Spectroscopic evidence of spin-state excitation in d-electron correlated semiconductor FeSb2.

Iron antimonide (FeSb2) has been investigated for decades due to its puzzling electronic properties. It undergoes the temperature-controlled transition from an insulator to an ill-defined metal, with a cross-over from diamagnetism to paramagnetism. Extensive efforts have been made to uncover the underlying mechanism, but a consensus has yet to be reached. While macroscopic transport and magnetic measurements can be explained by different theoretical proposals, the essential spectroscopic evidence required to distinguish the physical origin is missing. In this paper, through the use of X-ray absorption spectroscopy and atomic multiplet simulations, we have observed the mixed spin states of 3d 6 configuration in FeSb2. Furthermore, we reveal that the enhancement of the conductivity, whether induced by temperature or doping, is characterized by populating the high-spin state from the low-spin state. Our work constitutes vital spectroscopic evidence that the electrical/magnetical transition in FeSb2 is directly associated with the spin-state excitation.

Self-assembled carbon monoxide nanogenerators managing sepsis through scavenging multiple inflammatory mediators.

Sepsis, a life-threatening syndrome of organ damage resulting from dysregulated inflammatory response, is distinguished by overexpression of inflammatory cytokines, excessive generation of reactive oxygen/nitrogen species (RONS), heightened activation of pyroptosis, and suppression of autophagy. However, current clinical symptomatic supportive treatment has failed to reduce the high mortality. Herein, we developed self-assembled multifunctional carbon monoxide nanogenerators (Nano CO), as sepsis drug candidates, which can release CO in response to ROS, resulting in clearing bacteria and activating the heme oxygenase-1/CO system. This activation strengthened endogenous protection and scavenged multiple inflammatory mediators to alleviate the cytokine storm, including scavenging RONS and cfDNA, inhibiting macrophage activation, blocking pyroptosis and activating autophagy. Animal experiments show that Nano CO has a good therapeutic effect on mice with LPS-induced sepsis, which is manifested in hypothermia recovery, organ damage repair, and a 50% decrease in mortality rates. Taken together, these results illustrated the efficacy of multifunctional Nano CO to target clearance of multiple mediators in sepsis treatment and act against other refractory inflammation-related diseases.

Filter-Free UV Photodetectors Based on Unipolar Barrier Van der Waals α-In2Se3/h-BN Heterostructures.

Visible-blind ultraviolet (UV) light detection has a wide application range in scenes like space environment monitoring and medical imaging. To realize miniaturized UV detectors with high performance and high integration ability, new device structures without bulky light filters need to be developed based on advanced mechanisms. Here the unipolar barrier van der Waals heterostructure (UB-vdWH) photodetector is reported that realizes filter-free visible-blind UV detection with good stability, robustness, selectivity, and high detection performance. The UB-vdWH shows a responsivity of 2452 A W-1, a photo on-off ratio of 2.94 × 105 and a detectivity of 1.26 × 1015 Jones as a UV detector, owing to the intentionally designed barrier height that suppresses dark current and photoresponse to visible light during the transport process. The good performance remains intact during 104 test cycles or even under high temperatures, which proves the stability, and robustness of the UB-vdWH, thus shows the huge potential for a wider application range.

Deciphering in-situ surface reconstruction in two-dimensional CdPS3 nanosheets for efficient biomass hydrogenation.

Steering on the intrinsic active site of an electrode material is essential for efficient electrochemical biomass upgrading to valuable chemicals with high selectivity. Herein, we show that an in-situ surface reconstruction of a two-dimensional layered CdPS3 nanosheet electrocatalyst, triggered by electrolyte, facilitates efficient 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) hydrogenation to 2,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)furan (BHMF) under ambient condition. The in-situ Raman spectroscopy and comprehensive post-mortem catalyst characterizations evidence the construction of a surface-bounded CdS layer on CdPS3 to form CdPS3/CdS heterostructure. This electrocatalyst demonstrates promising catalytic activity, achieving a Faradaic efficiency for BHMF reaching 91.3 ± 2.3 % and a yield of 4.96 ± 0.16 mg/h at - 0.7 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the in-situ generated CdPS3/CdS interface plays a pivotal role in optimizing the adsorption of HMF* and H* intermediate, thus facilitating the HMF hydrogenation process. Furthermore, the reconstructed CdPS3/CdS heterostructure cathode, when coupled with MnCo2O4.5 anode, enables simultaneous BHMF and formate synthesis from HMF and glycerol substrates with high efficiency.

