M2 Macrophage Membrane-Camouflaged Fe O -Cy7 Nanoparticles with Reduced Immunogenicity for Targeted NIR/MR Imaging of Atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis （AS） is the primary reason behind cardiovascular diseases, leading to approximately one-third of global deaths. Developing a novel multi-model probe to detect AS is urgently required. Macrophages are the primary cells from which AS genesis occurs.

Chlorin e6 (Ce6)-loaded plaque-specific liposome with enhanced photodynamic therapy effect for atherosclerosis treatment.

Recently, photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been considered as a new strategy for atherosclerosis treatment. Targeted delivery of photosensitizer could significantly reduce its toxicity and enhance its phototherapeutic efficiency. CD68 is an antibody that can be conjugated to nano-drug delivery systems to actively target plaque sites, owing to its specific binding to CD68 receptors that are highly expressed on the surfaces of macrophage-derived foam cells.

3D cell/scaffold model based on aligned-electrospun-nanofiber film/hydrogel multilayers for construction of anisotropic engineered tissue.

Many tissues have a three-dimensional (3D) anisotropic structure compatible with their physiological functions. Engineering an in vitro 3D tissue having the natural structure and functions is a hotspot in tissue engineering with application for tissue regeneration, drug screening, and disease modeling. Despite various designs that have successfully guided the cellular alignment, only a few of them could precisely control the orientation of each layer in a multilayered construct or achieve adequate cell contact between layers.

Targeted therapy of atherosclerosis by pH-sensitive hyaluronic acid nanoparticles co-delivering all-trans retinal and rapamycin.

Atherosclerosis, the leading cause of death in the elderly worldwide, is typically characterized by elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and a chronic inflammatory state at the arterial plaques. Herein, pH-sensitive nanoparticles (HR NPs) co-delivering all-trans retinal (ATR), an antioxidant linked to hyaluronic acid (HA) through a pH-sensitive hydrazone bond, and rapamycin (RAP), an anti-atherosclerotic drug loaded into the nanoparticle core, are developed for targeted combination therapy of atherosclerosis. In this way, HR NPs might simultaneously reduce ROS levels ATR antioxidant activity and reduce inflammation the anti-inflammatory effect of RAP.

Enzyme- and UV-Mediated Double-Network Hybrid Hydrogels for 3D Cell Culture application.

Three-dimensional (3D) cell culture using hydrogel scaffolds can closely resemble the natural extracellular matrix (ECM), which offers appropriate mechanical support for cells and regulates cellular behavior. In this study, a bacterial transpeptidase sortase A (SA) is used to prepare enzymatically cross-linked methacrylated hyaluronic acid (HA) peptides (HAMA-P) hydrogel, which reveals fast gel kinetics under high SA cross-linking concentrations and can be used as an injection hydrogel for tissue repair or extrusive 3D bioprinting. Furthermore, methacrylated gelatin (GelMA) is introduced to build the hybrid hydrogel (HAMA-P-GelMA) with double cross-linking of enzyme-UV, which has shown proper physical properties (mechanical properties, swelling, degradation rate, etc.

Recent Advances in the Application of Two-Dimensional Nanomaterials for Neural Tissue Engineering and Regeneration.

The complexity of the nervous system structure and function, and its slow regeneration rate, makes it more difficult to treat compared to other tissues in the human body when an injury occurs. Moreover, the current therapeutic approaches including the use of autografts, allografts, and pharmacological agents have several drawbacks and can not fully restore nervous system injuries. Recently, nanotechnology and tissue engineering approaches have attracted many researchers to guide tissue regeneration in an effective manner.

Electrical stimulation of neonatal rat cardiomyocytes using conductive polydopamine-reduced graphene oxide-hybrid hydrogels for constructing cardiac microtissues.

The development of diversified biomaterials in tissue engineering has been promoted by growing research into carbon-based nanomaterials. Usually, ideal scaffold materials should possess properties similar to the extracellular matrix of natural myocardial tissue. In this study, dopamine-reduced graphene oxide (GO), was prepared and doped into gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) hydrogels, resulting in novel conductive and mechanical properties for controlling cell growth.

Characterization and Pharmacokinetic Evaluation of Oxaliplatin Long-Circulating Liposomes.

