The American journal of Chinese medicine
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Diabetic nephropathy is characterized by renal hardening and interstitial fibrosis caused by extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulation. The most distinctive diabetic lesion in the glomeruli is mesangial expansion and hyperplasia, which ultimately leads to diabetic nephrosclerosis. Oryeongsan (ORS), a traditional Chinese herbal medication, is widely used to treat nephrosis, dropsy, and uremia. ⋯ Furthermore, ICAM-1 and MCP-1 expression were suppressed in ORS-treated db/db mice. Therefore, these findings suggest that ORS ameliorated insulin resistance and diabetes-associated glomerulosclerosis in db/db mice, possibly by disturbing the TGF-β1/Smads pathway. ORS may be a new therapeutic option for treating diabetic nephropathy.
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Meta Analysis
Acupuncture for chronic low back pain in long-term follow-up: a meta-analysis of 13 randomized controlled trials.
Chronic low back pain is one of the most common reasons that people seek medical treatment, and the consequent disability creates a great financial burden on individuals and society. The etiology of chronic low back pain is not clear, which means it is often refractory to treatment. Acupuncture has been reported to be effective in providing symptomatic relief of chronic low back pain. ⋯ Acupuncture achieved better outcomes when compared with other treatments. No publication bias was detected. Acupuncture is an effective treatment for chronic low back pain, but this effect is likely to be produced by the nonspecific effects of manipulation.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The prevalence and determinants of Chinese medicine use by Australian women: analysis of a cohort of 10,287 women aged 56-61 years.
This study aimed to examine the factors associated with Chinese medicine use amongst a sample of 10,287 Australian women aged 56-61 years. Data was obtained from a cross-sectional postal questionnaire conducted in 2007, this being the fifth survey of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. This representative sample of 10,287 women was randomly selected from the Health Insurance Commission (Medicare) database. ⋯ Interestingly, severe tiredness was the only symptom or diagnosis that predicted Chinese medicine use. Given the substantial prevalence of Chinese medicine use and the finding that the use of Chinese medicine is heavily integrated alongside the use of many other CAM and conventional treatments, it is imperative for the safety of patients that health professionals (across complementary and conventional healthcare) fully recognise the possible Chinese medicine use amongst their practice populations. In order to help inform relevant practice and policy development it is also important that future research further examining women's decision-making, motivations and evaluations regarding Chinese medicine use considers such issues within the context of broader CAM and conventional health care utilization.
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Inflammation plays a crucial role in the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis. Besides cytokines, chemokines and cell adhesion molecules, CD40 and P-selectin play important roles as key regulators of the inflammatory process in atherosclerosis. Danshen (DS) is commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine for therapy of cardiovascular diseases such as coronary artery disease. ⋯ In the cell supernatants we also observed a significant reduction of IL-6, IL8 and MCP-1. DS and its major ingredients, Sal B and Protoc, significantly inhibited TNF-induced expression and release of adhesion molecules, cytokines and chemokines as well as ADP-induced expression of platelet P-selectin. Because of the key roles of inflammatory mediators in the etiology of atherosclerosis, this work provides useful insight in understanding the pharmacological efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine.
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Celastrol is one of the principal active ingredients of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook.f., a toxic Chinese medical herb traditionally prescribed for controlling pain and inhibiting inflammation in various chronic inflammatory diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Resistance to apoptosis of fibroblast-like synoviocytes is considered a major characteristic of RA. In this study, we test celastrol's cytotoxic effect and potential mechanisms in human rheumatoid synovial fibroblasts (RA-FLS). ⋯ Furthermore, celastrol dramatically increased expression of Bax/Bcl-2, proteolytic cleavage of Caspase-3, -9, PARP, and decreased expression of FasR. In addition, celastrol treatment resulted in DNA damage. Collectively, we concluded that celastrol inhibits RA-FLS proliferation by inducing DNA damage, cell cycle arrest, and apoptosis in vitro, which might provide data for its application in RA treatment.