Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a complete system of healing that developed in China about 3000 years ago, and includes herbal medicine, acupuncture, moxibustion and massage, etc. In recent decades the use of TCM has become more popular in China and throughout the world. Traditional Japanese medicine has been used for 1500 years and includes Kampo-yaku (herbal medicine), acupuncture and acupressure. Kampo is now widely practised in Japan and is fully integrated into the modern health-care system. Kampo is based on TCM but has been adapted to Japanese culture. In this paper we review the history and characteristics of TCM and traditional Japanese medicine, i.e. the selection of traditional Chinese herbal medicine treatments based on differential diagnosis, and treatment formulations specific for the 'Sho' (the patient's symptoms at a given moment) of Japanese Kampo--and look at the prospects for these forms of medicine.

Visceral adipose tissue-derived serine protease inhibitor (vaspin) is an interesting novel adipocytokine with insulin-sensitizing effects. Some studies have suggested that vaspin could play an important role in the development of obesity and metabolic disorders. The induction of vaspin mRNA expression could represent a compensatory mechanism associated with obesity, severe insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus, however it is unclear whether a correlation exists between human vaspin serum levels and markers of insulin sensitivity and glucose or lipid metabolism. Vaspin serum concentrations have been shown to be lower in lean subjects and competitive sportsmen with long-term physical training, but they are increased with weight loss associated with a physical training programme. In conclusion, there is at present no clear proof of a causal link between vaspin and visceral fat accumulation, or insulin resistance. This article reviews the role of vaspin in obesity-associated diseases and its potential as a new biomarker for obesity and impaired insulin sensitivity.

Post-operative ileus (PI) is an inevitable

More and more patients have been diagnosed as having chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) in recent years. Western drug use for this syndrome is often associated with many side-effects and little clinical benefit. As an alternative medicine, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has provided some evidences based upon ancient texts and recent studies, not only to offer clinical benefit but also offer insights into their mechanisms of action. It has perceived advantages such as being natural, effective and safe to ameliorate symptoms of CFS such as fatigue, disordered sleep, cognitive handicaps and other complex complaints, although there are some limitations regarding the diagnostic standards and methodology in related clinical or experimental studies. Modern mechanisms of TCM on CFS mainly focus on adjusting immune dysfunction, regulating abnormal activity in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and serving as an antioxidant. It is vitally important for the further development to establish standards for ‘zheng’ of CFS, i.e. the different types of CFS pathogenesis in TCM, to perform randomized and controlled trials of TCM on CFS and to make full use of the latest biological, biochemical, molecular and immunological approaches in the experimental design.

The present results suggest that the macroscopic and microscopic postmortem features of HSE may provide useful information for clinical diagnosis of HSE.

An increasing amount of neuroimaging evidence supports the hypothesis that chronic fatigue syndrome patients have structural or functional abnormalities within the brain. Moreover, some neurotrophic factors, neurotransmitters and cytokines have also been evaluated in order to elucidate the mechanism of abnormal neuropsychic findings in chronic fatigue syndrome. In this review, we suggest that the focal point of chronic fatigue syndrome research should be transferred to the central nervous system.

Chronic fatigue is reported in more than 20% of patients examined in primary care, and this common problem affects the quality of life and work productivity.1) A large part of the chronic fatigue population meets the diagnostic criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), which is defined by unexplained physical or mental fatigue of at least 6-month duration and a combination of nonspecific symptoms.2) Several CFS symptoms including impaired concentration, attention, and memory as well as headache suggest that the central nervous system (CNS) may be involved in CFS pathophysiology.3) Moreover, neuroimaging evidence indicates that structural and/or functional abnormalities exist in the CNS of CFS patients. For example, marked reductions in the gray matter volume are observed; 4) Cook et al. 5) found an association between subjective feelings of mental fatigue and brain responses during a fatiguing cognitive task; CFS patients always have reduced concentrations of N-acetylaspartate in the hippocampus, a putative marker of neuronal metabolism 6) ; and a 23% reduction in 5-HT 1A receptor number and affinity was found in the hippocampus of CFS patients. 7) However, neural mechanisms, especially the hippocampal substrates in CFS, are unclear in part due to the lack of a suitable animal model.In our previous study, a chronic fatigue mouse model was induced by six repeated injections of fixed killed Brucella abortus antigen solution via the tail vein every 2 weeks. 8,9) We found that brain atrophy and reduction of the hippocampal Bcl-2 and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) mRNA expression levels were accompanied by lower spontaneous activity.8) However, the hippocampal weight was not measured in those previous studies.Resveratrol (RSV), an active component of grapevines and peanuts, is recognized as a polyphenolic activator of sirtuin 1 (Sirt1), a protein deacetylase.10) It can enhance running activity of high fat diet-fed mice two-fold by activating Sirt1. 11)Moreover, Sirt1 can protect neurons from DNA damageinduced apoptosis by downregulating p53 acetylation, an apoptotic mediator.12) RSV treatment of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) is capable of increasing differentiation and directing neurogenesis through a mechanism requiring Sirt1.13) Thus RSV may be beneficial for physical activity of our fatigue mice and even play a role in improving structural and/or functional defects of the hippocampus.We aimed to clarify the hippocampal structural and/or functional defects in this fatigue model. Another purpose of our study was to determine whether RSV intervention could improve the fatigue and reverse the abnormalities by antiapoptosis and promoting neurogenesis. MATERIALS AND METHODS Animals, Living Conditions, and Spontaneous RunningActivity Eight-week old BALB/c mice (female, 20-24 g, CLEA Japan, Tokyo, Japan) were housed singly in previously described cages 8,9) including running wheels and counters. The cages were maintained under a light-dark photoperiod (lights on from 09:00 to 17:00), and daily spontaneous ...

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