PT-KGNN: A framework for pre-training biomedical knowledge graphs with graph neural networks.

Biomedical knowledge graphs (KGs) serve as comprehensive data repositories that contain rich information about nodes and edges, providing modeling capabilities for complex relationships among biological entities. Many approaches either learn node features through traditional machine learning methods, or leverage graph neural networks (GNNs) to directly learn features of target nodes in the biomedical KGs and utilize them for downstream tasks. Motivated by the pre-training technique in natural language processing (NLP), we propose a framework named PT-KGNN (Pre-Training the biomedical KG with GNNs) to learn embeddings of nodes in a broader context by applying GNNs on the biomedical KG. We design several experiments to evaluate the effectivity of our proposed framework and the impact of the scale of KGs. The results of tasks consistently improve as the scale of the biomedical KG used for pre-training increases. Pre-training on large-scale biomedical KGs significantly enhances the drug-drug interaction (DDI) and drug-disease association (DDA) prediction performance on the independent dataset. The embeddings derived from a larger biomedical KG have demonstrated superior performance compared to those obtained from a smaller KG. By applying pre-training techniques on biomedical KGs, rich semantic and structural information can be learned, leading to enhanced performance on downstream tasks. it is evident that pre-training techniques hold tremendous potential and wide-ranging applications in bioinformatics.

Notoginsenoside R1 treatment facilitated Nrf2 nuclear translocation to suppress ferroptosis via Keap1/Nrf2 signaling pathway to alleviated high-altitude myocardial injury.

High-altitude myocardial injury (HAMI) represents a critical form of altitude illness for which effective drug therapies are generally lacking. Notoginsenoside R1, a prominent constituent derived from Panax notoginseng, has demonstrated various cardioprotective properties in models of myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury, sepsis-induced cardiomyopathy, cardiac fibrosis, and myocardial injury. The potential utility of notoginsenoside R1 in the management of HAMI warrants prompt investigation. Following the successful construction of a HAMI model, a series of experimental analyses were conducted to assess the effects of notoginsenoside R1 at dosages of 50 mg/Kg and 100 mg/Kg. The results indicated that notoginsenoside R1 exhibited protective effects against hypoxic injury by reducing levels of CK, CK-MB, LDH, and BNP, leading to improved cardiac function and decreased incidence of arrhythmias. Furthermore, notoginsenoside R1 was found to enhance Nrf2 nuclear translocation, subsequently regulating the SLC7A11/GPX4/HO-1 pathway and iron metabolism to mitigate ferroptosis, thereby mitigating cardiac inflammation and oxidative stress induced by high-altitude conditions. In addition, the application of ML385 has confirmed the involvement of Nrf2 nuclear translocation in the therapeutic approach to HAMI. Collectively, the advantageous impacts of notoginsenoside R1 on HAMI have been linked to the suppression of ferroptosis via Nrf2 nuclear translocation signaling.

Selective depression mechanism of polyaspartic acid and calcium oxide on arsenopyrite after copper ions activation and its effect on flotation separation performance.

