The unique structure of cartilage tissue, characterized by a robust collagen fiber framework and a dynamic proteoglycan hydrogel filling, is crucial for maintaining biomechanical and biochemical homeostasis. Herein, a cartilage-inspired microsphere with sponge framework and hydrogel filling (SponGel MS) is successfully prepared to restore cartilage homeostasis. Specifically, epigallocatechin gallate nanoparticles coated with MnO (MnO@EGCG) are first synthesized, which can scavenge HO and hydroxyl radicals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticular cartilage repair and regeneration is still a significant challenge despite years of research. Although microfracture techniques are commonly used in clinical practice, the newborn cartilage is usually fibrocartilage rather than hyaline cartilage, which is mainly attributed to the inadequate microenvironment for effectively recruiting, anchoring, and inducing bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) to differentiate into hyaline cartilage. This paper introduces a novel cartilage acellular matrix (CACM) microgel assembly with excellent microporosity, injectability, tissue adhesion, BMSCs recruitment and chondrogenic differentiation capabilities to improve the microfracture-based articular cartilage regeneration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRepairing tendon/ligament injuries is a major challenge in sports medicine. It has been reported that tendon injury healing is hindered by massive production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Manganese oxides nanoparticles are generally non-toxic, can scavenge ROS, promote tissue regeneration, and hold promise for sustainable nanotechnologies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCell condensation, linking the migration and chondrogenic differentiation of MSCs, plays a crucial role in cartilage development. Current cartilage repair strategies are inadequately concerned with this process, leading to a suboptimal quality of regenerated cartilage. Inspired by the "nest flocks" structure of Social Weavers, a degradable heterogeneous microgel assembly (F/S-MA) is developed, which can release SDF-1, to form a "micro-nest group" structure and bond with HAV peptides to promote cell recruitment, condensation and chondrogenic differentiation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Pregnancy Childbirth
September 2023
Background: The association between uterine artery Doppler (UtA) measurements and small for gestational age (SGA) has not been quantitatively analyzed throughout the whole pregnancy. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to comprehensively explore the association between UtA measurements and SGA in the first, second, and third trimesters.
Methods: Studies were searched from Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science.
Cellulose-based food packaging has a significant importance in reducing plastic pollution and also ensuring our safety from microplastics. Nonetheless, lignocellulose necessitates sophisticated physical and chemical treatments to be fashioned into a satisfactory food packaging, thus leading to extra consumption and operations. Here, we present a gel-assisted biosynthesis approach for the in situ production of bacterial cellulose (BC) that can be directly applied to food packaging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe treatment for diabetic ulcers still remains a big clinic challenge owing to the adverse repair microenvironment. Bioactive glasses (BGs) play an important role in the late stages of healing due to their ability to promote vascularization and collagen fiber deposition, but fail to improve infection and oxidative stress in the early stage.Therefore, it is critical to develop a material involved in regulating the whole healing phases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe mechanical elasticity or stiffness of the ECM modulates YAP activity to regulate the differentiation of stem cells during the development and defect regeneration of cartilage tissue. However, the understanding of the scaffold-associated mechanobiology during the initiation of chondrogenesis and hyaline cartilaginous phenotype maintenance remains unclear. In order to elucidate such mechanisms to promote articular cartilage repair by producing more hyaline cartilage, we identify the relationship between YAP subcellular localization and variation of the cartilage structure and organization during the early postnatal explosive growth in incipient articular cartilage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFlexible hydrogels containing various osteogenic inorganic constituents, which can accommodate complicated shape variations, are considered as ideal grafts for craniofacial bone defect reconstruction. However, in most hybrid hydrogels, poor interaction between the polymer network and particles has detrimental effects on hydrogel rheological and structural properties, clinical manipulation and repair efficacy. In this article, we designed and prepared a series of hyaluronic acid composite hydrogel containing Cu-doped bioactive glass (CuBG) and phosphoserine (PS), in which hyaluronic acid was modified by methacrylate groups and phenylboronic acid groups to form a double crosslinked network.