Preparation, biological activity and antibacterial properties of tantalum surface-doped Ca2+/Zn2+nanorods.

In this research, we utilize porous tantalum, known for its outstanding elastic modulus and biological properties, as a base material in biomedical applications. The human skeletal system is rich in elements like Ca and Zn. The role of Zn is crucial for achieving a spectrum of sterilizing effects, while Ca is known to effectively enhance cell differentiation and boost cellular activity. The focus of this study is the modification of porous tantalum using a hydrothermal method to synthesize Ca2+/Zn2+-doped Ta2O5nanorods. These nanorods are subjected to extensive characterization techniques to confirm their structure and composition. Additionally, their biological performance is evaluated through a range of tests, including antibacterial assessments, MTT assays, and bacteria/cell scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses. The objective is to determine the most effective method of surface modification for porous tantalum, thereby laying a foundational theoretical framework for its surface enhancement.

A glaucoma micro-stent with diverging channel and stepped shaft structure based on microfluidic template processing technology.

BACKGROUND: Minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) has experienced a surge in popularity in recent years. Glaucoma micro-stents serve as the foundation for these minimally invasive procedures. Nevertheless, the utilization of these stents still presents certain short-term and long-term complications. This study aims to elucidate the creation of a novel drainage stent implant featuring a diverging channel, produced through microfluidic template processing technology. Additionally, an analysis of the mechanical properties, biocompatibility, and feasibility of implantation is conducted. RESULTS: The stress concentration value of the proposed stent is significantly lower, approximately two to three times smaller, compared to the currently available commercial XEN gel stent. This indicates a stronger resistance to bending in theory. Theoretical calculations further reveal that the initial drainage efficiency of the gradient diverging drainage stent is approximately 5.76 times higher than that of XEN stents. Notably, in vivo experiments conducted at the third month demonstrate a favorable biocompatibility profile without any observed cytotoxicity. Additionally, the drainage stent exhibits excellent material stability in an in vitro simulation environment. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, the diverging drainage stent presents a novel approach to the cost-effective and efficient preparation process of minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) devices, offering additional filtering treatment options for glaucoma.

An enzyme-free capacitive glucose sensor based on dual-network glucose-responsive hydrogel and coplanar electrode.

Glucose sensors are vital devices for blood glucose detection in the diabetes care. Different from traditional electrochemical devices based on glucose oxidase, the glucose sensor based on the glucose-responsive hydrogel is more robust owing to its enzyme-free principle. However, integrating the high sensitivity, fast response, wide measuring range and low-cost fabrication into a hydrogel sensor is still challenging. In this study, we present a physical capacitive sensor, which consists of interdigital carbon electrodes (ICEs) fabricated by a direct laser writing technology and glucose-responsive hydrogel (DexG-Con A hydrogel) built by UV curing in situ. The dielectric property of DexG-Con A hydrogel changes accordingly with the change in environmental glucose concentration. Experimental results demonstrate that in a glucose concentration range of 0-30 mM, the proposed hydrogel sensor is capable of measuring the glucose level in a repeatable and reversible manner, showing a short responsive time of less than 2 min and a high sensitivity of 8.81 pF mM-1 at a glucose range of 0-6 mM. Owing to its simple fabrication process, low-cost and high performance, the proposed glucose sensor shows great potential on batch production for continuous glucose monitoring application.

Antioxidant status of uric acid, bilirubin, albumin and creatinine during the acute phase after traumatic brain injury: sex-specific features.

BACKGROUND: It is known that the alteration of antioxidants can been seen in early phase after traumatic brain injury (TBI) in order to block oxidative damage, but little is known about the influence of sex on antioxidant system in patients with TBI. This study investigates whether there are sex differences in these endogenous antioxidant agents during the acute phase after TBI and their association with the disease. METHODS: Serum levels of uric acid (UA), bilirubin, albumin and creatinine were measured in 421 individuals included 157 female TBI patients, 156 male TBI patients and 108 age- and sex-matched controls. RESULTS: The statistically significant changes were found in UA, bilirubin, albumin and creatinine for both sexes with TBI, but the trend of changes in bilirubin and creatinine was opposite for gender groups. Serum levels of UA, bilirubin, albumin and creatinine were associated with the severity of TBI patients for both sexes. Male patient subgroups with elevated UA, albumin and creatinine had higher frequency of regaining consciousness in a month. Moreover, addition of UA and creatinine to the established clinical model had significantly improved the predictive performance over using clinical model alone in male patients with TBI. However, no similar findings were observed on female TBI patients. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest sex-based differences in the serum endogenous antioxidant response to TBI. Use of serum UA and creatinine could help in the outcome prediction of male patients with TBI in combination with other prognostic factors.

