Poly-Methyl Methacrylate/Polyvinyl Alcohol Copolymer Agents Applied on Diabetic Wound Dressing.

Due to the difficulty of healing chronic wound, in the process of changing dressing, secondary damage on the tissue caused by adhesion should be prevented. In this study, the new dressing of particle hydrogels synthesized with poly-methyl methacrylate and poly-vinyl alcohol precursors were proposed. In addition, cell safety tests, animal's allergic stimulation, and animal's wound healing experiments were conducted for particle hydrogels. On one hand, in L929 cell experiment, the results of particle hydrogels extract 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide tests and lactate dehydrogenase test trial show that there are no safety concerns over particle hydrogels. On the other hand, New Zealand white rabbits were chosen for skin sensitization tests in animal trials, which show the consistent results. At last, wound healing tests used diabetes induction with 10-week-old rats and three-month-old Landrace pigs, with the tissue histology. In short, through this experiment, it is found that in the early phase of the diabetic rats and pigs' wound healing, using particle hydrogels can enhance collagen formation, and achieve the goal of faster wound healing.

The potential of Second Life for university counseling: a comparative approach examining media features and counseling problems.

This study explored the potential of Second Life (SL), a popular multi-user virtual online environment, for university counseling. University students (n = 312) were asked to evaluate three counseling channels (i.e., traditional face-to-face, internet, and SL) based on a range of media features deemed relevant and important to counseling and to assess their relative preferability when faced with different counseling problems. For the purposes of this study, counseling rooms with different styles were built, virtual counselors with different genders, ages, and styles were created, and short video recordings of scripted counseling sessions were produced in SL. For the media feature comparisons, the collected data were analyzed by the multivariate analysis of variance, followed by the analysis of variance and post hoc comparisons when significant differences were found, whereas for counseling problem comparisons, repeated-measure analysis of variance and post hoc comparisons were used. The results for the media feature comparisons showed that SL counseling significantly out-rated traditional counseling in all of the examined media features, with the exception of the interactivity dimension. Additionally, while SL and internet counseling were both perceived as significantly better than traditional counseling in areas that are unique to computer-mediated communications, including anonymity, convenience, and flexibility with regard to time and space, as well as privacy of the counseling site, SL was perceived as distinctly superior to internet counseling in five areas due to its unique affordances, including the choice of appearance, choice of counselors, interactivity, diversity of counseling sites, and availability of counseling object dimensions. Furthermore, traditional counseling was regarded as better able to support more fluent and versatile interaction between the counselor and client than the other two computer-mediated channels. As for the results of counseling problem comparisons, SL was rated as least preferred for six out of the seven counseling problems (except for gender identity issues), despite its media affordances. Suggestions for practitioners and future research are provided based on the current findings.

G2/M arrest and apoptosis of human colorectal cancer cells induced by water extract from residues of jelly fig achene.

Jelly fig (Ficus awkeotsang) achenes have been utilized to prepare a traditional drink in Taiwan. Herein, we evaluated the effect of water extract from jelly fig seed residues (WERJFA) on cancer cells. WERJFA could inhibit the growth of human colorectal cancer cells, COLO205 and HT29 in both dose- and time-dependent manners. The flow cytometric analysis with propidium iodide (PI) showed that WERJFA primarily arrested COLO205 and HT29 cells at the G2/M phase of cell cycle as the concentration reached to at least 0.5 mg/ml. WERJFA induced apoptosis of these two cell lines, as evidenced by annexin V-FITC/PI and 4', 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining using flow cytometry and confocal microscopy, respectively. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential in WERJFA-treated cells were detected by flow cytometry with H2DCF-DA and 5,5', 6,6'-Tetrachloro-1, 1', 3,3'-tetraethylbenzimidazolocarbocyanine iodide (JC-1). Our results showed that WERJFA exerted anti-proliferative and apoptotic effects on colorectal cancer cells. WERJFA arrested cell cycle, and caused apoptotic death in these cancer cells possibly via mitochondrial pathway involved with exceeding ROS level.

G2/M arrest and apoptosis of human colorectal cancer cells induced by water extract from residues of jelly fig achene.

