title: Simultaneous quantification and splenocyte-proliferating activities of nucleosides and bases in Cervi cornu Pantotrichum.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cervi Cornu Pantotrichum has been a well known traditional Chinese medicine, which is young horn of Cervus Nippon Temminck (Hualurong: HLR). At present, the methods used for the quality control of Cervi Cornu Pantotrichum show low specificity.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To describe a holistic method based on chemical characteristics and splenocyte-proliferating activities to evaluate the quality of HLR.
  
  
  METHODS
  The nucleosides and bases from HLR were identified by high performance liquid chromatography electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS), and six of them were chosen to be used for simultaneous HPLC quantification according to the results of proliferation of mouse splenocytes in vitro.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this study, eight nucleosides and bases have been identified. In addition, uracil, hypoxanthine, uridine, inosine, guanosine, and adenosine were chosen to be used for simultaneous HPLC quantification. Simultaneous quantification of these six substances was performed on ten groups of HLR under the condition of a TIANHE Kromasil C18 column (5 μm, 4.6 mm × 250 mm i.d.) and a gradient elution of water and acetonitrile. Of the ten groups, HLR displayed the highest total nucleoside contents (TNC, sum of adenosine and uracil, 0.412 mg/g) with the strongest splenocyte-proliferating activities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that TNC (such as particularly highly contained adenosine and uracil) in HLR has a certain correlation with the activity of splenocyte-proliferating, and it may be used as a quality control for HLR. This comprehensive method could be applied to other traditional Chinese medicines to ameliorate their quality control.
authors.affiliation: Development Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Bioengineering, Changchun University of Chinese Medicine, Changchun, China ; College of Chinese Medicinal Materials, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zong
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Tasly Institute, Chinese Botanical R and D Institute, Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Development Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Bioengineering, Changchun University of Chinese Medicine, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: Hang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Development Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Bioengineering, Changchun University of Chinese Medicine, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Development Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Bioengineering, Changchun University of Chinese Medicine, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Development Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Bioengineering, Changchun University of Chinese Medicine, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: Jiaming
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Life Science, Changchun University of Technology, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: Xiaohui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.affiliation: Development Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Bioengineering, Changchun University of Chinese Medicine, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: Xiaochen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao
keywords: Cervus Nippon Temminck; electrospray ionization mass spectrometry; high performance liquid chromatography; immunomodulatory; nucleosides and bases