Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Networks with Consecutive Conductive Pathways from a Facile Competitive Carbonization-Etching Strategy for High-Performance Energy Storage.

Recently, new carbonization strategies for synthesizing structure-controlled and high-performance carbon electrode materials have attracted great attentions in the field of energy storage and conversion. Here a competitive carbonization-etching strategy to prepare nitrogen-doped carbon polyhedron@carbon nanosheet (NCP@CNS) hybrids derived from zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 is presented. Consecutive conductive networks are constructed in the NCP@CNS hybrids during a unique carbonization-etching pyrolysis, where a competition between the formation of NCPs and CNSs exists. When the NCP@CNS hybrids are employed as supercapacitor electrodes, their hierarchically porous NCPs serve as ion-buffering reservoirs for offering fast ion transport channels, and the CNSs within hybrids not only link the NCPs together to build electron transfer pathways but also restrict the volume fluctuation of electrodes during charging and discharging process. As a result, the as-fabricated NCP@CNS electrode displays excellent electrochemical performances including a superior specific capacitance of 320 F g-1 , a high energy density of 22.2 W h kg-1 (5.6 W h kg-1 for symmetric device), and a long cycle life with capacitance retention of ≈101.8% after 5000 cycles. This study opens an encouraging avenue toward the tailored synthesis of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)-derived carbon electrodes for renewable energy storage applications and devices.

Preoperative Ultrasound-Guided Incisional Biopsy Enhances the Pathological Accuracy of Incisional Biopsy of Cutaneous Melanoma: A Prospective Clinical Trial in Chinese Patients.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the feasibility of preoperative ultrasound (US)-guided incisional biopsy through a prospective controlled clinical trial. METHODS: This was a prospective, double-arm, single-center study of Chinese patients. Thirty patients were enrolled in the study. Fourteen patients received incisional biopsies for which the choice of biopsy area relied on a clinical evaluation, and 16 patients received incisional biopsies for which the choice of biopsy area relied on a US-guided evaluation. The following procedure was used in the US-guided incisional biopsy group: 1) clinical and dermoscopic evaluation of skin lesions; 2) US examination; 3) incisional biopsy; 4) surgical excision; and 5) histopathological examination. The same procedure was used in the non-US-guided group except without US examination. RESULTS: In the non-US-guided group, the mean tumor thicknesses obtained from incisional biopsy and postoperative histopathological examination were 2.1 and 4.1 mm, respectively. Seven melanomas were underestimated by incisional biopsy, resulting in margins narrower than currently recommended. In the US-guided group, the mean tumor thicknesses obtained from US, incisional biopsy, and postoperative histopathological examination were 3.4, 2.9, and 2.7 mm, respectively. In only 3 melanomas was the tumor thickness of the incisional biopsy less than that of the postoperative histopathological examination, demonstrating that US-guided biopsy obtains the maximum thickness area. CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative US-guided incisional biopsy can enhance the pathological accuracy of incisional biopsy, which may allow us to better perform surgical excision with safe peripheral surgical margins.

Molten salt-confined pyrolysis towards carbon nanotube-backboned microporous carbon for high-energy-density and durable supercapacitor electrodes.

The development of a green and scalable construction of a three-dimensional (3D) hierarchically porous carbon as an electrode material for supercapacitors is promising but challenging. Herein, a carbon nanotube-backboned microporous carbon (CNT-MPC) was prepared by molten salt-confined pyrolysis, during which the salt eutectics simultaneously acted as a high-temperature reaction solvent and reusable template. Among the CNT-MPC, the CNT backbone provided a 3D conductive framework, whereas the MPC sheath possessed integrated mesopores and micropores as an efficient ion reservoir. As a result, the as-obtained CNT-MPC exhibited a high specific capacitance of 305.6 F g-1 at 1 A g-1, high energy density of 20.5 W h kg-1 and excellent cyclic stability with no capacitance losses after 50 000 cycles. The molten-salt confined pyrolysis strategy therefore provides a low-cost, environmentally-friendly and readily industrialized route to develop a hierarchically porous carbon that is highly required for high-energy-density and durable supercapacitors.