The clinical efficacy of Oxaliplatin (L-OHP) is potentially limited by dose-dependent neurotoxicity and high partitioning to erythrocytes . Long-circulating liposomes could improve the pharmacokinetic profile of L-OHP and thus enhance its therapeutic efficacy and reduce its toxicity. The purpose of this study was to prepare L-OHP long-circulating liposomes (L-OHP PEG lip) by reverse-phase evaporation method (REV) and investigate their pharmacokinetic behavior based on total platinum in rat plasma using atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS).

Bioprinted Injectable Hierarchically Porous Gelatin Methacryloyl Hydrogel Constructs with Shape-Memory Properties.

Direct injection of cell-laden hydrogels shows high potentials in tissue regeneration for translational therapy. The traditional cell-laden hydrogels are often used as bulk space fillers to tissue defects after injection, likely limiting their structural controllability. On the other hand, patterned cell-laden hydrogel constructs often necessitate invasive surgical procedures.

Design and fabrication of an integrated heart-on-a-chip platform for construction of cardiac tissue from human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes and in situ evaluation of physiological function.

In vitro model of the human cardiac tissues generated from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) could facilitate drug discovery and patient-specific studies of physiology and disease. However, the immature state of hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) compared to adult myocardium is a key defect that must be overcome to enable the potential applications of hiPSC-CMs in drug testing. For this purpose, we developed a heart-on-a-chip device that contains microfluidic channels for long-term dynamic culture of cells, platinum wire electrodes for electrical stimulation of hiPSC-CMs, and gold electrode arrays as acquisition electrodes for real-time recording electrophysiological signals of cardiac tissues.

Correction: High-aspect-ratio water-dispersed gold nanowires incorporated within gelatin methacrylate hydrogels for constructing cardiac tissues in vitro.

Correction for 'High-aspect-ratio water-dispersed gold nanowires incorporated within gelatin methacrylate hydrogels for constructing cardiac tissues in vitro' by Xiao-Pei Li et al., J. Mater.

High-aspect-ratio water-dispersed gold nanowires incorporated within gelatin methacrylate hydrogels for constructing cardiac tissues in vitro.

The field of cardiac tissue engineering has made significant strides in therapeutic and pharmaceutical applications, highlighted by the development of smart biomaterials. Scaffolds with appropriate properties mimicking the nature of a heart matrix will be highly beneficial for cardiac tissue engineering. In this study, high-aspect-ratio water-dispersed gold nanowires (AuNWs) were synthesized and incorporated into gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) hydrogels, demonstrating enhanced electrical conductivity and mechanical properties of the biomaterial scaffolds.

Easy Applied Gelatin-Based Hydrogel System for Long-Term Functional Cardiomyocyte Culture and Myocardium Formation.

Harnessing biomaterials for in vitro tissue construction has long been a research focus because of its powerful potentials in tissue engineering and pharmaceutical industry. Myocardium is a critical cardiac tissue with complex multiple muscular layers. Considering the specific characters of native cardiac tissues, it is necessary to design a biocompatible and biomimetic platform for cardiomyocyte culture and myocardium formation with sustained physiological function.

Comparing hydroxyapatite with osteogenic medium for the osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells on PHBV nanofibrous scaffolds.

Having advantageous biocompatibility and osteoconductive properties known to enhance the osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), hydroxyapatite (HA) is a commonly used material for bone tissue engineering. What remains unclear, however, is whether HA holds a similar potential for stimulating the osteogenic differentiation of MSCs to that of a more frequently used osteogenic-inducing medium (OIM). To that end, we used PHBV electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds to directly compare the osteogenic capacities of HA with OIM over MSCs.

Small-molecule-based generation of functional cardiomyocytes from human umbilical cord-derived induced pluripotent stem cells.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the cardiac-differentiation potential of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) generated from human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal cells. Spontaneous beating colonies were observed at day 7 after the sequential addition of CHIR99021 and IWP-4. The combined use of CHIR99021 and IWP-4 downregulated the expression of pluripotency markers while upregulating cardiac transcription factors and cardiomyocyte-specific markers.

Efficient generation of functional cardiomyocytes from human umbilical cord-derived virus-free induced pluripotent stem cells.

We have previously demonstrated that human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSCs) can differentiate into cardiomyocyte-like cells. However, no contracting cells were observed during differentiation. In this study, we generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from UC-MSCs using mRNA reprogramming and focused on the differentiation of reprogrammed iPSCs into functional cardiomyocytes.

Multifunctional 3D electrode platform for real-time in situ monitoring and stimulation of cardiac tissues.

