Sanguis Draxonis (SD), a kind of natural plant exudates, has been prescribed for handling diabetic disorders as a Chinese traditional herb. Surprisingly, SD was found to be a good material for oral insulin delivery. The Insulin-loaded Sanguis Draxonis nanocapsules (ISDN) were prepared by deposition technique. The average size and width of distribution of ISDN were 184F24 and 110F16 nm, respectively. The insulin encapsulation efficiency of ISDN reached up to 69.6F5.6%. In vitro the release profile of insulin from ISDN can be well modeled using an exponential function [Y=1 exp(0.0275t)], showing that there was no initial burst release of insulin. The stability studies indicated that the majority of initial amount of insulin in ISDN was preserved not only after incubation of ISDN in three kinds of proteolytic enzyme solutions at 37 jC for 30 min, but also after its storage at 25 jC for 6 months. After a single oral administration of ISDN at the dose of 25, 50, and 75 IU/kg in STZ-induced diabetic rats, the blood glucose level was depressed to 60.5F2.7%, 52.6F2.3% and 47.3F3.1% of the initial value at time point 8 h, respectively, and these marked decreases lasted 2–4 days. When 125I-labeled ISDN was administered orally, the distribution sequence of isotope intensity of 125I radioactivity in rat organs was as follows: liver, kidney, heart, spleen and lung. In addition, 125I radioactivity disappeared progressively as a function of time, parallel to the biological effect. In conclusion, the results demonstrate that ISDN elicits a long-term hypoglycemic effect significantly after oral administration in STZ-induced diabetic rats and it can be considered as a stable and effective system for oral insulin delivery.

Gelatin microspheres (GMs) containing Pingyangmycin hydrochloride were prepared for the interventional embolization by a double-phase emulsified thermal gelation method using oxidized dextran (ox-dex) as the cross-linking agent. The average diameter of the microspheres was 82 m with 74% ranging from 50-200 m. Drug content and the characteristics of drug release in vitro and in vivo were evaluated using UV-spectroscopy and HPLC, respectively. The prepared microspheres showed a rather high percentage of encapsulation ranging from 85 to 88% and drug content at 7.2%. The results of in vitro experiments showed that about 65.5% of the total amount of the encapsulated drug was released after 6 h at 37

The underlying ionic mechanisms of ischemic-induced arrhythmia were studied by the computer simulation method. To approximate the real situation, ischemic cells were simulated by considering the three major component conditions of acute ischemia (elevated extracellular K+ concentration, acidosis and anoxia) at the level of ionic currents and ionic concentrations, and a round ischemic zone was introduced into a homogeneous healthy sheet to avoid sharp angle of the ischemic tissue. The constructed models were solved using the operator splitting and adaptive time step methods, and the perturbation finite difference (PFD) scheme was first used to integrate the partial differential equations (PDEs) in the model. The numerical experiments showed that the action potential durations (APDs) of ischemic cells did not exhibited rate adaptation characteristic, resulting in flattening of the APD restitution curve. With reduction of sodium channel availability and long recovery of excitability, refractory period of the ischemic tissue was significantly prolonged, and could no longer be considered as same as APD. Slope of the conduction velocity (CV) restitution curve increased both in normal and ischemic region when pacing cycle length (PCL) was short, and refractory period dispersion increased with shortening of PCL as well. Therefore, dynamic changes of CV and dispersion of refractory period rather than APD were suggested to be the fundamental mechanisms of arrhythmia in regional ischemic myocardium.

The Si3N4 thin film is prepared by MWECR-PECVD at different deposition tern-perature and the structure of the Si3N4 thin film is investigated. The results indicate that the structure of the Si3N4 thin film prepared at low deposition temperature is in the amorphous phase. However, when the deposition temperature increases to 280℃, the Si3N4 thin film changes to crystalline d-Si3N4. With a further increase of the deposition temperature, the grain of the Si3N4 thin film becomes more fine. uniform and flat. XRD analysis shows that the structure of the Si3N4 thin film prepared at 280℃ is of a crystalline structure.

We present a nonflowing laser light scattering method for automatically counting and classifying blood cells. A linear chargecoupled device (CCD) and a silicon photoelectric cell (which is placed behind a pinhole plate on the CCD) form a double-detector structure: the CCD is used to detect the scattered light intensity distribution of the blood cells and the silicon photoelectric cell to complete the focusing process. An isotropic sphere, with relative refractivity near 1, is used to model the blood cell. Mie theory is used to describe the scattering of white blood cells and platelets, and anomalous diffraction, red blood cells. To obtain the size distribution of blood cells from their scattered light intensity distribution, the nonnegative constraint least-squares (NNLS) method combined with the Powell method and the precision punishment method are used. Both numerical simulation and experimental results are presented. This method can be used not only to measure the mean and the distribution of red blood cell size, but also to divide the white blood cells into three classes: lymphocytes, middle-sized cells, and neutrocytes. The experimental results show a linear relationship between the blood cell (both white and red blood cells) concentration and the scattered light intensity, and therefore, the number of blood cells in a unit volume can be determined from this relationship.