Successful Treatment of Refractory Synovitis, Acne, Pustulosis, Hyperostosis, and Osteitis (SAPHO) Syndrome and Paradoxical Psoriasis with Secukinumab: A Case Report.

Synovitis, acne, pustulosis, hyperostosis, and osteitis (SAPHO) syndrome is a rare chronic inflammatory disease mainly manifested as skin and osteoarticular lesions. Herein, we describe a female patient with SAPHO syndrome exhibited paradoxical psoriasis and primary palmoplantar pustulosis (PPP) worsened during treatment with adalimumab. We then switched to secukinumab and obtained significant improvement in both skin lesions and osteoarticular pain. These findings suggest that secukinumab might be an appropriate option for patients with SAPHO syndrome who present with TNF-α-inhibitor-induced paradoxical psoriasis.

Transcription Factor SATB2 Regulates Skeletal Muscle Cell Proliferation and Migration via HDAC4 in Pigs.

Skeletal muscle development remarkably affects meat production and growth rate, regulated by complex regulatory mechanisms in pigs. Specific AT sequence-binding protein 2 (SATB2) is a classic transcription factor and chromatin organizer, which holds a profound effect in the regulation of chromatin remodeling. However, the regulation role of SATB2 concerning skeletal muscle cell fate through chromatin remodeling in pigs remains largely unknown. Here, we observed that SATB2 was expressed higher in the lean-type compared to the obese-type pigs, which also enriched the pathways of skeletal muscle development, chromatin organization, and histone modification. Functionally, knockdown SATB2 led to decreases in the proliferation and migration markers at the mRNA and protein expression levels, respectively, while overexpression SATB2 had the opposite effects. Further, we found histone deacetylase 4 (HDAC4) was a key downstream target gene of SATB2 related to chromatin remodeling. The binding relationship between SATB2 and HDAC4 was confirmed by a dual-luciferase reporter system and ChIP-qPCR analysis. Besides, we revealed that HDAC4 promoted the skeletal muscle cell proliferation and migration at the mRNA and protein expression levels, respectively. In conclusion, our study indicates that transcription factor SATB2 binding to HDAC4 positively contributes to skeletal muscle cell proliferation and migration, which might mediate the chromatin remodeling to influence myogenesis in pigs. This study develops a novel insight into understanding the molecular regulatory mechanism of myogenesis, and provides a promising gene for genetic breeding in pigs.

Regulation of myo-miR-24-3p on the Myogenesis and Fiber Type Transformation of Skeletal Muscle.

Skeletal muscle plays critical roles in providing a protein source and contributing to meat production. It is well known that microRNAs (miRNAs) exert important effects on various biological processes in muscle, including cell fate determination, muscle fiber morphology, and structure development. However, the role of miRNA in skeletal muscle development remains incompletely understood. In this study, we observed a critical miRNA, miR-24-3p, which exhibited higher expression levels in Tongcheng (obese-type) pigs compared to Landrace (lean-type) pigs. Furthermore, we found that miR-24-3p was highly expressed in the dorsal muscle of pigs and the quadriceps muscle of mice. Functionally, miR-24-3p was found to inhibit proliferation and promote differentiation in muscle cells. Additionally, miR-24-3p was shown to facilitate the conversion of slow muscle fibers to fast muscle fibers and influence the expression of GLUT4, a glucose transporter. Moreover, in a mouse model of skeletal muscle injury, we demonstrated that overexpression of miR-24-3p promoted rapid myogenesis and contributed to skeletal muscle regeneration. Furthermore, miR-24-3p was found to regulate the expression of target genes, including Nek4, Pim1, Nlk, Pskh1, and Mapk14. Collectively, our findings provide evidence that miR-24-3p plays a regulatory role in myogenesis and fiber type conversion. These findings contribute to our understanding of human muscle health and have implications for improving meat production traits in livestock.

Application potential of zero-valent aluminum in nitrophenols wastewater decontamination: Enhanced reactivity, electron selectivity and anti-passivation capability.

Nitrophenols (NPs) are highly toxic and easy to accumulate to high concentrations (> 500 mg/L) in real wastewater. The nitro group contained in NPs is an electron-absorbing group that is easy to reduce and difficult to oxidize, so there is an urgent need to develop reduction removal technology. Zero-valent aluminum (ZVAl) is an excellent electron donor that can reductively transform various refractory pollutants. However, ZVAl is prone to rapid deactivation due to non-selective reactions with water, ions, etc. To overcome this critical limitation, we prepared a new type of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) modified microscale ZVAl, CNTs@mZVAl, through a facile mechanochemical ball milling method. CNTs@mZVAl had outstanding high reactivity in degrading p-nitrophenol even 1000 mg/L and showed up to 95.50% electron utilization efficiency. Moreover, CNTs@mZVAl was highly resistant to the passivation by dissolved oxygen, ions and natural organic matters coexisting in water matrix, and remained highly reactive after aging in the air for 10 days. Furthermore, CNTs@mZVAl could effectively remove dinitrodiazophenol from real explosive wastewater. The excellent performance of CNTs@mZVAl is due to the combination of selective adsorption of NPs and CNTs-mediated e-transfer. CNTs@mZVAl looks promising for the efficient and selective degradation of NPs, with broader prospects for real wastewater treatment.

