Xinyan Gao

Johns Hopkins University | JHU · School of Medicine

Acupuncture, a therapeutic treatment defined as the insertion of needles into the body at specific points (ie, acupoints), has growing in popularity world-wide to treat various diseases effectively, especially acute and chronic pain. In parallel, interest in the physiological mechanisms underlying acupuncture analgesia, particularly the neural mech...

The basic biological research of acupuncture originates from clinical practice and serves clinical application. It is the fundamental idea of "acupuncture translational medicine". The animal experiment is indispensable in acupuncture translational medicine, which contributes to simplifying the complex factors affecting the clinical efficacy of acup...

Acupuncture plays a vital anti-inflammatory action in sepsis by activating autonomic nerve anti-inflammatory pathways, such as sympathoadrenal medullary pathway, but the mechanism remains unclear. This study aims to explore the optimum parameter of electroacupuncture (EA) stimulation in regulating the sympathoadrenal medullary pathway and evaluate...

Objective: To observe the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) and pre-EA at"Taiyuan"(LU9) on histopathological changes, pulmonary ventilation function, pneodynamics, and contents of TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-10 in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in rats with acute lung injury (ALI), in order to explore their differences of therapeutic effects. Methods:...

Introduction The effect of caffeine on acupuncture analgesia in humans is unclear. This study aimed to investigate whether caffeine-containing beverage intake influences the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) on static quantitative sensory testing (QST) and dynamic QST in healthy subjects. Methods A total of 40 healthy subjects were enrolled and ra...

Acupoint is the key area for needling treatment, but its physiology is not yet understood. Nociceptors, one of the responders in acupoints, are responsible for acupuncture manipulation and delivering acupuncture signals to the spinal or supraspinal level. Recent evidence has shown that various diseases led to sensory hypersensitivity and functional...

Myocardial ischemia (MI) causes somatic referred pain and sympathetic hyperactivity, and the role of sensory inputs from referred areas in cardiac function and sympathetic hyperactivity remain unclear. Here, in a rat model, we showed that MI not only led to referred mechanical hypersensitivity on the forelimbs and upper back, but also elicited symp...

Different from other trauma, the scar and pigmentation formed after healing of burn wound not only hinder beauty but also easily lead to a series of sequential psychological problems, such as depression and anxiety. Music therapy, as a supplementary treatment, is widely used in many fields including medical and health care and psychological regulat...

Hyperalgesia and functional plasticity are the important components of acupoint sensitization. Reveal of the neuromechanism of acupoint sensitization may play a positive role in promoting the development of acupuncturology in the world. The nociceptors, including Aδ and C subtypes distributing in the acupoint region and target organs, are responsib...

The skin microecology interacts with the immune system for a lifetime, and the skin microecology is in dynamic balance in the physiological state. The flora with the same physical and chemical properties on the surface of the skin can maintain a relatively stable state in a certain period of time, and there are dynamic changes of microflora in both...

Background The phylogenetic relationships of Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) and Ephemeroptera (mayflies) remain unresolved. Different researchers have supported one of three hypotheses (Palaeoptera, Chiastomyaria or Metapterygota) based on data from different morphological characters and molecular markers, sometimes even re-assessing the sam...

One of the most important aspects of clinical acupuncture practice, like diabetic gastroparesis, is the selection of suitable acupoints. Furthermore, it is critical to examine the therapeutic impact differences between distal and local acupoints, as well as the prescription of their combination. In this study, diabetic gastroparesis rats were treat...

Objective: To explore the effects of early application of sequential treatment of intensive pulsed light and carbon dioxide laser on burn children. Methods: The retrospective cohort before-after study in the same patient was conducted. From January 2016 to December 2018, 145 burn children with hypertrophic scar in the early stage and met the inclus...

Objective: To observe the effect difference of electroacupuncture (EA) at the sensitized and non-sensitized acupoint "Tianshu" (ST25) on the motility of jejunum in rats. Methods: Male SD rats were randomly divided into blank control, sensitized ST25 (sensitization), and non-sensitized ST25 (non-sensitization) groups (n=16 in each group). The sen...

Scalp acupuncture is widely used in clinical practice, and there is still a lack of systematic studies on its nerve pathways and mechanism of action. Scalp acupoints are innervated by the trigeminal nerve which is also involved in the regulation of the leptomeninges and related arterioles nourishing the cerebral cortex. Animal experiments and human...

