Blood endothelial ALK1-BMP4 signaling axis regulates adult hair follicle stem cell activation.

Blood vessels can play dual roles in tissue growth by transporting gases and nutrients and by regulating tissue stem cell activity via signaling. Correlative evidence implicates skin endothelial cells (ECs) as signaling niches of hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs), but functional demonstration from gene depletion of signaling molecules in ECs is missing to date. Here, we show that depletion of the vasculature-factor Alk1 increases BMP4 secretion from ECs, which delays HFSC activation. Furthermore, while previous evidence suggests a lymphatic vessel role in adult HFSC activation possibly through tissue drainage, a blood vessel role has not yet been addressed. Genetic perturbation of the ALK1-BMP4 axis in all ECs or the lymphatic ECs specifically unveils inhibition of HFSC activation by blood vessels. Our work suggests a broader relevance of blood vessels, adding adult HFSCs to the EC functional repertoire as signaling niches for the adult stem cells.

Hair follicle stem cells as a skin-organizing signaling center during adult homeostasis.

Stem cells are the essential source of building blocks for tissue homeostasis and regeneration. Their behavior is dictated by both cell-intrinsic cues and extrinsic cues from the microenvironment, known as the stem cell niche. Interestingly, recent work began to demonstrate that hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) are not only passive recipients of signals from the surroundings, but also actively send out signals to modulate the organization and function of their own niches. Here, we discuss recent findings, and briefly refer to the old, on the interaction of HFSCs and their niches with the emphasis on the outwards signals from HFSCs toward their niches. We also highlight recent technology advancements that further promote our understanding of HFSC niches. Taken together, the HFSCs emerge as a skin-organizing center rich in signaling output for niche remodeling during various stages of adult skin homeostasis. The intricate crosstalk between HFSCs and their niches adds important insight to skin biology that will inform clinical and bioengineering fields aiming to build complete and functional 3D organotypic cultures for skin replacement therapies.

The effects of prophylactic intravenous injection of rhBNP on prognosis in patients with STEMI undergoing PPCI.

This experiment was carried out to observe the application value of recombinant human brain natriuretic peptide (rhBNP) in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) by primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI), to provide reference for the future treatment of STEMI. In this study, we selected STEMI patients who underwent PPCI treatment in our hospital from October 2019 to December 2021 were selected as the study subjects, of which 46 received intravenous injections of rhBNP (research group), and 36 STEMI patients underwent PPCI (control group). There was no difference in clinical efficacy between the two groups (P>0.05). After treatment, high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I (hs-cTnI), creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB) and plasma N-terminal pro-BNP (NT-proBNP) levels decreased in both groups, with the research group lower than the control group; cardiac output (CO), cardiac index (CI) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) of the research group were lower than the control group's (P<0.05). The left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in the research group was higher than that in the control group at 1 week and 1 month after treatment, while left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDD) and left ventricular end-systolic diameter (LVESD) were lower than those in the control group (P<0.05). There was also no difference in the rate of prognostic risk events between the two groups at 6 months of follow-up (P>0.05). Combining the results of these experiments above, we believe that the intravenous injection of rhBNP in STEMI patients undergoing PPCI treatment can improve cardiac function and promote the recovery of hemodynamics.

Copper-based Ruddlesden-Popper perovskite oxides activated hydrogen peroxide for coal pyrolysis wastewater (CPW) degradation: Performance and mechanism.