Prevalence and risk factors of atrioventricular block among 15 million Chinese health examination participants in 2018: a nation-wide cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Nationwide data on the prevalence of atrioventricular (AV) block are currently unavailable in China. Thus, we aimed to assess the prevalence and risk factors of AV block among Chinese health examination adults. METHODS: A total of 15,181,402 participants aged ≥ 18 years (mean age 41.5 ± 13.4 years, 53.2% men) who underwent an electrocardiogram as a part of routine health examination in 2018 were analyzed. AV block was diagnosed by physicians using 12-lead electrocardiogram. Overall and stratified prevalence (by age, sex, and city size) of all, first-, second- and third-degree AV block were calculated. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to explore risk factors associated with AV block. RESULTS: AV block was observed in 88,842 participants, including 86,153 with first-degree, 2249 with second-degree and 440 with third-degree AV block. The age- and sex-standardized prevalence rate [95% confidence interval (CI)] of all, first-, second- and third-degree AV block were 7.06‰ (7.01-7.11), 6.84‰ (6.79-6.89), 0.18‰ (0.17-0.18) and 0.04‰ (0.03-0.04) respectively. After multivariable adjustment, the risk of AV block was positively associated with older age, being male, lower heart rate, higher body mass index, hypertension, diabetes and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. High total cholesterol was associated with a lower risk of AV block. CONCLUSION: First-degree AV block is relatively common while severe AV block is rare in health examination adults. Besides, AV block was highly prevalent among the elderly. The risk of AV block was associated with older age, being male and metabolic factors.

Short-term PM2.5 and cardiovascular admissions in NY State: assessing sensitivity to exposure model choice.

BACKGROUND: Air pollution health studies have been increasingly using prediction models for exposure assessment even in areas without monitoring stations. To date, most studies have assumed that a single exposure model is correct, but estimated effects may be sensitive to the choice of exposure model. METHODS: We obtained county-level daily cardiovascular (CVD) admissions from the New York (NY) Statewide Planning and Resources Cooperative System (SPARCS) and four sets of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) spatio-temporal predictions (2002-2012). We employed overdispersed Poisson models to investigate the relationship between daily PM2.5 and CVD, adjusting for potential confounders, separately for each state-wide PM2.5 dataset. RESULTS: For all PM2.5 datasets, we observed positive associations between PM2.5 and CVD. Across the modeled exposure estimates, effect estimates ranged from 0.23% (95%CI: -0.06, 0.53%) to 0.88% (95%CI: 0.68, 1.08%) per 10 µg/m3 increase in daily PM2.5. We observed the highest estimates using monitored concentrations 0.96% (95%CI: 0.62, 1.30%) for the subset of counties where these data were available. CONCLUSIONS: Effect estimates varied by a factor of almost four across methods to model exposures, likely due to varying degrees of exposure measurement error. Nonetheless, we observed a consistently harmful association between PM2.5 and CVD admissions, regardless of model choice.

Graphene oxide exacerbates dextran sodium sulfate-induced colitis via ROS/AMPK/p53 signaling to mediate apoptosis.

BACKGROUND: Graphene oxide (GO), a novel carbon-based nanomaterial, has promising applications in biomedicine. However, it induces potential cytotoxic effects on the gastrointestinal (GI) tract cells, and these effects have been largely uncharacterized. The present study aimed to explore the toxic effects of GO on the intestinal tract especially under pre-existing inflammatory conditions, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and elucidate underlying mechanisms. RESULTS: Our findings indicated that oral gavage of GO worsened acute colitis induced by 2.5% dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) in mice. In vitro, GO exacerbated DSS-induced inflammation and apoptosis in the FHC cell line, an ideal model of intestinal epithelial cells (IECs). Further, the potential mechanism underlying GO aggravated mice colitis and cell inflammation was explored. Our results revealed that GO treatment triggered apoptosis in FHC cells through the activation of reactive oxygen species (ROS)/AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)/p53 pathway, as evidenced by the upregulation of cytochrome c (Cytc), Bax, and cleaved caspase-3 (c-cas3) and the downregulation of Bcl-2. Interestingly, pretreatment with an antioxidant, N-acetyl-L-cysteine, and a specific inhibitor of AMPK activation, Compound C (Com.C), effectively inhibited GO-induced apoptosis in FHC cells. CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrate that GO-induced IECs apoptosis via ROS/AMPK/p53 pathway activation accounts for the exacerbation of colitis in vivo and aggravation of inflammation in vitro. These findings provide a new insight into the pathogenesis of IBD induced by environmental factors. Furthermore, our findings enhance our understanding of GO as a potential environmental toxin, which helps delineate the risk of exposure to patients with disturbed intestinal epithelial barrier/inflammatory disorders such as IBD.

