AI-enabled, implantable, multichannel wireless telemetry for photodynamic therapy.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) offers several advantages for treating cancers, but its efficacy is highly dependent on light delivery to activate a photosensitizer. Advances in wireless technologies enable remote delivery of light to tumors, but suffer from key limitations, including low levels of tissue penetration and photosensitizer activation. Here, we introduce DeepLabCut (DLC)-informed low-power wireless telemetry with an integrated thermal/light simulation platform that overcomes the above constraints. The simulator produces an optimized combination of wavelengths and light sources, and DLC-assisted wireless telemetry uses the parameters from the simulator to enable adequate illumination of tumors through high-throughput (<20 mice) and multi-wavelength operation. Together, they establish a range of guidelines for effective PDT regimen design. In vivo Hypericin and Foscan mediated PDT, using cancer xenograft models, demonstrates substantial suppression of tumor growth, warranting further investigation in research and/or clinical settings.

Effects of Lespedeza Cuneata aqueous extract on testosterone-induced prostatic hyperplasia.

CONTEXT: Lespedeza cuneata G. Don (Fabaceae), has been used as a traditional treatment of various diseases. There is a report L. cuneata effects on hormone replacement therapy for endocrine-related disease. However, studies related to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) have not been investigated. OBJECTIVE: The effects of L. cuneata aqueous extract (LCW) on testosterone-induced prostatic hyperplasia (TPH) were examined. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Male Wistar rats (10 weeks, 330-350 g) were randomly divided to 6 groups (n = 6): Control group; TPH group (3 mg/kg, s.c, daily); TPH + LCW (25, 50, 100 mg/kg); TPH + Finasteride 10 mg/kg for 6 weeks. At the end of treatment, histological change of prostate, serum dihydrotestosterone (DHT) level, mRNA expression of 5α-reductase, inflammatory factors, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) in prostate were examined. Then, LCW was treated with BPH-1, a human BPH cell line, at 25, 50, 100 µg/mL for 24 h and examine mRNA level of androgen receptor (AR) and prostate-specific antigen (PSA). In addition, the content of vicenin-2 was analyzed. RESULTS: LCW treatment of TPH inhibited serum DHT levels by 54.5, 51.2 and 54.1% and mRNA expression of 5α-reductase were inhibited 54.3, 61.3 and 73.6%, respectively. In addition, mRNA expression of inflammatory factors, PCNA and FGF-2 were decreased in the prostate of rats. Also, LCW attenuated mRNA level of AR and PSA in BPH-1 cell. The content of vicenin-2 in the LCW was analyzed to 0.89 mg/g. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Based on the results, LCW is a potential pharmacological candidate for the treatment of prostatic hyperplasia.

Fabrication of microfluidic system for the assessment of cell migration on 3D micropatterned substrates.

Cell migration and proliferation are major process in wound healing, cancer metastasis and organogenesis during development. Many cells are related to recovery process of wound. Especially, fibroblasts act an important role in wound healing. Various cytokines such as platelet derived growth factor (PDGF) can induce fibroblast migration and widely studied to investigate the cell response under controlled cytokine microenvironments during wound healing. In real tissue healing process, cell microenvironments change with tissue types and anatomical characteristics of organs. With microfluidic system, we tried to mimic the natural microenvironment of wound healing, with gradient of PDGF, a fibroblast migration inducing cytokine, and patterned substrate with different orientation to PDGF gradient. Fibroblasts cultured in PDGF gradient micro fluidic chip showed cell migration under various micro environmental gradient conditions. Cells were cultured under PDGF gradient condition and different substrate pattern. Mouse fibroblast L929 cells were cultured in the microfluidic gradient. The results showed that most cells migrated along the substrate topological patterns under high concentration of PDGF. We developed long range sustaining micro fluidic channel and could analyze cell migration along the gradient of PDGF. Also, the cell migration on patterned extracellular environment shows that cells migrate along the extracellular 3D pattern rather than directly along the cytokine gradient when the pattern height is less than 1 microm. In this study, we could demonstrate that the extracellular pattern is more dominant to cell migration in combination with cytokine gradient in the wounded tissue when the environmental cues are 20 microm.