Coal pyrolysis wastewater (CPW) contained all kinds of toxic and harmful components, which would seriously threaten the natural environment and human health. However, the traditional advanced oxidation processes frequently failed to remove phenolic substances. An A2BO4-type perovskite (La2CuO4) was successfully synthesized through sol-gel process and first applied in the treatment of CPW. More than 90% of 3, 5-dimethylphenol (DMP) was removed within 200 min at neutral conditions. Moreover, La2CuO4 also displayed excellent catalytic activity and stability in the actual CPW treatment process. Results demonstrated that DMP was removed through the attack of ∙OH, ∙O2- and 1O2 in La2CuO4/H2O2 system. The La2CuO4 were more favorable for H2O2 activation and have a lower adsorption energy than LaFeO3. XPS of fresh and spent La2CuO4 illustrated that the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) was mainly due to the redox cycle between surface copper and oxygen species. Moreover, the possible degradation pathway of DMP was deduced by identifying degradation products and analyzing density functional theory (DFT) calculations. This research provided a novel strategy for the development of perovskite-based catalytic materials on the treatment of practical CPW.

Stem cell-intrinsic mechanisms regulating adult hair follicle homeostasis.

Adult hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) undergo dynamic and periodic molecular changes in their cellular states throughout the hair homeostatic cycle. These states are tightly regulated by cell-intrinsic mechanisms and by extrinsic signals from the microenvironment. HFSCs are essential not only for fuelling hair growth, but also for skin wound healing. Increasing evidence suggests an important role of HFSCs in organizing multiple skin components around the hair follicle, thus functioning as an organizing centre during adult skin homeostasis. Here, we focus on recent findings on cell-intrinsic mechanisms of HFSC homeostasis, which include transcription factors, histone modifications, DNA regulatory elements, non-coding RNAs, cell metabolism, cell polarity and post-transcriptional mRNA processing. Several transcription factors are now known to participate in well-known signalling pathways that control hair follicle homeostasis, as well as in super-enhancer activities to modulate HFSC and progenitor lineage progression. Interestingly, HFSCs have been shown to secrete molecules that are important in guiding the organization of several skin components around the hair follicle, including nerves, arrector pili muscle and vasculature. Finally, we discuss recent technological advances in the field such as single-cell RNA sequencing and live imaging, which revealed HFSC and progenitor heterogeneity and brought new light to understanding crosstalking between HFSCs and the microenvironment. The field is well on its way to generate a comprehensive map of molecular interactions that should serve as a solid theoretical platform for application in hair and skin disease and ageing.

Carbonyl reductase identification and development of whole-cell biotransformation for highly efficient synthesis of (R)-[3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl] ethanol.

BACKGROUND: (R)-[3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl] ethanol [(R)-3,5-BTPE] is a valuable chiral intermediate for Aprepitant (Emend) and Fosaprepitant (Ivemend). Biocatalyzed asymmetric reduction is a preferred approach to synthesize highly optically active (R)-3,5-BTPE. However, the product concentration and productivity of reported (R)-3,5-BTPE synthetic processes remain unsatisfied. RESULTS: A NADPH-dependent carbonyl reductase from Lactobacillus kefir (LkCR) was discovered by genome mining for reduction of 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl) acetophenone (3,5-BTAP) into (R)-3,5-BTPE with excellent enantioselectivity. In order to synthesize (R)-3,5-BTPE efficiently, LkCR was coexpressed with glucose dehydrogenase from Bacillus subtilis (BsGDH) for NADPH regeneration in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) cells, and the optimal recombinant strain produced 250.3 g/L (R)-3,5-BTPE with 99.9% ee but an unsatisfied productivity of 5.21 g/(L h). Then, four different linker peptides were used for the fusion expression of LkCR and BsGDH in E. coli to regulate catalytic efficiency of the enzymes and improved NADPH-recycling efficiency. Using the best strain (E. coli/pET-BsGDH-ER/K(10 nm)-LkCR), up to 297.3 g/L (R)-3,5-BTPE with enantiopurity >99.9% ee was produced via reduction of as much as 1.2 M of substrate with a 96.7% yield and productivity of 29.7 g/(L h). CONCLUSIONS: Recombinant E. coli/pET-BsGDH-ER/K(10 nm)-LkCR was developed for the bioreduction of 3,5-BTAP to (R)-3,5-BTPE, offered the best results in terms of high product concentration and productivity, demonstrating its great potential in industrial manufacturing of (R)-3,5-BTPE.

