Melt electrospinning is a cheaper, more environmentally friendly, and safer alternative to solution electrospinning. We have designed a novel melt spinning device which incorporates a reverse of the normal polarity, with the capillary grounded and the collector grid at positive potential. The apparatus is much simpler and more economical than conventional equipment because no syringe pump is required. Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) with a low-melt flow index of 2 g/10 min, which is not suitable for spinning using current commercial methods, was chosen to highlight the advantages of melt electrospinning in general, and our device in particular. The effects of varying the electrospinning parameters such as temperature, electrostatic field, spinning distance, and capillary inner diameter, have been studied. Although it was found that temperatures higher than normal processing temperatures had to be employed in our electrospinning system to reduce the viscosity of the polymer melt sufficiently, good quality fibers with smooth and even surfaces, most of which had diameters smaller than 15 lm, were electrospun successfully. It was observed that there was an optimum point for the spinning distance (14-15 cm) and the capillary inner diameter (0.4-0.6 mm) to get fine fiber.

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Previous studies have demonstrated that the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway has an important role in ketamine-induced, rapid antidepressant effects despite the acute administration of fluoxetine not affecting mTOR phosphorylation in the brain. However, the effects of long-term fluoxetine treatment on mTOR modulation have not been assessed to date. In the present study, we examined whether fluoxetine, a type of commonly used antidepressant agent, alters mTOR signaling following chronic administration in different brain regions, including the frontal cortex, hippocampus, amygdala and hypothalamus. We also investigated whether fluoxetine enhanced synaptic protein levels in these regions via the activation of the mTOR signaling pathway and its downstream regulators, p70S6K and 4E-BP-1. The results indicated that chronic fluoxetine treatment attenuated the chronic, unpredictable, mild stress (CUMS)-induced mTOR phosphorylation reduction in the hippocampus and amygdala of mice but not in the frontal cortex or the hypothalamus. Moreover, the CUMS-decreased PSD-95 and synapsin I levels were reversed by fluoxetine, and these effects were blocked by rapamycin only in the hippocampus. In conclusion, our findings suggest that chronic treatment with fluoxetine can induce synaptic protein expression by activating the mTOR signaling pathway in a region-dependent manner and mainly in the hippocampus.

Background At present, the association between maternal viral infection and risk of congenital heart diseases ( CHD ) in offspring is uncertain; additionally, a complete overview is missing. A meta‐analysis of observational studies was performed to address the question of whether women who had a history of viral infection in early pregnancy were at an increased risk of CHD in offspring, compared with mothers without viral infection. Methods and Results Unrestricted searches were conducted, with an end date parameter of July 15, 2018, of PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar, Cochrane Libraries, and Chinese databases, to identify studies that met prestated inclusion criteria. Seventeen case‐control studies involving 67 233 women were included for analysis. Both fixed‐effects models (odds ratio [OR], 1.83; 95% CI , 1.58–2.12; P <0.0001) and random‐effects models ( OR , 2.28; 95% CI , 1.54–3.36; P <0.0001) suggested that mothers who had a history of viral infection in early pregnancy experienced a significantly increased risk of developing CHD in offspring. For specific viral infections, the risk of developing CHD in offspring was significantly increased among mothers with rubella virus (OR, 3.49, 95% CI, 2.39–5.11 in fixed‐effects models; and OR, 3.54; 95% CI, 1.75–7.15 in random‐effects models) and cytomegalovirus (OR, 3.95; 95% CI, 1.87–8.36 in fixed‐effects models) in early pregnancy; however, other maternal viral infections in early pregnancy were not significantly associated with risk of CHD in offspring. Sensitivity analysis yielded consistent results. No evidence of publication bias was observed. Conclusions Although the role of potential bias and evidence of heterogeneity should be carefully evaluated, the present study suggests that maternal viral infection is significantly associated with risk of CHD in offspring.

To assess the birth prevalence and spatial distribution of congenital heart disease (CHD) in China by conducting a complete overview and using spatial epidemiological methods. Unrestricted searches were conducted on seven electronic databases, with an end-date parameter of May 2019. Data on the birth prevalence of CHD and its subtypes were collected and combined using either the random-effect model or fixed-effect model. Subgroup sensitivity analyses were performed to explore potential heterogeneity moderators. The three-dimensional trend analysis and a visualization of CHD birth prevalence among different provinces were performed to describe the spatial distribution characteristics. Total 617 studies involving 76,961,354 births and 201,934 CHD individuals were included. Overall, total CHD birth prevalence increased continuously over time, from 0.201‰ in 1980–1984 to 4.905‰ in 2015–2019. The study on the high-income provinces, population-based monitoring model, male births, and urban regions reported a significantly higher prevalence of total CHD compared with upper-middle-income provinces, hospital-based monitoring model, female births, and rural regions, respectively. National CHD birth prevalence increased gradually from western region to eastern region, but decreased gradually from southern to northern region. Relevant heterogeneity moderators including gender, geographic region, income levels, and monitoring models have been identified by subgroup analyses. Sensitivity analysis yielded consistent results. Total CHD birth prevalence in China increases continuously in the past 40 years. Significant differences in gender, geographical regions, income levels, and monitoring models were found. In the future, population wide prospective birth defect registries covering the entire Chinese population need to determine the exact birth prevalence. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s10654-020-00653-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Our results show that oleanolic acid induces the upregulation of miR-132, which serves as an important regulator of neurotrophic actions, mainly through the activation of the hippocampal BDNF-ERK-CREB signalling pathways.

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