The Classification of Six Common Skin Diseases Based on Xiangya-Derm: Development of a Chinese Database for Artificial Intelligence.

BACKGROUND: Skin and subcutaneous disease is the fourth-leading cause of the nonfatal disease burden worldwide and constitutes one of the most common burdens in primary care. However, there is a severe lack of dermatologists, particularly in rural Chinese areas. Furthermore, although artificial intelligence (AI) tools can assist in diagnosing skin disorders from images, the database for the Chinese population is limited. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to establish a database for AI based on the Chinese population and presents an initial study on six common skin diseases. METHODS: Each image was captured with either a digital camera or a smartphone, verified by at least three experienced dermatologists and corresponding pathology information, and finally added to the Xiangya-Derm database. Based on this database, we conducted AI-assisted classification research on six common skin diseases and then proposed a network called Xy-SkinNet. Xy-SkinNet applies a two-step strategy to identify skin diseases. First, given an input image, we segmented the regions of the skin lesion. Second, we introduced an information fusion block to combine the output of all segmented regions. We compared the performance with 31 dermatologists of varied experiences. RESULTS: Xiangya-Derm, as a new database that consists of over 150,000 clinical images of 571 different skin diseases in the Chinese population, is the largest and most diverse dermatological data set of the Chinese population. The AI-based six-category classification achieved a top 3 accuracy of 84.77%, which exceeded the average accuracy of dermatologists (78.15%). CONCLUSIONS: Xiangya-Derm, the largest database for the Chinese population, was created. The classification of six common skin conditions was conducted based on Xiangya-Derm to lay a foundation for product research.

Nanomanufacturing of RGO-CNT Hybrid Film for Flexible Aqueous Al-Ion Batteries.

A highly electrically conductive film-type current collector is an essential part of batteries. Apart from the metal-based current collectors, lightweight and highly conductive carbon materials such as reduced graphene oxide (RGO) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) show great potential as current collectors. However, traditional RGO manufacturing usually requires a long time and high energy, which decreases the product yielding rate and manufacturing efficiency. Moreover, the performance of the manufactured RGO needs to be further improved. In this work, CNT and GO are evenly mixed into GO-CNT, which can be directly reduced into RGO-CNT by Joule heating at 2936 K within less than 1 min. The fabricated RGO-CNT achieves a high electrical conductivity of 2750 S cm-1 , and realizes a 106 -fold increase. The assembled flexible aqueous Al-ion battery with RGO-CNT as the current collector exhibits impressive electrochemical performance in terms of superior cycling stability and exceptional rate capability, and excellent mechanical ability regarding the tolerance to mechanical damage such as bending, folding, piercing, and cutting without detrimental consequences.

Propofol Prevents Oxidative Stress by Decreasing the Ischemic Accumulation of Succinate in Focal Cerebral Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury.

Oxidative stress caused by mitochondrial dysfunction during reperfusion is a key pathogenic mechanism in cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury. Propofol (2,6-diisopropylphenol) has been proven to attenuate mitochondrial dysfunction and reperfusion injury. The current study reveals that propofol decreases oxidative stress injury by preventing succinate accumulation in focal cerebral IR injury. We evaluated whether propofol could attenuate ischemic accumulation of succinate in transient middle cerebral artery occlusion in vivo. By isolating mitochondria from cortical tissue, we also examined the in vitro effects of propofol on succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) activity and various mitochondrial bioenergetic parameters related to oxidative stress injury, such as the production of reactive oxidative species, membrane potential, Ca2+-induced mitochondrial swelling, and morphology via electron microscopy. Propofol significantly decreased the ischemic accumulation of succinate by inhibiting SDH activity and inhibited the oxidation of succinate in mitochondria. Propofol can decrease membrane potential in normal mitochondria but not in ischemic mitochondria. Propofol prevents Ca2+-induced mitochondrial swelling and ultrastructural changes to mitochondria. The protective effect of propofol appears to act, at least in part, by limiting oxidative stress injury by preventing the ischemic accumulation of succinate.

ALDH2 Protects Against Ischemic Stroke in Rats by Facilitating 4-HNE Clearance and AQP4 Down-Regulation.

Aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) is a new therapeutic target in the central nervous system. However, the association between ALDH2 and brain edema following ischemic stroke (IS) remains unclear. The present study was investigated to whether active ALDH2 can attenuate brain edema by using a rat model of IS, with the aim of clarifying the underlying mechanisms involved. Rats were administered the ALDH2 agonist Alda-1, vehicle or the ALDH2 inhibitor cyanamide (CYA) 15 min prior to a 1.5 h middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) surgery. The effects of ALDH2 were subsequently investigated 24 h after reperfusion by evaluating neurological function, infarct sizes, brain edema volumes, 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (4-HNE) levels, and aquaporin 4 (AQP4) protein expression. The results demonstrated that increasing ALDH2 activity significantly improved neurological deficits, reduced infarct sizes, and attenuated brain edema after MCAO. Alda-1 administration led to decreased 4-HNE levels and inhibited AQP4 protein expression in the peri-infarct section of the brain. Whereas, CYA administration increased 4-HNE levels, AQP4 expression, and simultaneously aggravated brain edema following MCAO. In conclusion, increasing ALDH2 activity can improve brain edema, infarct volumes, and reduce neurological impairment in a rat IS model. The therapeutic benefits of ALDH2 are related to 4-HNE clearance and AQP4 down-regulation.

Assessing Causal Relationships Between Periodontitis and Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Two-Sample Bidirectional Mendelian Randomisation Study.

PURPOSE: To investigate the causality between periodontitis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) using a two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomisation (MR) analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Genetic variations in periodontitis and NAFLD were acquired from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) using the Gene-Lifestyle Interaction in Dental Endpoints, a large-scale meta-analysis, and FinnGen consortia. Data from the first two databases were used to explore the causal relationship between periodontitis and NAFLD ("discovery stage"), and the data from FinnGen was used to validate our results ("validation stage"). We initially performed MR analysis using 5 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the discovery samples and 18 in the replicate samples as genetic instruments for periodontitis to investigate the causative impact of periodontitis on NAFLD. We then conducted a reverse MR analysis using 6 SNPs in the discovery samples and 4 in the replicate samples as genetic instruments for NAFLD to assess the causative impact of NAFLD on periodontitis. We further implemented heterogeneity and sensitivity analyses to assess the reliability of the MR results. RESULTS: Periodontitis was not causally related to NAFLD (odds ratio [OR] = 1.036, 95% CI: 0.914-1.175, p = 0.578 in the discovery stage; OR = 1.070, 95% CI: 0.935-1.224, p = 0.327 in the validation stage), and NAFLD was not causally linked with periodontitis (OR = 1.059, 95% CI: 0.916-1.225, p = 0.439 in the discovery stage; OR = 0.993, 95% CI: 0.896-1.102, p = 0.901 in the validation stage). No heterogeneity was observed among the selected SNPs. Sensitivity analyses demonstrated the absence of pleiotropy and the reliability of our MR results. CONCLUSION: The present MR analysis showed no genetic evidence for a cause-and-effect relationship between periodontitis and NAFLD. Periodontitis may not directly influence the development of NAFLD and vice versa.

Corrigendum: The utility of high-frequency 18 MHz ultrasonography for preoperative evaluation of acral melanoma thickness in Chinese patients.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1185389.].

Chronic Stress Dampens Lactobacillus Johnsonii-Mediated Tumor Suppression to Enhance Colorectal Cancer Progression.

Colorectal cancer development and outcome are impacted by modifiable risk factors, including psychologic stress. The gut microbiota has also been shown to be linked to psychologic factors. Here, we found a marked deteriorative effect of chronic stress in multiple colorectal cancer models, including chemically induced (AOM/DSS), genetically engineered (APCmin/+), and xenograft tumor mouse models. RNA sequencing data from colon tissues revealed that expression of stemness-related genes was upregulated in the stressed colorectal cancer group by activated ß-catenin signaling, which was further confirmed by results from ex vivo organoid analyses as well as in vitro and in vivo cell tumorigenicity assays. 16S rRNA sequencing of the gut microbiota showed that chronic stress disrupted gut microbes, and antibiotic treatment and fecal microbiota transplantation abolished the stimulatory effects of chronic stress on colorectal cancer progression. Stressed colorectal cancer mice displayed a significant decrease in Lactobacillus johnsonii (L. johnsonii) abundance, which was inversely correlated with tumor load. Moreover, protocatechuic acid (PCA) was identified as a beneficial metabolite produced by L. johnsonii based on metabolome sequencing and LC/MS-MS analysis. Replenishment of L. johnsonii or PCA blocked chronic stress-induced colorectal cancer progression by decreasing ß-catenin expression. Furthermore, PCA activated the cGMP pathway, and the cGMP agonist sildenafil abolished the effects of chronic stress on colorectal cancer. Altogether, these data identify that stress impacts the gut microbiome to support colorectal cancer progression. SIGNIFICANCE: Chronic stress stimulates cancer stemness by reducing the intestinal abundance of L. johnsonii and its metabolite PCA to enhance ß-catenin signaling, forming a basis for potential strategies to circumvent stress-induced cancer aggressiveness. See related commentary by McCollum and Shah, p. 645.

