sharper profile than blurred one does. Wavelet base, scaling factor and form to get the sum of high frequency energy are the key factors in constructing the operator. Two new focus measure operators are defined through the autofocusing experiments on the micro-vision system of the workcell for micro-alignment. The performances of two operators can be quantificationally evaluated through the comparison with two spatial domain operators Brenner Function (BF) and Squared Gradient Function (SGF). The focus resolution of the optimized DWT-based operators is 14% higher than that of BF and its computational cost is 52% approximately lower than BF's. The focus resolution of the optimized CWT-based operators is 41% lower than that of SGF whereas its computational cost is approximately 36% lower than SGF's. It shows that the wavelet based autofocus measure functions can be practically used in micro-vision applications

HMGB1 acts in synergy with lipopolysaccharide in activating rheumatoid synovial fibroblasts via p38 MAPK and NF-

Synovial fibroblasts (SF) play a central role in the inflammatory and destructive process in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). High-mobility group box chromosomal protein 1 (HMGB1) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS) alone failed to induce significant changes in proliferation of cultured SF from RA patients, but premixed HMGB1 with LPS (HMGB1-LPS) significantly facilitated SF proliferation. HMGB1 alone failed to induce IL-6, MMP-3, and MMP-13 production in cultured SF but greatly enhanced LPS-induced expression of IL-6, MMP-3, and MMP-13 at both mRNA and protein levels. HMGB1-LPS synergistically upregulated TLR4 and receptor for advanced glycation endproducts (RAGE) expression on the surface of SF. Both blockers of TLR4 and RAGE significantly inhibited the synergistic effects of HMGB1-LPS on the production of IL-6 and MMPs, but blocking antibodies to TLR2 failed. HMGB1-LPS synergistically increased intracellular levels of phosphorylated p38 and phosphorylated I B. Furthermore, both NF-B inhibitor Bay11-7085 and p38 inhibitor SB203580 significantly suppressed the enhanced production of IL-6 and MMPs induced by HMGB1-LPS. In conclusion, HMGB1 acts in synergy with LPS to upregulate TLR4 and RAGE expression on the surface of SF in RA and then to augment IL-6, MMP-3, and MMP-13 production, which depends on p38 MAPK and NF-B activation

Malignant mesenchymal tumor with leiomyosarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, and osteosarcoma differentiation: case report and literature review

A case of malignant mesenchymoma of the bladder containing leiomyosarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, osteosarcoma, and myxomatous components is described. The primary pedunculated tumor measuring 14 × 13 × 7 cm and weighing 343 g arose from the left trigone of the bladder and was treated by total cystectomy. The histogenesis of malignant mesenchymomas and their optimal management strategy and prognosis remain uncertain. Herein, we present the fifth case of malignant mesenchymoma of the urinary bladder to be reported in the literature, which presented five unrelated differentiated tissues more than did previously reported cases

Quantum interface between frequency-uncorrelated down-converted entanglement and atomic-ensemble quantum memory

Photonic entanglement source and quantum memory are two basic building blocks of linear-optical quantum computation and long-distance quantum communication. In the past decades, intensive researches have been carried out, and remarkable progress, particularly based on the spontaneous parametric down-converted (SPDC) entanglement source and atomic ensembles, has been achieved. Currently, an important task towards scalable quantum information processing (QIP) is to efficiently write and read entanglement generated from a SPDC source into and out of an atomic quantum memory. Here we report the first experimental realization of a quantum interface by building a 5 MHz frequency-uncorrelated SPDC source and reversibly mapping the generated entangled photons into and out of a remote optically thick cold atomic memory using electromagnetically induced transparency. The frequency correlation between the entangled photons is almost fully eliminated with a suitable pump pulse. The storage of a triggered single photon with arbitrary polarization is shown to reach an average fidelity of 92% for 200 ns storage time. Moreover, polarization-entangled photon pairs are prepared, and one of photons is stored in the atomic memory while the other keeps flying. The CHSH Bell's inequality is measured and violation is clearly observed for storage time up to 1 microsecond. This demonstrates the entanglement is stored and survives during the storage. Our work establishes a crucial element to implement scalable all-optical QIP, and thus presents a substantial progress in quantum information science.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Holographic Storage of Biphoton Entanglement

Coherent and reversible storage of multi-photon entanglement with a multimode quantum memory is essential for scalable all-optical quantum information processing. Although single photon has been successfully stored in different quantum systems, storage of multi-photon entanglement remains challenging because of the critical requirement for coherent control of photonic entanglement source, multimode quantum memory, and quantum interface between them. Here we demonstrate a coherent and reversible storage of biphoton Bell-type entanglement with a holographic multimode atomic-ensemble-based quantum memory. The retrieved biphoton entanglement violates Bell's inequality for 1 microsecond storage time and a memory-process fidelity of 98% is demonstrated by quantum state tomography.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev. Let

The Antiinfective Effects of Velvet Antler of Formosan Sambar Deer (Cervus unicolor swinhoei) on Staphylococcus aureus-Infected Mice

We assayed the effects of velvet antler (VA) of Formosan sambar deer (Cervus unicolor swinhoei) and its extracts on the anti-infective activity against pathogenic Staphylococcus aureus in vitro and in vivo in this study. In vitro data indicated that the VA extracts stimulated the proliferation of resting splenocytes and macrophages in a dose-dependent manner up to the highest concentration used (150 μg mL−1). The production of proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6, IL-12) by lipoteichoic acid was significantly suppressed after being cocultured with the VA extracts in a dose-dependent manner. Animal test in S. aureus-infected mice demonstrated that the numbers of bacteria determined in the kidneys and peritoneal lavage fluid of S. aureus-infected mice were significantly higher than those found in the same organs of mice pretreated with the VA samples. Moreover, the highly enhanced phagocytic activity of macrophages was further verified after in vitro treatment with the VA samples. The protective mechanisms of the VA samples might include an immune enhancer and an inflammatory cytokine suppressor