Overexpression of membrane-bound gluconate-2-dehydrogenase to enhance the production of 2-keto-D-gluconic acid by Gluconobacter oxydans.

BACKGROUND: 2-keto-D-gluconic acid (2KGA) is widely used as a chemical intermediate in the cosmetic, pharmaceutical and environmental industries. Several microbial fermentation processes have been developed for production of 2KGA but these suffer from substrate/product inhibition, byproduct formation and low productivity. In previous work, we showed that 2KGA can be specifically produced from glucose (Glu) or gluconic acid (GA) by resting wild-type Gluconobacter oxydans DSM2003 cells, although substrate concentration was relatively low. In this study, we attempted to improve 2KGA productivity by G. oxydans DSM2003 by overexpressing the ga2dh gene, which encodes the membrane-bound gluconate-2-dehydrogenase enzyme (GA2DH). RESULTS: The ga2dh gene was overexpressed in G. oxydans DSM2003 under the control of three promoters, P tufB , P ga2dh or P ghp0169 , respectively. Among the recombinant strains obtained, G. oxydans_tufB_ga2dh showed a similar growth rate to that of the control strain and displayed the highest specific productivity of 2KGA from GA, which was increased nearly twofold compared with that of the control strain during batch biotransformation. When biocatalysis conditions were optimized, with provision of sufficient oxygen during biotransformation, up to 480 g/L GA was completely utilized over 45 h by resting cells of G. oxydans_tufB_ga2dh and 453.3 g/L 2KGA was produced. A productivity of 10.07 g/L/h and a yield of 95.3 % were obtained. Overexpression of the ga2dh gene also significantly improved the conversion of Glu to 2KGA. Under optimized conditions, 270 g/L Glu was converted to 321 g/L 2KGA over 18 h, with a yield of 99.1 % and a productivity of 17.83 g/L/h. The glucose concentrations during the batch biotransformation and the 2KGA productivities achieved in this study were relatively high compared with the results of previous studies. CONCLUSIONS: This study developed an efficient bacterial strain (G. oxydans_tufB_ga2dh) for the production of 2KGA by overexpressing the ga2dh gene in G. oxydans. Supply of sufficient oxygen enhanced the positive effect of gene overexpression on 2KGA production. Gluconobacter oxydans_tufB_ga2dh is thus a competitive species for use in 2KGA production.

The analysis of microRNA expression profiling for coronary artery disease.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the underlying molecular mechanisms of coronary artery disease (CAD) using microarray expression profiles. METHODS: The microRNA (miRNA) expression-profiling dataset GSE28858 was obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database, including 24 samples from 12 patients with CAD and 12 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Differentially expressed miRNAs were identified with false discovery rate (FDR) = 1% by the SAM (Significant Analysis of Microarray) algorithm. The target genes of selected differentials expressed miRNAs that were not only related to CAD, but were also in two databases (TargetScan, miRanda). Then, the interactive objects of selected target genes were predicted using the STRING database to construct an interaction network (confidence score = 0.4). These target genes and interactive objects were put into the KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) database, and the significant signaling pathway was obtained by hypergeometric function enrichment analysis (p < 0.05). RESULTS: MiRNA-526b was the only differentially expressed miRNA that was upregulated in patients with CAD (FDR = 1%). Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) was the target gene of miRNA-526b that occurred with the highest frequency. The objects that interacted with TLR4 were predicted using the STRING database and the interaction network was obtained. The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling pathway was the only selected significant pathway related with CAD in the interaction network (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The miRNA-526b is significantly upregulated in patients with CAD and the target gene of miRNA-526b participates in the VEGF signaling pathway. Whether or not the miRNA-526b can be used as a biomarker remains to be elucidated in a larger prospective study.

C-reactive protein in human atherogenesis: facts and fiction.