The utility of high-frequency 18 MHz ultrasonography for preoperative evaluation of acral melanoma thickness in Chinese patients.

Background: Despite the increasing use of preoperative ultrasound evaluation for melanoma, there is limited research on the use of this technique for Acral Melanoma (AM). Methods: This retrospective study analyzed the electronic medical records of patients who underwent preoperative evaluation for cutaneous melanoma maximum thickness using an 18 MHz probe and histopathological examination between December 2017 and March 2021 at the Department of Dermatology in Xiangya Hospital, Central South University. Results: A total of 105 patients were included in the study. The mean tumor thickness was 3.9 mm (s.d., 2.3), with 63% of the specimens showing ulceration and 44 patients showing lymph node metastasis. The results showed a good correlation between the high-frequency ultrasonography (HFUS) and histopathological thickness measurements, with a Spearman's correlation coefficient of 0.83 [(95% CI 0.73-0.90) (P < 0.001)]. The positive predictive value (PPV) of sonography in identifying tumor thickness was also found to be high. Conclusion: Our study suggests that high-frequency 18 MHz ultrasonography is an effective tool for the preoperative evaluation of AM thickness. The HFUS measurements correlated well with the histopathological thickness measurements, making it a valuable and reliable method for clinicians to assess the thickness of melanoma lesions preoperatively.

TRPC absence induces pro-inflammatory macrophages and gut microbe disorder, sensitizing mice to colitis.

The transient receptor potential canonical (TRPC) channels, encoded in seven non-allelic genes, are important contributors to calcium fluxes, are strongly associated with various diseases. Here we explored the consequences of ablating all seven TRPCs in mice focusing on colitis. We discovered that absence of all seven TRPC proteins in mice (TRPC HeptaKO mice) promotes the development of dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis. RNA-sequence analysis highlighted an extremely pro-inflammatory profile in colons of DSS-treated TRPC HeptaKO mice, with an amount of increased pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Flow cytometry analysis showed that the infiltration of Ly6Chi monocytes and neutrophils in colonic lamina propria was significantly increased in DSS-treated TRPC HeptaKO mice. Results also revealed that macrophages from TRPC HeptaKO mice exhibited M1 polarization and enhanced secretion of pro-inflammatory factors. In addition, the composition of gut microbiota was markedly disturbed in DSS-treated TRPC HeptaKO mice. However, upon antibiotic cocktail (Abx)-treatment, TRPC HeptaKO mice showed no significant differences with WT mice in disease severity. Collectively, these data suggest that ablation of all TRPCs promotes the development of DSS-induced colitis by inducing pro-inflammatory macrophages and gut microbiota disorder.

Photodynamic therapy combined with surgery versus Mohs micrographic surgery for the treatment of difficult-to-treat basal cell carcinoma: a retrospective clinical study.

BACKGROUND: Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS) is the preferable surgery for difficult -to-treat basal cell carcinoma (BCC) but is an expensive, labor-intensive, and time-consuming technique. The aim of this study is to compare the efficacy and safety of photodynamic therapy combined with surgery(S-PDT) versus Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS) for the treatment of difficult-to-treat BCC. METHODS: This was a retrospective, comparative study. A total of 32 patients, 16 patients with 48 lesions, were treated with S-PDT, and the other 16 patients with 17 lesions treated by MMS were enrolled in this study. Follow-up was at least 36 months posttreatment. RESULTS: The recurrence rate was no statistical difference between the S-PDT and MMS (p = 1.000, Fishers exact test). The median follow-up was 42.5 months (range 36-63 months). The mean healing time in the S-PDT [17.9 d (SD 9.8)] is longer than in MMS [7.5 d (SD 1.5)] during follow-up (p＜.001, Independent T-test). On the whole, the cosmetic outcome of patients in S-PDT was statistically no significant difference with that in MMS according to a 4-point scale (p = .719, chi-squared test). CONCLUSIONS: S-PDT is a safe, effective, and novel cosmetic treatment, which holds the potential to be an alternative treatment to MMS for some cases.

