Application of Chinese Traditional Medicine in Kidney Transplantation

Kidney transplantation is one of the important means in saving the life of patients with renal diseases of the terminal stage. However, rejection reaction often results in the loss of the grafted organs’ function. Almost half the recipients have been found to suffer from loss of graft function due to rejection reaction within 10 years of post-transplantation. Part of them have bad quality of life

The prospects of regenerative medicine combined with rehabilitative approaches for chronic spinal cord injury animal models

Regenerative medicine has opened a window for functional recovery in acute-to-subacute phase spinal cord injury（SCI）.By contrast,there are still only a few studies have focused on the treatment of the chronically injured spinal cord,in which cell-based regenerative medicine seems less effective.Since the majority of SCI patients are in the chronic phase,representing a major challenge for the clinical application of cellbased regenerative medicine.Although combined therapies for the treatment of chronic SCI have attracted attention of researchers and its potential importance is also widely recognized,there had been very few studies involving rehabilitative treatments to date.In a recent study,we have demonstrated for the first time that treadmill training combined with cell transplantation significantly promotes functional recovery even in chronic SCI,not only in additive but also in synergistic manner.Even though we have succeeded to outline the profiles of recovery secondary to the combination therapy,the mechanism underlying the effects remain unsolved.In this review article,we summarize the present progress and consider the prospect of the cell-based regenerative medicine particularly combined with rehabilitative approaches for chronic SCI animal models.

Combined Use of Chinese Medicine with Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for Severe Aplastic Anemia Patients

Objective：To determine the effect of combined treatment with Chinese medicine（CM） and allogeneic hematopoietic stem ceil transplantation（allo-HSCT） on patients with severe aplastic anemia（SAA）.Methods：Eleven patients were treated with CM plus ailo-HSCT.Nine patients received a conditioning regimen consisting of fludarabine（Flu）,anti-thymocyte globulin（pig ALG）,or anti-lymphocyte globulin（Rabbit ATG） and cyclophosphamide（CY）,and two patients received pig ALG and CY.All patients were treated with Kidney（Shen）-reinforcing,blood-activating,and stasis-removing（KBS） herbal preparation beginning at 1 week before transplantation and ending at 8 weeks after transplantation.Chimerism status was assessed by analyzing short tandem repeat（STR） polymorphisms.Results：All patients recovered hematopoietic function and none had graft failure.The median number of days required for the absolute neutrophil count（ANC） increased to 〉0.5× 10~9/L was 15 days（12-22 days） and for spontaneous platelet recovery to 〉20×10~9/L without post-transplantation transfusion was 17 days（15-27 days）.Nine patients were longterm survivors and achieved full donor chimerism.The overall cumulative incidence of acute graft versus host disease（GVHD） grades Ⅰ-Ⅱ and Ⅲ-Ⅳ was 18.2%（2/11） and 9.1%（1 /11）,respectively.The overall accumulated incidence of chronic GVHD was 27.3%and all patients had limited chronic GVHD.At a median follow-up time of 32 months（range：12-97 months）,9 patients were still alive.The estimated 5-year overall survival（OS） rate was 81.8%.The incidence of treatment-related mortality,2-year post-transplantation,was 18.2%.Two patients died from GVHD after transplantation.Conclusion：Treatment with the KBS formulation may reduce the rate of graft failure and treatmentrelated mortality and improve the rate of OS in SAA patients with allo-HSCT.

Stem cell differentiation and human liver disease

Human stem cells are scalable cell populations capable of cellular differentiation.This makes them a very attractive in vitro cellular resource and in theory provides unlimited amounts of primary cells.Such an approach has the potential to improve our understanding of human biology and treating disease.In the future it may be possible to deploy novel stem cell-based approaches to treat human liver diseases.In recent years,eff icient hepatic differentiation from human stem cells has been achieved by several research groups including our own.In this review we provide an overview of the f ield and discuss the future potential and limitations of stem cell technology.

Potential advantages of a combination of Chinese Medicine and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell transplantation for removing blood stasis and stimulating neogenesis during ischemic stroke treatment

Combined treatment of ischemic stroke with Chinese medicine and exogenous bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell(BMSC) transplantation may improve the removal of blood stasis and stimulation of neogenesis.Chinese medicines that remove blood stasis not only promote blood circulation but also calm the endopathic wind,remove heat,resolve phlegm,remove toxic substances and strengthen body resistance.The medicinal targeting effect of Chinese medicine can promote the homing of BMSCs,and the synergistic therapeutic effects of drugs can contribute to BMSC differentiation.As such,exogenous BMSC transplantation has potential advantages for neogenesis.Chinese medicines and exogenous BMSCs provide complementary functions for the removal of blood stasis and stimulation of neogenesis.Therefore,a combination of Chinese medicine and transplantation of exogenous BMSCs may be particularly suited to ischemic stroke treatment.