Hypertensive nephropathy treatment by heart-protecting musk pill: a study of anti-inflammatory therapy for target organ damage of hypertension.

This study was designed to investigate the protective effect of the heart-protecting musk pill (HMP) on inflammatory injury of kidney from spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR). Male SHRs aged 4 weeks were divided into SHR model group, HMP low-dosage group (13.5 mg/kg), and HMP high-dosage group (40 mg/kg). Age-matched Wistar-Kyoto rats were used as normal control. All rats were killed at 12 weeks of age. Tail-cuff method and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were used to determine rat systolic blood pressure and angiotensin II (Ang II) contents, respectively. Renal inflammatory damage was evaluated by the following parameters: protein expressions of inflammatory cytokines, carbonyl protein contents, nitrite concentration, infiltration of monocytes/macrophages in interstitium and glomeruli, kidney pathological changes, and excretion rate of urinary protein. HMP did not prevent the development of hypertension in SHR. However, this Chinese medicinal compound decreased renal Ang II content. Consistent with the change of renal Ang II, all the parameters of renal inflammatory injury were significantly decreased by HMP. This study indicates that HMP is a potent suppressor of renal inflammatory damage in SHR, which may serve as a basis for the advanced preventive and therapeutic investigation of HMP in hypertensive nephropathy.

Modeling the survival of T-cell lymphocytes using compound branching processes

Radiotherapy has been a method of choice in cancer treatment for a number of years. Mathematical modeling is an important tool in studying the survival behavior of any cell as well as its radiosensitivity. One particular cell under investigation is the normal T-cell, the radiosensitivity of which may be indicative to the patient's tolerance to radiation doses.^ The model derived is a compound branching process with a random initial population of T-cells that is assumed to have compound distribution. T-cells in any generation are assumed to double or die at random lengths of time. This population is assumed to undergo a random number of generations within a period of time. The model is then used to obtain an estimate for the survival probability of T-cells for the data under investigation. This estimate is derived iteratively by applying the likelihood principle. Further assessment of the validity of the model is performed by simulating a number of subjects under this model.^ This study shows that there is a great deal of variation in T-cells survival from one individual to another. These variations can be observed under normal conditions as well as under radiotherapy. The findings are in agreement with a recent study and show that genetic diversity plays a role in determining the survival of T-cells. ^