Jelly fig (Ficus awkeotsang) achenes have been utilized to prepare a traditional drink in Taiwan. Herein, we evaluated the effect of water extract from jelly fig seed residues (WERJFA) on cancer cells. WERJFA could inhibit the growth of human colorectal cancer cells, COLO205 and HT29 in both dose- and time-dependent manners. The flow cytometric analysis with propidium iodide (PI) showed that WERJFA primarily arrested COLO205 and HT29 cells at the G2/M phase of cell cycle as the concentration reached to at least 0.5 mg/ml. WERJFA induced apoptosis of these two cell lines, as evidenced by annexin V-FITC/PI and 4', 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining using flow cytometry and confocal microscopy, respectively. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential in WERJFA-treated cells were detected by flow cytometry with H2DCF-DA and 5,5', 6,6'-Tetrachloro-1, 1', 3,3'-tetraethylbenzimidazolocarbocyanine iodide (JC-1). Our results showed that WERJFA exerted anti-proliferative and apoptotic effects on colorectal cancer cells. WERJFA arrested cell cycle, and caused apoptotic death in these cancer cells possibly via mitochondrial pathway involved with exceeding ROS level.

Application of paramagnetic graphene quantum dots as a platform for simultaneous dual-modality bioimaging and tumor-targeted drug delivery.

Here, we report the development of a multifunctional nanocarrier consisting of paramagnetic graphene quantum dots (GQDs), folate, and doxorubicin (Dox), used as delivery vehicles, a targeting ligand, and a chemotherapeutic drug, respectively. The paramagnetic GQDs, named folate-GdGQDs, were successfully prepared by covalently conjugating diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid gadolinium and folic acid onto the surface of GQDs. The resultant folate-GdGQDs, which showed a longitudinal relaxivity r1 of 11.49 mM-1 s-1, greatly enhanced the brightness of the T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) images, indicating their potential for use as positive contrast agents for MR imaging (MRI). The feasibility of utilizing the folate-GdGQDs with strong luminescence emissions for targeted imaging of HeLa cells was also evaluated. An in vitro cell (HeLa and HepG2 cells) viability assay and in vivo evaluation of toxicity to the embryonic development of zebrafish showed that these folate-GdGQDs exhibited negligible cytotoxicity and excellent biocompatibility within the given range of concentrations. More importantly, strong therapeutic activity was achieved by loading Dox onto the surfaces of folate-GdGQDs through π-π stacking and hydrophobic interactions, leading to the formation of folate-GdGQD/Dox multifunctional nanocarriers. Approximately 80% of the loaded Dox was released from the folate-GdGQD/Dox nanocarriers under mild acidic conditions (pH 5.0), whereas only 20% of Dox was released at pH 7.0 after 48 h. Furthermore, these multifunctional nanocarriers could efficiently induce an inhibitory effect on HeLa cells, as confirmed by an in vitro cytotoxicity assay. The combined flow cytometry analysis and confocal laser scanning microscopic observation showed that these nanocarriers were efficiently taken up by the cancer cells overexpressing folate receptors. Taken together, these results suggested that the multifunctional nanocarriers could be used as promising targeted drug delivery vehicles for the diagnosis and image-guided chemotherapy of various cancers.

Active and stable liquid water innovatively prepared using resonantly illuminated gold nanoparticles.

The properties of confined liquid water, or liquid water in contact with hydrophobic surfaces, are significantly different from those of bulk liquid water. However, all of water's commonly described properties are related to inert "bulk liquid water" which comprises a tetrahedral hydrogen-bonded network. In this work, we report an innovative and facile method for preparing small water clusters (SWCs) with reduced affinity hydrogen bonds by letting bulk water flow through supported Au nanoparticles (NPs) under resonant illumination to give NP-treated (AuNT) water at constant temperature. Utilizing localized surface plasmon resonance on illuminated Au NPs, the strong hydrogen bonds of bulk water can be disordered when water is located at the illuminated Au/water interface. The prepared SWCs are free of Au NPs. The energy efficiency for creating SWCs is ∼17%. The resulting stable AuNT water exhibits distinct properties at room temperature, which are significantly different from the properties of untreated bulk water, examples being their ability to scavenge free hydroxyl and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radicals and to effectively reduce NO release from lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammatory cells.