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo screen a suitable precursor, the effects of palladium salts on performance of Pd nanocatalysts for the oxidation of volatile organic components (VOCs) were investigated. A series of catalysts was prepared by impregnating Pd(NO), PdCl and Pd(NH)Cl on alumina-coated cordierites. These catalysts were characterized by XRF, ICP-OES, XRD, N adsorption-desorption, TEM, EDS, Raman spectroscopy, pulse-CO chemisorption, H-TPR, NH-TPD, and XPS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBacterial infection, excessive inflammation and damaging blood vessels network are the major factors to delay the healing of diabetic ulcer. At present, most of wound repair materials are passive and can't response to the wound microenvironment, resulting in a low utilization of bioactive substances and hence a poor therapeutic effect. Therefore, it's essential to design an intelligent wound dressing responsive to the wound microenvironment to achieve the release of drugs on-demand on the basis of multifunctionality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBacterial infection has been considered one of the primary reasons for low survival rate of lung cancer patients. Herein, we demonstrated that a kind of mesoporous silica nanoparticles loaded with anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX) and antimicrobial peptide HHC36 (AMP) (MSN@DOX-AMP) can kill both commensal bacteria and tumor cells under GSH-triggering, modulating the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, significantly treating commensal bacterial infection, and eliminating lung tumors in a commensal model. Meanwhile, MSN@DOX-AMP encapsulated DOX and AMP highly efficiently a combined strategy of physical adsorption and click chemistry and exhibited excellent hemocompatibility and biocompatibility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIonic conductive hydrogels (ICHs) have received widespread attention as an ideal candidate for flexible electronic devices. However, conventional ICHs failed in widespread applications due to their inability to simultaneously possess high toughness, high ionic conductivity, and anti-freezing properties. Here, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyacrylamide (PAAm) were first dissolved in the zinc chloride solution, in which zinc ions (Zn) act as ionic cross-linkers and conducting ions, followed by the introduction of xanthan gum (XG) with a unique structure of trisaccharide side chains into the PVA/PAAm semi-interpenetrating network to prepare a dual-network ICHs (refers as PPXZ).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHydrogen sulfide (HS) as an endogenous gasotransmitter plays a critical role in promotion of wound healing. However, the current HS release system lacks the monitoring ability, which may lead to insufficient or overdose release of HS and serious side effects. Herein, we develop a self-monitoring theranostic probe TPATCF-S, which can quickly release HS under water stimuli associated with a self-monitoring ability by a color change from colorless to deep blue.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiomacromolecules
January 2023
It is urgent to develop biocompatible and high-efficiency antimicrobial agents since microbial infections have always posed serious challenges to human health. Herein, through the marriage of facially amphiphilic skeletons and cationic dendrimers, high-density positively charged dendrimers D-CA-N (G2) and D-CA-N (G1) were designed and synthesized using the "branch" of facially amphiphilic bile acids, followed by their modification with quaternary ammonium charges. Both dendrimers could self-assemble into nanostructured micelles in aqueous solution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMimicking complex structures of natural blood vessels and constructing vascular networks in tissue engineering scaffolds are still challenging now. Herein we demonstrate a new and versatile strategy to fabricate free-standing multi-furcated vessels and complicated vascular networks in heterogeneous porous scaffolds by integrating stimuli-responsive hydrogels and 3D printing technology. Through the sol-gel transition of temperature-responsive gelatin and conversion between two physical crosslinking networks of pH-responsive chitosan (, electrostatic network between protonated chitosan and sulfate ion, crystalline network of neutral chitosan), physiologically-stable gelatin/chitosan hydrogel tubes can be constructed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To investigate the effect of hospital outdoor rest space on the eye movement measures and self-rating restoration of staff.
