D URING recent years significant advances have been made in using and development of biodegradable polymeric materials for life applications. Degradable polymeric biomaterials are preferred because these materials have specific physical, chemical, biological, biomechanical and degradation properties. Wide ranges of natural or synthetic biopolymers capable of undergoing degradation hydrolytically or enzymatically are being investigated for many applications. This review aimed to provide an overview for the importance of biomaterials, produced or degraded naturally, classification and applications.

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Nonallergic hypersensitivity reaction (NHR) accounts for more than 77% of all immune-mediated immediate hypersensitivity reactions and has become a serious threat to public health. Here, proteomics was used to study the NHR mechanism of two typical substances, the compound 4880 and ovalbumin. Twelve different proteins were suggested as potential biomarkers for examining the NHR mechanism, and our results revealed that the mechanism mainly encompassed 2 processes, i.e., generation and effect processes. The generation process could be classified as direct stimulation, complement (classical and alternative), coagulation, kallikrein-kinin, and integrated pathways. Thus glutathione peroxidase 1, terminal complement complex (complement factor 4d and Bb), coagulation 13, kininogen-1, and IgE could be used as candidate biomarkers for the indication of the corresponding pathways respectively, the proteins were further confirmed by ELISA. And the effect process was mainly composed of histamine as well as proteins such as DCD and MYLPF, which could be used as important indices for the symptoms of NHR. Our study differs from previous studies in that C4880 was found to not only be involved in the direct stimulation pathway, but also in the activated complement and kallikrein-kinin pathways through the coagulation pathway. We also report for the first time that ovalbumin-induced NHR could be a combination of the coagulation, classical complement, and integrated pathways.

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Background: Recent research indicates that injections inducing unwanted anaphylactoid reactions occur frequently in a clinical setting. In this paper, we explored anaphylactoid reactions trends in animal models following ginsenosides injections. Methods: Our anaphylactoid animal model was optimized by comparing reactions between BN rats, SD rats, guinea pigs and ICR mice to first intravenous exposure to standard compounds including ovalbumin (OVA), tannic acid (TA), Tween 80 (T80), bovine serum albumin (BSA) and Compound 48/80 (C48/80), Shengmai injection (SMI) and Xuesaitong injection (XSTI) which contains ginsenosides, respectively. The anaphylactoid symptoms were documented and the plasma levels of histamine were assessed. Subsequently, the IgE levels and total complement activity (CH50) were determined to further explore the mechanisms underlying the observed anaphylactoid reactions on the optimized animal model. Results: We observed that BN rats and guinea pigs exhibited particularly exacerbated symptoms after administration of OVA, T80, TA, SMI and XSTI. Regarding histamine levels, we observed that BN rats were more sensitive to TA and XSTI, guinea pigs were more sensitive to OVA, T80 and SMI, and SD rats were more sensitive to C48/80. According to both anaphylactoid symptom scores and histamine secretion rates, BN rats, in particular, were found to be more sensitive to OVA, T80, TA, SMI and XSTI. Noteworthy however, the four rodents showed significantly weaker anaphylactoid reactions after administration of BSA. Conclusion: BN rats were more suitable for comprehensive evaluation of anaphylatoid reactions following injections; both IgE levels and CH50 could be used as auxiliary mediators for the assessment of anaphylactoid reactions.