Applications of physical and chemical treatments in plant-based gels for food 3D printing.

Extrusion-based three-dimensional (3D) printing has been extensively studied in the food manufacturing industry. This technology places particular emphasis on the rheological properties of the printing ink. Gel system is the most suitable ink system and benefits from the composition of plant raw materials and gel properties of multiple components; green, healthy aspects of the advantages of the development of plant-based gel system has achieved a great deal of attention. However, the relevant treatment technologies are still only at the laboratory stage. With a view toward encouraging further optimization of ink printing performance and advances in this field, in this review, we present a comprehensive overview of the application of diverse plant-based gel systems in 3D food printing and emphasize the utilization of different treatment methods to enhance the printability of these gel systems. The treatment technologies described in this review are categorized into three distinct groups, physical, chemical, and physicochemical synergistic treatments. We comprehensively assess the specific application of these technologies in various plant-based gel 3D printing systems and present valuable insights regarding the challenges and opportunities for further advances in this field.

FF-MAS prevents porcine ovarian granulosa cells from hypoxia-induced apoptosis via inhibiting STAT4 expression.

Follicular fluid meiosis-activating sterol (FF-MAS) is a small molecule compound found in follicular fluid, named for its ability to induce oocyte resumption of meiosis. Granulosa cells (GCs) within the follicle are typically located in a hypoxic environment under physiologic conditions due to limited vascular distribution. Previous research suggests that hypoxia-induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in GCs may be crucial triggering factors in porcine follicular atresia. However, the impact of FF-MAS on GCs within follicles has not been explored so far. In this study, we uncovered a novel role of FF-MAS in facilitating GC survival under hypoxic conditions by inhibiting STAT4 expression. We found that STAT4 expression was upregulated in porcine GCs exposed to 1% O2. Both gain and loss of function assays confirmed that STAT4 was required for cell apoptosis under hypoxia conditions, and that the GC apoptosis caused by hypoxia was markedly attenuated following FF-MAS treatment through inhibition of STAT4 expression. Correlation analysis in vivo revealed that GC apoptosis was associated with increased STAT4 expression, while the FF-MAS content in follicular fluid was negatively correlated with STAT4 mRNA levels and cell apoptosis. These findings elucidate a novel role of FF-MAS-mediated protection of GCs by inhibiting STAT4 expression under hypoxia, which might contribute to the mechanistic understanding of follicular development.

Interface-Stabilized Fiber Sensor for Real-Time Monitoring of Amniotic Fluid During Pregnancy.

Diseases in pregnancy endanger millions of fetuses worldwide every year. The onset of these diseases can be early warned by the dynamic abnormalities of biochemicals in amniotic fluid, thus requiring real-time monitoring. However, when continuously penetrated by detection devices, the amnion is prone to loss of robustness and rupture, which is difficult to regenerate. Here, an interface-stabilized fiber sensor is presented for real-time monitoring of biochemical dynamics in amniotic fluid during pregnancy. The sensor is seamlessly integrated into the amnion through tissue adhesion, amniotic regeneration, and uniform stress distribution, posing no risk to the amniotic fluid environment. The sensor demonstrates a response performance of less than 0.3% fluctuation under complex dynamic conditions and an accuracy of more than 98% from the second to the third trimester. By applying it to early warning of diseases such as intrauterine hypoxia, intrauterine infection, and fetal growth restriction, fetal survival increases to 95% with timely intervention.

Review of Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers for Rangefinders.

Piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (pMUT) rangefinders have been rapidly developed in the last decade. With high output pressure to enable long-range detection and low power consumption (16 µW for over 1 m range detection has been reported), pMUT rangefinders have drawn extensive attention to mobile range-finding. pMUT rangefinders with different strategies to enhance range-finding performance have been developed, including the utilization of pMUT arrays, advanced device structures, and novel piezoelectric materials, and the improvements of range-finding methods. This work briefly introduces the working principle of pMUT rangefinders and then provides an extensive overview of recent advancements that improve the performance of pMUT rangefinders, including advanced pMUT devices and range-finding methods used in pMUT rangefinder systems. Finally, several derivative systems of pMUT rangefinders enabling pMUT rangefinders for broader applications are presented.

Two classes of protective antibodies against Pseudorabies virus variant glycoprotein B: Implications for vaccine design.

Pseudorabies virus (PRV) belongs to the Herpesviridae family, and is an important veterinary pathogen. Highly pathogenic PRV variants have caused severe epidemics in China since 2011, causing huge economic losses. To tackle the epidemics, we identified a panel of mouse monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against PRV glycoprotein B (gB) that effectively block PRV infection. Among these 15 mAbs, fourteen of them block PRV entry in a complement-dependent manner. The remaining one, 1H1 mAb, however can directly neutralize the virus independent of complement and displays broad-spectrum neutralizing activities. We further determined the crystal structure of PRV gB and mapped the epitopes of these antibodies on the structure. Interestingly, all the complement-dependent neutralizing antibodies bind gB at the crown region (domain IV). In contrast, the epitope of 1H1 mAb is located at the bottom of domain I, which includes the fusion loops, indicating 1H1 mAb might neutralize the virus by interfering with the membrane fusion process. Our studies demonstrate that gB contains multiple B-cell epitopes in its crown and base regions and that antibodies targeting different epitopes block virus infection through different mechanisms. These findings would provide important clues for antiviral drug design and vaccine development.

ZRP-1 controls Rho GTPase-mediated actin reorganization by localizing at cell-matrix and cell-cell adhesions.

Focal adhesion protein ZRP-1/TRIP6 has been implicated in actin reorganization and cell motility. The role of ZRP-1, however, remained obscure because previously reported data are often conflicting one another. In the present study, we examined roles of ZRP-1 in HeLa cells. ZRP-1 is localized to the cell-cell contact sites as well as to cell-matrix contact sites in HeLa cells. RNA-interference-mediated depletion of ZRP-1 from HeLa cells revealed that ZRP-1 is essential not only for the formation of stress fibers and assembly of mature focal adhesions, but also for the actin reorganization at cell-cell contact sites and for correct cell-cell adhesion and, thus, for collective cell migration. Impairment of focal adhesions and stress fibers caused by ZRP-1 depletion has been associated with reduced tyrosine phosphorylation of FAK. However, maturation of focal adhesions could not be recovered by expression of active FAK. Interestingly, stress fibers in ZRP-1-depleted cells were ameliorated by exogenous expression of RhoA. We also found that total Rac1 activity is elevated in ZRP-1-depleted cells, resulting in abnormal burst of actin polymerization and dynamic membrane protrusions. Taken together, we conclude that that ZRP-1 plays a crucial role in coupling the cell-matrix/cell-cell-contact signals with Rho GTPase-mediated actin remodeling by localizing at cell-matrix and cell-cell contact sites.