The arsenopyrite activated by copper ions have similar flotation properties to chalcopyrite. Polyaspartic acid (PASP) and calcium oxide (CaO) using as combination depressants for the selective separation of copper-activated arsenopyrite and chalcopyrite were carried out by micro-flotation experiments, contact angle measurements, surface adsorption capacity tests, zeta potential measurements, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses, inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES) tests and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) analyses, and its depression mechanism was investigated. The results of flotation experiments showed that the recovery of arsenopyrite after addition of the depressants reached only 7.80 %, while the recovery of chalcopyrite reached 94.02 %. The results of contact angles, adsorption capacity tests and zeta potential measurements showed that the PASP-CaO can selectively enhance the hydrophilicity of arsenopyrite surface, but has little effect on the chalcopyrite. XPS analyses and ICP-OES tests further verified that the depressants first eliminated the activation of copper ions and then selectively adsorbed on the surface of arsenopyrite. ToF-SIMS analyses showed that the PASP-CaO would achieve selective depression of arsenopyrite in the form of PASP, PASP-Ca complexes and Ca(OH)+, respectively. Finally, the mechanism diagram of PASP-CaO selectively depressing arsenopyrite was derived. These results will provide an excellent theoretical reference for the flotation separation of copper arsenic sulfide ore.

Heterografting enhances chrysanthemums resistance to Alternaria alternata via jasmonate-mediated increases in trichomes and terpenoids.

Trichomes, specialized hair-like structures in the epidermal cells of the aboveground parts of plants, protect plants from pests and pathogens and produce valuable metabolites. Chrysanthemum morifolium, used in tea products, has ornamental and medicinal value. However, it is susceptible to Alternaria alternata fungal infection, posing a threat to its production and use, resulting in substantial economic losses. Increasing the density of glandular trichomes enhances disease resistance and improves the production of medicinal metabolites in chrysanthemums. Jasmonate (JA), promotes the formation of glandular trichomes in various plants. However, it remains unclear whether glandular trichome in chrysanthemums are regulated by JA. Grafting, a technique to improve plant resistance to biotic stresses, has been insufficiently explored in its impact on glandular trichomes, terpenoids, and disease resistance. In this study, we demonstrated that grafting with Artemisia vulgaris rootstocks improves the resistance of chrysanthemum scions to A. alternata. Heterografted chrysanthemums exhibited higher trichome density and terpenoid content compared to self-grafted counterparts. Transcriptome analysis highlighted the significant role of CmJAZ1-like in disease resistance in heterografted chrysanthemums. Overexpressing CmJAZ1-like lines exhibited sensitivity to A. alternate, characterized by reduced glandular trichome density and limited terpenoids. Conversely, silencing lines exhibited resistance to A. alternata showcasing increased glandular trichome density and abundant terpenoids. Higher JA content was confirmed in heterografted chrysanthemum scions compared to self-grafted ones. Furthermore, we established that JA promotes the development of glandular trichomes and the synthesis of terpenoids while inducing the degradation of CmJAZ1-like proteins in chrysanthemums. These findings suggest that higher JA increases trichome density and terpenoid content, enhancing resistance to A. alternata by regulating CmJAZ1-like in heterografted chrysanthemums.

A Reconfigurable Bipolar Image Sensor for High-Efficiency Dynamic Vision Recognition.

Dynamic vision perception and processing (DVPP) is in high demand by booming edge artificial intelligence. However, existing imaging systems suffer from low efficiency or low compatibility with advanced machine vision techniques. Here, we propose a reconfigurable bipolar image sensor (RBIS) for in-sensor DVPP based on a two-dimensional WSe2/GeSe heterostructure device. Owing to the gate-tunable and reversible built-in electric field, its photoresponse shows bipolarity as being positive or negative. High-efficiency DVPP incorporating front-end RBIS and back-end CNN is then demonstrated. It shows a high recognition accuracy of over 94.9% on the derived DVS128 data set and requires much fewer neural network parameters than that without RBIS. Moreover, we demonstrate an optimized device with a vertically stacked structure and a stable nonvolatile bipolarity, which enables more efficient DVPP hardware. Our work demonstrates the potential of fabricating DVPP devices with a simple structure, high efficiency, and outputs compatible with advanced algorithms.

Hardness Distribution and Growth Behavior of Micro-Arc Oxide Ceramic Film with Positive and Negative Pulse Coordination.