Beta-adrenergic receptor blocker propranolol triggers anti-tumor immunity and enhances irinotecan therapy in mice colorectal cancer.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) stands as the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide with limited available medicines. While drug repurposing comes as a promising strategy for cancer treatment, we discovered that propranolol (Prop), a non-selective ß1 and ß2 adrenergic receptor blocker, significantly inhibited the development of subcutaneous CT26 CRC and AOM/DSS-induced CRC models. The RNA-seq analysis highlighted the activated immune pathways after Prop treatment, with KEGG analysis enriched in T-cell differentiation. Routine analyses of blood revealed a decrease in neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, a biomarker of systemic inflammation, and a prognostic indicator in the Prop-treated groups in both CRC models. Analysis of the tumor-infiltrating immune cells exhibited that Prop regressed the exhaustion of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in the CT26-derived graft models, which was further corroborated in the AOM/DSS-induced models. Furthermore, bioinformatic analysis fitted well with the experimental data, showing that ß2 adrenergic receptor (ADRB2) was positively correlated with T-cell exhaustion signature in various tumors. The in vitro experiment showed no direct effect of Prop on CT26 cell viability, while T cells were activated with significantly-upregulated production of IFN-γ and Granzyme B. Consistently, Prop was unable to restrain CT26 tumor growth in nude mice. At last, the combination of Prop and the chemotherapeutic drug Irinotecan acted out the strongest inhibition in CT26 tumor progress. Collectively, we repurpose Prop as a promising and economical therapeutic drug for CRC treatment and highlight T-cell as its target.

Extreme Environmental Thermal Shock Induced Dislocation-Rich Pt Nanoparticles Boosting Hydrogen Evolution Reaction.

Crystal structure engineering of nanomaterials is crucial for the design of electrocatalysts. Inducing dislocations is an efficient approach to generate strain effects in nanomaterials to optimize the crystal and electronic structures and improve the catalytic properties. However, it is almost impossible to produce and retain dislocations in commercial mainstream catalysts, such as single metal platinum (Pt) catalysts. In this work, a non-equilibrium high-temperature (>1400 K) thermal-shock method is reported to induce rich dislocations in Pt nanocrystals (Dr-Pt). The method is performed in an extreme environment (≈77 K) created by liquid nitrogen. The dislocations induced within milliseconds by thermal and structural stress during the crystallization process are kinetically frozen at an ultrafast cooling rate. The high-energy surface structures with dislocation-induced strain effects can prevent surface restructuring during catalysis. The findings indicate that a novel extreme environmental high-temperature thermal-shock method can successfully introduce rich dislocations in Pt nanoparticles and significantly boost its hydrogen evolution reaction performance.

ACSL4 deficiency confers protection against ferroptosis-mediated acute kidney injury.

The term ferroptosis coined in 2012 causes acute kidney injury (AKI). However, its pathway mechanism in AKI is poorly understood. In this study, we conducted an RNA-sequence analysis of kidneys in AKI and normal mice to explore the pathway mechanism of ferroptosis. Consequently, differentially expressed genes highlighted Acyl-CoA synthetase long-chain family (ACSL4), a known promotor for ferroptosis. Besides, RT-PCR, Western blot, and immunohistochemical analyses confirmed its upregulation. HIF-1α was downregulated in I/R-AKI mice, and in vitro studies confirmed a negative regulation of HIF-1α on ACSL4. To explore the role of ACSL4 in AKI, we constructed ACSL4 knockout in kidney tubules of mice-as Cdh16Cre-ACSL4F/F mice. Results revealed that ACSL4 knockout significantly reduced ferroptosis and inhibited the functional and pathological injury of AKI mice. Meanwhile, the kidneys of Cdh16Cre-ACSL4F/F mice demonstrated a significantly decreased inflammation and macrophage infiltration. Further, additional explorations were explored to decipher a more thorough understanding of ferroptotic immunogenicity. As a result, neutrophils were not directly recruited by ferroptotic cells, but by ferroptotic cell-induced macrophages. Further, ACSL4 inhibitor rosiglitazone significantly inhibited AKI. Collectively, these data provide novel insights into the AKI pathogenesis, and defined ACSL4 as an effective target in AKI.