Agonists to subtype C of the Mas-related G-protein-coupled receptors (MrgC) induce pain inhibition after intrathecal (i.t.) administration in rodent models of nerve injury. Here, we investigated whether tolerance develops after repeated MrgC agonist treatments and examined the underlying mechanisms. In animal behavior studies conducted in male rats...

Mechanisms of visceral pain sensitization and referred somatic hypersensitivity remain unclear. We conducted calcium imaging in Pirt-GCaMP6s mice to gauge responses of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons to visceral and somatic stimulation in vivo. Intracolonic instillation of trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS) induced colonic inflammation and inc...

Objective: To investigate the effect of manual acupuncture stimulation of acupoints at different spinal nerve segments on uterine motility and the complicated adrenergic and cholinergic receptors. Methods: Eighteen adult non-pregnant SD rats were used in the present study. The contractive activities of the uterus were measured by using a pressur...

Pain on the body surface can accompany disorders in the deep tissue or internal organs. However, the anatomical and physiological mechanisms are obscure. Here, we provided direct evidence of axon bifurcation in primary C-nociceptive neurons that innervate both the skin and a visceral organ. Double-labeled dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons and Evan...

Objective: To investigate the autonomic nervous mechanism of acupuncture therapy in the treatment of ischemic cardiomyopathy by observing the influence of electroacupuncture (EA) at "Neiguan"(PC6) on the superior cervical cardiac nerve activity and cardiac function in chronic myocardial ischemia (CMI) rats. Methods: Male SD rats were randomly di...

Peripheral neurostimulation within the trigeminal nerve territory has been used for pain alleviation during migraine attacks, but the mechanistic basis of this non-invasive intervention is still poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the therapeutic role of peripheral stimulation of the trigeminal nerve, which provides homosegmental inne...

Cold injury is very damaging. This article summarizes the mechanism, types, and rehabilitation of cold injury, focusing on the degree and clinical treatment of frostbite. Frostbite can mainly cause damage of microcirculation and capillary structure, while burn injury can mainly cause damage of cutaneous tissues. Based on this, the key point of mana...

Although metallic lithium is regarded as the “Holy Grail” for next‐generation rechargeable batteries due to its high theoretical capacity and low overpotential, the uncontrollable Li dendrite growth, especially under high current densities and deep plating/striping, has inhibited its practical application. Herein, a 3D‐printed, vertically aligned L...

As one of the most important therapies in complementary and alternative medicine, acupuncture has been used in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Acupuncture of “olfactory three-needle” manipulation can improve the cognitive ability of AD patients. However, the mechanism of “olfactory three-needle” in AD remains largely unknown. Here, we id...

Bacteria usually colonize, reproduce, and grow aggressively on chronic wounds in the form of biofilm. Different from free bacteria, bacteria in biofilm exhibit unique mechanism in epigenetics and biological behavior, especially in resistance to antibiotics and host immunity. In this article, we introduce the composition and structural function of b...

Introduction: Paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy (PIPN) is a common dose-limiting side effect of this cancer treatment drug. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) has demonstrated efficacy for attenuating some neuropathic pain conditions. Objective: We aim to examine the inhibitory effect of SCS on the development of PIPN pain and changes of gene...

Opioid use for chronic pain is limited by severe central adverse effects. We examined whether activating mu-opioid receptors (MORs) in the peripheral nervous system attenuates spinal cord injury (SCI) pain-like behavior in mice. We produced a contusive SCI at the T10 vertebral level and examined motor and sensory dysfunction for 6 weeks. At 6 weeks...

Objectives: High-frequency spinal cord stimulation (SCS) administered below the sensory threshold (subparesthetic) can inhibit pain, but the mechanisms remain obscure. We examined how different SCS paradigms applied at intensities below the threshold of Aβ-fiber activation (sub-sensory threshold) affect spinal nociceptive transmission in rats afte...