Micro-arc oxidation (MAO) is a promising technology for enhancing the wear resistance of engine cylinders by growing a high hardness alumina ceramic film on the surface of light aluminum engine cylinders. However, the positive and negative pulse coordination, voltage characteristic signal, hardness distribution characteristics of the ceramic film, and their internal mechanism during the growth process are still unclear. This paper investigates the synergistic effect mechanism of cathodic and anodic current on the growth behaviour of alumina, dynamic voltage signal, and hardness distribution of micro-arc oxidation film. Ceramic film samples were fabricated under various conditions, including current densities of 10, 12, 14, and 16 A/dm2, and current density ratios of cathode and anode of 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3, respectively. Based on the observed characteristics of the process voltage curve and the spark signal changes, the growth of the ceramic film can be divided into five stages. The influence of positive and negative current density parameters on the segmented growth process of the ceramic film is mainly reflected in the transition time, voltage variation rate, and the voltage value of different growth stages. Enhancing the cathode pulse effect or increasing the current density level can effectively shorten the transition time and accelerate the voltage drop rate. The microhardness of the ceramic film cross-section presents a discontinuous soft-hard-soft regional distribution. Multiple thermal cycles lead to a gradient differentiation of the Al2O3 crystal phase transition ratio along the thickness direction of the layer. The layer grown on the outer surface of the initial substrate exhibits the highest hardness, with a small gradient change in hardness, forming a high hardness zone approximately 20-30 µm wide. This high hardness zone extends to both sides, with hardness decreasing rapidly.

Aberrant activation of TGF-ß/ROCK1 enhances stemness during prostatic stromal hyperplasia.

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a multifactorial disease in which abnormal growth factor activation and embryonic reawakening are considered important factors. Here we demonstrated that the aberrant activation of transforming growth factor ß (TGF-ß)/Rho kinase 1 (ROCK1) increased the stemness of BPH tissue by recruiting mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), indicating the important role of embryonic reawakening in BPH. When TGF-ß/ROCK1 is abnormally activated, MSCs are recruited and differentiate into fibroblasts/myofibroblasts, leading to prostate stromal hyperplasia. Further research showed that inhibition of ROCK1 activation suppressed MSC migration and their potential for stromal differentiation. Collectively, our findings suggest that abnormal activation of TGF-ß/ROCK1 regulates stem cell lineage specificity, and the small molecule inhibitor GSK269962A could target ROCK1 and may be a potential treatment for BPH.

Osteoinductive micro-nano guided bone regeneration membrane for in situ bone defect repair.

BACKGROUND: Biomaterials used in bone tissue engineering must fulfill the requirements of osteoconduction, osteoinduction, and osseointegration. However, biomaterials with good osteoconductive properties face several challenges, including inadequate vascularization, limited osteoinduction and barrier ability, as well as the potential to trigger immune and inflammatory responses. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop guided bone regeneration membranes as a crucial component of tissue engineering strategies for repairing bone defects. METHODS: The mZIF-8/PLA membrane was prepared using electrospinning technology and simulated body fluid external mineralization method. Its ability to induce biomimetic mineralization was evaluated through TEM, EDS, XRD, FT-IR, zeta potential, and wettability techniques. The biocompatibility, osteoinduction properties, and osteo-immunomodulatory effects of the mZIF-8/PLA membrane were comprehensively evaluated by examining cell behaviors of surface-seeded BMSCs and macrophages, as well as the regulation of cellular genes and protein levels using PCR and WB. In vivo, the mZIF-8/PLA membrane's potential to promote bone regeneration and angiogenesis was assessed through Micro-CT and immunohistochemical staining. RESULTS: The mineralized deposition enhances hydrophilicity and cell compatibility of mZIF-8/PLA membrane. mZIF-8/PLA membrane promotes up-regulation of osteogenesis and angiogenesis related factors in BMSCs. Moreover, it induces the polarization of macrophages towards the M2 phenotype and modulates the local immune microenvironment. After 4-weeks of implantation, the mZIF-8/PLA membrane successfully bridges critical bone defects and almost completely repairs the defect area after 12-weeks, while significantly improving the strength and vascularization of new bone. CONCLUSIONS: The mZIF-8/PLA membrane with dual osteoconductive and immunomodulatory abilities could pave new research paths for bone tissue engineering.

Utilizing bioprinting to engineer spatially organized tissues from the bottom-up.