The role of C-reactive protein (CRP) in atherosclerosis is controversially discussed. Whereas initial experimental studies suggested a pathogenic role for CRP in atherogenesis, more recent genetic data from Mendelian randomization trials failed to provide evidence for a causative role of CRP in cardiovascular disease. Also, experimental results from laboratories all over the world were indeed contradictory, partly because of species differences in CRP biology and partly because data were not accurately evaluated. Here we summarize the published data from experimental work with mainly human material in order to avoid confusion based on species differences in CRP biology. Experimental work needs to be reevaluated after reconsideration of some traditional rules in research: (1) in order to understand a molecule's role in disease it may be helpful to be aware of its role in physiology; (2) it is necessary to define the disease entity that experimental CRP research deals with; (3) the scientific consensus is as follows: do not try to prove your hypothesis. Specific CRP inhibition followed by use of CRP inhibitors in controlled clinical trials may be the only way to prove or disprove a causative role for CRP in cardiovascular disease.

Hesperetin regulates the intestinal flora and inhibits the TLR4/NF-κB signaling axis to protect the blood-milk barrier and prevent mastitis.

The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding for 6 months, but mastitis, a common disease during lactation, presents a major obstacle to fulfilling this recommendation. Maternal nutrient intake during lactation has been shown to be related to mastitis. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the effect of hesperetin, a phytonutrient, on mastitis. The oral administration of hesperetin to lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced mastitis mice alleviated their pathological damage, reduced the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and maintained the integrity of their blood-milk barrier. Moreover, our results showed that oral administration of hesperetin regulates the composition of the intestinal flora of mice. Fecal microbial transplantation (FMT) from the mice of hesperetin group alleviated LPS-induced mastitis in recipient mice. In additional, hesperetin attenuated the inflammatory response and increased the expression of tight junction proteins (TJs) in LPS-stimulated mouse mammary epithelial cells (mMECs). Through network pharmacological analysis and further research, we demonstrated hesperetin inhibits the expression of TLR4 and the activation of NF-κB signaling. In conclusion, hesperetin protects the blood-milk barrier and improve mastitis by regulating intestinal flora and inhibiting the activation of TLR4/NF-κB signaling axis. This study provides a theoretical basis for lactating females to consume hesperetin as a supplement to prevent mastitis and maintain mammary health.

Single-cell transcriptomics of adult skin VE-cadherin expressing lineages during hair cycle.

Adult skin homeostasis involves global reorganization of dermal lineages at different stages of the mouse hair growth cycle. Vascular endothelial cadherin (VE-cadherin encoded by Cdh5 ) expressing cells from blood and lymphatic vasculature structures are known to remodel during the adult hair cycle. Here we employ single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) 10x-genomics analysis of FACS-sorted VE-cadherin expressing cells marked via Cdh5-CreER genetic labeling at resting (telogen) and growth (anagen) stage of hair cycle. Our comparative analysis between the two stages uncovers a persistent Ki67 + proliferative EC population and documents changes in EC population distribution and gene expression. Global gene expression changes in all the analyzed populations revealed bioenergetic metabolic changes that may drive vascular remodeling during HF growth phase, alongside a few highly restricted cluster-specific gene expression differences. This study uncovers active cellular and molecular dynamics of adult skin endothelial lineages during hair cycle that may have broad implications in adult tissue regeneration and for understanding vascular disease.

Activation of the combined hydrogen peroxide and peroxymonosulphate by lepidocrocite for chloramphenicol removal: kinetics and mechanisms.

