This paper provides a brief overview of the current research activities which focused on the bio-application of gold magnetic nanocomposite particles. By combining the magnetic characteristics of the iron oxide core with the unique features of nano-gold particles such as targeting by surface modification and optical properties, such composite nanoparticles have a wide range of applications in cancer hyperthermia, CT and MRI imaging, bio-separation, biosensors, gene diagnosis, drug targeting and many other biomedical fields.
Objective To observe the anti-adhesion and repair effect of 3 composite patches which composed of polylactide-co-caprolactone (PLC), hyaluronic acid (HA), collagen, and polypropylene (PP) mesh repairing abdominal wall defectin rats under contaminated environment, and to investigate the characteristics of 3 composite patches and the feasibil ity of onestage repair. Methods Ninety-three adult male Wistar rats (weighing 150-250 g) were randomly divided into 3 groups (n=31): PP/PLC composite patches (group A), PP/HA/PLC composite patches (group B), and PP/collagen/PLC composite patches (group C). One rat was selected from each group to prepare the contaminated homogenate of the small intestine. The abdominal wall defect models (1 cm in diameter) were established in other rats, and the defects were repaired with 3 composite patches (1.5 cm in diameter) according to grouping method. At 30, 60, and 90 days postoperatively, the adhesions was observed, and the patch and adjacent tissue was harvested for histological observation. Results Six rats died at 10-70 days postoperatively (2 in group A, 3 in group B, and 1 in group C). No wound infection, intestinal obstruction, or hernia occurred in 3 groups. Adhesion was observed between abdominal viscera and the patch, especially intestine, epiploon, and l iver. According to the modified Katada criteria, no significant difference in the adhesion score was found among 3 groups at 30 and 60 days (P gt; 0.05); the adhesion score was significantly lower in group C than in groups A and B at 90 days (P lt; 0.05). The histological results showed that inflammatory cell infiltration, fibroblasts, secreted collagen, and the residual absorbable material were observed around the patch at 30 days in 3groups. Decreased inflammatory cell infiltration, increased fibroblasts and residual PLC were observed at 60 days in 3 groups. At 90 days, the fibroblasts became increasingly mature, collagen deposited, the mesothelium formed gradually, and the residual PLC decreased. Conclusion In contaminated environment, PP/collagen/PLC composite patch is superior to PP/PLC and PP/HA/ PLC composite patches in aspect of abdominal adhesion and inflammatory reaction, and it is more applicable to one-stage repair of rat abdominal wall defect. But it is necessary to further study in the long-term efficacy and the security of the composite patch.
Objective To identify related factors of anxiety and depression in spinal cord injury (SCI) patients based on patient-environment-occupation (PEO) model, and provide evidences for clinical practice. Methods A total of 241 patients with SCI treated between April 2014 and April 2015 were collected as the study subjects. All the patients were confirmed with SCI through CT or MRI, and had physical dysfunction. Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) were applied in all the 241 SCI patients to measure their psychological state. Meanwhile, PEO factors such as demographic information as well as ability of activities of daily living (ADL) and relatives’ stress were assessed by self-made questionnaire, Modified Barthel Index (MBI) and Relatives’ Stress Scale (RSS). Then, multiple stepwise regression was applied to identify significant covariance with SAS/SDS as dependent variables and other 14 factors as independent variables. Results The regression equation showed that only SDS, MBI, living environment and disease course were significantly associated with SAS. Only SAS, MBI and RSS were significantly associated with SDS. Conclusions The ability of ADL and environment are significantly correlated with psychological state of SCI patients. Early intervention of ADL and decreasing environmental barriers are needed to improve patients’ psychological state.
Objective The bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) have the capacity to differentiate into insul in-producing cells (IPCs) in vitro. However, low differentiation efficiency and poor maturity are the main obstacles. To investigate the feasibil ity of BMSCs differentiation into IPCs in diabetic pancreatic microenvironment of pigs. Methods BMSCs were isolated and purified from the bone marrow of a 4-week-old male pig. Fifteen female pigs (aged 8 to 10 weeks, weighing 8 to 10 kg) were randomly divided into 3 groups: normal control group (group A, n=5), diabetic control group (group B, n=5), and BMSCs transplanted group (group C, n=5). The pigs of groups B and C were treated by auris vein injections of styeptozocin and alloxan for 3 days to induce diabetes mell itus (DM) model, whose blood glucose level 2 days all greater than 17 mmol/L was successful DM model. A total of 1.1 mL of the 3rd passage BMSCs labeled with enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP), with cell density of 5 × 107/ mL, were injected into subcapsular pancreas of group C at multi ple points, normal saline at the same dosage into those of groups A and B. After 30 days of monitoring blood glucose, the histological analysis of islet number and size were done; the immunofluorescence staining was used to detect the protein expression of insul in in the new-formed islets. The EGFP+ cells were collected from the sections using laser-capture microdissection; RT-PCR was used to detect insulin mRNA and pancreatic and duodenal homeobox factor 1 (PDX1) mRNA expressions from EGFP+ cells, and the insul in and sexdetermining region of the Y chromosome (SRY) genes were detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Results The blood glucose level decreased significantly in group C when compared with that in group B from 18 days and gradually decreased with time (P lt; 0.05). The histological observation showed that the number of islets was increased significantly in group C when compared with that in group B (10.9 ± 2.2 vs. 4.6 ± 1.4, P lt; 0.05), and there was no significant difference when compared with that in group A (10.9 ± 2.2 vs.12.6 ± 2.6, P gt; 0.05). The size of new-formed islets in group C was significantly smaller than that in group A [(47.2 ± 19.6) μm vs. (119.6 ± 27.7) μm, P lt; 0.05]. The immunofluorescence staining showed that new-formed islets of group C expressed insulin protein. RT-PCR showed that the microdissected EGFP+ cells of group C expressed insulin mRNA and PDX-1 mRNA. FISH showed that the new-formed islet cells of group C contained SRY gene in Y chromosome and insulin double positive cells. Conclusion BMSCs can differentiate into IPCs in diabetic pancreatic microenvironment of pigs.
