Effectiveness and Safety of Ethanol for the Treatment of Venous Malformations: A Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Venous malformations (VM) are common vascular malformations. Percutaneous injection of sclerosants into the lesion has become mainstream therapy. The most commonly used sclerosants are ethanol, polidocanol, bleomycin, and the like. But few articles have reported that sclerosants are more effective and safer. METHODS: We performed a search on Cochrane, Embase, PubMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, CBM, and Wan Fang databases of Controlled Trials (from January 1, 2010, launch up to April 10, 2019) reporting outcome of intralesional ethanol, polidocanol, and bleomycin injections in patients with VM (n ≥ 20). A meta-analysis was conducted using Rev-man 5.3 software. RESULTS: A total of 9 articles, 632 participants and 676 lesions were included. Quality of evidence was generally low. Meta-analysis showed that absolute ethanol treatment was better than polidocanol in treating VM (p = .001), and absolute ethanol elicited a better response than bleomycin (p = .01). Ethanol therapeutic effect was not statistically significant compared with ethanol alone (p = .07), but the combination effect was better than polidocanol (p = .04). Ethanol treatment showed significantly more adverse reactions than polidocanol and combination therapy. CONCLUSION: Absolute ethanol combined with polidocanol is more effective in treating VM and has fewer adverse reactions.

Dual-imprinted mixed matrix membranes for selective recognition and separation: A synergetic imprinting strategy based on complex initiation system.

Molecularly imprinted membranes (MIMs) with sufficient and even-distributed recognition sites that can break the permeability-selectivity trade-off phenomenon are desirable in chemical field of selective separation. Herein graphene oxide (GO)/TiO2-loaded nanocomposite fibrous membranes were prepared by developing two kinds of tetracycline (TC)-imprinted systems in the same MIMs-based material. Thereinto, polydopamine-based and sol-gel-based imprinting processes were applied to the synthesis of GO/TiO2-loaded dual-imprinted mixed matrix membranes (GT-DIMs). The as-prepared GT-DIMs encompassed innovative GO/TiO2-based nanocomposite fibrous channels and two kinds of TC-imprinted systems, and critical comparisons regarding the fluxes, rebinding capacities and permselectivity were provided and studied. Importantly, dual-imprinted system of GT-DIMs could not only allow for largely enhanced rebinding result (70.63 mg/g) and fast adsorption equilibrium rate within 30 min, but also facilitate the high permselectivity of TC in complex separation systems and lab-simulated wastewater samples. The permselectivity factors were all around 5.0, which strongly demonstrated the efficiently selective recognition and separation performance of GT-DIMs. Overall, based on testing results of practical separation and scalability, excellent structural stability and separation continuity had been successfully obtained for selective separation applications of pollutants.

Redox imbalance contributed differently to membrane damage of cucumber leaves under water stress and Fusarium infection.

Redox-associated events are important in plant development and responses to environmental stresses. In this study, we investigated spatial redox responses of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) leaves to biotic stress (Fusarium infection) or abiotic stress (water stress). Plants were grown under hydroponic conditions and either treated with polyethylene glycol to simulate drought or infected with Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cucumerinum. Both water stress and Fusarium infection restricted cucumber growth and were associated with cellular plasma-membrane damage, reactive oxygen species accumulation, and changes in antioxidants; however, the responses to each stress were distinctive. Under water stress, H2O2 generation at the leaf edge increased 29.7% compared with that at the centre but with Fusarium infection there was a relative 10.4% decrease at the edge. These changes correlated with changes in antioxidants and linked enzyme activities. The key sources of variation in oxidative events were defined by principal component analysis of all of the data and redox balance evaluations. We suggest that these spatial differences under water stress and Fusarium infection arise from discrete regulatory mechanisms, reflecting either developmental effect over the leaf regions or systemic anti-oxidative events occurred following infection.