BSA-stabilized selenium nanoparticles ameliorate intracerebral hemorrhage's-like pathology by inhibiting ferroptosis-mediated neurotoxicology via Nrf2/GPX4 axis activation.

Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is a prevalent hemorrhagic cerebrovascular emergency. Alleviating neurological damage in the early stages of ICH is critical for enhancing patient prognosis and survival rate. A novel form of cell death called ferroptosis is intimately linked to hemorrhage-induced brain tissue injury. Although studies have demonstrated the significant preventive impact of bovine serum albumin-stabilized selenium nanoparticles (BSA-SeNPs) against disorders connected to the neurological system, the neuroprotective effect on the hemorrhage stroke and the mechanism remain unknown. Therefore, based on the favorable biocompatibility of BSA-SeNPs, h-ICH (hippocampus-intracerebral hemorrhage) model was constructed to perform BSA-SeNPs therapy. As expected, these BSA-SeNPs could effectively improve the cognitive deficits and ameliorate the damage of hippocampal neuron. Furthermore, BSA-SeNPs reverse the morphology of mitochondria and enhanced the mitochondrial function, evidenced by mitochondrial respiration function (OCR) and mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP). Mechanistically, BSA-SeNPs could efficiently activate the Nrf2 to enhance the expression of antioxidant GPX4 at mRNA and protein levels, and further inhibit lipid peroxidation production in erastin-induced ferroptotic damages. Taken together, this study not only sheds light on the clinical application of BSA-SeNPs, but also provides its newly theoretical support for the strategy of the intervention and treatment of neurological impairment following ICH.

Dietary vitamin B6 intake and stroke are negatively associated in adults: A cross-sectional study from the NHANES.

Background: The relationship between dietary vitamin B6 and stroke risk is controversial; thus, we analyzed their correlation using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Method: Data from 2005 to 2018 were collected from the NHANES database. Two 24-h dietary recalls and a standard questionnaire were used to evaluate vitamin B6 intake and stroke prevalence. We used logistic regression models to estimate the association between dietary vitamin B6 intake and stroke risk and investigated the nonlinear relationship between them using a restricted cubic spline (RCS). Sensitivity analysis was conducted using propensity score matching (PSM). Results: Among 24,214 participants, 921 were patients diagnosed with stroke, while 23,293 were without stroke. The multivariate logistic regression model revealed that individuals in the highest quartile of vitamin B6 consumption had a significantly lower stroke risk than those in the lowest quartile under the fully adjusted model (OR: 0.48, 95 % CI: 0.35-0.66, P < 0.001). Subgroup analyses showed that dietary intake of vitamin B6 was a significant protective factor against stroke risk in different populations, with the most pronounced effect in the population engaging in moderate-intensity physical activity (OR: 0.34, 95%CI: 0.20-0.57). The RCS models revealed a non-linear L-shaped relationship (P for nonlinearity = 0.006) between stroke and dietary intake of vitamin B6. Conclusions: Our study shows that an increased intake of vitamin B6 could be an effective strategy in reducing the risk of stroke.

Pseudo-Eutectic of Isodimorphism to Design Biaxially-Oriented Bio-Based PA56/512 with High Strength, Toughness and Barrier Performances.

The biaxially-oriented PA56/512 has excellent mechanical strength, extensibility and water-oxygen barrier properties and has broad application prospects in green packaging, lithium battery diaphragm and medical equipment materials. The correlation between the aggregation structure evolution and macroscopic comprehensive properties of copolymer PA56/512 under biaxial stretching has been demonstrated in this work. The structure of the random copolymerization sequence was characterized by 13C Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The typical isodimorphism behavior of the co-crystallization system of PA56/512 and its BOPA-56/512 films was revealed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) tests. And the aggregation structure, including the hydrogen bond arrangement, crystal structure and crystal morphology of PA56/512 before and after biaxial stretching, was investigated by XRD, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and polarized optical microscopy (POM) tests. Furthermore, the effect of the biaxially-oriented stretching process on the mechanical properties of PA56/512 has been demonstrated. In addition, a deep insight into the influence of the structure on the crystallization process and physical-mechanical performance has been presented. The lowest melting point at a 512 content of 60 mol% is regarded as a "eutectic" point of the isodimorphism system. Due to the high disorder of the structural units in the polymer chain, the transition degree of the folded chain (gauche conformation) is relatively lowest when it is straightened to form an extended chain (trans conformation) during biaxially-oriented stretching, and part of the folded chain can be retained. This explains why biaxially stretched PA56/512 has high strength, outstanding toughness and excellent barrier properties at the pseudo-eutectic point. In this study, using the unique multi-scale aggregation structure characteristics of a heterohomodymite polyamide at the pseudo-eutectic point, combined with the new material design scheme and the idea of biaxial-stretching processing, a new idea for customized design of high-performance multifunctional polyamide synthetic materials is provided.

Investigation on the Correlation between Biaxial Stretching Process and Macroscopic Properties of BOPA6 Film.