Background: Relieving the pressure of hospital staff through exposure to hospital outdoor rest space is essential, but there is a scarcity of research on the impact of hospital outdoor rest space on the eye movement measures and self-rating restoration of staff, especially for large Chinese hospitals.
Methods: Cross-analysis was conducted based on the eye movement measures of 76 staff members obtained by eye movement tracking equipment in combination with the self-rating restoration scale and hospital outdoor rest space picture attributes (element proportion and position, brightness and saturation).
Extrusion bioprinting has been widely used to fabricate complicated and heterogeneous constructs for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Despite the remarkable progress acquired so far, the exploration of qualified bioinks is still challenging, mainly due to the conflicting requirements on the printability/shape-fidelity and cell viability. Herein, a new strategy is proposed to formulate a dynamic cross-linked microgel assembly (DC-MA) bioink, which can achieve both high printability/shape-fidelity and high cell viability by strengthening intermicrogel interactions through dynamic covalent bonds while still maintaining the relatively low mechanical modulus of microgels.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe lack of an effective printable ink preparation method and the usual mechanically weak performance obstruct the functional 3D printing hydrogel exploitation and application. Herein, we propose a gentle pre-cross-linking strategy to enable a loosely cross-linked cellulose network for simultaneously achieving favorable printability and a strong hydrogel network via mediating the cellulose self-assembly. A small amount of epichlorohydrin is applied to (i) slightly pre-cross-link the cellulose chains for forming the percolating network to regulate the rheological properties and (ii) form the loosely cross-linked points to mediate the cellulose chains' self-assembly for achieving superior mechanical properties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOwing to the lack of blood vessels, nerves, and lymph, articular cartilage defect is difficult to self-repair. Although several cartilage tissue engineering products have been authorized for clinical use, there are still some problems such as large surgical wounds, weak adhesion with the host tissue, and the limited source of autologous chondrocytes. In this paper, a novel dynamic nanocomposite microgel assembly with excellent microporosity, injectability, tissue-adhesion, and sustained kartogenin (KGN) release is reported.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Studies have found that both FibroScan (FS) and Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced T1 mapping magnetic resonance imaging (Gd-MRI) could assess liver fibrosis (LF) with high effectiveness. The aim of this study is to compare their accuracy in the quantitative evaluation of LF in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), and to explore the diagnostic accuracy of their combination.
Methods: 160 patients with CHB were included in this study.
Microgel assembly, a macroscopic aggregate formed by bottom-up assembly of microgels, is now emerging as prospective biomaterials for applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM). This mini-review first summarizes the fabrication strategies available for microgel assembly, including chemical reaction, physical reaction, cell-cell interaction and external driving force, then highlights its unique characteristics, such as microporosity, injectability and heterogeneity, and finally itemizes its applications in the fields of cell culture, tissue regeneration and biofabrication, especially 3D printing. The problems to be addressed for further applications of microgel assembly are also discussed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Previous studies have shown that long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) GATA6-AS is a tumor suppressor gene. However, the role of GATA6-AS in endometrial cancer (EC) has not been reported. We aimed at investigating the expression characteristics of GATA6-AS in EC tissues and cell lines, and explored whether it inhibits the malignant progression of EC through modulating matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP9).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To investigate the differences and relationships between different outdoor spaces of hospitals on the physiological electroencephalography (EEG) feedback (PEEGF) of staff.
Background: Relieving the pressure of hospital staff is essential, and several studies have revealed that even short-term exposure to outdoor space has a decompression effect. Yet, the focus is scarcely centered on the differences and influential relationships between the PEEGF from different outdoor spaces where the staff spend time, particularly in large-scale hospitals in China.
The increasing insight into the molecular and cellular processes within the angiogenic cascade assists in enhancing the survival and integration of engineered bone constructs. Copper-doped bioactive glass (Cu-BG) is now a potential structural component of the novel scaffolds and implants used in orthopedic and dental repairs. However, it is difficult for BG, especially micro-nano particles, to be printed into scaffolds and still retain its biological activity and ability to biodegrade.
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