Heme metabolism mediates RANKL-induced osteoclastogenesis via mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation.

Bone undergoes life-long remodelling, in which disorders of bone remodelling could occur in many pathological conditions including osteoporosis. Understanding the cellular metabolism of osteoclasts is key to developing new treatments for osteoporosis, a disease that affects over 200 million women worldwide per annum. We found that human osteoclast differentiation from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) derived from 8 female patients is featured with a distinct gene expression profile of mitochondrial biogenesis.

The effect of 807-nm light-emitting diode photobiomodulation on peripheral nerve injury.

Photobiomodulation (PBM) has demonstrated potential in promoting peripheral nerve regeneration. However, there is a limited and inconclusive study on the application of light-emitting diode (LED) for nerve injury repair. In this study, we designed an 807-nm LED device with high luminous uniformity to investigate the effects of LED-based PBM on peripheral nerve injury repair.

Implementation suggestions for shared decision-making: results from a comparative study of inpatients and outpatients experience surveys.

Background: Shared decision-making (SDM) is crucial in patient-centered healthcare services, but its integration into routine medical care remains limited. This study aimed to investigate patients' experience with SDM in both outpatient and inpatient settings, exploring how the quality of care provided by doctors and patient's trust in doctors influence SDM across different contexts.

Methods: This study utilized data from the regional cross-sectional surveys, including the 2019 Inpatient Experience and the 2021 Specialist Outpatient Experience survey in Hong Kong.

Dendritic donor engineering to optimize second near-infrared photothermal agents for in situ photothermal therapy.

Small organic photothermal agents (PTAs) with dual photothermal and imaging functions in the second near-infrared (NIR-II) window present a promising strategy for deep tumor treatment, however, fluorescence quenching conventional PTAs and low photothermal conversion efficiency (PCE) present obstacles to their widespread application. In this study, a novel "dendritic donor engineering" strategy was employed to design NIR-II organic PTAs (named DCTBBT and TCTBBT) with donor-π-acceptor-π-donor features and aggregation-induced emission (AIE) activity. Owing to the fine-tuning of the dendritic donors, the close co-facial packing of the central π-backbone was disrupted, effectively avoiding fluorescence quenching caused by π-π aggregation, which facilitated molecule-free motions in aggregate state, and as a result, the DCTBBT nanoparticles (NPs) demonstrated a PCE of 59.

Antibacterial Chitin-Based Sponges with Enhanced Water Absorbency and Mechanical Properties for Hemostasis and Wound Healing.

The development of antibacterial sponges with both high water-absorbing and mechanical properties is highly desirable for attaining efficient hemostasis and closure of noncompressible wounds, but remains challenging. General methods, such as increasing porosity, to improve the water absorption of sponges inevitably compromise their mechanical properties. Herein, a chitin (CT)/quaternized chitosan (QCS) sponge with the desirable properties was fabricated by freeze-drying the chemically and physically dual cross-linked CT/QCS hydrogel with enhanced hydrophilicity.