Hygroscopic bioactive light-cured composite promoting dentine bridge formation.

A light-cured bioactive composite, TheraCal LC, is easy to handle and fast-setting. But poor water absorption restricted its bioactivity when applied in direct pulp capping (DPC). Enhancing the water absorption of resin-based bioactive materials may be key to optimizing biomineralization procedure of light-cured bioactive materials.

RILP Induces Cholesterol Accumulation in Lysosomes by Inhibiting Endoplasmic Reticulum-Endolysosome Interactions.

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-endolysosome interactions regulate cholesterol exchange between the ER and the endolysosome. ER-endolysosome membrane contact sites mediate the ER-endolysosome interaction. VAP-ORP1L (vesicle-associated membrane protein-associated protein- OSBP-related protein 1L) interaction forms the major contact site between the ER and the lysosome, which is regulated by Rab7.

Heparin-Functionalized Bioactive Glass to Harvest Endogenous Growth Factors for Pulp Regeneration.

Pulp and periapical diseases can lead to the cessation of tooth development, resulting in compromised tooth structure and functions. Despite numerous efforts to induce pulp regeneration, effective strategies are still lacking. Growth factors (GFs) hold considerable promise in pulp regeneration due to their diverse cellular regulatory properties.

SOC estimation of lead-carbon battery based on GA-MIUKF algorithm.

The paper proposes a SOC (State of Charge) estimation method for lead-carbon batteries based on the GA-MIUKF algorithm. The GA-MIUKF algorithm combines GA (Genetic Algorithm) for global search and optimization with the MI-UKF (Multi-innovation Unscented Kalman Filter) algorithm for estimating the SOC of lead-carbon batteries. By establishing an equivalent circuit model for the battery, the GA is employed to globally search and optimize the battery model parameters and the noise variance parameters in the MI-UKF algorithm.

Reinforcing Hydrogel by Nonsolvent-Quenching-Facilitated In Situ Nanofibrosis.

Nanofibrous hydrogels are pervasive in load-bearing soft tissues, which are believed to be key to their extraordinary mechanical properties. Enlighted by this phenomenon, a novel reinforcing strategy for polymeric hydrogels is proposed, where polymer segments in the hydrogels are induced to form nanofibers in situ by bolstering their controllable aggregation at the nanoscale level. Poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogels are chosen to demonstrate the virtue of this strategy.

Rab26 restricts insulin secretion via sequestering Synaptotagmin-1.

Rab26 is known to regulate multiple membrane trafficking events, but its role in insulin secretion in pancreatic β cells remains unclear despite it was first identified in the pancreas. In this study, we generated Rab26-/- mice through CRISPR/Cas9 technique. Surprisingly, insulin levels in the blood of the Rab26-/- mice do not decrease upon glucose stimulation but conversely increase.

Coordinatively Stiffen and Toughen Hydrogels with Adaptable Crystal-Domain Cross-Linking.

Conventional hydrogels usually suffer from the inherent conflict between stiffness and toughness, severely hampering their applications as load-bearing materials. Herein, an adaptable crystal-domain cross-linking design is reported to overcome this inherent trade-off for hydrogels by taking full advantage of both deformation-resisting and energy-dissipating capacities of cross-linking points. Through solvent exchange to homogenize the polymer network, followed by salting out to foster crystallization, a class of sal-exogels with high number densities of uniform crystalline domains embedded in homogeneous networks is constructed.

Antibacterial and antioxidative biogenic films for room-temperature strawberry preservation.

The shelf life of strawberries is prone to be shortened by microbial infection and respiratory metabolism, significantly restricting its availability. Advanced preservation films hold considerable promise to overcome this problem. Herein, a biogenic ternary tannic acid/chitosan-citric acid (TA/CS-CA) preservation film was developed and demonstrated remarkable room-temperature strawberry preservation.

Effective Antifogging Coating from Hydrophilic/Hydrophobic Polymer Heteronetwork.

