Publications by authors named "Junxuan Ma"

Antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are severe refractory pollutants in water. However, the effect of an intermittent electrical stimulation on the removal of antibiotics and ARGs from saline wastewater remains unclear. An anaerobic-aerobic-coupled upflow bioelectrochemical reactors (AO-UBERs) was used to treat tetracyclines (TCs) and quinolones (QNs) in saline wastewater.

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  • The study compared the contamination levels of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soils and plants from mining and farmland areas in Xinjiang, China, finding higher PAH levels in mining soils, dominated by 4-5-ring PAHs.
  • The sources of PAHs differed, with mining soils primarily resulting from coal and natural gas combustion, while farmland soils were influenced by biomass burning and fossil fuel spills.
  • The cancer risk assessment revealed a higher overall risk in mining areas, indicating a significant threat to human health, and suggested the need for intervention to address soil and plant contamination.
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Discogenic pain is associated with deep nerve ingrowth in annulus fibrosus tissue (AF) of intervertebral disc (IVD). To model AF nerve ingrowth, primary bovine dorsal root ganglion (DRG) micro-scale tissue units are spatially organised around an AF explant by mild hydrodynamic forces within a collagen matrix. This results in a densely packed multicellular system mimicking the native DRG tissue morphology and a controlled AF-neuron distance.

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  • Mechanical overloading of intervertebral discs (IVDs) may initiate a degenerative cascade and potentially influence pain-sensing neurons (nociceptors).
  • In a study, different loading conditions were applied to IVDs to assess the impact on nociceptor activation, utilizing methods such as calcium imaging and immunofluorescent labeling.
  • Results indicated that force-controlled and high-frequency dynamic loading resulted in increased cell death in IVDs and heightened activation of nociceptors, suggesting a link between IVD overload and discogenic pain mechanisms.
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Herein we show an accessible technique based on Faraday waves that assist the rapid assembly of osteoinductive β-Tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) particles as well as human osteoblast pre-assembled in spheroids. The hydrodynamic forces originating at 'seabed' of the assembly chamber can be used to tightly aggregate inorganic and biological entities at packing densities that resemble those of native tissues. Additionally, following a layer-by-layer assembly procedure, centimeter scaled osteoinductive three-dimensional and cellularized constructs have been fabricated.

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  • The study examines how pro-inflammatory cytokines affect human annulus fibrosus cells (hAFCs) and their ability to sensitize dorsal root ganglion (DRG) cells.
  • Celecoxib (cxb) was tested to see if it could inhibit this sensitization, with results showing that it effectively reduced PGE-2 production in hAFCs and lowered DRG cell sensitivity to bradykinin.
  • Overall, the findings suggest that cxb may be beneficial in minimizing nerve sensitization related to inflamed hAFCs.
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Chronic discogenic back pain is associated with increased inflammatory cytokine levels that can influence the proximal peripheral nervous system, namely the dorsal root ganglion (DRG). However, transition to chronic pain is widely thought to involve glial activation in the spinal cord. In this study, an in vitro model was used to evaluate the communication between DRG and spinal cord glia.

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Unlabelled: It has been shown that painful intervertebral discs (IVDs) were associated with a deeper innervation. However, the effect of the disc's degenerative microenvironment on neuronal outgrowth remains largely unknown. The focus of this study was to determine the influence of hypoxia on dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurite outgrowth.

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Objective: Ischemia-related risk factors are consistently correlated with discogenic pain, but it remains unclear how the ischemia-associated hypoxia and acidosis influence the peripheral sensory nervous system, namely the dorsal root ganglion (DRG), either directly or indirectly via intervertebral disc (IVD) mediation.

Methods: Bovine tail IVD organ cultures were preconditioned in different hypoxic and/or acidic conditions for 3 days to collect the conditioned medium (CM). The DRG-derived ND7/23 cells were either treated by the IVD CM or directly stimulated by hypoxic and/or acidic conditions.

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Low back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide and in many patients the source of pain can be attributed to pathological changes within the intervertebral disc (IVD). As present treatment options fail to address the underlying biological problem, novel therapies are currently subject to intense research. The physiologic IVD microenvironment features a highly complex interaction of biochemical and mechanical factors influencing cell metabolism and extracellular matrix turnover and is therefore difficult to simulate for research purposes on IVD pathology.

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Aliphatic polyester is a kind of biodegradable implantable polymers, which shows promise as scaffolds in tissue engineering, drug carrier, medical device, and so on. To further improve its biocompatibility and cell affinity, many techniques have been used to modify the surface of the polyester. In the present paper, the key factors of influencing biocompatibility of aliphatic polyester were illuminated, and the different surface modification methods such as physical, chemical, and plasma processing methods were also demonstrated.

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  • Soft tissue injuries are common and can lead to pain and swelling if not treated promptly.
  • Various treatment methods exist, but they are not fully effective on their own.
  • A new approach combining drug therapy with a pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) therapy using a magnetism-responsive hydrogel showed improved recovery in soft tissue injuries compared to traditional treatments.
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Background: Whether modified laminoplasty is better than conventional laminoplasty is unclear. Thus, a meta-analysis comparing the outcomes of preserving or repairing the posterior deep extensor insertion to C2 in laminoplasty was conducted for patients with multilevel cervical spondylotic myelopathy (MCSM).

Methods: Several electronic databases were chosen to search for relevant studies.

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Bone healing is regulated by multiple microenvironmental signals provided by the extracellular matrix (ECM). This study aimed to mimic the native osteoinductive microenvironment by developing an ECM using gene-transduced cells. The LIM mineralization protein-1 (LMP-1) gene was transferred to murine pre-osteoblast cells (MC3T3-E1) using lentiviral vectors.

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Low back pain (LBP) is the leading cause of disability in the elderly. Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) was considered as the main cause for LBP. Degeneration of cartilaginous endplate was a crucial harmful factor during the initiation and development of IDD.

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Objective: To investigate the bone regeneration potential of cell-tissue engineered bone constructed by human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs) expressing the transduced human bone morphogenetic protein 2 (hBMP-2) gene stably.

Methods: The full-length hBMP-2 gene was cloned from human muscle tissues by RT-PCR and connected into a vector to consturct a eukaryotic expression system. And then the gene expression system was transduced to hBMSCs with lipidosome.

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