One Hundred and Eighty-nine Cases of Acute Articular Soft Tissue Injury Treated by Blood-letting Puncture with Plum-blossom Needle and Cupping

Acute articular soft tissue injury, a frequently encountered disease, is often clinically treated with analgesics, Chinese drugs for relaxing muscles and tendons to promote blood circulation, physiotherapy and acupuncture. These therapies can achieve certain curative effects, however, there is a longer course of treatment and some cases even have sequela particularly in such weight-carrying joints as the ankle joint and the knee joint. The therapeutic method of blood letting puncture with plum-blossom needle and cupping is adopted to treat this disease with satisfactory therapeutic effect. The results are reported as follows.

Effects of Acupuncture at Acupoint Neiguan(PC6)and Intravenous Injection of Larginine on the Improvement of Acute Myocardial Ischemia

Objective： The present study is to observe and compare the different effects of electroacupuncture（EA） at acupoint Neiguan （PC 6）, intravenous administration of L-arginine（L-Arg, a precursor of nitric oxide）, and the drug administration combined with the EA on acute myocardial ischemia（AMI） in rats. Methods. The rat model of AMI was established by occlusion of the anterior descending branch of the left coronary artery, then the animals were divided randomly into 5 groups, i.e. control group, AMI group, L-Arg treatment group, EA treatment group and L-Arg plus EA treatment group, the mean arterial pressure（MAP）, heart rate（HR） and the cardiac functions were observed and recorded. Results： The data showed that MAP, HR and all the indices of cardiac functions in the AMI group were significantly lower than those in control group, and the indices in each treatment group were all improved to different extents, especially in L-Arg plus EA treatment group. Conclusion.The combined use of L-Arg and EA had the better therapeutic effect on the AMI.

Glial implications in transplantation therapy of spinal cord injury

Spinal cord injuries are damages that result in complete or partial loss of sensation and/or mobility and affect the life qualities of many patients. Their pathophysiology in-cludes primary and secondary processes, which are related with the activation of astrocytes and microgliacytes and the degeneration of oligodendrocytes. Although transplan-tation of embryonic stem cells or neural progenitor cells is an attractive strategy for repair of the injured central ner-vous system (CNS), transplantation of these cells alone for acute spinal cord injuries has not resulted in robust axon regeneration beyond the injury sites. This may be due to the progenitor cells differentiating to the cell types that sup-port axon growth poorly and/or their inability to modify the inhibitory environment of adult CNS after injury. Recent studies indicate that transplantation of glial progenitor cells has exhibited beneficial effects on the recovery and promis-ing future for the therapy strategy of spinal cord injury. In this review, we summarized the data from recent literature regarding glial implications in transplantation therapy of spinal cord injury.

Salvianolic acid B decreases interleukin-1b-induced colitis recurrence in mice

Background:Degree of mucosal recovery is an important indicator for evaluating the therapeutic effects of drugs in treatment of inflammatory bowel disease(IBD).Increasing evidences has proved that tight junction(TJ)barrier dysfunction is one of the pathological mechanisms of IBD.The aim of this study was to observe whether enhancement of TJ can decrease colitis recurrence.Methods:Eighty C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into four groups including normal group,colitis group,sulfasalazine(SASP)treated group,and traditional Chinese drug salvianolic acid B(Sal B)treated group.Colitis was established in mice by free drinking water containing dextran sulfate sodium,after treatments by SASP and Sal B,recombinant human interleukin-1b(IL-1b)was injected intraperitoneally to induce colitis recurrence.Results:Compared with sham control,cell apoptosis in colitis group was increased from 100.85±3.46%to 162.89±11.45%(P=0.0038),and TJ dysfunction marker myosin light chain kinase(MLCK)was also significantly increased from 99.70±9.29%to 296.23±30.78%(P=0.0025).The increased cell apoptosis was reversed by both SASP(125.99±8.45%vs.162.89±11.45%,P=0.0059)and Sal B(104.27±6.09%vs.162.89±11.45%,P=0.0044).High MLCK expression in colitis group was reversed by Sal B(182.44±89.42%vs.296.23±30.78%,P=0.0028)but not influenced by SASP(285.23±41.04%vs.296.23±30.78%,P>0.05).The recurrence rate induced by recombinant human IL-1b in Sal B-treated group was significantly lower than that in SASP-treated group.Conclusions:These results suggested a link between intestinal mucosal barrier dysfunction,especially TJ barrier dysfunction,and colitis recurrence.The TJ barrier dysfunction in remission stage of colitis increased the colitis recurrence.This study might provide potential treatment strategies for IBD recurrence.