Publications by authors named "Mingxin Xu"

Purpose: In recent years, ischemic preconditioning (IPC) has emerged as an effective strategy to increase tissue resistance against long-term ischemic damage and has been increasingly integrated into exercise regimens. However, further research is needed to explore the impact of IPC-mediated metabolic alterations from an exercise standpoint to conduct a comprehensive exploration of metabolic alterations and their exercise-related mechanisms during acute IPC.

Methods: Nontarget metabolomics was performed on blood samples obtained from 8 male athletes both before and after IPC.

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In recent years, ischemic preconditioning (IPC) has garnered significant attention in sports research. While IPC has demonstrated positive effects in high-intensity sports such as judo and swimming, its potential benefits for enhancing the performance of Taekwondo athletes have not been extensively studied. This study aimed to investigate the effects of IPC on taekwondo performance and to observe the metabolic characteristics associated with enhancing sports performance via LC‒MS/MS-based plasma metabolomics.

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Heterotopic ossification (HO) is a pathological process that commonly arises following severe polytrauma, characterized by the anomalous differentiation of mesenchymal progenitor cells and resulting in the formation of ectopic bone in non-skeletal tissues. This abnormal bone growth contributes to pain and reduced mobility, especially when adjacent to a joint. Our prior observations suggested an essential role of NGF (Nerve Growth Factor)-responsive TrkA (Tropomyosin Receptor Kinase A)-expressing peripheral nerves in regulating abnormal osteochondral differentiation following tendon injury.

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The recycling of end-of-life wind turbine blades has become a global environmental challenge driven by the rapid growth of wind power. Pyrolysis is a promising method for recovering glass fibers from these discarded blades, but traditional pyrolysis is often operated at high temperatures, which degrades the mechanical properties of recovered fibers. To address this issue, a swelling-assisted pyrolysis method was proposed to recover high-quality glass fibers from end-of-life wind turbine blades at low temperatures.

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Human blood vessel walls show concentric layers, with the outermost tunica adventitia harboring mesenchymal progenitor cells. These progenitor cells maintain vessel homeostasis and provide a robust cell source for cell-based therapies. However, human adventitial stem cell niche has not been studied in detail.

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Platelet-derived growth factor receptor α (PDGFRα) is often considered as a general marker of mesenchymal cells and fibroblasts, but also shows expression in a portion of osteoprogenitor cells. Within the skeleton, Pdgfrα+ mesenchymal cells have been identified in bone marrow and periosteum of long bones, where they play a crucial role in participating in fracture repair. A similar examination of Pdgfrα+ cells in calvarial bone healing has not been examined.

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Bone pain is a presenting feature of bone cancers such as osteosarcoma (OS), relayed by skeletal-innervating peripheral afferent neurons. Potential functions of tumor-associated sensory neurons in bone cancers beyond pain sensation are unknown. To uncover neural regulatory functions, a chemical-genetic approach in mice with a knock-in allele for TrkA was used to functionally perturb sensory nerve innervation during OS growth and disease progression.

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The profound pain accompanying bone fracture is mediated by somatosensory neurons, which also appear to be required to initiate bone regeneration following fracture. Surprisingly, the precise neuroanatomical circuitry mediating skeletal nociception and regeneration remains incompletely understood. Here, we characterized somatosensory dorsal root ganglia (DRG) afferent neurons innervating murine long bones before and after experimental long bone fracture in mice.

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The intestinal tract of humans harbors a dynamic and complex bacterial community known as the gut microbiota, which plays a crucial role in regulating functions such as metabolism and immunity in the human body. Numerous studies conducted in recent decades have also highlighted the significant potential of the gut microbiota in promoting human health. It is widely recognized that training and nutrition strategies are pivotal factors that allow athletes to achieve optimal performance.

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Beyond the sensation of pain, peripheral nerves have been shown to play crucial roles in tissue regeneration and repair. As a highly innervated organ, bone can recover from injury without scar formation, making it an interesting model in which to study the role of nerves in tissue regeneration. As a comparison, tendon is a musculoskeletal tissue that is hypo-innervated, with repair often resulting in scar formation.

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Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites (CFRPs) have gained widespread usage due to their promising physiochemical properties, while this causes large amounts of waste CFRPs worldwide. In this study, carbon fibers were successfully recovered from waste CFRPs through the pyrolysis-oxidation method, and the recovered fibers were reused in remanufacturing the secondary generation CFRPs. Moreover, the individual and interactive effects of pyrolysis-oxidation recovering parameters on the mechanical strength of the resulting remanufactured CFRPs (reCFRPs) were investigated.

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Patients who have non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations are more prone to brain metastasis (BM) and poor prognosis. Previous studies showed that the tumor microenvironment of BM in these patients is immunosuppressed, as indicated by reduced T-cell abundance and activity, although the mechanism of this immunosuppression requires further study. This study shows that reactive astrocytes play a critical role in promoting the immune escape of BM from EGFR-mutated NSCLC by increasing the apoptosis of CD8 T lymphocytes.