Tactile and Thermal Sensors Built from Carbon-Polymer Nanocomposites-A Critical Review.

This paper provides a critical review of tactile and thermal sensors which are built from carbon nanomaterial-filled polymer composites (CNPCs). To make the review more comprehensive and systematic, the sensors are viewed as a system, and a general knowledge architecture for a system called function-context-behavior-principle-state-structure (FCBPSS) is employed to classify information as well as knowledge related to CNPC sensors. FCBPSS contains six basic concepts, namely, F: function, C: context, B: behavior, P: principle, and SS: state and structure. As such, the principle that explains why such composites can work as temperature and pressure sensors, various structures of the CNPC sensor, which realize the principle, and the behavior and performance of CNPC sensors are discussed in this review. This review also discusses the fabrication of the CNPC sensor. Based on the critical review and analysis, the future directions of research on the CNPC sensor are discussed; in particular, the need to have a network of CNPC sensors that can be installed on curved bodies such as those of robots is elaborated.

Three-dimensional bioprinting is not only about cell-laden structures.

In this review, we focused on a few obstacles that hinder three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting process in tissue engineering. One of the obstacles is the bioinks used to deliver cells. Hydrogels are the most widely used bioink materials; however, they aremechanically weak in nature and cannot meet the requirements for supporting structures, especially when the tissues, such as cartilage, require extracellular matrix to be mechanically strong. Secondly and more importantly, tissue regeneration is not only about building all the components in a way that mimics the structures of living tissues, but also about how to make the constructs function normally in the long term. One of the key issues is sufficient nutrient and oxygen supply to the engineered living constructs. The other is to coordinate the interplays between cells, bioactive agents and extracellular matrix in a natural way. This article reviews the approaches to improve the mechanical strength of hydrogels and their suitability for 3D bioprinting; moreover, the key issues of multiple cell lines coprinting with multiple growth factors, vascularization within engineered living constructs etc. were also reviewed.

Comprehensive modeling of corkscrew motion in micro-/nano-robots with general helical structures.

Micro-/nano-robots (MNRs) have impressive potential in minimally invasive targeted therapeutics through blood vessels, which has disruptive impact to improving human health. However, the clinical use of MNRs has yet to happen due to intrinsic limitations, such as overcoming blood flow. These bottlenecks have not been empirically solved. To tackle them, a full understanding of MNR behaviors is necessary as the first step. The common movement principle of MNRs is corkscrew motion with a helical structure. The existing dynamic model is only applicable to standard helical MNRs. In this paper, we propose a dynamic model for general MNRs without structure limitations. Comprehensive simulations and experiments were conducted, which shows the validity and accuracy of our model. Such a model can serve as a reliable basis for the design, optimization, and control of MNRs and as a powerful tool for gaining fluid dynamic insights, thus accelerating the development of the field.

Three-Dimensional Bioprinted Skin Microrelief and Its Role in Skin Aging.

Skin aging is a complex physiological process, in which cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM) interreact, which leads to a change in the mechanical properties of skin, which in turn affects the cell secretion and ECM deposition. The natural skin microrelief that exists from birth has rarely been taken into account when evaluating skin aging, apart from the common knowledge that microreliefs might serve as the starting point or initialize micro-wrinkles. In fact, microrelief itself also changes with aging. Does the microrelief have other, better uses? In this paper, owing to the fast-developing 3D printing technology, skin wrinkles with microrelief of different age groups were successfully manufactured using the Digital light processing (DLP) technology. The mechanical properties of skin samples with and without microrelief were tested. It was found that microrelief has a big impact on the elastic modulus of skin samples. In order to explore the role of microrelief in skin aging, the wrinkle formation was numerically analyzed. The microrelief models of different age groups were created using the modified Voronoi algorithm for the first time, which offers fast and flexible mesh formation. We found that skin microrelief plays an important role in regulating the modulus of the epidermis, which is the dominant factor in wrinkle formation. The wrinkle length and depth were also analyzed numerically for the first time, owing to the additional dimension offered by microrelief. The results showed that wrinkles are mainly caused by the modulus change of the epidermis in the aging process, and compared with the dermis, the hypodermis is irrelevant to wrinkling. Hereby, we developed a hypothesis that microrelief makes the skin adaptive to the mechanical property changes from aging by adjusting its shape and size. The native-like skin samples with microrelief might shed a light on the mechanism of wrinkling and also help with understanding the complex physiological processes associated with human skin.