Biaxially oriented polyamide 6 (BOPA6) films were prepared by extrusion casting and biaxial stretching with polyamide 6. The effects of different biaxially oriented on the macroscopic properties of BOPA6 were investigated by characterizing the rheological, crystallization, optical, barrier and mechanical properties. The results show that the increase of stretching temperature leads to the diffusion and regular stacking rate of BOPA6 chain segments towards crystal nuclei increases, the relative crystallinity increases, reaching 27.87% at 180 °C, and the mechanical strength and optical performance decrease. Heat-induced crystallization promotes the transformation of ß-crystals to α-crystals in BOPA6, resulting in a more perfect crystalline structure and enhancing oxygen barrier properties. BOPA6 chains are oriented, and strain-induced crystallization (SIC) occurs during the biaxial stretching. Further increasing the stretch ratio, the relative crystallinity increased to 30.34%. The machine direction (MD) and transverse direction (TD) tensile strength of BOPA6 (B-33) are nearly two times higher than the unstretched film, reaching 134.33 MPa and 155.28 MPa, respectively. In addition, the permeation decreases to 57.61 cc·mil/(m2 day), and the oxygen barrier performance has improved by nearly 30% compared to the sample B-22. BOPA6 has a high storage modulus at a high stretching rate (300%/s). Rapid chain relaxation would promote the molecular chain disorientation, destroy the entangled network of the molecular chain, and lead to a decrease in tensile strength, reducing to about 110 MPa.

Whether Patients with Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Walking at a Fast Speed Show more Kinematic Asymmetries?

OBJECTIVE: Knee kinematic asymmetries after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) are correlated with poor clinical outcomes, such as the progression of knee cartilage degenerations or reinjuries. Fast walking in patients with knee conditions may exacerbate knee kinematic asymmetries, but its impact on ACLR patients is uncertain. The aim of this study is to investigate if fast walking induces more knee kinematic asymmetries in unilateral ACLR patients. METHODS: This cross-sectional study enrolled 55 patients with unilateral ACLR from January 2020 to July 2022. There were 48 males and seven females with an average age of 30.6 ± 6.4 years. Knee kinematic data were collected at three walking speeds: self-selected, fast (150% normal), and slow (50% normal). A 3D knee kinematic analysis system measured the data, and self-reported outcomes assessed comfort levels during walking. We used SPM1D for two-way repeated ANOVA and posthoc paired t-tests to analyze kinematic differences in groups. RESULTS: In fast walking, ACLR knees exhibited more transverse kinematic asymmetries than intact knees, including greater external rotation angle (1.8°, 38%-43%; gait cycle [GC], p < 0.05 & 1.8-2.7°, 50%-61% GC, p < 0.05) and increased proximal tibial translation (2.1-2.5 mm, 2%-6% GC, p < 0.05 & 2.5-3.2 mm, 92%-96% GC, p < 0.05). Additionally, ACLR knees showed greater posterior tibial translation than intact knees (3.6-3.7 mm, 7%-8% GC, p < 0.05) during fast walking. No posterior tibial translation asymmetries were observed in slow walking compared to normal walking levels. ACLR knees have the most comfortable feelings in slow walking speed, and the most uncomfortable feelings in fast walking speed levels (29%). CONCLUSIONS: Fast walking induces additional external tibial rotation and proximal and posterior tibial translation asymmetries in ACLR patients. This raises concerns about long-term safety and health during fast walking. Fast walking, not self-selected speed, is beneficial for identifying postoperative gait asymmetries in ACLR patients.

Pivotal Role of GSTO2 in Ferroptotic Neuronal Injury After Intracerebral Hemorrhage.

Previous research has found that an adaptive response to ferroptosis involving glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) is triggered after intracerebral hemorrhage. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying adaptive responses to ferroptosis. To explore the mechanisms underlying adaptive responses to ferroptosis after intracerebral hemorrhage, we used hemin-treated HT22 cells to mimic brain injury after hemorrhagic stroke in vitro to evaluate the antioxidant enzymes and performed bioinformatics analysis based on the mRNA sequencing data. Further, we determined the expression of GSTO2 in hemin-treated hippocampal neurons and in a mouse model of hippocampus-intracerebral hemorrhage (h-ICH) by using Western blot. After hemin treatment, the antioxidant enzymes GPX4, Nrf2, and glutathione (GSH) were upregulated, suggesting that an adaptive response to ferroptosis was triggered. Furthermore, we performed mRNA sequencing to explore the underlying mechanism, and the results showed that 2234 genes were differentially expressed. Among these, ten genes related to ferroptosis (Acsl1, Ftl1, Gclc, Gclm, Hmox1, Map1lc3b, Slc7a11, Slc40a1, Tfrc, and Slc39a14) were altered after hemin treatment. In addition, analysis of the data retrieved from the GO database for the ten targeted genes showed that 20 items on biological processes, 17 items on cellular components, and 19 items on molecular functions were significantly enriched. Based on the GO data, we performed GSEA and found that the glutathione metabolic process was significantly enriched in the hemin phenotype. Notably, the expression of glutathione S-transferase omega (GSTO2), which is involved in glutathione metabolism, was decreased after hemin treatment, and overexpression of Gsto2 decreased lipid reactive oxygen species level in hemin-exposed HT22 cells. In addition, the expression of GSTO2 was also decreased in a mouse model of hippocampus-intracerebral hemorrhage (h-ICH). The decreased expression of GSTO2 in the glutathione metabolic process may be involved in ferroptotic neuronal injury following hemorrhagic stroke.