The main compositions of pipe deposits from water distribution networks are potential iron resources, which can be used as catalysts to activate the combined hydrogen peroxide (HP) and peroxymonosulphate (PMS) system to produce reactive oxidative species (ROSs) to degrade pollutants. As a result, the degradation efficiency of chloramphenicol (CAP) in the HP/PMS dual-oxidant system could reach as high as 75.21% within 100 min with hydroxylamine (HA) assistance, and the dual-oxidant method had a wide pH applied range. To explore the mechanism of the dual-oxidant system in detail, several main affecting factors were investigated. In addition, the hydroxyl radical(•OH) was identified as the predominant radicals by Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and the Radical scavenger test (RST). According to the competition kinetics experiment, the reaction rate of CAP with •OH was 1.933(± 0.052) × 1010 M-1s-1 in the HP/PMS dual-oxidant system, which was higher than the HP single oxidant system (6.10(± 0.036) × 109 M-1s-1). And the role of HA was explored , including reduction and competition. Six degradation products were detected by the liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and their toxicity was analyzed by the ecological structure-activity relationship (ECOSAR) predictive model. These findings further provide a theoretical basis for the practical application of pipe deposits and advance the development of in-situ removal of pollutants in water distribution networks in the future promisingly.

Alk1 acts in non-endothelial VE-cadherin+ perineurial cells to maintain nerve branching during hair homeostasis.

Vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin is a well-recognized endothelial cell marker. One of its interacting partners, the TGF-ß receptor Alk1, is essential in endothelial cells for adult skin vasculature remodeling during hair homeostasis. Using single-cell transcriptomics, lineage tracing and gene targeting in mice, we characterize the cellular and molecular dynamics of skin VE-cadherin+ cells during hair homeostasis. We describe dynamic changes of VE-cadherin+ endothelial cells specific to blood and lymphatic vessels and uncover an atypical VE-cadherin+ cell population. The latter is not a predicted adult endovascular progenitor, but rather a non-endothelial mesenchymal perineurial cell type, which forms nerve encapsulating tubular structures that undergo remodeling during hair homeostasis. Alk1 acts in the VE-cadherin+ perineurial cells to maintain proper homeostatic nerve branching by enforcing basement membrane and extracellular matrix molecular signatures. Our work implicates the VE-cadherin/Alk1 duo, classically known as endothelial-vascular specific, in perineurial-nerve homeostasis. This has broad implications in vascular and nerve disease.

Clinical Effect and Aesthetic Evaluation of Minimally Invasive Implant Therapy.

Objective: To explore the clinical effect and aesthetic evaluation of minimally invasive implant in the treatment of dentition defect. Methods: From April 2020 to May 2021, 60 patients who received implant restoration were collected as the research objects. Randomly divided into minimally invasive surgery group (30 patients) and routine surgery group (30 patients). The postoperative antibiotic use time, pain disappearance time, swelling degree, and pain degree of the two groups were compared. Follow-up for one year, record and compare the success rate of implants and aesthetic evaluation of restoration between the two groups. The evaluation of patients' satisfaction with restoration was collected and compared. Results: The operation time and antibiotic use time of patients in minimally invasive surgery group were significantly shorter than those in conventional surgery group, and the swelling degree rating was significantly better than that in conventional surgery group, with statistical significance (P < 0.05). The number of patients with no pain (0 degree) and mild pain (degree) in minimally invasive surgery group was significantly higher than that in routine surgery group, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). One year after the repair, the success rate of implants in minimally invasive surgery group was 100.00% compared with that in routine surgery group (93.33%), and the difference was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). The aesthetic effect scores of patients in minimally invasive surgery group were higher than those in routine surgery group in seven items: proximal gingival papilla, distal gingival papilla, labial gingival margin curvature, labial gingival margin height, root convexity, soft tissue color, and soft tissue texture, with statistical significance (P < 0.05). The satisfaction scores of the patients in minimally invasive surgery group in chewing function, comfort, aesthetics, retention function, and language function were higher than those in conventional surgery group, and the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Minimally invasive implant can achieve the same effect as conventional implant, and it has the advantages of lower postoperative swelling, shorter pain time, better aesthetic effect, and higher satisfaction after restoration.