目的：探讨基于组织病理类型的坐骨结节压力性损伤临床修复策略。 方法：2014年1月—2018年1月，笔者科室收治33例共33处坐骨结节压力性损伤患者，其中男25例、女8例，年龄35～87岁，根据创面基底部变性组织病理类型及组织缺损量采用不同修复方法。彻底清创后创面面积为2.0 cm×1.0 cm～14.0 cm×12.0 cm。坏死型压力性损伤患者组织缺损量为6.5～9.5 cm(3)，扩创后皆Ⅰ期直接缝合。肉芽型压力性损伤患者组织缺损量为56.0～102.5 cm(3)，依据创周情况分别采用股后侧Z字改形术修复1例，股后侧V－Y皮瓣推进术修复1例，股后侧螺旋桨皮瓣修复1例。感染型压力性损伤患者组织缺损量为67.5～111.0 cm(3)，应用股后侧螺旋桨皮瓣修复2例，股后侧V－Y皮瓣推进术...

The application of Li-S batteries is hindered by low sulfur utilization and rapid capacity decay originating from slow electrochemical kinetics of polysulfide transformation to Li 2 S at the second discharge plateau around 2.1 V and harsh shuttling effects for highS loading cathodes. Herein, a cobalt-doped SnS 2 anchored on N-doped carbon nanotube...

The owlflies (Family Ascalaphidae) belong to the Neuroptera but are often mistaken as dragonflies because of morphological characters. To date, only three mitochondrial genomes of Ascalaphidae, namely Libelloides macaronius ; Ascaloptynx appendiculatus ; Ascalohybris subjacens , are published in GenBank, meaning that they are greatly under-represen...

The owlflies (Family Ascalaphidae) belong to the Neuroptera but are often mistaken as dragonflies because of morphological characters. To date, only three mitochondrial genomes of Ascalaphidae, namely Libelloides macaronius ; Ascaloptynx appendiculatus ; Ascalohybris subjacens , are published in GenBank, meaning that they are greatly under-represen...

The owlflies (Family Ascalaphidae) belong to the Neuroptera but are often mistaken as dragonflies because of morphological characters. To date, only three mitochondrial genomes of Ascalaphidae, namely Libelloides macaronius ; Ascaloptynx appendiculatus ; Ascalohybris subjacens , are published in GenBank, meaning that they are greatly under-represen...

In the light of high energy consumption characteristics for the five-column separation process in gas fractionation unit, the optimum separation sequences for the gas fractionation process are screened respectively by the coefficient of easy separation (CES) and the relative cost function method based on the simulation results by Aspen Plus softwar...

Objective: To observe the correlation between the referred pain regions of stable angina pectoris (SAP) and the acupoints in coronary heart disease (CHD) patients and to investigate the rule of regional sensitized point distribution in rats. Methods: A total of 1 046 CHD patients with SAP from 8 hospitals in China were recruited in the present s...

Objective: To develop the Chinese version of the fecal incontinence quality of life (FIQL) questionnaire, and to validate them in Chinese population.Methods:Our study included 52 cases recruiting from outpatients diagnosed with fecal incontinence in Peking Union Medical College Hospital, fecal incontinence in Beijing City nursing homes for the elde...

Background Acupuncture therapy plays a pivotal role in pain relief, and increasing evidence demonstrates that mast cells (MCs) may mediate acupuncture analgesia. The present study aims to investigate the role of MCs in acupuncture analgesia using c-kit gene mutant–induced MC-deficient rats. Materials and methods WsRC-Ws/Ws rats and their wild-type...

Objective: To develop the Chinese version of modified body image scale (MBIS) questionnaires, and to validate them in Chinese population.Methods:The original English MBIS questionnaire was translated into Chinese, following the WHO cross-cultural adaptation of health-related quality of life measures. The reliability and validity of the Chinese vers...

Functional gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, especially motor dysfunction of the GI tract are common in general population. Acupuncture has been widely adopted in the treatment of GI symptoms in China for thousands of years. During the last decades, the effects and mechanisms of acupuncture on gastrointestinal function have been investigated by nume...

Background Detrusor smooth muscle (DSM) underactivity may lead to urinary retention (UR). Electroacupuncture (EA) at BL33 may be effective in improving DSM contractions. Objectives This study aimed to investigate: (1) the effect of EA at BL33; and (2) the effect of different manipulation methods at BL33 on the modulation of DSM contractions in UR...

To solve the problem of high energy consumption in traditional DMF recovery process, the double-effect concentrating process is proposed. The influences of concentrating for three different feed DMF concentrations on the energy conservation effect are studied through simulation by Aspen Plus based on the NRTL thermodynamic model. With the minimum a...