A three-dimensional (3D) liver-kidney on a chip with a biomimicking circulating system for drug safety evaluation.

The liver and kidney are the major detoxifying organs in the human body and play an important role in pharmacokinetics. Drug-induced hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity can cause irreversible damage to the liver and kidney and are a major cause of drug failure in later stages. Both animal models and conventional cell culture have a number of limitations, such as animal ethics and gene mismatching and there is an urgent need to develop a new drug toxicity evaluation approach. In this paper, a 3D liver-kidney on a chip with a biomimicking circulating system (LKOCBCS) was constructed to obtain kidney and liver models in vitro for drug safety evaluation. LKOCBCS, which has a parallel circulating system mimicking biological circulation, consists of 3D biomimetic tissue of liver lobules similar to that of the human liver constructed by 3D bioprinting and renal proximal tubule barriers fabricated by ultrafast laser assisted etching. The proposed LKOCBCS facilitates the communication between the liver and the kidney, including the exchange of nutrients, compounds, and metabolites. The results revealed that the glucose concentration and cell metabolism stabilized after 7 days. A dynamically repeated low-dose administration of cyclosporine A (CsA) was fed to the system, and hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity were observed on day 3 according to the changes in toxicity markers. The high levels of drug induced biomarkers expressed in LKOCBCS indicate that this system is more sensitive than the monoculture liver chip and it is highly potential in replacing animal models for effective drug toxicity screening.

Microvascular damage is involved in the pathogenesis of heroin induced spongiform leukoencephalopathy.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether microvascular damage is involved in the pathogenesis of heroin induced spongiform leukoencephalopathy (HSLE). METHODS: The brain tissues were collected from 4 HSLE patients and 5 controls and then fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde. The frontal lobe, corpus callosum and cerebellum were separated. The expressions of myelin base protein (MBP) and CD34 were detected by immunohistochemistry. TUNEL staining was applied to detect cell apoptosis. The correlation between microvascular changes and pathological vacuoles was evaluated. RESULTS: No obvious abnormalities were found in the brain of controls. Immunohistochemistry for MBP showed the collapse and fracture of myelin sheath and vacuole formation in the subcortical white matter, corpus callosum, and cerebellar white matter of HSLE patients. TUNEL staining showed the number of apoptotic cells in the cerebellar white matter and corpus callosum of HSLE patients was significantly higher than that in controls (F = 389.451, P < 0.001). Masson's trichrome staining revealed vacuolar degeneration in the cerebral white matter of HSLE patients, and the vacuoles were distributed around the microvessels. Immunohistochemistry revealed CD34 positive cells were seldom found besides the vessels in the cerebellar white matter and corpus callosum of HSLE patients, but a variety of CD34 positive cells was found in the vascular wall of controls (F = 838.500, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Apoptosis of oligodendrocytes may be related to the HSLE. Cerebral vascular injury and microcirculation dysfunction are involved in the pathogenesis of HSLE. The interrelation between apoptosis of oligodendrocytes and the microvascular damage are required to be studied in future investigations.

Inflammation Responses to Bone Scaffolds under Mechanical Stimuli in Bone Regeneration.

Physical stimuli play an important role in one tissue engineering. Mechanical stimuli, such as ultrasound with cyclic loading, are widely used to promote bone osteogenesis; however, the inflammatory response under physical stimuli has not been well studied. In this paper, the signaling pathways related to inflammatory responses in bone tissue engineering are evaluated, and the application of physical stimulation to promote osteogenesis and its related mechanisms are reviewed in detail; in particular, how physical stimulation alleviates inflammatory responses during transplantation when employing a bone scaffolding strategy is discussed. It is concluded that physical stimulation (e.g., ultrasound and cyclic stress) helps to promote osteogenesis while reducing the inflammatory response. In addition, apart from 2D cell culture, more consideration should be given to the mechanical stimuli applied to 3D scaffolds and the effects of different force moduli while evaluating inflammatory responses. This will facilitate the application of physiotherapy in bone tissue engineering.

A High-Linearity Glucose Sensor Based on Silver-Doped Con A Hydrogel and Laser Direct Writing.

A continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system is an ideal monitoring system for the blood glucose control of diabetic patients. The development of flexible glucose sensors with good glucose-responsive ability and high linearity within a large detection range is still challenging in the field of continuous glucose detection. A silver-doped Concanavalin A (Con A)-based hydrogel sensor is proposed to address the above issues. The proposed flexible enzyme-free glucose sensor was prepared by combining Con-A-based glucose-responsive hydrogels with green-synthetic silver particles on laser direct-writing graphene electrodes. The experimental results showed that in a glucose concentration range of 0-30 mM, the proposed sensor is capable of measuring the glucose level in a repeatable and reversible manner, showing a sensitivity of 150.12 Ω/mM with high linearity of R2 = 0.97. Due to its high performance and simple manufacturing process, the proposed glucose sensor is excellent among existing enzyme-free glucose sensors. It has good potential in the development of CGM devices.

