Effect of Polyoxymethylene Fiber on the Mechanical Properties and Abrasion Resistance of Ultra-High-Performance Concrete.

It is necessary to prepare marine UHPC with synthetic fibers instead of steel fibers, owing to the corrosion risk of steel fibers in marine environments. Currently, the performance of UHPC prepared with different types of fibers has not been comparatively investigated. This work prepared UHPC with steel fiber, polyoxymethylene (POM) fiber, polypropylene (PP) fiber, and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fiber. The effects of different fibers on the mechanical properties, impact, and abrasion resistance of UHPC were studied and compared. The results showed that increasing POM fiber can increase the mechanical strength, flexural toughness, impact, and abrasion resistance of UHPC. When its content reaches 2%, the adsorbed-in-fracture energy and abrasion strength of UHPC are 2670 J and 105 h/(kg/m2), respectively. At the same fiber content, POM fiber-reinforced UHPC shows better mechanical strength, toughness, and impact- and abrasion-resistance than the polypropylene (PP)- and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-fiber-reinforced UHPCs. Microstructure investigation found that PP fiber has the weakest binding with UHPC paste, which would directly pull out of the matrix under external tensile loading. This weak connection limits the strengthening and toughening effect on the UHPC. PVA fiber has an excellent interfacial connection with the UHPC paste. However, the low tensile strength of PVA fiber limits the strength and toughness of UHPC. POM fiber has a high tensile strength and can absorb tensile loading through debonding, fracture, and tearing. The fracture interface of POM fiber is large, indicating its significant role in strengthening and toughening the UHPC.

Egg yolk phosphatidylcholine alleviates DSS-induced colitis in BALB/c mice.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a common inflammatory bowel disease, whose incidence is on the rise worldwide. The drugs commonly used for UC are often associated with a number of side effects. Therefore, the development of effective, food-borne substances for UC is in line with the current needs. Egg yolk phosphatidylcholine (EYPC) is one of the abundant lipids in egg yolk and possesses various biological activities. However, its protective effect against UC has not been clarified. In this study, the anti-UC activity of EYPC was investigated using a dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis model of BALB/c mice. The results showed that EYPC supplementation inhibited DSS-induced colon shortening, the spleen index and disease activity index increase and intestinal structural damage. EYPC could down-regulate the levels of TNF-α, IL-1ß, IL-6 and MPO in the colon and restore the number of goblet cells and the level of tight junction (TJ) proteins. Besides, EYPC modulated the composition of the gut microbiota, lowered the relative abundance of the pathogenic bacterium Parabacteroides and upregulated the abundance of the beneficial bacteria Alistipes and Lachnospiraceae_NK4A136_group. These results evidenced that EYPC could attenuate DSS-induced colitis in mice and had the potential to prevent and treat UC.

Auto-Administered Photobiomodulation on Diabetic Leg Ulcers Treatment: A New Way to Manage It?

BACKGROUND: Peripheral arterial disease is a dramatic consequence of an uncontrolled diabetic condition causing an increase of morbidity and mortality and its treatment is currently medical or surgical, finally requiring, in the 7-20% of cases, major or minor amputation. Photobiomodulation therapy (PBM) is a laser treatment used in medicine, thanks to its ability to stimulate the wound healing, the acceleration of inflammatory process, and the modulation of pain. Recently, the self-administration of the treatment has been suggested for different purposes in medicine and dentistry with a great number of advantages and no side effects. METHODS: A 84-year-old woman affected by diabetes type 2 and positive for diabetes complications had diagnosis for an ulcerative lesion of 1 cm diameter on her right leg and started a treatment of the lesion applying the B-Cure Laser Pro (Erika Carmel, Haifa, Israel) on her own with a fluence per minute of 3.2 J/cm2 for 2 sessions of 15 minutes by cutaneous application. RESULTS: After a week of treatment, the ulcer dried and crusted, finally providing complete healing after 30 days of treatment. CONCLUSION: With this short case report, we think to add a further contribution by suggesting this kind of treatment for successful management of the leg ulcers in diabetic patients.

Effect of pioglitazone on skeletal muscle lipid deposition in the insulin resistance rat model induced by high fructose diet under AMPK signaling pathway.

To study the changes of lipid deposition in skeletal muscle of insulin resistance rat and the effect of pioglitazone intervention on the expression of AMPK pathway related genes in rat, a rat model of insulin resistance was induced and constructed by high fructose diet as an test group, and normal rats were used as a control group. First, the effect of pioglitazone intervention on serum lipids-related indicators and mRNA expression levels of fat-related genes in skeletal muscle in rats was investigated. Then skeletal muscle sections were made and stained with oil red O to investigate the effect of pioglitazone intervention on lipid deposition in skeletal muscle of rats. Finally, the effects of pioglitazone intervention therapy on the mRNA and protein expression of related genes in the AMPK signaling pathway in skeletal muscle tissue of rat were explored by real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western-blotting technology. The results showed that the blood glucose (BG), insulin (INS), adiponectin (ADPN), free fatty acid (FFA), triglyceride (TG), and cholesterol (TC) levels in serum of the test group were higher than the control group (P < 0.05); the visceral fat weight and abdominal fat index of the test group were significantly higher than the control group (P < 0.01); after the pioglitazone intervention, all blood lipid-related indexes in the rat model were significantly lower than before the intervention (P < 0.05); skeletal muscle section staining results showed that the number of lipid droplets in skeletal muscle of rat model was significantly reduced after pioglitazone intervention; and pioglitazone intervention can significantly increase the mRNA and protein expression levels of p-ACC, GLUT7, PGC-1α, and CPT1 genes in the skeletal muscles of experimental rats (P < 0.05). Accordingly, it can be concluded that pioglitazone can play a role in treating insulin resistance by regulating the expression of related genes of AMPK, ACC, etc. in the AMPK signaling pathway.

