Improved Microstructure and Hardness Properties of Low-Temperature Microwave-Sintered Y2O3 Stabilized ZrO2 Ceramics with Additions of Nano TiO2 Powders.

This paper reports the improvement of microstructural and hardness properties of 3 mol% yttria-stabilized zirconia (3Y-TZP) ceramics with nano TiO2 powders (with 0, 0.9, 1.8, and 2.7 wt%) added using a low-temperature microwave-assisted sintering of 1250 °C. Even at such a low sintering temperature, all sintered samples had the main phase of tetragonal zirconia (t-ZrO2) without the appearance of the secondary monoclinic phase or TiO2 phase, and had high relative densities, larger than 95%. The grain growth was well developed, and the grain sizes were around 300-600 nm. The Ti and O elements appeared at the grain and grain boundary and increased with the increased nano TiO2 contents identified by the element analysis, although the TiO2 phase did not appear in the X-ray pattern. The Vickers hardness was in the range of 10.5 to 14.5 GPa, which first increased with increasing content till 0.9 wt% and then decreased. With citric acid corrosion treatment for 10 h, the Vickers hardness only decreased from 14.34 GPa to 13.55 GPa with the addition of 0.9 wt% nano TiO2 powder. The experiment results showed that 0.9 wt% nano TiO2 addition can improve the densification as well as the Vickers hardness under a low temperature of microwave-assisted sintering.

Synergistic Antitumor Effect of Oligogalacturonides and Cisplatin on Human Lung Cancer A549 Cells.

Cisplatin (DPP), a clinically potent antineoplastic agent, is limited by its severe adverse effects. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of oligogalacturonides (OGA) and DDP on human lung cancer A549 cells. The combined use of OGA and DDP had a synergistic effect on the growth inhibition of A549 cells, changed the cell cycle distribution, and enhanced apoptotic response, especially in sequential combination treatment group of DDP 12 h + OGA 12 h. Western blot analyses showed that the combination treatment of OGA and DDP upregulated Bax, p53, and Caspase-3 and downregulated Bcl-2 proteins. More importantly, DDP-induced toxicity was attenuated by OGA and DDP combination treatment in normal HEK293 cells. Our data suggests that the combined use of OGA from natural sources and DDP could be an important new adjuvant therapy for lung cancer as well as offer important insights for reducing kidney toxicity of DDP and delaying the development of DDP resistance.