An injectable hydrogel loaded with Icariin attenuates cartilage damage in rabbit knee osteoarthritis via Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a chronic disease characterized by joint wear and cartilage degeneration. Current clinical treatments are based on symptomatic relief and are not effective in regenerating cartilage, and inflammation-induced cartilage damage accelerates the progression of osteoarthritis, making the protection of articular cartilage important for controlling the development of knee osteoarthritis. In this study, a biodegradable hydrogel (HA-Ca-Alg@Ica) loaded with Icariin (Ica) was prepared by in situ cross-linking of hyaluronic acid-calcium complex (HA-Ca) and sodium alginate (Alg-Na) for local sustained delivery of Ica.

A novel acid-responsive polymer coating with antibacterial and antifouling properties for the prevention of biofilm-associated infections.

Chronic infections caused by the pathogenic biofilms on implantable medical devices pose an increasing challenge. To combat long-term biofilm-associated infections, we developed a novel dual-functional polymer coating with antibacterial and antifouling properties. The coating consists of N-vinylpyrrolidone (NVP) and 3-(acrylamido)phenylboronic acid (APBA) copolymer brushes, which bind to curcumin (Cur) as antibacterial molecules through acid-responsive boronate ester bonds.

An approach of pectin from Citrus aurantium L. for superabsorbent resin with superior quality for hygiene products: Salt resistance, antibacterial, nonirritant and biodegradability.

In this paper, a kind of superabsorbent resin (SAR) with superior quality for hygiene products was developed using Fructus Aurantii Immaturus pectin (FAIP) from Citrus aurantium L.. FAIP-g-AM/AMPS SAR was established by free radical graft co-polymerization with FAIP as skeleton structure, N, N'-Methylene-bis (acrylamide) (MBA) as the cross-linker.

Theoretical study on the radical scavenging activity and mechanism of four kinds of Gnetin molecule.

As an important subgroup of resveratrol oligomers, Gnetins received much attention due to their antioxidants. The four Gnetin molecules are divided into two major categories according to different structures, type-A (Gnetin-C, Gnetin-D) and type-B (Gnetin-L, Gnetin-F). Density functional theory (DFT) has been performed thermodynamically and kinetically in detail to analyze the structure and antioxidant activity of four Gnetins toward OH/OOH radical in the gas and solvents phase with four possible antioxidant mechanisms, namely, Hydrogen-atom transfer (HAT), Single electron transfer followed by proton transfer (SET-PT), Sequential proton-loss electron transfer (SPLET), and Radical adduct formation (RAF).

Simultaneous Determination of Six Isoflavones from Radix by CPE-HPLC and Effect of Puerarin on Tyrosinase Activity.

Tyrosinase inhibitors with excellent inhibitory activities and lower side effects have promising applications in the fields of medicine, agriculture, food sciences and cosmetics. In this study, a method for simultaneous separation and determination of six target compounds (puerarin, daidzin, genistein, daidzein, genistin, and formononetin) in Radix was established by cloud point extraction (CPE) and concentration combined with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). To achieve high extraction yields, an ultrasound-assisted extraction method was developed based on a salt-modified Triton X-100 system.

Facilitating terminal discharge: fulfilling the hospitalised patient's wish for home death in the final hours.

Background: Terminal discharge (TD) is the rapid discharge of a hospitalised patient when death is imminent. Its time-limited nature makes it challenging, particularly for ward nurses.

Aim: To report the development of a structured TD framework, and determine if the framework can expedite TD processes and improve nurses' experience in conducting TDs.

Caregiving and Its Resulting Effects-The Care Study to Evaluate the Effects of Caregiving on Caregivers of Patients with Advanced Cancer in Singapore.

Informal caregivers (IC) are key to enabling home deaths, where preferred, at the end-of-life. Significant morbidity from advanced cancer can make caregiving burdensome. However, knowledge about the nature of the caregiving burden for caregivers in Singapore is limited.

What do renal health-care professionals in Singapore think of advance care planning for patients with end-stage renal disease?

Aim: Previous studies have focused either on advance medical directives rather than advance care planning (ACP), or on patient's perspectives on ACP rather than those of the health-care providers. This study aimed to explore the knowledge, attitudes and experience of renal health-care professionals in Singapore on ACP for patients with end-stage renal failure.

Methods: A 41-item questionnaire was distributed to physicians, nurses, medical social workers (MSW) and other allied health professionals working in renal units.

[Experimental study on changes of expressions of ER-alpha and ER-alpha mRNA in different hypothalamic nuclei and the effect of "preventive acupuncture and moxibustion" in ovariectomy rats].

Objective: To explore the mechanism of "preventive acupuncture and moxibustion" for regulating hypothalamic function in ovariectomy rats.

Methods: Thirty female SD rats, aged 3.5 months, were randomly divided into normal group, sham operation group, ovariectomy model group, preventive acupuncture group and preventive moxibustion group.

[Observation on the protective effect of preventive acupuncture and moxibustion on uterus in ovariectomized rats].

Objective: To observe the effect of preventive acupuncture and moxibustion of "Guanyuan" (CV 4) on uterus in ovariectomized (OVX) rats.

Methods: A total of 80 female SD rats were randomly divided into 5 groups: normal control, sham-operation (sham), model, preventive acupuncture (PA) and preventive moxibustion (PM) groups, with 16 cases in each. PA (with the needle retained for 20 min after insertion) and PM (one moxa-cone/rat) were applied to "Guanyuan" (CV 4) separately before ovariectomy, two times a week, 4 weeks altogether.

Protein-free fed-batch culture of non-GS NS0 cell lines for production of recombinant antibodies.

Presented is a novel antibody production platform based on the fed-batch culture of recombinant, NS0-derived cell lines. A standardized fed-batch cell culture process was developed for five non-GS NS0 cell lines using enriched and optimized protein-free, cholesterol-free, and chemically defined basal and feed media. The process performed reproducibly and scaled faithfully from the 2-L to the 100-L bioreactor scale achieving a volumetric productivity of > 120 mg/L per day.