Focal Infection and Periodontitis: A Narrative Report and New Possible Approaches.

The "focal infection theory" is a historical concept based on the assumption that some infections may cause chronic and acute diseases in different districts of the body. Its great popularity spanned from 1930 to 1950 when, with the aim to remove all the foci of infection, drastic surgical interventions were performed. Periodontitis, a common oral pathology mainly of bacterial origin, is the most evident example of this phenomenon today: in fact, bacteria are able to migrate, develop and cause health problems such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, diabetes, and osteoporosis. The aim of this narrative report is to verify the hypothesis of the association between oral infections and systemic diseases by different ways of approach and, at the same time, to propose new kinds of treatment today made possible by technological progress. The analysis of the literature demonstrated a strong relationship between these conditions, which might be explained on the basis of the recent studies on microbiota movement inside the body. Prevention of the oral infections, as well as of the possible systemic implications, may be successfully performed with the help of new technologies, such as probiotics and laser.

Effect of laser irradiation on aphthae pain management: A four different wavelengths comparison.

Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis (RAS) is an oral condition characterized by painful ulcerations of the mucosa, healing spontaneously in 10-14 days but sometimes, due to their number, size and frequency of recurrence, lesions may be the cause of a severe disconfort with an impact on the quality of life of the patients due to the increased difficulty to eat, swallow and speak. For RAS, different protocols and treatments have been proposed as standard topical treatment to provide symptomatic relief, immunomodulating drugs as thalidomide, colchicine and steroids have been also proposed with the outcome to relief the pain, accelerating the healing process and increase the duration of ulcer-free period but without definitive results and without side effects. In this study we analysed the effect of laser treatment of aphthous lesions with four devices available on the market, two with wavelength in the infra-red region (2940 nm 808 nm) and two with a wavelength in the visible region (450 nm and 635 nm). Diode lasers 808 nm and 450 nm defined almost the same results with an improvement starting already after the application and gradually improving until 7 days after treatment without any statistically significant difference between them. Diode 635 nm was the device gaining the earliest effect reducing the pain already during the treatment and maintaining it at low level immediately after the laser application and after 3 and 7 days with levels of pain comparable with them obtained with 808 nm and 450 nm lasers. Er:YAG laser with the used parameters obtained a pain relief only during the treatment. The originality of this study was to compare different laser wavelengths, some of them never used for this purpose, and to compare also the two different ways to use lasers, the photobiomodulation (LLLT) and the high-power irradiation.

[Ovine Follistatin gene expression and functional analysis of follistatin domains].

In order to study ovine follistatin function, we amplified the total of 1038 base pair of ovine complete follistatin cDNA and cloned into pGEM-T vector by RT-PCR from ovine ovary RNA. After removal of the signal peptide it was subcloned into the pET41a to construct the prokaryotic expression vector, named pFSsig-. SDS-PAGE and Western blotting identified the 66 kDa product of the expression of follistatin cDNA. Based on the complete CDS sequence, we cloned follistatin N-terminal domain and domain 1 with PCR and inserted into pLEX-MCS lentiviral vector, named pFS-N+D1. After package and passage of lentivirus in 293T cells, and then infected sheep primary muscle cells (SPMC). The expression of FS N+D1 in SPMC was assayed by Western blotting. The cell growth curve of the infected SPMC and noninfected control cells displayed that FS N+D1 stablly transfected SPMC proliferated significantly faster than the control cells (P < 0.01). Our data inferred that ovine FS N+D1 domain had the function to stimulate sheep muscle cell growth.

[Association between expressions of HSP70, HSP90 and efficacy of chemotherapy in colorectal cancer patients with unresectable liver metastasis].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between expressions of HSP70, HSP90 and efficacy of chemotherapy in colorectal cancer patients with unresectable liver metastasis. METHODS: Data of 52 colorectal cancer cases, whose primary colorectal focuses were resected but hepatic metastatic tumors were unresectable, were reviewed retrospectively. All the patients underwent FOLFOX4 regimen well. Immunohistochemistry assay was applied to determine the expressions of HSP70 and HSP90 in primary focus tissues. The number and size of hepatic metastatic tumors pre- and post-chemotherapy were compared by CT scanning. RESULTS: Partial remission(PR) rate was 33.3% in cases with up-regulated expression of HSP70, while 64.5% in cases with down-regulated expression of HSP70, whose difference was significant. PR rate was 50% in cases with up-regulated expression of HSP90, and 53.1% in the others with down-regulated expression of HSP90, whose difference was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: FOLFOX4 regimen has advantages in cases with lower HSP70 expression over those with higher HSP70 expression. HSP90 expression level is not associated with the efficacy of FOLFOX4 regimen.

[A Novel Method for Increasing the Number of Metaphase Cells Cultured in vitro.].

To increase the number of metaphase cells cultured in vitro, two bovine fibroblast cell lines (YFF and CNF) were frozen at 4 degrees for different length of time prior to colchicine treatment , and then chromosomal specimen were prepared. The percentage of metaphase cells was examined under conditions above. Using this method, the variation rate of karyotype of YFF and CNF subcultured up to passage 20 were also analyzed. It was found that the percentage of YFF and CNF metaphase cells in treatment group were significantly higher than that in control group (p0.05), and the number of YFF and CNF metaphase cells obtained in 20 h treatment group were increased more than 6 fold as many as that in control group (p0.01), 31.7% and 40.2% vs 4.7% and 6.4% ,respectively. These data suggest that the method of freezing at 4 degrees could be used for increasing the number of metaphase cells in vitro conveniently, and analyzing the variation rate of karyotype of cultured cells efficiently.