Fogging on optical devices may severely impair vision, resulting in unacceptable adverse consequences. Hydrophilic coatings can prevent surface fogging by instantly facilitating pseudo-film water condensation but suffer from short antifogging duration due to water film thickening with further condensation. Here, an innovative strategy is reported to achieve longer antifogging duration via thickening the robust bonded hydrophilic/hydrophobic polymer heteronetwork coating to enhance its water absorption capacity.

Rab26 suppresses migration and invasion of breast cancer cells through mediating autophagic degradation of phosphorylated Src.

Rab proteins play crucial roles in membrane trafficking. Some Rab proteins are implicated in cancer development through regulating protein sorting or degradation. In this study, we found that the expression of Rab26 is suppressed in the aggressive breast cancer cells as compared to the levels in non-invasive breast cancer cells.

A Solvent-Exchange Strategy to Regulate Noncovalent Interactions for Strong and Antiswelling Hydrogels.

Physical hydrogels from existing polymers consisting of noncovalent interacting networks are highly desired due to their well-controlled compositions and environmental friendliness; and therefore, applied as adhesives, artificial tissues, and soft machines. Nevertheless, these gels have suffered from weak mechanical strength and low water resistance. Current methodologies used to fabricate these hydrogels mainly involve the freezing-thawing process (cryogels), which are complicated in preparation and short in adjustment of polymer conformation.

Wrinkled double network hydrogel via simple stretch-recovery.

The wrinkled structures in biological tissues play a key role in nutrition transportation and organ protection and cannot be easily achieved in synthetic hydrogels using universal and convenient strategies. Wrinkles are highly desirable for the nascent applications of hydrogels in biomaterials and artificial organs. Here, we propose a strategy for inducing different viscoelastic behaviours inside a double network hydrogel to achieve regular wrinkles that are formed by the mass redistribution.

Bioactive Pore-Forming Bone Adhesives Facilitating Cell Ingrowth for Fracture Healing.

The effectiveness of commercial bone adhesives is known to be hampered by the weak efficacy of cell ingrowth. The strategy of macropore-forming, especially bioactive macropores, holds considerable promise to circumvent this problem, thereby promoting fracture healing. Herein, a class of bioactive glass-involved macropore-embedded bone adhesives is developed, which is capable of facilitating the migration of bone-derived mesenchymal stromal cells into the adhesive layer and differentiation into osteocytes.

Biomineralizing Dental Resin Empowered by Bioactive Amphiphilic Composite Nanoparticles.

Adhesive failure due to resin contraction is one of the major reasons for dental restoration failure, which leads to the exposure of dentinal tubules, and remineralization in saliva would provide a great solution for the above problem. In this study, bioactive amphiphilic raspberry-like composite nanoparticles were used as fillers for resin composites, which have good compatibility with the resin matrix and dispersed well in the matrix. Thus, the resin composites showed improved mechanical property and resistance to water sorption and solubility.

Conjoined-network rendered stiff and tough hydrogels from biogenic molecules.

Hydrogels from biological sources are expected as potential structural biomaterials, but most of them are either soft or fragile. Here, a new strategy was developed to construct hydrogels that were both stiff and tough via the formation of the conjoined-network, which was distinct from improving homogeneity or incorporating energy dissipation mechanisms (double-network) approaches. Conjoined-network hydrogels stand for a class of hydrogels consisting of two or more networks that are connected by sharing interconnection points to collaborate and featured as follows: (i) All the composed networks had a similar or equal energy dissipation mechanism, and (ii) these networks were intertwined to effectively distribute stress in the whole system.

Sonication-Aided Formation of Hollow Hybrid Nanoparticles as High-Efficiency Absorbents for Dissolved Toluene in Water.

A surfactant-free emulsion polymerization process was developed to produce hollow hybrid nanoparticles (HHNP thereafter). Ultrasonication was found not only to help the generation of nanosized monomer droplets but also to generate surface active species through mediating the hydrolysis of the monomer, 3-(methacryloyloxy) propyltrimethoxysilane (MPS), thus stabilizing the oil/water interface. The hollow structure was formed based on a soft template approach, where the partially hydrolyzed monomer served as emulsifier and polymerized at the interface to form a hybrid shell.