Omics : a journal of integrative biology
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Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a comprehensive system of medical practice that has been used to diagnose, treat, and prevent illnesses for more than 3000 years. ZHENG (also known as "syndrome") differentiation remains the essence of TCM. In China, TCM shares equal status, and integrated with Western medicine in the healthcare system to treat many types of diseases. ⋯ We searched the Chinese electronic databases and PubMed for published articles related to "Omics" and "TCM ZHENG" and observed a dramatic increase in studies over the past few years. In this article, we provide a timely synthesis of the lessons learned, and the emerging applications of omics science in TCM ZHENG research. We suggest that the global health scholarship and the field of "developing world Omics" can usefully draw from TCM, and vice versa.
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MicroRNAs play important regulatory roles in many physiological processes. This study investigated potential involvement of microRNAs in hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury and ischemic preconditioning in mice. MicroRNAs with significant changes in expression in the livers upon ischemic preconditioning following ischemia/reperfusion injury were detected by microRNA microarrays. ⋯ The expression of mmu-miR-326 was further confirmed by quantitative real-time RT-PCR, and CCAAT/enhancer binding protein alpha was predicted by computer-aided algorithms to be a downstream target of this microRNA. In summary, our study showed a distinctive miRNA expression pattern in mouse livers in response to ischemic preconditioning following ischemia/reperfusion injury. Further studies on the miRNAs identified herein may enhance the understanding of miRNA-based mechanisms of hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury and ischemic preconditioning.
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Personalized medicine heralds the future of medicine. The 2009 Westlake International Conference on Personalized Medicine held from May 29-31, 2009, in Hangzhou, China (www.westlakeconference.org) brought together approximately 200 participants and over 40 presenters from a dozen countries. ⋯ The IBC (Interdisciplinary Bio Central) journal was suggested as the official journal for the AASBM, as it is a truly open journal (www.ibc7.org). The Web site for AASBM will be aasbm.org.