In response to the growing demand for organ substitutes, tissue engineering has evolved significantly. However, it is still challenging to create functional tissues and organs. Tissue engineering from the 'bottom-up' is promising on solving this problem due to its ability to construct tissues with physiological complexity. The workflow of this strategy involves two key steps: the creation of building blocks, and the subsequent assembly. There are many techniques developed for the two pivotal steps. Notably, bioprinting is versatile among these techniques and has been widely used in research. With its high level of automation, bioprinting has great capacity in engineering tissues with precision and holds promise to construct multi-material tissues. In this review, we summarize the techniques applied in fabrication and assembly of building blocks. We elaborate mechanisms and applications of bioprinting, particularly in the 'bottom-up' strategy. We state our perspectives on future trends of bottom-up tissue engineering, hoping to provide useful reference for researchers in this field.

Peripheral extracellular vesicles in neurodegeneration: pathogenic influencers and therapeutic vehicles.

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis epitomize a class of insidious and relentless neurological conditions that are difficult to cure. Conventional therapeutic regimens often fail due to the late onset of symptoms, which occurs well after irreversible neurodegeneration has begun. The integrity of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) further impedes efficacious drug delivery to the central nervous system, presenting a formidable challenge in the pharmacological treatment of NDDs. Recent scientific inquiries have shifted focus toward the peripheral biological systems, investigating their influence on central neuropathology through the lens of extracellular vesicles (EVs). These vesicles, distinguished by their ability to breach the BBB, are emerging as dual operatives in the context of NDDs, both as conveyors of pathogenic entities and as prospective vectors for therapeutic agents. This review critically summarizes the burgeoning evidence on the role of extracerebral EVs, particularly those originating from bone, adipose tissue, and gut microbiota, in modulating brain pathophysiology. It underscores the duplicity potential of peripheral EVs as modulators of disease progression and suggests their potential as novel vehicles for targeted therapeutic delivery, positing a transformative impact on the future landscape of NDD treatment strategies. Search strategy A comprehensive literature search was conducted using PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus from January 2000 to December 2023. The search combined the following terms using Boolean operators: "neurodegenerative disease" OR "Alzheimer's disease" OR "Parkinson's disease" OR "Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis" AND "extracellular vesicles" OR "exosomes" OR "outer membrane vesicles" AND "drug delivery systems" AND "blood-brain barrier". MeSH terms were employed when searching PubMed to refine the results. Studies were included if they were published in English, involved human subjects, and focused on the peripheral origins of EVs, specifically from bone, adipose tissue, and gut microbiota, and their association with related diseases such as osteoporosis, metabolic syndrome, and gut dysbiosis. Articles were excluded if they did not address the role of EVs in the context of NDDs or did not discuss therapeutic applications. The titles and abstracts of retrieved articles were screened using a dual-review process to ensure relevance and accuracy. The reference lists of selected articles were also examined to identify additional relevant studies.

Young osteocyte-derived extracellular vesicles facilitate osteogenesis by transferring tropomyosin-1.

BACKGROUND: Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) can undergo inadequate osteogenesis or excessive adipogenesis as they age due to changes in the bone microenvironment, ultimately resulting in decreased bone density and elevated risk of fractures in senile osteoporosis. This study aims to investigate the effects of osteocyte senescence on the bone microenvironment and its influence on BMSCs during aging. RESULTS: Primary osteocytes were isolated from 2-month-old and 16-month-old mice to obtain young osteocyte-derived extracellular vesicles (YO-EVs) and senescent osteocyte-derived EVs (SO-EVs), respectively. YO-EVs were found to significantly increase alkaline phosphatase activity, mineralization deposition, and the expression of osteogenesis-related genes in BMSCs, while SO-EVs promoted BMSC adipogenesis. Neither YO-EVs nor SO-EVs exerted an effect on the osteoclastogenesis of primary macrophages/monocytes. Our constructed transgenic mice, designed to trace osteocyte-derived EV distribution, revealed abundant osteocyte-derived EVs embedded in the bone matrix. Moreover, mature osteoclasts were found to release osteocyte-derived EVs from bone slices, playing a pivotal role in regulating the functions of the surrounding culture medium. Following intravenous injection into young and elderly mouse models, YO-EVs demonstrated a significant enhancement of bone mass and biomechanical strength compared to SO-EVs. Immunostaining of bone sections revealed that YO-EV treatment augmented the number of osteoblasts on the bone surface, while SO-EV treatment promoted adipocyte formation in the bone marrow. Proteomics analysis of YO-EVs and SO-EVs showed that tropomyosin-1 (TPM1) was enriched in YO-EVs, which increased the matrix stiffness of BMSCs, consequently promoting osteogenesis. Specifically, the siRNA-mediated depletion of Tpm1 eliminated pro-osteogenic activity of YO-EVs both in vitro and in vivo. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggested that YO-EVs played a crucial role in maintaining the balance between bone resorption and formation, and their pro-osteogenic activity declining with aging. Therefore, YO-EVs and the delivered TPM1 hold potential as therapeutic targets for senile osteoporosis.

