Preventive effect of Qianggan-Rongxian Decoction on rat liver fibrosis

AIM: To study the preventive effects of Qianggan-Rongxian Decoction on liver fibrosis induced by dimethylnitrosamine (DMN) in rats. METHODS: Male Wistar rats were randomly divided into hepatic fibrosis model group, control group and 3 treatment groups (12 rats in each group). Except for the normal control group, all the rats received 1% DMN (10 μL/kg body weight, i.p), 3 times a week for 4 wk. The rats in the 3 treatment groups including a high-dose DMN group (10 mL/kg), a medium-dose DMN group (7 mL/kg), and a low-dose DMN group (4 mL/kg) were daily gavaged with Qianggan-Rongxian Decoction, and the rats in the model and normal control groups were given saline vehicle. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to determine the changes in serum hyaluronic acid (HA), laminin (LN), and type IV collagen levels. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels were measured using routine laboratory methods. Pathologic changes, particularly fibrosis, were examined by hematoxylin and eosin (HE) and Sirius red staining. Hepatic stellate cells (HSC) were examined by transmission electron microscopy. RESULTS: Compared with the model control group, the serum levels of HA, LN, type Ⅳ collagen, ALT and AST were decreased markedly in the other groups after treatment with Qianggan-Rongxian Decoction, especially in the medium-dose DMN group (P < 0.05).Moreover, the area-density percentage of collagen fibrosis was lower in the Qianggan-Rongxian Decoction treatment groups than in the model group, and a more significant drop was observed in the medium-dose DMN group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Qianggan-Rongxian Decoction can inhibit hepatic fibrosis due to chronic liver injury, delay the development of cirrhosis, and notably ameliorate liver function. It may be used as a safe and effective thera-peutic drug for patients with fibrosis.

OPTIMIZATION OF TETRANDRINE TREATMENT IN RAT HEPATIC FIBROSIS MODEL

Objective To optimize the therapeutic dosage of tetrandrine （Tet） in rat hepatic fibrosis roodel. Methods 50 Wistar rats were divided into 5 groups at random including normal control, model control, Tettreated model groups of 10mg· kg^ - 1· d^ - 1, 5mg· kg^ - 1· d^ - 1 and 2.5mg· kg^ - 1· d^ - 1（ n = 10 in each group ）. All rats, except for the normal controls, were injected with axenic porcine serum （0. 5ml each time, twice a week） intraperitoneally for 8 weeks to establish hepatic fibrosis. After the 8th week, rats of Tet-treated model groups were given by gavage once a day with different doses of Tet for another 8 weeks. Then the liver function, serum levels of hyaluronic acid （ HA ）, laminin （ LM）, and procollagen type Ⅲ （PCⅢ） were tested. Collagen type 1 and Ⅲ, pathological changes in liver tissue were also assessed. Results Most indices of liver function including alanine minotransferase （ALT）, aspartate aminotransferase （AST）, albumin （ ALB）, albumin/globulin ratio （ A/G） and alkaline phosphatase （ALP） improved significantly in Tet-treated groups with the exception of γ-glutamyl transpeptidase （γ- GT） and total bilirubin （TBIL）. Secondly, markedly lowered levels of HA, LM and collagen type I, III were also detected by radioimmunology and immunohistochemistry in the 5 mg· kg^ - 1· d^ - 1 Tet-treated model group. Moreover, pathologi- cal findings confirmed the statistically significant improvement in hepatofibrotic degree resulted from the treatment of 5mg· kg^ - 1· d^ - 1 rather than other doses of Tet. Conclusion For experimental Wistar rats, Tet exhibited an anti-hepatofibrotic action in doses within the range of 2.5mg· kg^ - 1· d^ - 1 to 10mg· kg^ - 1· d^ - 1 and 5mg· kg^ - 1· d^ - 1 may be the optimum one among all doses.

Application of fuzzy optimization model in the evaluationof urban flood-waterloggedvulnerabilitybased on the synthetic weight ofgame theory

The evaluation of urban flood-waterlogged vulnerability is very important to the safety of urban flood control. In this paper, the evaluation of consolidated index is used. Respectively, AHP and entropy method calculate the subjective and objective weight of the evaluation indicators, and combine them by game theory. So we can obtain synthetic weight based on objective and subjective weights. The evaluation of urban flood-waterlogged vulnerability as target layer, a single variable multi-objective fuzzy optimization model is established. We use the model to evaluate flood-waterlogged vulnerability of 13 prefecture-level city in Hunan, and compare it with other evaluation method. The results show that the evaluation method has certain adaptability and reliability, and it＇ s helpfid to the construction planning of urban flood control.

Sand-fixing Function under the Change of Vegetation Coverage in a Wind Erosion Area in Northern China

Using meteorological and remote sensing data and changes in vegetation cover during the wind erosion season in northern China, a revised wind erosion equation was applied to evaluate spatiotemporal variation in soil erosion and conservation since the 1990s, and to reveal the effects of the change of vegetation coverage on the wind erosion control service. The results showed that average soil erosion in northern China between 1990 and 2010 was 16.01 bil ion tons and was decreasing. The most seriously eroded areas were mainly distributed in large desert areas or low cover grasslands. Most wind erosion occurred in spring, accounting for 45.93% of total wind erosion. The average amount of sand ifxation service function for northern China between 1990 and 2010 was 20.31 billion tons. Given the influence of wind erosion forces, the service function for sand fixation cannot effectively highlight the role of sand ifxation from the ecosystem itself. The retention rate of service function for sand ifxation reveals the role of the ecosystem itself. The distribution characteristics of the soil retention rate are similar to vegetation cover, which shows a gradual decrease from southeast to northwest in the study area. Improved spring vegetation cover was observed mainly on the Loess Plateau, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, in northern Hebei, eastern Inner Mongolia and northeast China after the implementation of ecosystem projects. The soil retention rate in most areas showed a signiifcant positive relationship with grassland vegetation in spring （r＆gt;0.7, p＆lt;0.01）. The increments of ecosystem service function for various ecological systems are different. Increments for the grassland ecosystem, forest ecosystem, farmland ecosystem and desert ecosystem are 2.02%, 1.15%, 0.99% and 0.86%, respectively.