Objective: Scalp acupuncture is a somatic stimulation therapy that produces prominent clinical effects when used to treat cerebral diseases. However, this acupuncture's therapeutic mechanisms have not yet been well-addressed. Scalp acupoints are innervated by the trigeminal nerve, which is coincident with the intracranial sensory afferents as well...

Purpose To validate and explore the application of a rat model of chronic constriction injury to the partial sciatic nerve in investigation of acupuncture analgesia. Methods Chronic constriction injury of the sciatic nerve (CCI) and chronic constriction injury of the partial sciatic nerve (CCIp) models were generated by ligating either the sciatic...

Objective: To investigate the effects of paired ST36 and RN12 acupuncture stimulation on gastric motility and the firing rate of responsible neurons in anesthetized rats.

According to the characteristic of methyl acetate-methanol-water system in the presence of two kinds of azeotrope, three separation processes such as double solvent four column extractive distillation process, single solvent three column extractive distillation process and double solvent synergistic extractive distillation process were proposed on...

According to the characteristic of high energy consumption for separation of mixed xylene system, heat integration and MVR heat pump technology are applied. The heat-integrated distillation process, MVR rectification process with pre-fractionation and the complete MVR heat pump distillation process are proposed for separation of mixed xylene system...

The application of Lubao No.1 microbial agent has been limited because of its degradation, although the strain shows high bio-herbicidal activity against Cuscuta chinensis. The results of an investigation of the biological characteristics of Lubao No.1 showed that the optimal mycelium growth medium was PDA medium. The optimal culture temperature is...

Inter-reboiler coupled mechanical vapor recompression (MVR) heat pump distillation process was proposed based on the characteristics for large temperature difference system. The simulations were performed for conventional distillation process, conventional MVR heat pump distillation process, inter-reboiler coupled MVR heat pump distillation process...

Acupuncture at homotopic acupoints or heterotopic acupoints is known to either inhibit or facilitate gastrointestinal motility, depending on the acupoint location. However, little effort has been made to investigate the roles of specific receptors (such as adrenergic and muscarinic acetylcholine receptors) in mediating the effects of acupuncture at...

Effect of Sham acupuncture on gastrointestinal motility in wildtype mice. (DOCX)

Effect of Sham acupuncture at ST37 or ST25 on gastrointestinal motility. (A) Representative traces of gastric, jejunal, and distal colonic motility induced by sham or real acupuncture at ST25 in wildtype mice. (B) Representative traces of gastric, jejunal, and distal colonic motility induced by sham or real acupuncture at ST37 in wildtype mice. (C)...

Genetic background of transgenic mice. (DOCX)

There has been increasing effort in the research and development of biological herbicides because of their low toxicity. Myrothecium roridum, strain BC-1 was isolated from diseased Echinochloa crusgalli leaves in order to obtain a low toxicity and effective biological herbicide. The BC-1 strain was identified using its culture characters and 16S rD...

Alopecurus myosuroides is a major weed in Europe. Originally, it was only found in Taiwan but now it is a worsening problem in mainland China, including Shandong, Hebei, and Shanxi. However, there is no information about control using chemical herbicides in China. Field experiments were conducted to determine the effectiveness of control and the re...

Objective: To discuss mechanism of moxibustion (thermal stimulation) effect and best moxibustion stimulus parameter.

Bacterial biofilms are considered to be the hindrance in the treatment of chronic wound, because of their tolerance toward antibiotics and other antimicrobial agents. They also have strong ability to escape from the host immune attack. Acetic acid, as a kind of organic weak acid, can disturb the biofilms by freely diffusing through the bacterial bi...

Photoelectric characteristics are very important for discharge plasma. A volume diffuse dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) by means of parallel-plate arrays was established, and the methods including electrical parameter and optical emission spectroscopy (OES) were used to diagnose the discharge parameters. The results show that the spectra from di...

The reactions have been accompanied ultraviolet (UV) radiation and electron impact with discharge plasmas in water-gas mixture, which can generate oxides such as ozone (O3), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). Two plasma processing systems were established by means of a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) arrays in water mist spray a...

