Circ_0002295 facilitated myocardial fibrosis progression through the miR-1287/CXCR2 axis.

Myocardial fibrosis (MF) is involved in hypertension, myocardial infarction and heart failure. It has been reported that circular RNA (circRNA) is a key regulatory factor of MF progression. In this study, we revealed that circ_0002295 and CXCR2 were elevated, and miR-1287 was reduced in MF patients. Knockdown of circ_0002295 effectively suppressed the proliferation, migration and MF progression. Circ_0002295 was the molecular sponge of miR-12878, and miR-1287 inhibitor reversed the biological functions of circ_0002295 on the myocardial fibrosis. CXCR2 was a target gene of miR-1287, and CXCR2 silencing relieved the impacts of miR-1287 inhibitor on cardiac myofibroblasts. Circ_0002295 promoted MF progression by regulating the miR-1287/CXCR2 axis, providing a possible circRNA-targeted therapy for MF.

Role of serum ß2-microglobulin, glycosylated hemoglobin, and vascular endothelial growth factor levels in diabetic nephropathy.

BACKGROUND: Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a common complication of type 1 and type 2 diabetes that can lead to kidney damage and high blood pressure. Increasing evidence support the important roles of microproteins and cytokines, such as ß2-microglobulin (ß2-MG), glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), in the pathogenesis of this disease. In this study, we identified novel therapeutic options for this disease. AIM: To analyze the guiding significance of ß2-MG, HbA1c, and VEGF levels in patients with DN. METHODS: A total of 107 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus complicated with nephropathy and treated in our hospital from May 2018 to February 2021 were included in the study. Additionally, 107 healthy individuals and 107 patients with simple diabetes mellitus were selected as the control groups. Changes in ß2-MG, HbA1c, and VEGF levels in the three groups as well as the different proteinuria exhibited by the three groups were examined. RESULTS: Changes in ß2-MG, HbA1c, and VEGF levels in the disease, healthy, and simple diabetes groups were significantly different (P < 0.05). The expression of these factors from high to low were evaluated in different groups by pairwise comparison. In the disease group, high to low changes in ß2-MG, HbA1c, and VEGF levels were noted in the massive proteinuria, microproteinuria, and normal urinary protein groups, respectively. Changes in these factors were positively correlated with disease progression. CONCLUSION: The expression of serum ß2-MG, HbA1c, and VEGF was closely correlated with DN progression, and disease progression could be evaluated by these factors.

Phase-only color rainbow holographic near-eye display.

Color rainbow holography can realize color holographic 3D display without speckle noise under white light illumination. However, traditional color rainbow holograms used for high-resolution static color 3D display or near-eye color display are amplitude-type, resulting in low diffraction efficiency due to the presence of conjugate light. In this Letter, a phase-only color rainbow holographic near-eye display is demonstrated. The calculation of a phase-only color rainbow hologram is realized by combining a band-limited diffraction and a bi-directional error diffusion algorithm with high-frequency blazed gratings coded to control longitudinal dispersion. When the wavelength of illumination light is deviated from the designated wavelength of the hologram, only a certain wavefront aberration is caused, but there is no conjugate light. The phase-only color rainbow holographic near-eye display of both a 2D color image and a 3D scene are implemented by optical experiments. It has potential applications in head-mounted 3D augmented reality displays without vergence-accommodation conflict.

Photon-induced carrier recombination in the nonlayered-structured hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite nano-sheets.

The hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites (HOIPs) have attracted much attention recently due to their preeminent efficiency in solar cells. According to the difference on the crystalline structure, the HOIPs could be classified into layered and non-layered perovskites. Very recently, it has been realized that the non-layered HOIPs with common-vertex structure possess even better opto-electrical performance. Yet the carrier recombination mechanism in perovskite remains not very clear, and a clear understanding of this mechanism is essential to pinpoint the working mechanism of photovoltaic and electroluminescent materials. Here we report the optical studies on the hybrid perovskite crystalline nano-sheet of CH3NH3PbBr3 with common-vertex structure. It is shown that the non-layered perovskite crystalline nanosheets possess the exciton binding energy about two orders of magnitude smaller than that of the layered perovskite and the colloidal nanoplates, which is beneficial for the designing of the high-efficiency photovoltaic devices. By measuring the temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) spectra, the excitation-power-variant PL spectra, and the time-resolved PL spectra, we identify that both the free-carrier and the localized exciton recombination channels may coexist in the crystallites. Further, for the thin crystallite (∼60 nm), the free-carrier recombination channel dominates; whereas when the thickness increases beyond 200 nm, the localized exciton recombination channel plays the major role. We suggest these results are helpful to improve further the photovoltaic and electroluminescent performances of perovskite devices.

Exchange of electric and magnetic resonances in multilayered metal/dielectric nanoplates.

In this work, we have experimentally demonstrated that in a rectangular multilayered Ag/SiO2 nanoplate array, electric and magnetic resonances are exchanged at the same frequency simply by changing the polarization of incident light for 90°. Both electric and magnetic resonances originate from localized surface plasmons, and lead to negative permittivity and permeability, respectively. The numerical calculations on electromagnetic fields agree with the experiments. The investigations provide a simple building block for a metamaterial to switch electric and magnetic resonances by external excitation field.

Self-templating growth of copper nanopearl-chain arrays in electrodeposition.

We report here a unique in-plane self-templating electrochemical growth of arrays of copper nanopearl chains from an ultrathin layer of CuSO4 electrolyte. Scanning electron microscopy indicates that the electrodeposit filaments form equally spaced bundles, which consist of long, straight, pearl-chain-like copper filaments with corrugated periodic structure. The bundle separation can be tuned by changing the applied electric current in electrodeposition. Experiments show that the periodic morphology on the nanopearl chain corresponds to the periodic distribution of copper and cuprous oxide. The mechanism for the bundle formation is discussed.

Long-range ordering effect in electrodeposition of zinc and zinc oxide.

In this paper, we report the long-range ordering effect observed in the electro-crystallization of Zn and ZnO from an ultrathin aqueous electrolyte layer of ZnSO4 . The deposition branches are regularly angled, covered with random-looking, scalelike crystalline platelets of ZnO. Although the orientation of each crystalline platelet of ZnO appears random, transmission electron microscopy shows that they essentially possess the same crystallographic orientation as the single-crystalline zinc electrodeposit underneath. Based on the experimental observations, we suggest that this unique long-range ordering effect results from an epitaxial nucleation effect in electrocrystallization.