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Acute respiratory distress syndrome threatens public health with high morbidity and mortality due to ineffective intervention whereby lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced acute lung injury (ALI) in mice provides a research model. The seeds of Euphorbia lathyris L. have a long history of usage in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Euphorbia factors L1-L11, extracted from this herb, have been reported to have anti-inflammation and anti-cancer effects. Here, we report the preventive and therapeutic potential of Euphorbia factor L2 (EFL2) on LPS-induced ALI in mice, where EFL2 attenuated pathological alterations in the lung and improved survival. Significant suppression of the recruitment and transmigration of inflammatory cells, specifically neutrophils, by 40 mg/kg of EFL2 was observed. EFL2 exerted potent anti-inflammatory effects by decreasing the levels of interleukin-1β (IL-1 β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF- α), interleukin-8 (IL-8) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) in the lung and bronchioalveolar lavage fluid. Consistent with the findings in vivo, EFL2 also showed robust inhibitory effects on the production of IL-1 β, IL-6, TNF- α and IL-8 released from LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells in vitro. Interestingly, this effect appeared to be mediated by EFL2’s inhibition of NF-κB signaling activation, but not the MAPK pathway. Not only phosphorylation of IKK α/β and IκBα was down-regulated, p65 translocation and its DNA-binding activity were also significantly suppressed by EFL2. Moreover, overexpression of p65 reversed the inhibitory effect of EFL2 in LPS-induced NF-κB activation and cytokines production. The observed anti-inflammatory bioactivity of EFL2 indicates its potential as a drug development candidate, particularly for LPS-mediated disorders of inflammation.

Jiao-Tai-Wan (JTW), has been usually used for insomnia in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). The previous study shown that JTW was benefit for depression-like behavior, but the possible mechanism is not clear. This study is to determine whether JTW was benefit for the treatment of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced depression-like behavior in mice and explore its possible mechanism. All drugs were intragastrically administered once daily for 7 consecutive days. On the 7th day, LPS was injected into mice 30 min after drug administration. Behavioral tests were performed 24 h after LPS administration. Serum levels of interleukin (IL)-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and nor-epinephrine (NE) levels in prefrontal cortex were determined by UPLC-MS. The protein expressions of NF-κB signaling in prefrontal cortex were determined by western blot. Behavioral tests were measured via tail suspension test (TST), forced swimming test (FST), sucrose preference test (SPT) and open field test (OFT). In addition, effects of JTW on the TNF-α induced depressive-like behavior were also examined. Pretreatment with JTW (4.2 and 8.4 g/kg) or fluoxetine (20 mg/kg) effectively attenuated LPS-induced upregulations of the serum TNF-α and IL-6 contents and JTW (4.2 and 8.4 g/kg) or fluoxetine (20 mg/kg) effectively increased the contents of 5-HT and NE compared with LPS-treated group. Meanwhile, the western blot analysis results indicated the correlation between the antidepressant activity of JTW and the regulation of NF-κB signaling in brain. Besides, JTW (4.2 and 8.4 g/kg) or fluoxetine (20 mg/kg) significantly shortened LPS-induced increases in immobility time of TST, FST and weakened the reduction of the sucrose preference in SPT without significant alterations of locomotor activity in OFT. Additionally, JTW effectively reversed the depressive-like behavior induced by TNF-α (0.1 fg/site, i.c.v.). Our findings indicated that Jiao-Tai-Wan (JTW) played an important role in monoaminergic response and anti-inflammation in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced mouse model, which may be therapeutically exploited to alleviate depression-like behavior.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the cardioprotective effect of esculetin (ES) on myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) damage in rats and investigate the potential mechanism. Rats were randomly assigned to 4 groups, namely, sham group, I/R group, I/R + ES (20 mg kg−1, intragastric administration, 7 days) group, and I/R + ES (40 mg kg−1, intragastric administration, 7 days) group. The indices of myocardial injury, inflammatory cytokines and apoptosis-related parameters were detected. ST segment elevation of electrocardiograph (ECG) was observed in ischemia rats. The results demonstrated that ES administration effectively decreased the levels of creatinine kinase (CK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) in serum and reduced the myocardial infarction area compared with the I/R group. ES treatment also markedly restored the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and decreased the amount of malondialdehyde (MDA) of the I/R rats. Moreover, the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay suggested that ES treatment suppressed myocardial cell apoptosis, which might be associated with the up-regulation of Bcl-2 and the down-regulation of Bax, caspase-3 and caspase-9. In addition, ES attenuated myocardial I/R induced injury in rats by inhibiting the receptor-interacting protein 140 (RIP140)/nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) inflammatory pathway. Collectively, it could be assumed that ES significantly improved myocardial I/R injury in rats partially through suppression of myocardial apoptosis and inflammation mediated by the RIP140/NF-κB pathway.

The present study was designed to investigate the protective effect of Sophoraflavanone G (SG) on streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. The rats were intraperitoneally injected with STZ (35mg/kg). 7days later, the rats were intragastrically administered with Metformin (MET, 150mg/kg), SG (20mg/kg) or SG (40mg/kg) once daily for consecutive 30 days. The animals were anaesthetized, the blood and liver samples were also collected for further assay. SG significantly decreased the serum levels of glucose, insulin, aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT). In addition, SG increased superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and inhibited malondialdehyde (MDA) content in serum. SG also ameliorated the histopathological condition. Furthermore, SG attenuated the expressions of thioredoxin (Trx), thioredoxin-interacting protein (Txnip) and the phosphorylations of inhibitory kappa B kinase (IKK)α, IKKβ, nuclear factor-κB inhibitory proteins (IκB)α, nuclear factor κB (NF-κB). These findings demonstrated that SG showed beneficial effects on STZ-induced diabetic rats.

The purpose of the present study is to identify independent risk factors for the occurrence of cement leakage (CL) during percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) for four different leakage types in treating osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (OVCFs). We retrospectively reviewed 292 patients who underwent PVP for single-level OVCF from January 2009 to March 2011. The influences of several potential risk factors that might affect the occurrence of CL were assessed using univariate and multivariate analyses. Cement leakage was evaluated by computed tomography and classified into four different types: through the basivertebral vein (B-type), the segmental vein (S-type), a cortical defect (C-type), and intradiscal leakage (D-type). Cement leakage was found in 227 of the 292 treated vertebrae. None of the parameters showed a statistically significant effect by univariate analysis. However, multivariate analysis showed that cement viscosity was an independent risk factor in B-type CL, fracture severity and fracture type were in S-type CL, fracture severity and presence of cleft on MRI were in C-type CL, and fracture severity, cortical disruption on MRI, presence of cleft on MRI and cement viscosity were in D-type CL. Each different vertebral fracture pattern has its own risk factors for CL. Identification of the above predicting factors for CL preoperatively might be helpful for more rigorous and strict patient selection criteria for the appropriate candidates for PVP.

The SQLite is an open source embedded database engine. For its advantages of small core, fast and high efficiency, stability and reliability, portability and so on, SQLite is widely applied in the data management of embedded environment, such as mobile phone, PDA, industrial control, etc. In this study, the features, architecture and development technology of SQLite are discussed. We proposed a detailed porting process for SQLite to Windows CE platform, and we also introduced an C++ unicode encapsulation for SQLite. In the end, we presented an application of SQLite in embedded system that is about the data recording system which based on ARM and Windows CE 5.0. The experiment shows that it is high performance embedded database and is suitable for embedded system.