Synergistic large segmental bone repair by 3D printed bionic scaffolds and engineered ADSC nanovesicles: Towards an optimized regenerative microenvironment.

Achieving sufficient bone regeneration in large segmental defects is challenging, with the structure of bone repair scaffolds and their loaded bioactive substances crucial for modulating the local osteogenic microenvironment. This study utilized digital laser processing (DLP)-based 3D printing technology to successfully fabricate high-precision methacryloylated polycaprolactone (PCLMA) bionic bone scaffold structures. Adipose-derived stem cell-engineered nanovesicles (ADSC-ENs) were uniformly and stably modified onto the bionic scaffold surface using a perfusion device, constructing a conducive microenvironment for tissue regeneration and long bone defect repair through the scaffold's structural design and the vesicles' biological functions. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) examination of the scaffold surface confirmed the efficient loading of ADSC-ENs. The material group loaded with vesicles (PCLMA-BAS-ENs) demonstrated good cell compatibility and osteogenic potential when analyzed for the adhesion and osteogenesis of primary rabbit bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) on the material surface. Tested in a 15 mm critical rabbit radial defect model, the PCLMA-BAS-ENs scaffold facilitated near-complete bone defect repair after 12 weeks. Immunofluorescence and proteomic results indicated that the PCLMA-BAS-ENs scaffold significantly improved the osteogenic microenvironment at the defect site in vivo, promoted angiogenesis, and enhanced the polarization of macrophages towards M2 phenotype, and facilitated the recruitment of BMSCs. Thus, the PCLMA-BAS-ENs scaffold was proven to significantly promote the repair of large segmental bone defects. Overall, this strategy of combining engineered vesicles with highly biomimetic scaffolds to promote large-segment bone tissue regeneration holds great potential in orthopedic and other regenerative medicine applications.

Divergence of 10 satellite repeats in Artemisia (Asteraceae: Anthemideae) based on sequential fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis: evidence for species identification and evolution.

Artemisia is a large genus encompassing about 400 diverse species, many of which have considerable medicinal and ecological value. However, complex morphological information and variation in ploidy level and nuclear DNA content have presented challenges for evolution studies of this genus. Consequently, taxonomic inconsistencies within the genus persist, hindering the utilization of such large plant resources. Researchers have utilized satellite DNAs to aid in chromosome identification, species classification, and evolutionary studies due to their significant sequence and copy number variation between species and close relatives. In the present study, the RepeatExplorer2 pipeline was utilized to identify 10 satellite DNAs from three species (Artemisia annua, Artemisia vulgaris, Artemisia viridisquama), and fluorescence in situ hybridization confirmed their distribution on chromosomes in 24 species, including 19 Artemisia species with 5 outgroup species from Ajania and Chrysanthemum. Signals of satellite DNAs exhibited substantial differences between species. We obtained one genus-specific satellite from the sequences. Additionally, molecular cytogenetic maps were constructed for Artemisia vulgaris, Artemisia leucophylla, and Artemisia viridisquama. One species (Artemisia verbenacea) showed a FISH distribution pattern suggestive of an allotriploid origin. Heteromorphic FISH signals between homologous chromosomes in Artemisia plants were observed at a high level. Additionally, the relative relationships between species were discussed by comparing ideograms. The results of the present study provide new insights into the accurate identification and taxonomy of the Artemisia genus using molecular cytological methods.

