A pilot study of cardiac guided wave elastography: An testing in a rodent model with mechanical testing validation.

Many heart diseases can change the elasticity of myocardial tissues, making elastography a potential medical imaging strategy for heart disease diagnosis and cardiovascular risk assessment. Among the existing elastography methods, ultrasound elastography is an appealing choice because of ultrasound's inherent advantages of low cost, high safety, wide availability, and deep penetration. The existing investigations of cardiac ultrasound elastography were implemented based on a bulk model of heart tissue, treating the waves generated in the myocardial tissues as shear waves.

Role of ghrelin in promoting catch-up growth and maintaining metabolic homeostasis in small-for-gestational-age infants.

Small-for-gestational age (SGA) has been a great concern in the perinatal period as it leads to adverse perinatal outcomes and increased neonatal morbidity and mortality, has an impact on long-term health outcomes, and increases the risk of metabolic disorders, cardiovascular, and endocrine diseases in adulthood. As an endogenous ligand of the growth hormone secretagotor (GHS-R), ghrelin may play an important role in regulating growth and energy metabolic homeostasis from fetal to adult life. We reviewed the role of ghrelin in catch-up growth and energy metabolism of SGA in recent years.

Supramolecular Nanofibers Ameliorate Bleomycin-Induced Pulmonary Fibrosis by Restoring Autophagy.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive and ultimately fatal interstitial lung disease, with limited therapeutic options available. Impaired autophagy resulting from aberrant TRB3/p62 protein-protein interactions (PPIs) contributes to the progression of IPF. Restoration of autophagy by modulating the TRB3/p62 PPIs has rarely been reported for the treatment of IPF.

Ultrasonic surface acoustic wave elastography: A review of basic theories, technical developments, and medical applications.

Physiological and pathological changes in tissues often cause changes in tissue mechanical properties, making tissue elastography an effective modality in medical imaging. Among the existing elastography methods, ultrasound elastography is of great interest due to the inherent advantages of ultrasound imaging technology, such as low cost, portability, safety, and wide availability. However, most current ultrasound elastography methods are based on the bulk shear wave; they can image deep tissues but cannot image superficial tissues.

Intestinal metabolomics in premature infants with late-onset sepsis.

We aimed to investigate the characteristics of intestinal metabolomics and non-invasive biomarkers for early diagnosis of late-onset sepsis (LOS) by analyzing gut metabolites in preterm infants with LOS. We collected stool samples from septic and healthy preterm infants for analysis by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. 123 different metabolites were identified and 13 pathways were mainly involved.

Enhancement effect of carvacrol on yeast inactivation by mild pressure carbon dioxide.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is one of the common spoilage microorganisms in fruit juices. This paper investigated the influences of carvacrol on S. cerevisiae inactivation by mild pressure carbon dioxide (MPCO).

A time variant uncertainty propagation method for high-dimensional dynamic structural system via K-L expansion and Bayesian deep neural network.

In this paper, a time variant uncertainty propagation (TUP) method for dynamic structural system with high-dimensional input variables is proposed. Firstly, an arbitrary stochastic process simulation (ASPS) method based on Karhunen-Loève (K-L) expansion and numerical integration is developed, expressing the stochastic process as the combination of its marginal distributions and eigen functions at several discrete time points. Secondly, the iterative sorting method is implemented to the statistic samples of marginal distributions for matching the constraints of covariance function.

A Scholte wave approach for ultrasonic surface acoustic wave elastography.

Background: Pathological changes in tissues are often related to changes in tissue mechanical properties, making elastography an important tool for medical applications. Among the existing elastography methods, ultrasound elastography is of great interest due to the inherent advantages of ultrasound imaging technology, such as low cost, portability, safety, and wide availability. Although ultrasonic shear wave elastography, as a platform technology, can potentially quantify the elasticity of tissue at any depth, its current implementation cannot assess superficial tissue but can only image deep tissue.

Noninvasive ultrasound assessment of tissue internal pressure using dual mode elasticity imaging: a phantom study.

Tissue internal pressure, such as interstitial fluid pressure in solid tumors and intramuscular pressure in compartment syndrome, is closely related to the pathological state of tissues. It is of great diagnostic value to measure and/or monitor the internal pressure of targeted tissues. Because most of the current methods for measuring tissue pressure are invasive, noninvasive methods are highly desired.

Effect of Combined Treatment with Cinnamon Oil and -High Pressure CO against .

This study investigated the effects of the combined treatment with cinnamon oil (CIN) and petit-high pressure CO2 (p-HPCO2) against Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The results showed that CIN and p-HPCO2 exhibited a synergistic antifungal effect against S. cerevisiae.

Enzyme-instructed and mitochondria-targeting peptide self-assembly to efficiently induce immunogenic cell death.

Immunogenic cell death (ICD) plays a major role in cancer immunotherapy by stimulating specific T cell responses and restoring the antitumor immune system. However, effective type II ICD inducers without biotoxicity are still very limited. Herein, a tentative drug- or photosensitizer-free strategy was developed by employing enzymatic self-assembly of the peptide F-pY-T to induce mitochondrial oxidative stress in cancer cells.

Correction: Sonodynamic therapy induces oxidative stress, DNA damage and apoptosis in glioma cells.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1039/C8RA07099G.].

Peptide OM-LV20 promotes structural and functional recovery of spinal cord injury in rats.