Advances in the Experiments of Leaching in Cement-Based Materials and Dissolution in Rocks.

Leaching in cement-based materials and dissolution in rocks are important problems in civil engineering. In the past century, concrete damage caused by leaching have occurred worldwide. And, rock dissolution is usually the main cause of karst rock erosions. This paper provides a review of the causes, influencing factors, and effects on engineering properties of dissolution of rocks and leaching of cement-based materials. The applied experimental methods for leaching and dissolution have been sorted out and discussed. In situ field experiments can be used to study dissolution under natural conditions, while the laboratory experiments can effectively shorten the experiment time length (by changing pH, temperature, pressure or other factors that affect the leaching or dissolution) to quickly investigate the mechanism of dissolution and leaching. Micro tests including XRD, SEM, EDS, and other testing methods can obtain the changes in material properties and microstructures under leaching and dissolution. In addition, with the advances in technologies and updated instruments, more and more new testing methods are being used. The factors affecting the leaching and dissolution include environmental factors, materials, and solvent parameters. The mechanisms and deterioration processes of leaching and dissolution varies according to the types of material and the compositions.

Accelerated electron transfer process via MOF-derived FeCo/C for enhanced degradation of antibiotic contaminants towards heterogeneous electro-Fenton system.

The Fe(III) to Fe(II) process limits the rate of the electro-Fenton system. In this study, MIL-101(Fe) derived porous carbon skeleton-coated FeCo bimetallic catalyst Fe4/Co@PC-700 was prepared as a heterogeneous electro-Fenton (EF) catalytic process. The experimental results showed its good performance in catalytic removal of antibiotic contaminants, the rate constant of tetracycline (TC) degradation catalyzed by Fe4/Co@PC-700 was 8.93 times higher than that of Fe@PC-700 under the pH conditions of raw water (pH = 5.86), exhibited good removal of TC, oxytetracycline (OTC), hygromycin (CTC), chloramphenicol (CAP) and ciprofloxacin (CIP). It was shown that the introduction of Co promoted more Fe0 production, allowing the material to exhibit faster Fe(III)/Fe(II) cycling rates. 1O2 and high-priced metal oxygen species were identified as the main active species of the system, in addition to the analysis of possible degradation pathways and toxicity of intermediates of TC. Finally, the stability and adaptability of Fe4/Co@PC-700 and EF systems to different water matrices were evaluated, showing that Fe4/Co@PC-700 was easy to recover and could be applied to different water matrices. This study provides a reference for the design and system application of heterogeneous EF catalysts.

Cobalt mediated perovskite as efficient Fenton-like catalysts for the tetracycline removal over a neutral condition: The importance of superoxide radical.

Cobalt mediated perovskite oxides (Ca-Fe-Co-x) were prepared for heterogeneous Fenton-like, which exhibited excellent tetracycline (TC) degradation efficiency and wider pH suitability (3-11). Experimental results showed that Ca-Fe-Co-1.0 sample displayed the highest degradation rate could reach 80.5% under neutral conditions, and maintain at around 80% after four cycles. The analysis of degradation mechanism showed that the redox of Fe2+/Fe3+ and Co2+/Co3+ significant enhanced the activation of H2O2 to superoxide radical (∙O2-). Meanwhile, the hydroxyl radical (∙OH) was also detected by ESR analysis. In addition, the possible degradation pathway and mechanism of TC were deduced via UPLC-QTOF/MS analysis and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The toxicity of TC and its intermediates were also evaluated by the ECOSAR software. The Ca-Fe-Co-1.0/nanocellulose aerogel (NCA) displayed highly removal efficiency of TC wastewater in the long-term operation conduction. This study provided a feasible method to design and synthesis heterogeneous Fenton-like catalysts for antibiotic degradation.

Cu-based perovskite as a novel CWPO catalyst for petroleum refining wastewater treatment: Performance, toxicity and mechanism.

