Advances in Polysaccharides for Cartilage Tissue Engineering Repair: A Review.

Cartilage repair has been a significant challenge in orthopedics that has not yet been fully resolved. Due to the absence of blood vessels and the almost cell-free nature of mature cartilage tissue, the limited ability to repair cartilage has resulted in significant socioeconomic pressures. Polysaccharide materials have recently been widely used for cartilage tissue repair due to their excellent cell loading, biocompatibility, and chemical modifiability. They also provide a suitable microenvironment for cartilage repair and regeneration. In this Review, we summarize the techniques used clinically for cartilage repair, focusing on polysaccharides, polysaccharides for cartilage repair, and the differences between these and other materials. In addition, we summarize the techniques of tissue engineering strategies for cartilage repair and provide an outlook on developing next-generation cartilage repair and regeneration materials from polysaccharides. This Review will provide theoretical guidance for developing polysaccharide-based cartilage repair and regeneration materials with clinical applications for cartilage tissue repair and regeneration.

Rational Design of Intelligent and Multifunctional Dressing to Promote Acute/Chronic Wound Healing.

Currently, the clinic's treatment of acute/chronic wounds is still unsatisfactory due to the lack of functional and appropriate wound dressings. Intelligent and multifunctional dressings are considered the most advanced wound treatment modalities. It is essential to design and develop wound dressings with required functions according to the wound microenvironment in the clinical treatment. This work summarizes microenvironment characteristics of various common wounds, such as acute wound, diabetic wound, burns wound, scalded wound, mucosal wound, and ulcers wound. Furthermore, the factors of transformation from acute wounds to chronic wounds were analyzed. Then we focused on summarizing how researchers fully and thoroughly combined the complex microenvironment with modern advanced technology to ensure the usability and value of the dressing, such as photothermal-sensitive dressings, microenvironment dressing (pH-sensitive dressings, ROS-sensitive dressings, and osmotic pressure dressings), hemostatic dressing, guiding tissue regeneration dressing, microneedle dressings, and 3D/4D printing dressings. Finally, the revolutionary development of wound dressings and how to transform the existing advanced functional dressings into clinical needs as soon as possible have carried out a reasonable and meaningful outlook.

Recent Progress in Intelligent Wearable Sensors for Health Monitoring and Wound Healing Based on Biofluids.

The intelligent wearable sensors promote the transformation of the health care from a traditional hospital-centered model to a personal portable device-centered model. There is an urgent need of real-time, multi-functional, and personalized monitoring of various biochemical target substances and signals based on the intelligent wearable sensors for health monitoring, especially wound healing. Under this background, this review article first reviews the outstanding progress in the development of intelligent, wearable sensors designed for continuous, real-time analysis, and monitoring of sweat, blood, interstitial fluid, tears, wound fluid, etc. Second, this paper reports the advanced status of intelligent wound monitoring sensors designed for wound diagnosis and treatment. The paper highlights some smart sensors to monitor target analytes in various wounds. Finally, this paper makes conservative recommendations regarding future development of intelligent wearable sensors.

Identification of Abnormal Spindle Microtubule Assembly as a Promising Therapeutic Target for Osteosarcoma.

OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate the expression of abnormal spindle microtubule assembly (ASPM) in clinical osteosarcoma tissue specimens collected in our hospital, and to explore the function of ASPM in osteosarcoma in vitro and in vivo. METHODS: Tissue specimens from 82 cases of osteosarcoma were collected and analyzed by immunohistochemistry assay. We also investigated the relationship between ASPM expression and clinicopathological characteristics in the patients. We transfected shASPM plasmid and the empty control plasmid, respectively, and then used quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis to detect ASPM expression. Cell colony assay and MTT were used to observe the proliferation ability. In vivo study was undertaken to explore the ASPM function further. RESULTS: In this study, ASPM showed high expression in osteosarcoma tissue samples compared with non-tumor normal tissues. ASPM was positively correlated with clinical pathological characteristics, including tumor size (P = 0.024) and clinical stage (P = 0.045). Our results further showed that ASPM depletion dramatically inhibited the proliferation of osteosarcoma cells (with fewer cells in the sh-RNA-ASPM group compared with the control group(P < 0.05, respectively), and the in vivo assays further confirmed that ASPM ablation markedly blocked tumor growth compared with control (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our data provides strong evidence that the high expression of ASPM in osteosarcoma promotes proliferation in vitro and in vivo, indicating its potential role as an osteosarcoma therapeutic target.

MREG suppresses thyroid cancer cell invasion and proliferation by inhibiting Akt-mTOR signaling.

Thyroid cancer has long been considered to arise in middle age and progress to more aggressive and lethal cancers after its repeated proliferation. In this research, we aimed at investigating the biological function and the underlying molecular mechanism of Melanoregulin (MREG) in thyroid cancer. It was found that the expression of MREG was significantly downregulated in thyroid cancer tissues. The downregulation of MREG expression was caused by epigenetic methylation. MREG overexpression could suppress the invasion and proliferation of thyroid cancer cells. While MREG knockdown promoted the invasion and proliferation of thyroid cancer cells. Furthermore, the phosphorylation of Akt or mTOR was decreased by MREG overexpression and increased by MREG knockdown. Moreover, Dactolisib (the inhibitor of mTOR) could abrogate silenced MREG induced thyroid cancer cell invasion and proliferation. Taken together, MREG regulates thyroid cancer cell invasion and proliferation through PI3K/Akt-mTOR signaling pathway. MREG may serve as a promising therapeutic strategy for thyroid cancer.

Ursolic acid nanoparticles inhibit cervical cancer growth in vitro and in vivo via apoptosis induction.

