objective(s): yu-ping-feng-san (ypfs) is a classical traditional chinese medicine that is widely used for treatment of the diseases in respiratory systems, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (copd) recognized as chronic inflammatory disease. however, the molecular mechanism remains unclear. here we detected the factors involved in transforming growth factor beta 1 (tgf-β1)/smad2 si...

Microglia belong to the mononuclear phagocyte system. They represent the brain resident tissue macrophages and function as the scavenger cells in brain. In Alzheimer's disease (AD), microglia become activated. Reactive microglia aggregate around senile plaque beta-amyloid and neurofibrillary tangles. Heavy accumulation of these pathological debris in postmortem, however, indicates the failure o...

In 1885 Osler described the clinical course of infective endocarditis (1). Until the introduction of antibiotics the course of the disease was mostly fatal. The introduction of penicillin in 1941 made the disease treatable. However the mortality was considerable, mainly due to heart failure secondary to valve destruction.(2). In 1960 Kay was the first one to report surgical treatment for a valv...