The Abundance and Function of Neutrophils in the Endometriosis Systemic and Pelvic Microenvironment.

Endometriosis is a common inflammatory illness in which endometrial tissue grows outside the uterine cavity. Immune dysfunction is now widely acknowledged as the primary cause of endometriosis. The immune cell population represented by neutrophils is thought to play an essential role in the etiology, pathophysiology, and associated clinical outcome. There is growing evidence that neutrophils have a role in chronic and aseptic inflammatory diseases, and endometriosis patients have increased levels of neutrophils in plasma, peritoneal fluid, and ectopic endometrium. Here, we sought to review the function of neutrophils in the pathogenesis of endometriosis, with an emphasis on the role of neutrophils in regulating endometrial angiogenesis and the local inflammatory microenvironment.

Enhanced dewaterability of waste-activated sludge by combined cationic polyacrylamide and magnetic field pretreatment.

The potential function of combining magnetic field (MF) pretreatment with cationic polyacrylamide (CPAM) additive on enhancing the dewaterability of waste-activated sludge was investigated in the present work. Two reactors were involved in a specially designed experimental apparatus, one of which was built with MF accessories. Several parameters were conducted, including CPAM dosages, MF strengths and processing times, respectively. Capillary suction time (CST) and specific resistance to filtration (SRF) were used to evaluate sludge dewaterability. Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) concentration was also determined in an attempt to identify the observed changes in dewaterability. It was indicated by the results that both CPAM conditioning and MF pretreatment on sludge can lower CST and SRF values. However, subjecting to a combination of MF pretreatment and CPAM conditioning, sludge dewaterability was significantly enhanced beyond the level observed of CPAM addition alone. The lowest CST and SRF values of 36.5 s and 0.75×10(12) m kg(-1), respectively, were obtained when sludge was co-conditioned by CPAM (at a dosage of 40 mg L(-1)) and MF (at an induction of 40 mT) for 30 min, suggesting the optimal condition for enhancing sludge dewaterability. It is also shown from the significant correlations between EPS, protein, polysaccharide and CST/SRF that the increment of EPS concentration in sludge supernatant may be the major reason for the enhancement of dewaterability.

Phosphorus release mechanisms during digestion of EBPR sludge under anaerobic, anoxic and aerobic conditions.

Three laboratory-scale digesters were operated in parallel under anaerobic, anoxic and aerobic conditions to reveal the release mechanisms of phosphorus when digesting enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) sludge. The variation rates of the parameters associated with phosphorus release were calculated and compared with that of a typical EBPR anaerobic process. The results show that both phosphorus-accumulating organisms (PAOs) and denitrifying phosphorus-accumulating organisms (DPAOs) played important roles in the phosphorus release during the digestion processes. Under anaerobic conditions, the PAOs hydrolyzed internal polyphosphorus (poly-P) into PO4(3-)-P concurrent with synthesis of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA). Under anoxic or aerobic conditions, PAOs and/or DPAOs assimilated part of the PO4(3-)-P from the digestive liquid using nitrate or oxygen as terminal electron acceptors. Nevertheless, the biological activities of PAOs under anaerobic conditions and DPAOs under anoxic conditions were limited. Moreover, it was the biomass hydrolysis degree that determined the phosphorus release capacity of the sludge, regardless of whether anaerobic, anoxic or aerobic conditions were adopted. Assuming that nitrate was the sole electron acceptor during anoxic digestion of EBPR biomass, the relationship between the consumption of nitrate and uptake of PO4(3-)-P associated with the denitrifying phosphorus removal (DPR) can be expressed as ΔP = 0.11 × ΔN.

Electrical stimulation induced structural 3D human engineered neural tissue with well-developed neuronal network and functional connectivity.

Objective.Three-dimensional (3D) neural tissue engineering is expected to provide new stride in developing neural disease models and functional substitutes to aid in the treatment of central nervous system injury. We have previously detailed an electrical stimulation (ES) system to generate 3D mouse engineered neural tissue (mENT)in vitro. However, ES-induced human ENT (hENT) has not previously been either investigated or identified in structural and functional manner. Here, we applied ES as a stimulator to regulate human neural stem cells in 3D Matrigel, explored the components and functional properties of hENTs.Approach.By immunofluorescence chemical staining and electron microscope imaging, we evaluated the effects of ES on (1) neuronal differentiation and maturation, (2) neurites outgrowth and alignment in hENT, (3) formation of synapses and myelin sheaths in hENT. We further investigated the formation of synaptic connections betweenex-vivo-fused mouse and human tissue. We used calcium imaging to detect activities of neurons in hENT culture.Results.ES could induce neuronal differentiation, the orderly growth of neurites and the maturation of neuron subtypes to construct a well-developed neuronal network with synapses and myelin sheaths. Most importantly, we discovered that raising extracellular K+concentration resulted the increasing neuronal excitability in the hENT, indicating electrical activities in neuronal cells.Significance.We applied ES to generate the organised 3D hENTs and identified them in both structural and functional manner.

Characteristics of various forms of phosphorus and their relationships in the sediments of Haizi Lake, China.