Cervical cancer is a cause of cancer death, making it one of the most common causes of death among women globally. Previously, a variety of studies have revealed the molecular mechanisms by which cervical cancer develops. However, there are still limitations in treatment for cervical cancer. Ursolic acid is a naturally derived pentacyclic triterpene acid, exhibiting broad anticancer effects. Nanoparticulate drug delivery systems have been known to better the bioavailability of drugs on intranasal administration compared with only drug solutions. Administration of ursolic acid nanoparticles is thought to be sufficient to lead to considerable suppression of cervical cancer progression. We loaded gold-ursolic acid into poly(DL-lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles to cervical cancer cell lines due to the properties of ursolic acid in altering cellular processes and the easier absorbance of nanoparticles. In addition, in this study, ursolic acid nanoparticles were administered to cervical cancer cells to find effective treatments for cervical cancer inhibition. In the present study, ELISA, western blotting, flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry assays were carried out to calculate the molecular mechanism by which ursolic acid nanoparticles modulated cervical cancer progression. Data indicated that ursolic acid nanoparticles, indeed, significantly suppress cervial cancer cell proliferation, invasion and migration compared to the control group, and apoptosis was induced by ursolic acid nanoparticles in cervical cancer cells through activating caspases, p53 and suppressing anti-apoptosis-related signals. Furthermore, tumor size was reduced by treatment of ursolic acid nanoparticles in in vivo experiments. In conclusion, this study suggests that ursolic acid nanoparticles inhibited cervical cancer cell proliferation via apoptosis induction, which could be a potential target for future therapeutic strategy clinically.

The evaluation of uterine artery embolization as a nonsurgical treatment option for adenomyosis.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of uterine artery embolization (UAE) for the treatment of adenomyosis. METHODS: A prospective study was performed at Yuhuangding Hospital, China, between January 2012 and December 2013, enrolling premenopausal patients diagnosed with adenomyosis. All patients were treated with bilateral UAE using 500-700-µm tris-acryl gelatin microspheres. At baseline, and 3, 6, and 12months after UAE, magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess uterine volume and patient-assessed improvements in dysmenorrhea were recorded. Any complications and adverse events were reported. RESULTS: In total, 117 patients with adenomyosis were enrolled. The bilateral UAE procedure was successful in 115 (98.3%) patients, who were able to return to normal activity within 1week of treatment. At 12-month follow-up, a median 51.0% reduction in uterine volume from baseline was recorded (P=0.005). Marked and moderate improvements in dysmenorrhea symptoms were reported by 64 (55.7%) and 31 (27.0%) participants, respectively. Pelvic pain of varying intensity was reported by 112 (97.4%) patients but was managed with analgesia. Persistent amenorrhea was experienced by 2 (1.7%) individuals following treatment. Patients did not encounter any new gynecologic or general complications following UAE treatment. CONCLUSION: UAE could be considered as a minimally invasive treatment option for patients with adenomyosis. Further research to compare the efficacy and safety of UAE with conventional hysterectomy is warranted.

Complete mitochondrial genome sequence and mutations of the insulin resistance model inbred C57BL/6 mice strain.

In the present work we undertook the complete mitochondrial genome sequencing of an important insulin resistance model inbred rat strain for the first time. The total length of the mitogenome was 16,308 bp. It harbored 13 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes, 22 transfer RNA genes and 1 non-coding control region (D-loop region). The mutation events were also reported.

The mitochondrial genome sequence of a diabetes disease Rattus norvegicus Wistar strain.

We sequenced a diabetic Rattus norvegicus Wistar strain mitochondrial genome for the first time (GenBank Accession No. KM114608). Its mitogenome was 16,311 bp and coding 13 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes, 22 transfer RNA genes. This mitogenome sequence will provide definite genetic information for diabetes disease.

Intramural ectopic pregnancy: treatment using uterine artery embolization.

Herein is described the case of a 28-year-old woman in whom uterine artery embolization (UAE) was performed to treat intramural ectopic pregnancy. The intramural ectopic pregnancy was diagnosed at magnetic resonance imaging, which showed a gestational sac surrounded completely by myometrium. The UAE procedure was uncomplicated, with satisfactory results. Intramural ectopic pregnancy may be treated using UAE, which aids in maintaining fertility.

Clinical study of simultaneous lung volume reduction surgery during resection of pulmonary or esophageal neoplasms.

BACKGROUND: If the emphysema lesions are not symmetrical, unilateral lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) can be carried out on the more severe side. The aim of this research was to evaluate the feasibility and effects of LVRS performed simultaneously with resection of pulmonary and esophageal neoplasms. METHODS: Forty-five patients with pulmonary neoplasm and 37 patients with esophageal neoplasm were randomly assigned to group A or group B. In group A, LVRS was performed simultaneously on the same side as thoracotomy. In group B, only tumor resection was performed. The nonfunctional lung area was determined by preoperative chest computed tomography and lung ventilation/perfusion scan. The lung volume removed was about 20% to 30% of the lobes on one side. Preoperative and postoperative indexes including pulmonary function testing variables, arterial blood gas analysis variables, dyspnea scale, 6-minute walk distance, etc., were compared between the groups. RESULTS: There were no surgical deaths in this study. The postoperative forced vital capacity in 1 second, PaO2, PaCO2, dyspnea scale, and 6-minute walk distance were improved significantly in group A, whereas these indexes did not change or decreased slightly in group B. CONCLUSIONS: For tumor patients who have associated emphysema, simultaneous LVRS not only increases the chance of receiving surgical therapy, but also improves the postoperative quality of life of the patient. LVRS has expanded the surgical indication for tumor patients.