Cardiovascular diseases are a major cause of death around the world underlining the importance of efficient treatments including novel medication. In vitro models of cardiac tissues are highly desired for monitoring electrophysiological response to screen pharmaceutical compounds at an early stage. Here, we report a platinum based 3D pillar electrode platform with cell growth guiding channel, which allows integrated, continuous electrical stimulation and recording of the cardiac tissues.

MicroRNA-34a modulates the Notch signaling pathway in mice with congenital heart disease and its role in heart development.

The objective of the study was to elucidate the mechanism by which microRNA-34a (miR-34a) influences heart development and participates in the pathogenesis of congenital heart disease (CHD) by targeting NOTCH-1 through the Notch signaling pathway. Forty D7 pregnant mice were recruited for the purposes of the study and served as the CHD (n=20, successfully established as CHD model) and normal (n=20) groups. The positive expression of the NOTCH-1 protein was evaluated by means of immunohistochemistry.

Surface functionalized exosomes as targeted drug delivery vehicles for cerebral ischemia therapy.

The safe and effective delivery of drugs is a major obstacle in the treatment of ischemic stroke. Exosomes hold great promise as an endogenous drug delivery nanosystem for the treatment of cerebral ischemia given their unique properties, including low immunogenicity, innate stability, high delivery efficiency, and ability to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB). However, exosome insufficient targeting capability limits their clinical applications.

Soft Hydrogels Featuring In-Depth Surface Density Gradients for the Simple Establishment of 3D Tissue Models for Screening Applications.

Three-dimensional (3D) cell culture models are gaining increasing interest for use in drug development pipelines due to their closer resemblance to human tissues. Hydrogels are the first-choice class of materials to recreate in vitro the 3D extra-cellular matrix (ECM) environment, important in studying cell-ECM interactions and 3D cellular organization and leading to physiologically relevant in vitro tissue models. Here we propose a novel hydrogel platform consisting of a 96-well plate containing pre-cast synthetic PEG-based hydrogels for the simple establishment of 3D (co-)culture systems without the need for the standard encapsulation method.

Laminin-modified and aligned poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate)/polyethylene oxide nanofibrous nerve conduits promote peripheral nerve regeneration.

Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) has received much attention for its biodegradability and biocompatibility, characteristics that are required in tissue engineering. In this study, polyethylene oxide (PEO)-incorporated PHBV nanofibres with random or aligned orientation were obtained by electrospinning. For further use in vivo, the nanofibre films were made into nerve conduits after treatment with NH plasma, which could improve the hydrophilicity of inner surfaces of nerve conduits and then facilitate laminin adsorption via electrostatic interaction for promoting cell adhesion and proliferation.

Accelerating and increasing nano-scaled pore formation on electrospun poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) fibers.

Porous fibers are advantageous for filtration systems, drug delivery systems, and in the field of tissue engineering, in comparison to their non-porous counterparts. In this study, we developed a facile technique including two steps to generate poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3- hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) porous fibers with a controllable pore size. An electrospinning technique was employed to obtain five types of PHBV/poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)-blended fibers (PHBV:PEO = 9:1, 8:2, 7:3, 6:4, 5:5) with PEO as the porogen.

Comprehensive annotation of microRNA expression profiles.

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate many biological processes by post-translational gene silencing. Analysis of miRNA expression profiles is a reliable method for investigating particular biological processes due to the stability of miRNA and the development of advanced sequencing methods. However, this approach is limited by the broad specificity of miRNAs, which may target several mRNAs.

Effects of hydroxyapatite-containing composite nanofibers on osteogenesis of mesenchymal stem cells in vitro and bone regeneration in vivo.

Among a variety of polymers, poly (3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV), a microbial polyester, with biodegradable, nonantigenic, and biocompatible properties, is attracting more and more attention in tissue engineering. Hydroxyapatite (HA), similar to the mineral component of natural bone, is known to be osteoconductive, nontoxic, and noninflammatory. In this study, aligned and random-oriented PHBV nanofibrous scaffolds loaded with HA nanoparticles were fabricated through electrospinning technique.

Dynamics of exosome internalization and trafficking.

Cells release exosomes into extracellular medium. Although the important roles of exosomes in many physiological and pathological processes are being revealed, the mechanism of exosome-cell interaction remains unclear. In this article, employing real-time fluorescence microscopy, the motion of exosomes on the plasma membrane or in the cytoplasm of recipient PC12 cells was observed directly.