Biodegradable Microembolics with Nanografted Polyanions Enable High-Efficiency Drug Loading and Sustained Deep-Tumor Drug Penetration for Locoregional Chemoembolization Treatment.

Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), the mainstay treatment of unresectable primary liver cancer that primarily employs nondegradable drug-loaded embolic agents to achieve synergistic vascular embolization and locoregional chemotherapy effects, suffers from an inferior drug burst behavior lacking long-term drug release controllability that severely limits the TACE efficacy. Here we developed gelatin-based drug-eluting microembolics grafted with nanosized poly(acrylic acid) serving as a biodegradable ion-exchange platform that leverages a counterion condensation effect to achieve high-efficiency electrostatic drug loading with electropositive drugs such as doxorubicin (i.e., drug loading capacity >34 mg/mL, encapsulation efficiency >98%, and loading time <10 min) and an enzymatic surface-erosion degradation pattern (∼2 months) to offer sustained locoregional pharmacokinetics with long-lasting deep-tumor retention capability for TACE treatment. The microembolics demonstrated facile microcatheter deliverability in a healthy porcine liver embolization model, superior tumor-killing capacity in a rabbit VX2 liver cancer embolization model, and stabilized extravascular drug penetration depth (>3 mm for 3 months) in a rabbit ear embolization model. Importantly, the microembolics finally exhibited vessel remodeling-induced permanent embolization with minimal inflammation responses after complete degradation. Such a biodegradable ion-exchange drug carrier provides an effective and versatile strategy for enhancing long-term therapeutic responses of various local chemotherapy treatments.

Visualization Mapping and Current Trends of Facial Contouring Procedures: A Bibliometric Analysis Based on Web of Science.

BACKGROUND: Facial contouring procedures become popular in recent years, but there has been no bibliometric analysis focused on this field. OBJECTIVE: Construct visualization maps and analyze the hotspots and current trends in this field using bibliometric analysis. METHODS: Publications on facial contouring procedures were extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection database from 2003 to 2022. VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and "Bibliometrix" R package were used to analyze data. RESULTS: Seven hundred and twenty-one publications on facial contouring procedures between 2003 and 2022 were included. The United States was the leading country both in publications (206) and citations (3941). Shanghai Jiao Tong University was the institution with the greatest contribution (35 publications with 379 citations). Hu J (17 publications) from China had the most outputs, while the most cited author was Rohrich RJ (321 citations) from the United States. The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery (135 documents) published the most research, and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery was the most cited journal (2755 citations). The most cited article focused on virtual surgical planning in mandibular reconstruction. Keywords co-occurrence analysis identified five clusters centered on "reconstruction," "augmentation," "reduction malarplasty," "face rejuvenation," and "orthognathic surgery," separately. "Hyaluronic acid," "facial feminization," and "orthognathic surgery" might be related to trend topics. CONCLUSIONS: The research on facial contouring procedures is booming. In the past 2 decades, hotspots in this field included: facial defects reconstruction, facial augmentation cosmetology, facial skeletal contour plasty, and facial rejuvenation surgery. The following aspects may be trend frontiers: precision and personalization, combined treatments, transgender facial contour, and facial contour shaping with fat and hyaluronic acid.

Transplantation of Cold-Stimulated Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue Improves Fat Retention and Recipient Metabolism.

BACKGROUND: Induction of beige fat for grafting is an emerging transplantation strategy. However, safety concerns associated with pharmaceutical interventions limit its wider application. Moreover, because beige fat is a special type of fat with strong metabolic functions, its effect on the metabolism of recipients after grafting has not been explored in the plastic surgery domain. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to explore whether cold-induced inguinal white adipose tissue (iWAT) transplantation has a higher retention rate and beneficial effects on recipient metabolism. METHODS: C57/BL6 mice were subjected to cold stimulation for 48 hours to induce the browning of iWAT and harvested immediately. Subsequently, each mouse received a transplant of 0.2 mL cold-induced iWAT or normal iWAT. Fat grafts and recipients' iWAT, epididymal adipose tissue, and brown adipose tissue were harvested at 8 weeks after operation. Immunofluorescence staining, real-time polymerase chain reaction, and western blot were used for histological and molecular analysis. RESULTS: Cold-induced iWAT grafting had a higher mean [standard error of the mean] retention rate (67.33% [1.74%] vs 55.83% [2.94%], P < .01) and more satisfactory structural integrity than normal iWAT. Histological changes identified improved adipose tissue homeostasis after cold challenge, including abundant smaller adipocytes, higher levels of adipogenesis, angiogenesis, and proliferation, but lower levels of fibrosis. More importantly, cold-induced iWAT grafting suppressed the inflammation of epididymal adipose tissue caused by conventional fat grafting, and activated the glucose metabolism and thermogenic activity of recipients' adipose tissues. CONCLUSIONS: Cold-induced iWAT grafting is an effective nonpharmacological intervention strategy to improve the retention rate and homeostasis of grafts. Furthermore, it improves the adverse effects caused by traditional fat grafting, while also conferring metabolic benefits.

Ultrastable Iodinated Oil-Based Pickering Emulsion Enables Locoregional Sustained Codelivery of Hypoxia Inducible Factor-1 Inhibitor and Anticancer Drugs for Tumor Combination Chemotherapy.

Tumor hypoxia-associated drug resistance presents a major challenge for cancer chemotherapy. However, sustained delivery systems with a high loading capability of hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) inhibitors are still limited. Here, we developed an ultrastable iodinated oil-based Pickering emulsion (PE) to achieve locally sustained codelivery of a HIF-1 inhibitor of acriflavine and an anticancer drug of doxorubicin for tumor synergistic chemotherapy. The PE exhibited facile injectability for intratumoral administration, great radiopacity for in vivo examination, excellent physical stability (>1 mo), and long-term sustained release capability of both hydrophilic drugs (i.e., acriflavine and doxorubicin). We found that the codelivery of acriflavine and doxorubicin from the PE promoted the local accumulation and retention of both drugs using an acellular liver organ model and demonstrated significant inhibition of tumor growth in a 4T1 tumor-bearing mouse model, improving the chemotherapeutic efficacy through the synergistic effects of direct cytotoxicity with the functional suppression of HIF-1 pathways of tumor cells. Such an iodinated oil-based PE provides a great injectable sustained delivery platform of hydrophilic drugs for locoregional chemotherapy.

Acoustic Cell Patterning for Structured Cell-Laden Hydrogel Fibers/Tubules.

Cell-laden hydrogel fibers/tubules are one of the fundamentals of tissue engineering. They have been proven as a promising method for constructing biomimetic tissues, such as muscle fibers, nerve conduits, tendon and vessels, etc. However, current hydrogel fiber/tubule production methods have limitations in ordered cell arrangements, thus impeding the biomimetic configurations. Acoustic cell patterning is a cell manipulation method that has good biocompatibility, wide tunability, and is contact-free. However, there are few studies on acoustic cell patterning for fiber production, especially on the radial figure cell arrangements, which mimic many native tissue-like cell arrangements. Here, an acoustic cell patterning system that can be used to produce hydrogel fibers/tubules with tunable cell patterns is shown. Cells can be pre-patterned in the liquid hydrogel before being extruded as cross-linked hydrogel fibers/tubules. The radial patterns can be tuned with different complexities based on the acoustic resonances. Cell viability assays after 72 h confirm good cell viability and proliferation. Considering the biocompatibility and reliability, the present method can be further used for a variety of biomimetic fabrications.