The thermal coupled distillation is applied to separate ternary mixture alkane of n-hexane, cyclohexane and isooctane. By using the lowest total annual cost(TAC) as objective function, the influence of the middle component split ratio on energy consumption and TAC is performed by Aspen Plus software with the RK-SOAVE equation. The optimum split rat...

Fusarium chlamydosporum strain ZC201301 showed high herbicidal activity towards Digitaria sanguinalis. In the present study, the 'single factor at a time' method was used to determine biological characteristics of ZC201301. It was found that the optimal mycelial growth media were potato dextrose agar (PDA) and crabgrass leaf juice (CAJ), and the op...

Objective: To investigate the operative types and therapeutic efficacy of endovascular repair for aortic dissection aneurysm involving the left subclavian artery. Methods: The clinical data of 56 patients with aortic dissection aneurysm, who were admitted to authors' hospital to receive endovascular repair of different types during the period from...

Positioning failure of shell transfer arm is a typical fault of automatic ammunition loading-system of howitzer. The action reliability depends on several uncertainty variables. The explicit limit state function is nearly unavailable. To calculate the quantitative action reliability, uncertainty model of shell transfer arm was built and modified by...

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated the efficacy of somatic stimulation for patients with gastrointestinal motility disorders. However, little effort has been made to investigate the effects of acupuncture on colonic motility, particularly in pathological conditions. The precise mechanism employed in the regulation of acupuncture on col...

Objective: To investigate the safety and feasibility of carotid endarterectomy (CEA) combined with carotid artery stent angioplasty (CASA) in treating tandem stenosis of carotid artery. Methods: The clinical data of 9 patients with tandem stenosis of carotid artery, who were treated at authors' hospital during the period from January 2013 to Octobe...

Background: In Chinese medicine, dual effects on target organs are considered a primary characteristic of acupoint. Acupoints may be classified as heterotopic or homotopic in terms of spinal segmental innervation: homotopic acupoints contain afferent innervation in the same segment from which efferent fibers innervate target visceral organs, and h...

Gastroparesis is a common gastrointestinal complication in diabetes, induced by hyperglycemia and characterized by delayed gastric emptying and upper abdominal symptoms, such asnausea, vomiting, early satiety, bloating and epigastric pain. Diabetic gastroparesis (DGP) affects life quality and glycemic control, and is a challenge to treat in both We...

We thank all authors for their excellent contributions and reviewers for their valuable help. The Lead Guest Editor would like to thank the five Guest Editors for their dedicated cooperation. We hope the special issue will bring readers useful academic reference in their research.

Correlation between natural defoliation traits and pectinase activities in leaf, leaf sheath and leaf scar of sugarcane during the maturation stage was studied, using sugarcane cultivars with different natural defoliation traits. The results showed that pectinase activities of the leaf, leaf sheath and leaf scar on 2nd, 5th, and 10th leaf position...

Previous studies have shown that electroacupuncture (EA) has a significant effect on acute pain, but it has not solved the clinical problem of the chronification of acute pain. Diffuse noxious inhibitory controls (DNIC) function as a reliable indicator to predict the risk of chronic pain events. DNIC function in knee osteoarthritis (KOA) patients h...

To clone a sesquiterpene synthase gene denoted As-SesTPS1 from total RNA of Aquilaria sinensis based on previous transcriptome sequencing data and analyze the bioinformatics and expression of the gene. The full length cDNA of As-SesTPS1 was obtained by reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR). The sequence similarity and homology were analyzed, and the s...

Objective: To discuss the key points of endovascular therapy for complex subclavian artery occlusive diseases. Methods: During the period from January 2012 to December 2013, a total of 92 patients with complex subclavian artery occlusive disease were admitted to Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing, China. The clinical data were r...

Objective: To evaluate the safety and feasibility of stenting angioplasty for the treatment of severe carotid stenosis accompanied with contralateral carotid occlusion. Methods: During the period from Apr. 2004 to Aug. 2014, a total of 26 patients with severe carotid stenosis complicated by contralateral carotid occlusion were admitted to authors'...

To investigate the effect and mechanism of acupuncture at heterotopic acupoints on jejunal motility, particularly in pathological conditions. Jejunal motility was assessed using a manometric balloon placed in the jejunum approximately 18-20 cm downstream from the pylorus and filled with approximately 0.1 mL warm water in anesthetized normal rats or...