Sjögren’s syndrome (SS) is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by progressive inflammation and tissue damage in salivary glands and lacrimal glands. Our previous studies showed that myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) exhibited impaired immunosuppressive function during disease progression in patients with SS and mice with experimental Sjögren’s syndrome (ESS), but it remains unclear whether restoring the function of MDSCs can effectively ameliorate the development of ESS. In this study, we found that murine olfactory ecto-mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes (OE-MSC-Exos) significantly enhanced the suppressive function of MDSCs by upregulating arginase expression and increasing ROS and NO levels. Moreover, treatment with OE-MSC-Exos via intravenous injection markedly attenuated disease progression and restored MDSC function in ESS mice. Mechanistically, OE-MSC-Exo-secreted IL-6 activated the Jak2/Stat3 pathway in MDSCs. In addition, the abundant S100A4 in OE-MSC-Exos acted as a key factor in mediating the endogenous production of IL-6 by MDSCs via TLR4 signaling, indicating an autocrine pathway of MDSC functional modulation by IL-6. Taken together, our results demonstrated that OE-MSC-Exos possess therapeutic potential to attenuate ESS progression by enhancing the immunosuppressive function of MDSCs, possibly constituting a new strategy for the treatment of Sjögren’s syndrome and other autoimmune diseases.

The weakly negative permittivity behavior and its generation mechanism in flexible silver nanowires/carbon fiber felt metacomposites.

BackgroundDelayed first medical consultation (patient’s delay) is quite common in cases of penile carcinoma (PC), but its reasons and impacts remain unclear. We conducted this study to ascertain risk factors resulting in delayed treatment seeking and evaluate its influence on prognosis.MethodsFrom 2004 to 2010 at 4 centers, 254 patients were enrolled into this study from 262 consecutive PC cases. Patients’ sexual performance was investigated using the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF)-15 at the sixth-month end after treatment. Data for prognostic analyses was obtained via a 5-year follow-up.ResultsA multivariate model ascertained 4 risk factors (single, living in rural areas, heavy drinking alcohol, and aspecific initial symptoms) and 1 protective factor (history of condyloma) significantly associated with patient’s delay. Delay >3 months led to significant risks for adverse clinical characteristics, low penis-sparing rate, and poor sexual function restoration. Although patient’s delay was not found to impact on postoperative relapses and 5-year overall survival (OS), patients with delay >6 months had significantly inferior 2-year OS.ConclusionsSingle, living in rural areas, heavy drinking alcohol, and aspecific initial symptoms are significant risk factors of PC associated with patient’s delay. Delay >3 months will lead to significantly inferior clinical consequences. Minimizing patient’s delay is the key to avoid amputation and retain superior sexual potency. Improving patient education on initial symptoms of PC is necessary in men of >40 years old.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12957-016-0863-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Polymer composites with excellent thermal conductivity and superior mechanical strength are in high demand in the electrical engineering systems. However, achieving superior thermal conductivity and mechanical properties simultaneously at high loading of fillers will still be a challenging issue. In this work, a facile method was proposed to prepare the epoxy composite with carbon fibers (CFs) and alumina (Al 2 O 3 ). This CF and Al 2 O 3 hybrid structure can effectively reduce the interfacial thermal resistance between the matrix and the CFs. The thermal conductivity of epoxy composite with 6.4 wt % CFs and 74 wt % Al 2 O 3 hybrid filler reaches 3.84 W/(m K), which is increasing by 2096% compared with that of pure epoxy. Meanwhile, the epoxy composite still retains outstanding thermal stability and mechanical performance at high filler loading. A cost-effective avenue to prepare highly thermally conductive and superior mechanical properties of polymer-based composites may enable some prospective application in advanced thermal management.

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With the increasing integration and miniaturization of electronic devices, heat dissipation has become a major challenge. The traditional printed polymer circuit board can no longer meet the heat dissipation demands of microelectronic equipment. If the heat cannot be removed quickly and effectively, the efficiency of the devices will be decreased and their lifetime will be shortened. In addition, the development of the aerospace, automobiles, light emitting diode (LED{ TA \1 “LED; lightemitting diode” \s “LED” \c 1 }) and energy harvesting and conversion has gradually increased the demand for low-density and high thermal conductive materials. In recent years, carbon fiber (CF{ TA \1 “CF; carbon fiber” \c 1 }) has been widely used for the preparation of polymer composites due to its good mechanical property and ultra-high thermal conductivity. CF materials easily form thermal conduction paths through polymer composites to improve the thermal conductivity. This paper describes the research progress, thermal conductivity mechanisms, preparation methods, factors influencing thermal conductivity and provides relevant suggestions for the development of CF composites for thermal management.