Redox treatment ameliorates diabetes mellitus-induced skin flap necrosis via inhibiting apoptosis and promoting neoangiogenesis.

Intractable wound healing is the habitual problem of diabetes mellitus. High blood glucose limits wound healing by interrupting inflammatory responses and inhibiting neoangiogenesis. Oxidative stress is commonly thought to be a major pathogenic cause of diabetic complications. Edaravone (3-methyl-1-phenyl-2-pyrazolin-5-one, EDV) is a free radical scavenger which suppress oxidative stress. This study investigates whether EDV can reduce oxidative stress in wound healing HaCaT/human dermal fibroblasts cells (HDFs) in vitro and in vivo animal model. Cell viability and wound healing assays, FACS flow cytometry, and Hoechst 33342 staining were performed to confirm apoptosis and cytotoxicity in H2O2 and EDV-treated HaCaT and HDFs. A streptozotocin-induced hyperglycemic animal model was made in adult C57BL6 mice. Full-thickness skin flap was made on dorsomedial back and re-sutured to evaluate the wound healing process. EDV was delivered slowly in the skin flap with degradable fibrin glue. The flap was monitored and analyzed on postoperative days 1, 3, and 5. CD31/DAPI staining was done to detect newly formed blood vessels. The expression levels of NF-κB, bcl-2, NOX3, and STAT3 proteins in C57BL6 mouse tissues were also examined. The wound healing process in hyper- and normoglycemic mice showed a difference in protein expression, especially in oxidative stress management and angiogenesis. Exogenous H2O2 reduced cell viability in a proportion to the concentration via apoptosis. EDV protected HaCaT cells and HDFs from H2O2 induced reactive oxygen species cell damage and apoptosis. In the mouse model, EDV with fibrin resulted in less necrotic areas and increased angiogenesis on postoperative day 5, compared to sham-treated mice. Our results indicate that EDV could protect H2O2-induced cellular injury via inhibiting early apoptosis and inflammation and also increasing angiogenesis. EDV might be valuable in the treatment of diabetic wounds that oxidative stress has been implicated.

Risks for depression among ostomates in South Korea.

AIM: This study explored the factors that are associated with the depressive status among older adult ostomates in South Korea. METHODS: The study was a secondary analysis of data from a cross-sectional study with 217 ostomates who were aged ≥55 years from September 2, 2013 to October 30, 2013. The general characteristics, daily routines, and depressive status were assessed in order to identify the factors that were contributing to a depressed mood among the older adult ostomates in South Korea. The general characteristics included their sex, age group, educational level, financial status, employment, outing hours, perceived social isolation, leisure activity, and perceived health status. The daily routines included living environment inconvenience, leisure activity satisfaction, body image satisfaction, sleep satisfaction, exercise involvement, intimacy with a spouse, sexual satisfaction, and satisfaction with quality of life. RESULTS: The prevalence of depressive status in older adult ostomates was 50.7%, but 40.8% in the same-age population without an ostomy. The factors that were associated with a depressed mood among the older adult ostomates in South Korea were social isolation, perceived poor health status, perceived low quality of life, dissatisfaction with leisure activities, and poor financial status. The participants' sex, age, and educational level were not associated with depression. CONCLUSION: Nurses need to encourage older adults with an ostomy to reduce their social isolation and to increase leisure activities by helping them to use resources, such as support groups and psychological support, in collaboration with interdisciplinary team members.

Revealing the interface in polymer nanocomposites.

The morphological characterization of polymer nanocomposites over multiple length scales is a fundamental challenge. Here, we report a technique for high-throughput monitoring of interface and dispersion in polymer nanocomposites based on Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET). Nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC), fluorescently labeled with 5-(4,6-dichlorotriazinyl)-aminofluorescein (FL) and dispersed into polyethylene (PE) doped with Coumarin 30 (C30), is used as a model system to assess the ability of FRET to evaluate the effect of processing on NFC dispersion in PE. The level of energy transfer and its standard deviation, measured by fluorescence spectroscopy and laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM), are exploited to monitor the extent of interface formation and composite homogeneity, respectively. FRET algorithms are used to generate color-coded images for a real-space observation of energy transfer efficiency. These images reveal interface formation at a nanoscale while probing a macroscale area that is large enough to be representative of the entire sample. The unique ability of this technique to simultaneously provide orientation/spatial information at a macroscale and nanoscale features, encoded in the FRET signal, provides a new powerful tool for structure-property-processing investigation in polymer nanocomposites.

Inhibitory activity of essential oils of garlic and onion against bacteria and yeasts.

The essential oils of garlic and onion and their constituent sulfides with three or more sulfur atoms were potent inhibitors of yeast growth. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of garlic oil, onion oil, diallyl trisulfide, diallyl tetrasulfide, and dimethyl trisulfide for all the yeasts tested ranged between 2 and 45 ppm. The oils and their constituent sulfides, however, were only very weakly antibacterial, showing minimum inhibitory concentrations of greater than 300 ppm for most of the bacteria tested. The antiyeast activity of garlic oil and onion oil was storage stable and was not influenced by pH. Film formation on soy sauce by Zygosaccharomyces rouxii SS1 was completely prevented for 30 days by the addition of 30 and 40 ppm of garlic oil and onion oil, respectively.