The objective of this study was to explore whether hyperandrogenism induces epigenetic alterations of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma 1 (PPARG1), nuclear corepressor 1 (NCOR1), and histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3) genes in granulosa cells (GCs) of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) women and whether these alterations are involved in the ovarian dysfunction induced by hyperandrogenism. Thirty-two infertile PCOS women and 147 infertile women with tubal blockage were recruited. PCOS women were divided into the hyperandrogenism (HA) PCOS group (n = 13) and nonhyperandrogenism (N-HA) PCOS group (n = 19). Sixty female Sprague-Dawley rats were used for PCOS model establishment. In GCs of HA PCOS women, PPARG1 mRNA expression was lower, whereas NCOR1 and HDAC3 mRNA expression were higher than N-HA PCOS women and controls (P < 0.05). When all women were divided into successful and failed pregnancy subgroups according to the following clinical pregnancy outcome, we found lower PPARG1 mRNA levels and higher NCOR1 and HDAC3 mRNA levels in the failed subgroup of HA PCOS (P < 0.05). Two hypermethylated CpG sites in the PPARG1 promoter and five hypomethylated CpG sites in the NCOR1 promoter were observed only in HA PCOS women (P < 0.01 to P < 0.0005). The acetylation levels of histone H3 at lysine 9 and p21 mRNA expression were decreased in human GCs treated with dihydrotestosterone in vitro (P < 0.05). PCOS rat models also showed alterations of PPARG1, NCOR1, and HDAC3 mRNA expression and methylation changes of PPARG1 and NCOR1, consistent with the results from humans. Hyperandrogenism induces the epigenetic alterations of PPARG1, NCOR1, and HDAC3 in GCs, which are involved in the ovarian dysfunction of HA PCOS.

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Soft actuators driven by pneumatic or electric means are heavy and clumsy with physical connections, which hinders their applications in human–machine interactive, wearable, and biomedical fields. Herewith, a light fabric bimorph actuator is reported that is driven wirelessly by optical, thermal, and magnetic energy sources. Being fabricated by laminating electrically conductive fabric and biaxially oriented polypropylene film, the actuators show a large bending curvature of 0.75 cm−1 with optical stimulus and 0.55 cm−1 with magnetic stimulus, a response time of 0.27 s with a bending angle of 100° to magnetic stimulus, more than twice faster than previously reported bimorph actuators. Their remarkable performance is attributed to the optimal structural design based on a verified Timoshenko model, electrothermal and optical properties of the conductive fabric coated by copper/nickel. It is greatly enhanced by the large difference of thermal expansion coefficients between the film and fabric. Various wireless controlled prototypes are demonstrated, including a soft gripper, soft kickers, and artificial blooming flowers, illustrating a new way to mass produce cost‐effective bimorph actuators via a simple, green, and fast approach for applications in robots, wearable, and functional textiles.

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Actuators have wide applications in intelligent robots, deformable textiles, and wearable devices, wherein the fiber‐based coiled linear actuators are particularly advantageous due to their good flexibility, high stress, and strain. However, their performances have been limited by the employed materials, whose microstructures are not easily designed and controlled. This article proposes a new approach of engineered composite yarns for the actuators. It leads to novel solutions to overcome these difficulties by offering wide design options in material properties and device structures. Here, an engineering design of programmable and thermally‐hardening helical composite yarn actuators (HCYAs) with a wide range of operating temperature is exemplified. Polyimide (PI) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) are selected to fabricate HCYAs, achieving tensile actuation of 20.7% under 1.2 MPa from −50 °C to 160 °C and competitive specific work (158.9 J kg‐1, four times of natural muscle). With constant tensile deformation, PI/PDMS HCYA nearly tripled the stress from 20 °C to 100 °C. Moreover, it is surprisingly observed an unusual thermal‐hardening phenomenon that the tensile stiffness of the PI/PDMS HCYAs increases with the rise of temperature. Equipped by electrothermally powered PI/Cu/PDMS HCYAs, robotic hands and pressure‐tunable compressive bandage are demonstrated for their potential applications in robots and wearable devices.