ABSTRACT
Hepatitis B virus infection and hepatitis C virus infection often progress to end-stage liver diseases such as liver cirrhosis, liver failure, and hepatocellular carcinoma, which endanger the life of patients. Recent studies have shown that gut microbiota are closely associated with chronic viral liver diseases. This article reviews the association of gut microbiota with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), chronic hepatitis C (CHC), and their related liver diseases and the research advances in therapies targeting gut microbiota against CHB and its related liver diseases, in order to provide more ideas for the clinical treatment of CHB, CHC, and their related liver diseases.
ABSTRACT
Focusing on the poor mechanical strength of porous bioceramics bone scaffold, and taking into account of the good mechanical properties of biodegradable magnesium alloy, we proposed a novel method to fabricate magnesium alloy/bioceramics composite bone scaffold with stereolithography double channels. Firstly, a scaffold structure without mutually connected double channels was designed. Then, an optimized bioceramics scaffold was fabricated according to stereolithography and gel-casing. Molten AZ31 magnesium alloy was perfused into the secondary channel of scaffold by low-pressure casting, and magnesium alloy/bioceramics composite bone scaffold was obtained when magnesium alloy was solidified. The compression test showed that the strength of bioceramics scaffold with only one channel and without magnesium alloy was (9.76 ± 0.64) MPa, while the strength of magnesium alloy/bioceramics composite scaffold with double channels was (17.25 ± 0.88) MPa. It can be concluded that the magnesium alloy/bioceramics composite is obviously able to improve the scaffold strength.