A facile modification to improve the biocompatibility and adsorbability of activated carbon with zwitterionic hydrogel.

In this work, poly(carboxybetaine methacrylate) hydrogel (pCBMA) was employed to modify the activated carbon (AC) for improving the biocompatibility and adsorption capacity of AC in biological environments. First, size-controlled hydrogel beads and hydrogel coated AC (pCBMA-AC) were fabricated with a homemade device, and the preparation conditions were optimized. Then the physical and biological properties of pCBMA-AC with different diameters were investigated. 2 mm pCBMA-AC dispalyed excellent stability with leakage rate only 0.16% after 72 h shaking incubation, as well as remarkable biocompatibility with merely 0.13% hemolysis rate and 3.41% cell death, while 14.72% and 70.11% for the bare AC, respectively, indicating the acceptable lower hemolysis and cytotoxicity according to ISO 10993. Furthermore, the adsorption capacities of pCBMA-AC were evaluated in biological environments with methylene blue as model molecules. The pCBMA-AC displayed 93.50% and 97.32% adsorption rates in BSA solution and FBS, respectively, but only 70.33% and 40.26% for the uncoated AC. These results indicated that pCBMA endows AC remarkable biocompatibility and adsorption capacity, which could extend the applications of AC in biological environments.

A Bibliometric Analysis of Clear Aligner Treatment (CAT) From 2003 to 2023.

Clear aligner treatment (CAT) has been evolving over the past two decades. This study aims to conduct a comprehensive and up-to-date bibliometric analysis of publications related to CAT, presenting the research trends, landscapes, and hot spots in this field. All publications were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection from 2003 to 2023. In addition to a general analysis of research landscapes, the following items were analyzed, i.e., countries, institutions, authors, journals, publications, and keywords. A total of 1031 relevant publications were included in this study. From 2003 to the present, the number of publications and citations in this field showed an increasing trend. Italy led in terms of publication counts, and Sichuan University in China had the highest publication counts among institutions. In total, 33 scholars had published a minimum of 10 articles, and the collaborations among them were mostly within each country. The American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics published the most relevant publications. "Predictability of tooth movements," "influencing factors for clinical efficacy," "biomechanics," and "patients' perception and periodontal health" stood out as the core research focus on CAT. Our study identified the most influential countries, institutions and authors, and their cooperative relationships, and detected hot research topics on CAT, calling for more high-quality international collaborative research in the future.

Facile fabrication of a high-efficient and biocompatibility biocatalyst for bisphenol A removal.

In this study, we developed a smart microfluidic device to prepare biocatalyst HRP-pCBMA. HRP-pCBMA is composed of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and zwitterionic polymers poly(carboxybetaine methacrylate) (pCBMA), and could be applied to biodegrade bisphenol A (BPA) efficiently. Compared to free HRP, HRP-pCBMA exhibited an obviously enhanced degrading capability for 1 mM BPA with 99.42% degradation efficiency within 20 min, even being superior to 20-fold amount of free HPR. Besides, HRP-pCBMA displayed high stability against the abrupt changes of environmental factors (temperature, pH and organic solvents), and HRP-pCBMA exhibited a relatively high BPA degradation rate of more than 90% even after 10 cycles. The Kcat and Vmax values of HRP-pCBMA were both 7-fold higher than that of free HRP, indicating significant improvement of the catalytic activity. Furthermore, the cytotoxicity assay indicated HRP-pCBMA has excellent biocompatibility. These results demonstrated that HRP-pCBMA possessed great potential in the bioremediation of BPA.

Poly(carboxybetaine methacrylate)-functionalized magnetic composite particles: A biofriendly support for lipase immobilization.

In this work, poly(carboxybetaine methacrylate) as an extremely hydrophilic polymer was modified on superparamagnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles (pCB-Fe3O4), which were employed to immobilize porcine pancreatic lipase. The properties of immobilized lipase were investigated in comparison with the free enzyme counterpart. Enzymatic stability, reusability, and activity of the immobilized lipase were found significantly superior to that of the free lipase. In particular, at an elevated temperature of 60°C, the immobilized lipase retained 50% of its initial activity after 150min, while the free enzyme displayed only one-third activity of the immobilized enzyme. Besides, the immobilized lipase retained >60% of its initial activity after 7 cycles. Furthermore, the value of Kcat/Km indicated the catalytic efficiency of the immobilized lipase was increased by 50% compared to that of the free one. The pCB-Fe3O4 particles displayed non-cytotoxicity, while the naked Fe3O4 particles caused only 50% viability of NIH 3T3 cells. These results showed that pCB-Fe3O4 composite particles had higher efficiency and improved stability for lipase immobilization, which are more promising for industrial scale up of biocatalytic systems with excellent biocompatibility.