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ABSTRACT: Radiation-induced lung injury (RILI) is one of the most common and severe side effects of thoracic radiotherapy. Therefore, novel therapeutic approaches to improve the effectiveness of RILI treatment are required. The present study was designed to determine the effectiveness of a traditional Chinese medicine regimen, Shenqi Fuzheng injection (SFI), in the treatment of RILI. SFI is composed of extracts from codonopsis pilosula and radix astragali. Here, we determined the protective effects of SFI on RILI with a single-dose irradiation (RT) of 12 Gy in C57BL/6 8-week-old mice. The mice were divided into four groups treated with i) phosphate-buffered saline (PBS; pH 7.4, 20 ml/kg/day) alone as normal a control; ii) SFI only (20 ml/kg/day); iii) RT + PBS (20 ml/kg/day); and iv) RT + SFI (20 ml/kg/day). SFI and PBS were administered via intraperitoneal injection 1 week before and 2 weeks after RT. The pathology of RILI and any clinical signs of toxicity were monitored. The expression of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 in the lungs was analyzed by RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. TNF-α and TGF-β1 expression was increased by RT, but was reversed by SFI treatment during the radiation pneumonic and fibrotic phases (P<0.05). Lung histology at 24 weeks revealed a significant decrease in structural damage and collagen deposition in the RT + SFI group compared to the RT + PBS group. In conclusion, TNF-α and TGF-β1 are key mediators for the pathogenesis of RILI, and SFI reduces TNF-α and TGF-β1 expression after RT. This may be a key mechanism behind the preventive effects of SFI on lung injury after radiation.
Molecular Medicine Reports 3(4):621-7. · 0.42 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The properties of composite membrane depend immensely on the quality of the interaction between the support layer and the active layer. This work describes the facile method to improve the interfacial adhesion of the chitosan (CS)/polyethersulfone (PES) composite membranes mediated by dopamine. A thin adherent poly-dopamine film was formed through the spontaneous deposition on top of the PES support layer, and acted as a transition layer. The CS active layer was subsequently coated on dopamine transition layer. The optimal recipe and procedure for CS/PES composite membrane preparation was as follows: PES support layer was treated with 4 mg ml−1 dopamine solution (pH 9.47, dipping time 48 h), fully dried and then coated with crosslinked chitosan. The resulting CS active layer was about 10 μm thick. The as-prepared CS/PES composite membrane exhibited high pervaporation flux of 2.28 kg m−2 h−1 for 90 wt.% aqueous alcohol solution in the feed at 80 °C. It could be derived that dopamine mediation would be an effective method for preparing composite membranes with stable structural and high pervaporation flux.
Journal of Membrane Science.
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ABSTRACT: H-ZSM-5 filled chitosan (CS) membranes were prepared by incorporating H-ZSM-5 into chitosan for pervaporation dehydration of aqueous ethanol solution. Characterization results revealed that hydroxyl groups on H-ZSM-5 could form hydrogen-bonding interaction with the hydroxyl and amino groups of chitosan, which lowered the crystallinity of membranes and consequently improved the interface morphology. The sorption experiments showed increased degree of swelling (DS) and sorptivity selectivity with increase of H-ZSM-5 content and decrease of Si/Al ratio in H-ZSM-5, respectively. Decreased separation factor of the filled membranes in pervaporation process was mainly attributed to the formation of nanometer-scale voids, and enhancement of hydrogen-bonding interaction by decreasing Si/Al ratio in H-ZSM-5 reduced the amount of nonselective voids accordingly. Compared with chitosan control membrane (permeation flux 54.18 g/m2 h and separation factor 158.02 for 90 wt.% aqueous ethanol solution at 80 °C), the H-ZSM-5(50)-CS-08 membrane (mass ratio of H-ZSM-5(50) to chitosan is 8 wt.%) exhibited the remarkably improved pervaporation performance with permeation flux 230.96 g/m2 h and separation factor 152.82 under the identical experimental condition.
Separation and Purification Technology.