At present, there are no satisfactory therapeutic drugs for the functional recovery of spinal cord injury (SCI). We previously identified a novel peptide (OM-LV20) that accelerated the regeneration of injured skin tissues of mice and exerts neuroprotective effects against cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats. Here, the intraperitoneal injection of OM-LV20 (1 μg/kg) markedly improved motor function recovery in the hind limbs of rats with traumatic SCI, and further enhanced spinal cord repair.

Tandem molecular self-assembly for selective lung cancer therapy with an increase in efficiency by two orders of magnitude.

In situ self-assembly of prodrug molecules into nanomedicine can elevate the therapeutic efficacy of anticancer medications by enhancing the targeting and enrichment of anticancer drugs at tumor sites. However, the disassembly and biodegradation of nanomedicine after enrichment prevents the further improvement of the efficiency, and avoiding such disassembly and biodegradation remains a challenge. Herein, we rationally designed a tandem molecular self-assembling prodrug that could selectively improve the therapeutic efficacy of HCPT against lung cancer by two orders of magnitude.

Bifunctional supramolecular nanofiber inhibits atherosclerosis by enhancing plaque stability and anti-inflammation in apoE mice.

Atherosclerosis is vascular disease of chronic inflammation and lipid disorder, which is a major cause of coronary heart disease. Foam cell formation is key progress during the atherosclerosis development. Insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 is a growth hormone that plays a crucial role in growth, metabolism, and homeostasis.

Ultrafast ultrasound imaging of surface acoustic waves induced by laser excitation compared with acoustic radiation force.

Two generation mechanisms-optical perturbation and acoustic radiation force (ARF)-were investigated where high frame rate ultrasound imaging was used to track the propagation of induced SAWs. We compared ARF-induced SAWs with laser-induced SAWs generated by laser beam irradiation of the uniformly absorbing tissue-like viscoelastic phantom, where light was preferentially absorbed at the surface. We also compared the frequency content of SAWs generated by ARF versus pulsed laser light, using the same duration of excitation.

Sonodynamic therapy induces oxidative stress, DNA damage and apoptosis in glioma cells.

Malignant glioma remains one of the most challenging diseases to treat because of the invasive growth of glioma cells and the existence of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which blocks drug delivery to the brain. New strategies are urgently needed to overcome these shortcomings and improve the outcomes. Ultrasound represents a promising noninvasive and reversible BBB opening approach and the related sonodynamic therapy (SDT) is rapidly emerging.

Effects of fluoride on morphology, growth, development, and thyroid hormone of Chinese toad (Bufo gargarizans) embryos.

Excessive fluoride in natural water ecosystem has the potential to detrimentally affect amphibians, but little is known of such effects or underlying mechanisms in Bufo gargarizans embryos. In the present study, the effects of fluoride exposure on B. gargarizans embryos were investigated.

Supersonic transient magnetic resonance elastography for quantitative assessment of tissue elasticity.

Non-invasive, quantitative methods to assess the properties of biological tissues are needed for many therapeutic and tissue engineering applications. Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) has historically relied on external vibration to generate periodic shear waves. In order to focally assess a biomaterial or to monitor the response to ablative therapy, the interrogation of a specific region of interest by a focused beam is desirable and transient MRE (t-MRE) techniques have previously been developed to accomplish this goal.

Pulsed ultrasonic comb filtering effect and its applications in the measurement of sound velocity and thickness of thin plates.

An analytical and experimental study of the pulsed ultrasonic comb filtering effect is presented in this work intending to provide a fundamental tool for data analysis and phenomenon understanding in pulsed ultrasonics. The basic types of comb filter, feedforward and feedback filters, are numerically simulated and demonstrated. The characteristic features of comb filters, which include the formula for determining the locations of the spectral peaks or notches and the relationship between its temporal characteristics (relative time delay between constituent pulses) and its spectral characteristics (frequency interval between peaks or notches), are theoretically derived.

In vitro characterization and in vivo ultrasound molecular imaging of nucleolin-targeted microbubbles.

Nucleolin (NCL) plays an important role in tumor vascular development. An increased endothelial expression level of NCL has been related to cancer aggressiveness and prognosis and has been detected clinically in advanced tumors. Here, with a peptide targeted to NCL (F3 peptide), we created an NCL-targeted microbubble (MB) and compared the performance of F3-conjugated MBs with non-targeted (NT) MBs both in vitro and in vivo.

Development of a spherically focused phased array transducer for ultrasonic image-guided hyperthermia.

A 1.5 MHz prolate spheroidal therapeutic array with 128 circular elements was designed to accommodate standard imaging arrays for ultrasonic image-guided hyperthermia. The implementation of this dual-array system integrates real-time therapeutic and imaging functions with a single ultrasound system (Vantage 256, Verasonics).

Characterization of the geometry of microscale periodic structures using acoustic microscopy.

Periodic structures are very common in both scientific investigations and engineering applications. The geometry of the periodic structure is important for its designed functionality. Although the techniques such as optical and electron microscopy are capable of measuring the periodicity of microscale periodically-corrugated structures, they cannot be used to measure the height or depth of the corrugation.

Investigation of the origin of acoustic Wood anomaly.

In the spectrum of a broadband wave reflected from a periodically corrugated surface, spectral anomalies have been observed earlier and identified as acoustic Wood anomalies. A thorough investigation of the physical origin of the acoustic Wood anomaly is made through an experimental investigation and an examination of the existing theories. The existing explanations of acoustic Wood anomaly are reviewed and evaluated based on the analysis of the experimental results obtained from three types of interfaces: liquid-solid, solid-liquid and solid-air interfaces.