[Corrigendum] Genistein exerts growth inhibition on human osteosarcoma MG-63 cells via PPARγ pathway.

Subsequently to the publication of the above article, an interested reader drew to the authors' attention that, in Fig. 1D on p. 1134, the data panels showing the results for the 'Control' and '1 µmol/l GW9662' experiments (on the left hand side of the figure) were overlapping, such that these data had been derived from the same original source where they were intended to show the results from differently performed experiments. The authors were able to re­examine their original data, and realize that the data for the '1 µmol/l GW9662' panel had been selected incorrectly. The corrected version of Fig. 1, now featuring the correct data for the '1 µmol/l GW9662' experiment in Fig. 1D, is shown on the next page, The authors confirm their error did not grossly affect either the results of the conclusions reported in the paper, and are grateful to the Editor of International Journal of Oncology for allowing them this opportunity to publish a Corrigendum. They also apologize to the readership for any inconvenience caused. [International Journal of Oncology 46: 1131-1140, 2015; DOI: 10.3892/ijo.2015.2829].

Clay Sculpture-Inspired 3D Printed Microcage Module Using Bioadhesion Assembly for Specific-Shaped Tissue Vascularization and Regeneration.

3D bioprinting techniques have enabled the fabrication of irregular large-sized tissue engineering scaffolds. However, complicated customized designs increase the medical burden. Meanwhile, the integrated printing process hinders the cellular uniform distribution and local angiogenesis. A novel approach is introduced to the construction of sizable tissue engineering grafts by employing hydrogel 3D printing for modular bioadhesion assembly, and a poly (ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA)-gelatin-dopamine (PGD) hydrogel, photosensitive and adhesive, enabling fine microcage module fabrication via DLP 3D printing is developed. The PGD hydrogel printed micocages are flexible, allowing various shapes and cell/tissue fillings for repairing diverse irregular tissue defects. In vivo experiments demonstrate robust vascularization and superior graft survival in nude mice. This assembly strategy based on scalable 3D printed hydrogel microcage module could simplify the construction of tissue with large volume and complex components, offering promise for diverse large tissue defect repairs.

Omentin-1 inhibits the development of benign prostatic hyperplasia by attenuating local inflammation.

BACKGROUND: Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a prevalent disease affecting elderly men, with chronic inflammation being a critical factor in its development. Omentin-1, also known as intelectin-1 (ITLN-1), is an anti-inflammatory protein primarily found in the epithelial cells of the small intestine. This study aimed to investigate the potential of ITLN-1 in mitigating BPH by modulating local inflammation in the prostate gland. METHODS: Our investigation involved two in vivo experimental models. Firstly, ITLN-1 knockout mice (Itln-1-/-) were used to study the absence of ITLN-1 in BPH development. Secondly, a testosterone propionate (TP)-induced BPH mouse model was treated with an ITLN-1 overexpressing adenovirus. We assessed BPH severity using prostate weight index and histological analysis, including H&E staining, immunohistochemistry, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In vitro, the impact of ITLN-1 on BPH-1 cell proliferation and inflammatory response was evaluated using cell proliferation assays and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: In vivo, Itln-1-/- mice exhibited elevated prostate weight index, enlarged lumen area, and higher TNF-α levels compared to wild-type littermates. In contrast, ITLN-1 overexpression in TP-induced BPH mice resulted in reduced prostate weight index, lumen area, and TNF-α levels. In vitro studies indicated that ITLN-1 suppressed the proliferation of prostate epithelial cells and reduced TNF-α production in macrophages, suggesting a mechanism involving the inhibition of macrophage-mediated inflammation. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrates that ITLN-1 plays a significant role in inhibiting the development of BPH by reducing local inflammation in the prostate gland. These findings highlight the potential of ITLN-1 as a therapeutic target in the management of BPH.