Description: Background: Radiation-induced skin injury is a common complication of radiotherapy. The RHIZOMA COPTIDIS and COPTIS CHINENSIS extract (RCE) can ameliorate radiation-induced skin injury in our clinical observation. But, the protective mechanism of RHIZOMA COPTIDIS and COPTIS CHINENSIS in radiation-induced skin injury remains unclear. Methods: In this experiment, we developed a radiation-induced skin injury rat model to study the mechanism. The animals were randomly divided into control group, treatment group, radiation group, and treatment and radiation group. 5 rats in each group were separately executed on 2 d and 49 d post-radiation. The semi-quantitative skin injury score was used to measure skin reactions by unblinded observers, and hematoxylin and eosin staining was used to evaluate the damage areas by irradiation. The MDA content, SOD activity of skin and serum were measured to detect the oxidative stress. Results: Acute skin reactions were caused by a single dose of 45 Gy of beta-ray irradiation, and the skin injury could be found in all rats receiving irradiation based on the observation of HE staining of skin at different time-points, while RCE could significantly ameliorate those changes. TheMDA content in serum and skin of control rats was 4.13 +/- 0.12mmol/ml and 4.95 +/- 0.35mmol/mgprot on 2 d post-radiation. The rats receiving radiation showed an increased content of MDA (5.54 +/- 0.21mmol/ml and 7.10 +/- 0.32mmol/mgprot), while it was 4.57 +/- 0.21mmol/ml and 5.95 +/- 0.24mmol/mgprot after treated with RCE (p 〈 0.05). Similarchanges of the MDA content could be seen on 49 d post-radiation. However, the SOD activity of rats receiving radiation decreased compared with control group on both time-points, which was inhibited by RCE (p 〈 0.05). Meanwhile, no valuable changes could befound between control group and treatment group on 2 d and 49 d. Conclusions: Our study provides evidences for the radioprotective role of RCE against radiation-induced skin damage in rats by modulating oxidative stress in skin, which may be a useful therapy for radiation-induced skin injury.

Description: Ginkgo biloba (Ginkgoaceae), originating from China, now distributes all over the world. Wide application of Ginkgo biloba extracts is determined by the main active substances, flavonoids and terpenoids, which indicates its extracts suitable to be used as an effective corrosion inhibitor. The extracts of Ginkgo biloba leave have been investigated on the corrosion inhibition of Q235A steel with weight loss and potentiodynamic polarisation techniques. The inhibition efficiency of the extracts varies with extract concentration. The extracts inhibit corrosion mainly by adsorption mechanism. Potentiodynamic polarisation studies show that extracts are mixed type inhibitors. The antibacterial activity of the extracts against oil field microorganism (SRB, IB and TGB) was also investigated.

Description: A film comprising randomly distributed metal/dielectric/metal sandwich nanopillars with a distribution of cross-sectional diameters, displayed extremely low reflectance over the blue-to-red regime, when coated on glass and illuminated normally. When it is illuminated by normally incident light, this sandwich film (SWF) has a low extinction coefficient, its phase thickness is close to a negative wavelength in the blue-to-red spectral regime, and it provides weakly dispersive forward and backward impedances, so that reflected waves from the two faces of the SWF interfere destructively. Broadband reflection-reduction, over a wide range of incidence angles and regardless of the polarization state of the incident light, was observed when the SWF was deposited on polished silicon. Scientific Reports 3 doi: 10.1038/srep01672