Prolonged healing and scar formation are two major challenges in the treatment of soft tissue trauma. Adipose mesenchymal stem cells (ASCs) play an important role in tissue regeneration, and recent studies have suggested that exosomes secreted by stem cells may contribute to paracrine signaling. In this study, we investigated the roles of ASCs-derived exosomes (ASCs-Exos) in cutaneous wound healing. We found that ASCs-Exos could be taken up and internalized by fibroblasts to stimulate cell migration, proliferation and collagen synthesis in a dose-dependent manner, with increased genes expression of N-cadherin, cyclin-1, PCNA and collagen I, III. In vivo tracing experiments demonstrated that ASCs-Exos can be recruited to soft tissue wound area in a mouse skin incision model and significantly accelerated cutaneous wound healing. Histological analysis showed increased collagen I and III production by systemic administration of exosomes in the early stage of wound healing, while in the late stage, exosomes might inhibit collagen expression to reduce scar formation. Collectively, our findings indicate that ASCs-Exos can facilitate cutaneous wound healing via optimizing the characteristics of fibroblasts. Our results provide a new perspective and therapeutic strategy for the use of ASCs-Exos in soft tissue repair.
Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a novel infectious disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in Wuhan and has quickly spread across the world. The mortality rate in critically ill patients with COVID-19 is high. This study analyzed clinical and biochemical parameters between mild and severe patients, helping to identify severe or critical patients early. Methods: In this single center, cross-sectional study, 143 patients were included and divided to mild/moderate and sever/critical groups. Correlation between the disease criticality and clinical features and peripheral blood biochemical markers was analyzed. Cutoff values for critically ill patients were speculated through the ROC curve.
Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) synthesized using different organic ligands are expected to have varied morphology and properties. Herein, three copper MOFs (Cu‐MOFs) are electrosynthesized using a simple and direct reduction approach and three organic ligands: 1,3,5‐benzenetricarboxylic acid, 1,4‐benzenedicarboxylic acid, and 1,2,4,5‐benzenetetracarboxylic acid. The as‐synthesized Cu‐MOFs exhibit varied morphology. Their electrochemistry is further explored via investigating the natures of their capacitive, faradaic, and electrocatalytic behavior. The stability of these Cu‐MOFs is also checked during the course of electrochemical measurements. The secondary built units of organic ligands with copper ions are found theoretically and experimentally to determine both the morphology and active sites of Cu‐MOFs. Namely the electrochemistry of Cu‐MOFs is dependent on the used organic ligands. Cu‐MOF synthesized using 1,3,5‐benzenetricarboxylic acid owns better electrochemistry than that using 1,4‐benzenedicarboxylic acid or 1,2,4,5‐benzenetetracarboxylic acid. These MOFs keep their compositions and crystallinity unchanged in short times but loss them for long electrochemical running times. Therefore, the properties and applications of MOFs are designable and can be optimized during the course of reduction electrosynthesis processes via selecting organic ligands and metal ions.
A facile synthesis of ultrafine PdCo bimetallic nanoparticles confined in N-doped porous carbon nanocapsules (PdCo@NPNCs) is presented here. The PdCo@NPNCs exhibit superior electrocatalytic activity and stability towards both the oxygen reduction and ethanol oxidation reactions.
In this article, human limbal niche cells (LNC) or bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSC) were used to prevent limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) in an alkali burn rabbit model and their results were compared. The epithelial cell defect area, corneal neovascularization, and the print cell cytometry were quantified to grade the severity of LSCD. Three months after the alkali burn, a partial LSCD was observed in the control group (no treatment) indicated by chronic corneal epithelial defects, positive corneal fluorescein staining, neovascularization and goblet cell migration. In contrast, the severity of LSCD in both the LNC and BMMSC transplantation groups was dramatically reduced as shown by smaller epithelial cell defects, decreased fluorescein sodium staining, decreased neovascularization and decreased goblet cell density. Interestingly, the LNC group was shown to more effectively prevent LSCD than the BMMSC group. Further analysis indicated subconjunctivally transplanted LNCs were more powerful than BMMSCs to prevent LSCD, at least partially, due to increased activation of SCF-c-Kit signal. We conclude that LNCs are a more powerful resource than BMMSCs to prevent LSCD in an alkali burn rabbit model, at least partially due to increased activation of SCF signaling.
Dry eye syndrome (DES) is a common ocular disease that significantly affects the quality of life. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) have been used to treat DES; however, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of PUFA therapy yield discordant results. The objective of this study was to clarify the effects of PUFAs on DES through meta-analysis of all relevant RCTs. To do so, a comprehensive search of PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, ISI Web of Science, and unpublished data was conducted. The changes in clinical and laboratory examinations, symptomatic scores, and rates of relevant symptoms were analyzed. Nine RCTs were included in the current meta-analysis. Compared with placebo, PUFA supplementation was not related to changes in tear film break-up time (weighted mean difference [WMD], 0.33; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.05 to 0.72), Schirmer's test score (WMD, 0.32; 95%CI, -0.23 to 0.86), or lissamine green staining score (WMD, -0.77; 95%CI, -1.66 to 0.12). However, significant reductions were detected in the symptom score on the ocular surface disease index (WMD, -2.26; 95%CI, -4.44 to -0.08) and in the rate of cells positive for human leukocyte antigen DR (WMD, -5.80; 95%CI, -8.62 to -2.97). This comprehensive meta-analysis supports the use of PUFA supplementation as a potential effective therapy for DES.
In this work, a self-powered, portable, and light-addressable photoelectrochemical sensor (P-LAPECS) is developed for efficient drug screening using a handheld pH meter readout. The sensor, which employs thrombin inhibitors as the drug model, is constructed by evenly immobilizing biotin-labeled and thrombin-cleavable peptides on eight separated sensing zones of a single gold film electrode. The incubation of each peptide sensing zone with thrombin leads to the reduction of binding sites for streptavidin-labeled fullerene (C) PEC bioprobes, which directly reflects the activity of thrombin by the variation of both photocurrent and photovoltage, and therefore allows the screening of thrombin inhibitors using either a single-channel electrochemical analyzer or a portable pH meter. Consequenty, the inhibition efficiency evaluation of multiple thrombin inhibitors can be achieved by just one electrode, and the screening result obtained by the pH meter is very close to that acquired by the electrochemical analyzer. Moreover, P-LAPECS can realize the light-addressable detection of thrombin with a detection limit as low as 0.05 pM. The present work thus demonstrates the possibility of constructing portable, inexpensive, sensitive, and high-throughput biosensing platforms using ubiquitous pH meters for laboratories all over the world.
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