A Novel Mechanomyography (MMG) Sensor Based on Piezo-Resistance Principle and with a Pyramidic Microarray.

Flexible piezoresistive sensors built by printing nanoparticles onto soft substrates are crucial for continuous health monitoring and wearable devices. In this study, a mechanomyography (MMG) sensor was developed using a flexible piezoresistive MMG signal sensor based on a pyramidal polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microarray sprayed with carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The experiment was conducted, and the results show that the sensitivity of the sensor can reach 0.4 kPa-1 in the measurement range of 0~1.5 kPa, and the correlation reached 96%. This has further implications for the possibility that muscle activation can be converted into mechanical movement. The integrity of the sensor in terms of its MMG signal acquisition was tested based on five subjects who were performing arm bending and arm extending movements. The results of this test were promising.

3D Embedded Printing of Complex Biological Structures with Supporting Bath of Pluronic F-127.

Biofabrication is crucial in contemporary tissue engineering. The primary challenge in biofabrication lies in achieving simultaneous replication of both external organ geometries and internal structures. Particularly for organs with high oxygen demand, the incorporation of a vascular network, which is usually intricate, is crucial to enhance tissue viability, which is still a difficulty in current biofabrication technology. In this study, we address this problem by introducing an innovative three-dimensional (3D) printing strategy using a thermo-reversible supporting bath which can be easily removed by decreasing the temperature. This technology is capable of printing hydrated materials with diverse crosslinked mechanisms, encompassing gelatin, hyaluronate, Pluronic F-127, and alginate. Furthermore, the technology can replicate the external geometry of native tissues and organs from computed tomography data. The work also demonstrates the capability to print lines around 10 µm with a nozzle with a diameter of 60 µm due to the extra force exerted by the supporting bath, by which the line size was largely reduced, and this technique can be used to fabricate intricate capillary networks.

Biocompatible polymers with tunable mechanical properties and conductive functionality on two-photon 3D printing.

Two-photon polymerization (TPP)-based 3D printing technology utilizes the two-photon absorption process of near-infrared radiation, enabling the fabrication of micro- and nano-scale three-dimensional structures with extremely high resolution. It has been widely applied in scientific fields closely related to living organisms, such as tissue engineering, drug delivery, and biosensors. Nevertheless, the existing photoresist materials have poor mechanical tunability and are hardly able to be doped with functional materials, resulting in constraints on the preparation of functional devices with micro-nano structures. In this paper, TPP printable polymer formulas with good mechanical tunability, high resolution, strong functional scalability, and excellent biocompatibility are proposed, by using the synergistic effects of a hydroxyl group-containing photocurable resin prepolymer, UV acrylate monomer, long-chain hydrophilic crosslinking monomer and photo-initiator. This can ensure the printability and help to improve the flexibility of the printed polymer, thereby solving the problem the photosensitive materials suitable for two-photon 3D printing in previous research had in balancing the formability and flexibility. The results of nanoindenter analysis showed that the Young's modulus of the printed structure can be adjusted between 0.3 GPa and 1.43 GPa, realizing mechanical tunability. Also, complex structures, such as micro-scaffold structures and high aspect ratio hollow microneedles were printed to explore the structural stability as well as the feasibility of biodevice application. Meanwhile, the proposed polymer formula can be functionalized to be conductive by doping with functional nanomaterial MXene. Finally, the biocompatibility of the proposed polymer formula was studied by culturing with human normal lung epithelial cells. The results indicated a good potential for biodevice applications.

Recycling technologies, policies, prospects, and challenges for spent batteries.

The recycling of spent batteries is an important concern in resource conservation and environmental protection, while it is facing challenges such as insufficient recycling channels, high costs, and technical difficulties. To address these issues, a review of the recycling of spent batteries, emphasizing the importance and potential value of recycling is conducted. Besides, the recycling policies and strategies implemented in representative countries are summarized, providing legal and policy support for the recycling industry. Moreover, a comprehensive classification and comparison of recycling technologies identify the characteristics and current status of different approaches. The integrated recycling technology provides a better recycling performance with zero-pollution recycling of spent battery. Biorecycling technology is expected to gain a broad development prospect in the future owing to the superiority of energy-saving and environmental protection, high recycling efficiency, via microbial degradation, enzymatic degradation, etc. Consequently, as for the existing recycling challenges of waste batteries, developing new recycling technology and perfecting its recycling system is an indispensable guarantee for the sustainable development of waste battery. Meanwhile, theoretical support is offered for the recycling of spent batteries.