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Background: Brain metastasis (BM) is common among cases of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and is the leading cause of death for these patients. Mesothelin (MSLN), a tumor-associated antigen expressed in many solid tumors, has been reported to be involved in the progression of multiple tumors. However, its potential involvement in BM of NSCLC and the underlying mechanism remain unknown.

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Acoustic microfluidic devices have advantages for diagnostic applications, therapeutic solutions, and fundamental research due to their contactless operation, simple design, and biocompatibility. However, most acoustofluidic approaches are limited to forming simple and fixed acoustic patterns, or have limited resolution. In this study,a detachable microfluidic device is demonstrated employing miniature acoustic holograms to create reconfigurable, flexible, and high-resolution acoustic fields in microfluidic channels, where the introduction of a solid coupling layer makes these holograms easy to fabricate and integrate.

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Peripheral neurons terminate at the surface of tendons partly to relay nociceptive pain signals; however, the role of peripheral nerves in tendon injury and repair remains unclear. Here, we show that after Achilles tendon injury in mice, there is new nerve growth near tendon cells that express nerve growth factor (NGF). Conditional deletion of the gene in either myeloid or mesenchymal mouse cells limited both innervation and tendon repair.

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Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is an effective medium-temperature, high-pressure thermochemical process to dispose municipal sludge (MS), and biocrude (a crude bio-oil) is its main product. Many efforts are continued extensively to improve conversion efficiency and to promote industrial application of this technology. This work focuses on critical influencing factors (e.

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Background: Resistance to pemetrexed (PEM), a rare chemotherapeutic agent that can efficiently cross the blood-brain barrier, limits the therapeutic efficacy for patients with lung cancer brain metastasis (BM). Aldo-keto reductase family 1 B10 (AKR1B10) was recently found to be elevated in lung cancer BM. The link between AKR1B10 and BM-acquired PEM is unknown.

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Numerous intrinsic factors regulate mesenchymal progenitor commitment to a specific cell fate, such as osteogenic or adipogenic lineages. Identification and modulation of novel intrinsic regulatory factors represent an opportunity to harness the regenerative potential of mesenchymal progenitors. In the present study, the transcription factor (TF) ZIC1 was identified to be differentially expressed among adipose compared with skeletal-derived mesenchymal progenitor cells.

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Acoustic holography offers the ability to generate designed acoustic fields to manipulate microscale objects. However, the static nature or large aperture sizes of 3D printed acoustic holographic phase plates limits the ability to rapidly alter generated fields. In this work, a programmable acoustic holography approach is demonstrated by which multiple discrete or continuously variable acoustic targets can be created.

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Acoustic metasurfaces offer unique capabilities to steer and direct acoustic fields, though these are generally composed of complex 3D structures, complicating their fabrication and applicability to higher frequencies. Here, an ultrathin metasurface approach is demonstrated, wherein planarized micropillars in a discretized phase array are utilized. This subwavelength metasurface is easily produced via a single-step etching process and is suitable for megahertz-scale applications.

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Objective: The network pharmacology approach combined the technologies of molecular docking and bacteriostatic validation to explore the active compounds, core targets, and mechanism of against bacterial infection.

Methods: A target and anti-bacterial infection-related gene set was established using TCMSP and GeneCards databases. Gene ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis and protein-protein interaction network were performed using DAVID and STRING database.

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Osteoporosis is common in patients undergoing spine surgery, and carries a considerable risk of adverse outcomes. New methods to positively influence bone regeneration and spine fusion under osteoporotic conditions would be impactful. Neutralizing anti-Dickkopf-1 (DKK1) antibodies has been used as a bone anabolic agent, and recently reported by our group to aid in stem cell-mediated appendicular bone regeneration.

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Unlabelled: The Batman-TCM research platform based on network pharmacology was used to predict the reverse targets of 11 active components of blueberry. The anti-inflammatory target genes of these components were extracted by comparing them with the anti-inflammatory drug target genes in the GeneCards database. GO enrichment and KEGG pathway, as well as protein interaction analysis of these anti-inflammatory target genes, were carried out using the String database.

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In central nervous system vascular endothelial cells, signaling via the partially redundant ligands WNT7A and WNT7B requires two co-activator proteins, GPR124 and RECK. WNT7A and RECK have been shown previously to play a role in limb development, but the mechanism of RECK action in this context is unknown. The roles of WNT7B and GPR124 in limb development have not been investigated.

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Background: The lack of non-invasive methods for detection of early micro-metastasis is a major cause of the poor prognosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) brain metastasis (BM) patients. Herein, we aimed to identify circulating biomarkers based on proteomics for the early diagnosis and monitoring of patients with NSCLC BM.

Methods: Upregulated proteins were detected by secretory proteomics in the animal-derived high brain metastatic lung cancer cell line.

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