ObjectiveTo explore optimal conditions of isolation, culture and labeled with superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) in vitro of rat bone marrow endothelial progenitor cells, and lay the foundations for the further EPCs tracer study in vivo. MethodsThe EPCs derived from rat bone marrow were isolated and cultured by using density gradient centrifugation, which were labeled with different concentrations SPIO, Prussian blue staining was used to detect the cells labeling rate, MTT assay was used to detect the cells proliferation activity, and Trypan blue staining was used to detect the cells vitality. ResultsEPCs gradually growed in monolayer arrangement about 7 d after cultured. When the concentration of SPIO was 50μg/mL, the highest labeling rate of Prussian blue staining was 90%, the growth state of labeled EPCs were good, and could normal adherent growth and passage. At this time, the cell viability and proliferation activity were the highest through trypan blue staining and MTT assay. ConclusionsEPCs can be labeled with SPIO easily and efficiently when the concentration was 50μg/mL?without interference on the viability and proliferation activity, which lay the foundations for the further EPCs tracer study in vivo.
Vascular calcification is an active, adjustable and complex biological process. It is an independent hazard factor for cardiovascular events and there is a lack of effective treatment. As a newly discovered regulated cell death, ferroptosis is closely related to iron metabolism, lipid metabolism, glutathione metabolism and so on. In recent years, studies have shown that ferroptosis may be implicated in the occurrence and progression of vascular calcification. Based on the introduction of ferroptosis, this review will discuss the close relationship between ferroptosis and vascular calcification from intimal calcification, medial calcification and heart valve calcification, in order to provide new ideas for the prevention and treatment of vascular calcification.
Cardiac magnetic resonance T2* mapping technique is a gradient echoes relaxation recovery sequence, being used to measure the iron metabolism abnormality clinically, such as myocardial iron of hemorrhage in acute myocardial infarction reperfusion injury, transfusion-dependent anemia, hemochromatosis and so on, which is supposed to be the main quantitative evaluation method for myocardial iron overload or deficiency with critical clinical value. This paper summarizes the technical and post-processing points of cardiac magnetic resonance T2* mapping and its clinical applications in diseases related to abnormal myocardial iron metabolism.
Inhibiting metastasis is the key to the treatment of malignant tumors. During the development of tumors, the microenvironment plays a significant role, and hypoxia is one of its important characteristics. Exosomes, as an important component of the microenvironment, connect tumor cells with the hypoxic microenvironment and mediate information exchange between cells. Tumor cells secrete more exosomes than normal cells, and hypoxia further stimulates their release. Hypoxia-induced tumor-derived exosomes carry stable genetic material and play key regulatory roles in promoting tumor proliferation, establishing a pre-metastasis microenvironment, and accelerating angiogenesis. This article comprehensively reviews the mechanisms by which tumor-derived exosomes regulate tumor proliferation and metastasis in a hypoxic microenvironment, which has potential clinical significance.
ObjectiveTo summarize the regulating mechanism of microRNA in tumor microenvironment. MethodThe literatures about the studies on the mechanism regulated by microRNA for tumor microenvironment were reviewed according to the results searched from PubMed in recent years. ResultsmicroRNA might be participated in regulation of tumor microenvironment factors such as hypoxia-inducible factor, tumor associated fibroblasts, extracellular matrix, which leaded to a change in biological behavior of tumor cells by reforming the microenviroment. ConclusionsmicroRNA has been participated in regulating many factors of tumor microenvironment. The change of neoplastic microenvironment has been recognized to play a critical role in the development of cancer. Therefore revealing microRNA mechanism for tumor microenvironment could not only help exploring the biological behavior of tumor cells, but also come an important insight for new means of diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
Objective To study the influence of different mechanical environments on repair cartilage defect with marrow mesenchymal stem cells as seed cells. Methods The rabbit marrow mesenchymal stem cells were isolated and cultured. The cartilage defects were repaired by autologous tissue engineered cartilage with the marrow mesenchymal stem cells as seed cells. Fifteen rabbits with cartilage defect were divided into 3 groups: dislocation group with cell-free scaffold(controlgroup), dislocation group with cartilaginous construct and normal mechanical environment group with cartilaginous construct. The repaired tissue was harvested and examined 6 weeks postoperatively. Results The repair tissue in normal mechanical environment group with cartilaginous construct showed cartilage-like tissue in superficial layer and subchondral bone tissue in deep layer 6 weeks postoperatively. The defect was filled with bone tissue in dislocation group with cartilaginous construct 6 weeks postoperatively. The surrounding normal cartilage tissue showed vascular invasion from subchondral area and the concomitant thinningof the normal cartilage layer. The cartilaginous construct left in the femoral trochlea groove formed hyaline cartilage-like tissue. The defect was repaired byfibrous tissue in control group. Conclusion The repaired tissue by tissue engineered cartilage with marrow mesenchymal stem cells as seed cells showed the best result in normal mechanical environment group, which indicates that it will be essential for the formation and maintenance of tissue engineered cartilage to keep the normal mechanical stress stimulus.