The adhesion to wet, acidic, and
saline biointerfaces
with large
deformation is important in the fields of wound dressing and motion
monitoring but has proven to be extremely challenging. There is a
need for a facile method to improve the stretchability and salt resistance
simultaneously. Here, an ultrastretchable, pH-tunable, surface-adaptive,
and salt-resistant hydrogel adhesive is reported. The hydrogel adhesive
is prepared through cross-linking acrylamide with a supramolecular
complex of poly(β-cyclodextrin) (PCD) and benzimidazole (BI).
The dynamic association between PCD and BI causes an extra energy
dissipation and improves the breaking strain to be larger than 4000%.
The hydrogel exhibits stable adhesiveness to varieties of surfaces
due to the multiple types of hydrogel–surface interactions,
including ionic bond, π–π stacking, and hydrogen
bond. Notably, the adhesive strength of the hydrogel gets significantly
enhanced in an acidic environment and shows no attenuation in a saline
environment. This is due to the unique adjacent cation−π
structure of BI: the imidazole can be protonized upon acidification,
and the phenyl group can repel water and enhance the ionic attraction
with the substrates. The ultrastretchability, the stable adhesion
on biointerfaces, and the salt resistance render the hydrogel a promising
candidate for the surgical patch and motion sensors that serve in
wet, acidic, and dynamic environments.
We analyzed the long-term survival rate and development of progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC) patients after liver transplantation (LT). From October 2007 to May 2019, 41 patients were diagnosed as PFIC (type I-III) and received LT in Ren Ji Hospital due to end-stage liver diseases. The median age at LT was 2.93 years, with 75.6% of patients receiving living donor liver transplantation (LDLT). The 5- and 10-year patient survival rates after LT were 92.7% and 92.7%, respectively, and no difference was found among the three subtypes of PFIC. Two PFIC type II patients received re-transplantation due to vascular complications. Liver function and bile acid metabolism returned to normal levels in all living recipients. Catch-up growth was recorded as the height and weight Z scores increased from −2.53 and −1.54 to −0.55 and −0.27 with a median follow-up time of 5.55 years. Improved psychomotor ability and age-appropriate study ability was also observed. A total of 72.4% of school-aged recipients exhibited average academic performance. Diarrhea was reported in all PFIC type I recipients but resolved after resin absorptive treatment. However, allograft steatosis occurred in one PFIC type I patient and exhibited a “remission–relapse circle” under the treatment of cholestyramine. In conclusion, LT is an effective treatment for end-stage PFIC patients with encouraging long-term survival rate and development. However, allograft steatosis should be closely monitored in PFIC type I patients even if diarrhea has been well treated.
Phab24 was isolated from river water in Zhejiang Province, China, and exhibits lytic activity against clinical isolates of the nosocomial pathogen
Acinetobacter baumannii
(X. Wang, B. Loh, Y. Yu, X. Hua, S. Leptihn, bioRxiv, 2021,
https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.23.453473
). The bacteriophage belongs to the
Myoviridae
family and has a double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) genome sequence that is 93,604 bp long, containing 172 open reading frames (ORFs).
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