Research progress of external therapies of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD)is a common chronic liver disease characterized by diffuse hepatic steatosis.With the improvement of people's living standard,the incidence rate of NAFLD has been increasing,which has become one of the global health problems in 21st Century.However,there is no specific drug or standard treatment for NAFLD,which brings challenges to treatment.Acupuncture,moxibustion,massage and other external therapies based on the characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine have obvious curative effect in the clinical treatment of NAFLD,but the mechanism has not been systematically explained,which makes the clinical promotion evidence insufficient.This paper aims to summarize the researches on the treatment of NAFLD by external therapies of traditional Chinese medicine in recent years,and analyze its possible mechanism,so as to provide a scientific theoretical basis for future basic experiments and clinical research,and form a set of standardized clinical diagnosis and treatment scheme with the characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine.

Effect of pre-IVF incubation in maturation medium on oocyte maturity,fertilization,embryonic development,and clinical outcomes following embryo transfer

Objective:Collected human cumulus-oocyte complexes(COCs)are usually inseminated after 4 to 6 hours in in vitro fertilization(IVF)laboratories.The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of short-term pre-IVF incubation in culture medium on subsequent oocyte maturation,fertilization,and embryonic development,as well as clinical outcomes.Methods:Sixty patients were divided randomly into 2 groups,pre-IVF incubation for 5 hours:1)with(+)the designed oocyte maturation medium;2)without(-)the designed oocyte maturation medium(transferred directly to fertilization medium for 5 hours before insemination).Oocyte maturation and fertilization were assessed,and the rate of cleavage and good quality embryos were evaluated between the 2 groups on days 2 and 3,respectively.Blastocyst development was based on the remaining number of embryos on day 3,continuously cultured to day 5 after embryo transfer or frozen on day 3,and was compared between the 2 groups.Clinical pregnancy,implantation,and miscarriage rates were also compared.Results:Oocyte maturation rates did not differ between groups(85.8±14.1%vs.90.7±9.1%).However,the range of oocyte maturation rates(58.3%-100.0%)for each patient was significantly higher in the(-)group than in the(+)pre-incubation group(71.4%-100.0%).There were no differences in fertilization rates(89.9±10.0%vs.86.5±12.2%)and good quality embryos(70.8±19.1%vs.62.1±23.7%)between groups;however,the blastocyst development rates were significantly different between groups(73.1±20.1%vs.58.8±18.2%,P<0.05).Nevertheless,clinical pregnancy(62.5%vs.61.1%)and implantation(46.9%vs.47.2%)rates did not differ between groups.Conclusions:These results indicate that a short pre-IVF incubation time in the designed culture medium promotes oocyte maturation and embryonic development,suggesting that short pre-IVF incubation of COCs in the designed culture medium may be important for subsequent final oocyte maturation and early embryonic development.

A conceived model of“physician scientist”cultivation:exploring the double degrees of MD-PhD program

To the Editor:With the rapid economic growth and improvement of people's living standards in China,ever-greater demands for high-level health-care services hre expected.These expectations are bringing new challenges to the development of clinical doctors.However,the traditional path for doctor training is inadequate to meet these challenges,as both clinical and scientific practices are important for doctors but difficult to integrate into medical education.Thus,the current medical training system is challenged to combine scientific research training with conventional clinical training.To provide possible sol-utions,Health Science Center(HSC)of Xian Jiaotong University(XJTU)has been exploring a new mode of developing physician scientists:The Double Doctoral Program(DDP)。