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Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has long been used to treat diabetes mellitus and angina. It has also gained widespread clinical applications in China as a common adjuvant treatment. Although there is high-quality evidence that TCM is effective in regulating glucose and lipid metabolism, the cardiovascular protective effect of TCM in the treatment of diabetes mellitus has not been fully elucidated, especially in patients with both diabetes mellitus and coronary heart disease (CHD). We systematically assessed the efficacy and safety of TCM for the adjuvant treatment of patients with CHD and diabetes mellitus and examined the pharmacological effects and potential mechanisms of TCM medication/herbs on diabetes mellitus with CHD. We found that TCM could improve the control effect of conventional treatment on cardiac function, hemorheology, blood glucose, blood lipid, and inflammation, thus reducing the frequency of angina and the incidence of cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality. These findings indicate that TCM may be used as a complementary approach for patients with diabetes mellitus and CHD. Nevertheless, more rigorously designed randomized controlled trials and long-term evaluations are needed to support these findings.

To explore the differences of the gene expression of CD4(+) lymphocytes between the RF(+) and RF(-) patients with rheumatoid arthritis.mRNA of all the CD4(+) lymphocytes samples were extracted and identified. Then they were labeled and hybridized to microarrays.Hierarchical clustering analysis showed there were 55 differential expression genes between the RF(+) and RF(-) patients with rheumatoid arthritis.There are differential expression genes between the RF(+) and RF(-) patients and these genes are related to immunoresponse.

To explore the differential gene expression of peripheral CD4+ among rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients of cold or heat syndrome type with or without rheumatoid factor (RF).Differential gene expression of peripheral CD4+ lymphocytes purified from fasting venous blood of RA patients and healthy subjects was studied using gene chip technique.There were 55 differential genes between RA patients with and without RF, mainly involving those related with immune response and signal transduction. In patients with RF, 71 differential genes, mainly related with functional metabolism and immune response, and in those without RF, 70 related with functional metabolism were found between patients of cold and heat syndrome type respectively, all of them were not repetitive with the above-mentioned 55, and only 2 were found repetitive between the 70 and the 71 differential genes, mainly involving functional metabolism.The differential genes between RA patients with or without RF are different with those between patients of heat and cold syndrome type, suggesting the TCM syndrome classification has its own basis of gene expression profile.