Recent advancement in vascularized tissue-engineered bone based on materials design and modification.

Bone is one of the most vascular network-rich tissues in the body and the vascular system is essential for the development, homeostasis, and regeneration of bone. When segmental irreversible damage occurs to the bone, restoring its vascular system by means other than autogenous bone grafts with vascular pedicles is a therapeutic challenge. By pre-generating the vascular network of the scaffold in vivo or in vitro, the pre-vascularization technique enables an abundant blood supply in the scaffold after implantation. However, pre-vascularization techniques are time-consuming, and in vivo pre-vascularization techniques can be damaging to the body. Critical bone deficiencies may be filled quickly with immediate implantation of a supporting bone tissue engineered scaffold. However, bone tissue engineered scaffolds generally lack vascularization, which requires modification of the scaffold to aid in enhancing internal vascularization. In this review, we summarize the relationship between the vascular system and osteogenesis and use it as a basis to further discuss surgical and cytotechnology-based pre-vascularization strategies and to describe the preparation of vascularized bone tissue engineered scaffolds that can be implanted immediately. We anticipate that this study will serve as inspiration for future vascularized bone tissue engineered scaffold construction and will aid in the achievement of clinical vascularized bone.

Mechanochemically synthesized Al-Fe (oxide) composite with superior reductive performance: Solid-state kinetic processes during ball milling.

Recently, mechanical ball milling (BM), a simple and green powder processing method, has been successfully applied to improve the performance of zero-valent metals (ZVMs) for efficient water treatment. However, until now BM is still regarded as a "black box" in which the processes of the solid-state reaction during activation remain unclear. In this paper, firstly, FeSO4·7H2O crystal was used to activate and modify inert microscale zero-valent aluminum (mZVAl) by BM to synthesize Al-Fe (oxide)bm composite that showed superior reactivity in reductive removal of various contaminants and excellent reusability, which may be mainly ascribed to the newly formed iron oxide layer on mZVAl by mechanochemical reaction. At the same time, the formation of iron oxides on mZVAl was closely related to BM parameters. Further kinematic analysis revealed that the occurrence of mechanochemical reaction depended on the impact energy and input energy, which BM speed and BM time were two main factors determining reaction extent on the premise that the precursors were full dose. Moreover, kinetic fitting uncovered the solid-state reaction mechanism between mZVAl and FeSO4·7H2O conformed to three-dimensional diffusion and phase boundary reaction models. This study ponders deeply upon the mechanochemical process and solid reaction mechanism during the preparation of Al-Fe (oxide)bm composite, which deepens comprehensions of material synthesis procedures by BM and promotes applications of ZVM-based composite in polluted water or wastewater treatment.

Effects of valproic acid on bone mineral density and bone metabolism: A meta-analysis.

PURPOSE: Numerous studies have shown that the risk of fracture is increased by long-term antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). Valproic acid (VPA) is one of the most commonly used AEDs. In this meta-analysis, we aimed to assess the effects of VPA on bone mineral density (BMD) and bone metabolism. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane and Web of Science databases were searched from inception to January 2019 for articles focusing on the effects of VPA on BMD and bone metabolism in adults or children. A meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5. 3 software. RESULTS: 18 studies were included in the meta-analysis. The BMD of lumber spine (MD= -0.06, 95%CI: -0.09 to -0.03, P < 0.0001) and femoral neck (MD= -0.05, 95% CI= -0.08 to -0.01, P = 0.02) was markedly decreased in the VPA group compared to healthy controls. Serum bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BALP) level (SMD = 0.85, 95% CI: 0.30-1.40, P = 0.002) was notably increased in the VPA group compared to healthy groups. In the child group, the serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) level was higher than in healthy groups (SMD= -0.22, 95% CI: -0.40 to -0.04, P = 0.02); besides, the serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D3 (25(OH)D3) level was decreased (SMD= -0.22, 95% CI: -0.40 to -0.04, P = 0.02), while no significant alteration of these parameters was noted in the adult VPA group (P ≥ 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: VPA may reduce the BMD of lumbar spine and femoral neck in patients with epilepsy while increasing the serum BALP level. Serum PTH level are increased and serum 25(OH)D3 level decreased in children with epilepsy treated with VPA. These parameters were unaltered in adults.