The phosphorus (P) distribution in the sediments of Haizi Lake from the middle reach of the Yangtze River region, China, was investigated using a sequential chemical extraction procedure. P forms and concentrations of sediment samples taken at 25 sites over the whole lake were measured. The relationships between various forms of P in sediments and dissolved P in the overlying water were also discussed. Results showed that the concentrations of total P (TP) in the sediments ranged from 404 to 670 mg kg⁻¹, with an average of 503 mg kg⁻¹. The exchangeable P (Ex-P), Al-bound P (Al-P), Fe-bound P (Fe-P), occluded P (Oc-P), authigenic carbonate fluorapatite + biogenic apatite + CaCO3-associated P (ACa-P), detrital apatite + other inorganic P (De-P) and organic P (Or-P) accounted for, on average, 0.52, 0.04, 10.9, 32.0, 7.4, 20.1 and 29.0% of TP, respectively. Relevance analysis indicated that Oc-P, ACa-P and De-P, as the majority forms of inorganic P, were less correlated to others. The significant correlations between Ex-P, Al-P, Fe-P, Or-P and TP suggested the probability of reciprocal transformation. It was suggested that Ex-P, Al-P, Fe-P, Or-P and TP in the sediments might be released easily to the water interface, resulting in sustained lake eutrophication.

Enhanced electrokinetically-delivered persulfate and alternating electric field induced thermal effect activated persulfate in situ for remediation of phenanthrene contaminated clay.

Delivering persulfate (PS) efficiently into clay is an unsolved challenge. This study proposes a novel strategy with enhanced electrokinetically -delivery PS into clay by using PS for continuously flushing cathode to inhibit water electrolysis at cathode electrode. On this basis, a novel approach of heating soil by alternating current (AC) was used to thermally activate PS in situ. Results show that the mass transfer efficiency of PS by electroosmotic flow is about 20 times that by electromigration. Moreover, when PS was added in the anode chamber, using PS solution continuously flushing cathode created a relatively balanced the influent and effluent flow rates, significantly improving the mass transfer efficiency of PS. Compared to using NaNO3 solution flushing, a significant increase of 51.7% was achieved, reaching 78.8%, for the phenanthrene (PHE) average degradation rate in soil cell. In contrast, the best overall PHE removal rate was observed, reaching 87.8%, by a cycle strategy of enhanced electrokinetically -delivered PS followed by AC heating applied. Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy analysis showed oxidative radicals (SO4∙-/•OH) were the major species responsible for enhanced PHE degradation. These results demonstrate that this cycle strategy is a viable method for remediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in clay.

Identification of a soluble leptin receptor in crucian carp with different binding affinity to leptin-a and leptin-b.

Soluble leptin receptor (sLepR) is the main leptin-binding protein in plasma and contributes to activation of circulating leptin. In this study, we identified a sLepR in plasma of crucian carp (Carassius carassius) using a pull-down assay, and the interaction of sLepR with its ligand is confirmed by a cross-linking study. In addition, we found that leptin-a has higher affinity than leptin-b for sLepR. According to our knowledge, this is the first experimental report about the main ligand of sLepR in teleost.

The removal of chromium (VI) and lead (II) from groundwater using sepiolite-supported nanoscale zero-valent iron (S-NZVI).

In this study, the synthesis and characterization of sepiolite-supported nanoscale zero-valent iron particles (S-NZVI) was investigated for the adsorption/reduction of Cr(VI) and Pb(II) ions. Nanoscale zero-valent iron (NZVI) supported on sepiolite was successfully used to remove Cr(VI) and Pb(II) from groundwater with high efficiency. The removal mechanism was proposed as a two-step interaction including both the physical adsorption of Cr(VI) and Pb(II) on the surface or inner layers of the sepiolite-supported NZVI particles and the subsequent reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) and Pb(II) to Pb(0) by NZVI. The immobilization of the NZVI particles on the surface of sepiolite could help to overcome the disadvantage of NZVI particles, which have strong tendency to agglomerate into larger particles, resulting in an adverse effect on both the effective surface area and reaction performance. The techniques of XRD, XPS, BET, Zeta potential, and TEM were used to characterize the S-NZVI and interaction between S-NZVI and heavy metals. The appropriate S-NZVI dosage was 1.6 g L(-1). The removal efficiency of Cr(VI) and Pb(II) by S-NZVI was not affected to any considerable extent by the presence of co-existing ions, such as H2PO4(-), SiO3(2-), Ca(2+) and HCO3(-). The Cr(VI) and Pb(II) removal kinetics followed a pseudo-first-order rate expression, and both Langmuir isotherm model and Freundlich isotherm model were proposed. The results suggested that supporting NZVI on sepiolite had the potential to become a promising technique for in situ heavy metal-contaminated groundwater remediation.

Enchytraeidae Fridericia bulbosa as a new test species for soil ecotoxicity assessment.

Fridericia bulbosa (Rosa, 1887) was proposed as a new test species to assess soil ecotoxicity. The acute toxicity of mercury (Hg) and bromoxynil (BX) on the mortality of Fridericia bulbosa (F. bulbosa) in OECD soil was investigated. The results suggested there were statistically significant differences (p<0.05) between controls and treatments except lower concentration of exposure to single pollutant. BX was more toxic to F. bulbosa than Hg. The 14 d LC(50) values for F. bulbosa exposed to Hg and BX were 3.87 and 2.41 mg kg(-1), respectively. The effects of mixtures with single pollutants on earthworms were observed differently. Toxicity of Hg on earthworms was significantly influenced by the concentration of BX. BX was the main contributive factor of the combined toxic effects. It can be proved that F. bulbosa is a suitable bio-indicator to measure the acute toxicity of mixed pollutants in soil and the mortality of earthworms may be considered as a valuable and sensitive biomarker to diagnose adverse effect of Hg or BX in soil environment.