Bioactivity and antibacterial properties of zinc-doped Ta2O5nanorods on porous tantalum surface.

This paper focuses on the preparation of Zn2+-doped Ta2O5nanorods on porous tantalum using the hydrothermal method. Porous tantalum is widely used in biomedical materials due to its excellent elastic modulus and biological activity. Porous tantalum has an elastic modulus close to that of human bone, and its large specific surface area is conducive to promoting cell adhesion. Zinc is an important component of human bone, which not only has spectral bactericidal properties, but also has no cytotoxicity. The purpose of this study is to provide a theoretical basis for the surface modification of porous tantalum and to determine the best surface modification method. The surface structure of the sample was characterized by x-ray diffractometer, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, and the Zn-doped Ta2O5nanorods are characterized by antibacterial test, MTT test, ICP and other methods. The sample has good antibacterial properties and no cytotoxicity. The results of this study have potential implications for the development of new and improved biomedical materials.

The Additive Manufacturing Approach to Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) Microfluidic Devices: Review and Future Directions.

This paper presents a comprehensive review of the literature for fabricating PDMS microfluidic devices by employing additive manufacturing (AM) processes. AM processes for PDMS microfluidic devices are first classified into (i) the direct printing approach and (ii) the indirect printing approach. The scope of the review covers both approaches, though the focus is on the printed mold approach, which is a kind of the so-called replica mold approach or soft lithography approach. This approach is, in essence, casting PDMS materials with the mold which is printed. The paper also includes our on-going effort on the printed mold approach. The main contribution of this paper is the identification of knowledge gaps and elaboration of future work toward closing the knowledge gaps in fabrication of PDMS microfluidic devices. The second contribution is the development of a novel classification of AM processes from design thinking. There is also a contribution in clarifying confusion in the literature regarding the soft lithography technique; this classification has provided a consistent ontology in the sub-field of the fabrication of microfluidic devices involving AM processes.

Increased expression of CD55 correlates with tumor progression and poor prognosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

PURPOSE: To analyze the expression of complement delay-accelerating factor (CD55) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and its correlation with clinicopathologic features, including survival rate. METHODS: Eighty-two nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissues were evaluated for CD55 expression using immunohistochemistry. The association between CD55 expression and various clinicopathological characteristics including overall survival was analyzed. RESULTS: Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that the protein expression of CD55 detected in nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissues was higher than that in the normal nasopharyngeal tissue (P=0.003). In addition, high levels of CD55 protein were positively correlated with the status of lymph node metastasis (P=0.02) and distant metastasis (P=0.01), and clinical stage (P=0.002) of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients. Patients with positive CD55 expression had a significantly shorter overall survival time than did patients with negative CD55 expression (P=0.001). Multivariate analysis suggested that the expression pattern of CD55 protein was an independent prognostic indicator (P=0.009) for the survival of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. CONCLUSION: The data from this study suggest, for the first time, that CD55 is frequently expressed in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and its expression is associated with decreased patient survival; therefore, CD55 expression may be a potential unfavorable prognostic factor for patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

High-Linearity Hydrogel-Based Capacitive Sensor Based on Con A-Sugar Affinity and Low-Melting-Point Metal.

Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) plays an important role in the treatment of diabetes. Affinity sensing based on the principle of reversible binding to glucose does not produce intermediates, and the specificity of concanavalin A (Con A) to glucose molecules helps to improve the anti-interference performance and long-term stability of CGM sensors. However, these affinity glucose sensors have some limitations in their linearity with a large detection range, and stable attachment of hydrogels to sensor electrodes is also challenging. In this study, a capacitive glucose sensor with high linearity and a wide detection range was proposed based on a glucose-responsive DexG-Con A hydrogel and a serpentine coplanar electrode made from a low-melting-point metal. The results show that within the glucose concentration range of 0-20 mM, the sensor can achieve high linearity (R2 = 0.94), with a sensitivity of 33.3 pF mM-1, and even with the larger glucose concentration range of 0-30 mM the sensor can achieve good linearity (R2 = 0.84). The sensor also shows resistance to disturbances of small molecules, good reversibility, and long-term stability. Due to its low cost, wide detection range, high linearity, good sensitivity, and biocompatibility, the sensor is expected to be used in the field of continuous monitoring of blood glucose.