For the first time, Cu-based perovskite oxides were used as catalysts to treat highly toxic and refractory petroleum refining wastewater based on catalytic wet peroxide oxidation (CWPO) technology. Perovskite La2CuO4 was synthesized by sol-gel method. A series of characterizations showed that the synthesized catalyst particles are tetragonal phase perovskite structure. The experimental results showed that under the conditions of catalyst dosage of 0.75 g, temperature of 100 â„ƒ and reaction time of 30 min, the COD removal rate was 89.58 %, the TOC removal rate was 87.38 %. The morphology and structure of the catalyst before and after the reaction proved that the catalyst has strong stability and catalytic activity. The components of raw water, Wet Air Oxidation (WAO) effluent and CWPO effluent were compared and analyzed by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), and the possible mechanism and path of WAO and CWPO degradation of petroleum refining wastewater were further explored. The changes of Cu components in La2CuO4 before and after CWPO reaction and the transformation of lattice oxygen and adsorbed oxygen were analyzed by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). The involvement of Cu (Ⅱ) /Cu (Ⅰ) in the activation of H2O2 was speculated. Finally, the biotoxicity of raw water, WAO effluent and CWPO effluent was predicted. The results provide reference value for the application of catalyst La2CuO4 in various petrochemical wastewater.

Maslinic acid alleviates LPS-induced mice mastitis by inhibiting inflammatory response, maintaining the integrity of the blood-milk barrier and regulating intestinal flora.

Mastitis occurs frequently in breastfeeding women and not only affects the women's health but also hinders breastfeeding. Maslinic acid is a type of pentacyclic triterpenoid widely found in olives that has good anti-inflammatory activity. This study aims to discuss the protective function of maslinic acid against mastitis and its underlying mechanism. For this, mice models of mastitis were established using lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The results revealed that maslinic acid reduced the pathological lesions in the mammary gland. In addition, it reduced the generation of pro-inflammatory factors and enzymes (IL-6, IL-1ß, TNF-α, iNOS, and COX2) in both mice mammary tissue and mammary epithelial cells. The high-throughput 16S rDNA sequencing of intestinal flora showed that in mice with mastitis, maslinic acid treatment altered ß-diversity and regulated microbial structure by increasing the abundance of probiotics such as Enterobacteriaceae and downregulating harmful bacteria such as Streptococcaceae. In addition, maslinic acid protected the blood-milk barrier by maintaining tight-junction protein expression. Furthermore, maslinic acid downregulated mammary inflammation by inhibiting the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome, AKT/NF-κB, and MAPK signaling pathways. Thus, in a mice model of LPS-induced mastitis, maslinic acid can inhibit the inflammatory response, protect the blood-milk barrier, and regulate the constitution of intestinal flora.

Semiconducting Behaviour and Corrosion Resistance of Passive Film on Corrosion-Resistant Steel Rebars.

Chloride-induced corrosion of steel rebars is one of the major causes of the premature failures of reinforced concrete structures served in different environments. This paper investigates the semiconducting behaviour and corrosion resistance of the passive film formed on the corrosion-resistant rebars exposed to simulated concrete pore solutions with different pH values and chloride concentrations. The electronic properties of the passive film were studied using potentiodynamic measurements and capacitance measurements (Mott-Schottky analysis). The results indicate that, firstly, the passive film of corrosion-resistant steel rebar shows n-type semiconducting behaviour with shallow and deep donor states in the band gap during passivation, and the deep donor energy level of corrosion-resistant steel rebar passive film is not sensitive to the decreasing pH value; secondly, under the same conditions, the passive film of corrosion-resistant rebars has a larger negative flat-band potential and thicker space charge layer than hot-ribbed rebars; thirdly, n-type semi-conductivity at a higher potential disappears once the chloride concentration at the rebar surface attains the chloride threshold value; and finally, a reverse charge layer forms on the surface of CR rebar at 0.50 V potential.