Effect of doping different Si source on Ca-P bioceramic coating fabricated by laser cladding.

The doping of silicon (Si) has been proved to improve the bioactivity of Ca-P ceramics. In light of this thinking, in the present study, Ca-P coatings with La2O3 by addition of 10 wt% SiO2 and 10 wt% diatomaceous earth (DE) were fabricated by laser cladding on Ti6Al4V, respectively. Coating doped without Si was also fabricated as the comparison group for the experiment. The effect of two different Si sources on the surface morphology, microstructure, microhardness, and bioactivity was systematically studied. The experimental results show that the Si-doped coating is of rough surface morphology, and the addition of DE significantly reduces the number of cracks and improves the microhardness. The X-ray diffraction results reveal that the amount of bioactive phase tricalcium-phosphate (TCP) and hydroxyapatite (HA) reaches maximum in the DE-doped coating. After soaking in simulated body fluid (SBF), the precipitate of bone-like apatite in the DE-doped coating is significantly higher than that of the other coatings.

Study on microstructure, microhardness, bioactivity, and biocompatibility of La2 O3 -containing bioceramic coating doping SiO2 fabricated by laser cladding.

To solve the lack of strength of calcium phosphate ceramic coatings in load-bearing applications, gradient Ca-P bioceramic coatings doped with La2 O3 and SiO2 are fabricated by laser cladding on Ti-6Al-4 V. The effect of SiO2 on microstructure, microhardness, bioactivity, and biocompatibility of coatings was investigated. The experimental results illustrate that the coating doped with La2 O3 and SiO2 has excellent metallurgical bonding. The XRD analysis confirms that the amount of hydroxyapatite and tricalcium phosphate in the coating reached maximum when doping amount of SiO2 is 10 wt %. SiO2 -doped coatings show a significantly higher bone-like apatite precipitation after immersion in SBF than that of other coatings. in vitro experiment also shows that coating with 10 wt % SiO2 is more suitable for the attachment and proliferation of MG63 cells, indicating that coating with 10 wt % SiO2 exhibits best bioactivity and biocompatibility. These results suggest that the addition of SiO2 improves the bonding strength, bioactivity, and biocompatibility of coatings.

Biomimetic dual-oriented/bilayered electrospun scaffold for vascular tissue engineering.

Natural blood vessels have a multi-layered, cell-specific oriented spatial structure, mimicking of this structure is a promising way for blood vessel regeneration. In this study, a newly developed dual-oriented/bilayered small-diameter tubular scaffold was electrospun using a mixture of poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL), poly (D, L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) and gelatin. The nanofiber orientations of the bilayers were spatially perpendicular to each other, aiming at guiding cell-specific orientation of smooth muscle cells (SMCs) and endothelial cells (ECs) in vitro respectively. The results showed that the hydrophilicity of scaffold was greatly improved by gelatin, and the mechanical property of this scaffold was the best among all. The in vitro degradation demonstrated that by mixing of three biodegradable polymers, a relatively fast degradation rate was achieved. After SMCs and ECs were seeded on scaffolds, cell viability, cellular morphology, and cytoskeleton behavior were investigated. The results revealed that as-electrospun scaffolds could promote both SMCs and ECs proliferation. Moreover, topographic cues offered by oriented nanofibers could guide the growth and orientation of SMCs and ECs. Therefore, the dual-oriented/bilayered electrospun scaffold is a superior structural and functional analogue to natural blood vessel and a potential candidate for vascular tissue engineering.

[Genetic characteristics associated with drought tolerance of plant height and thousand-grain mass of recombinant inbred lines of wheat].

A total of 120 recombinant inbred lines (RIL) derived from Chinese winter wheat cultivars Longjian 19xQ9086 and the two parents were taken as test materials to study the quantitative genetics characteristics of their plant height at different development stages, thousand-grain mass, as well as the correlations between the two traits under rainfed (drought stress) and well-watered conditions, and evaluate the genetic variation of the RIL. Under the two water conditions, the target traits of the RIL showed substantial transgressive segregation and great sensitivity to water condition. The drought stress coefficient of the plant height was higher at jointing stage, being up to 0.851. There was a significant positive correlation between the plant height at different development stages and the thousand-grain mass, and comparing with that at other growth stages, the plant height at jointing stage had a higher correlation coefficient with the thousand-grain mass (R2DS = 0.32, R2WW = 0.28). The plant height at both jointing and flowering stages had significant positive and direct effect but negative and indirect gross effect on the thousand-grain mass, while the plant height at heading and maturing stages was in adverse. The target traits showed a lower heritability ranged from 0.27 to 0.60. The numbers of the gene pairs controlling the thousand-grain mass were 10 under rainfed and 13 under well-watered conditions, while those of the gene pairs controlling the plant height at different development stages were 3-7 under rainfed and 4-14 under well-watered conditions, respectively. According to the clustering of the drought stress coefficient of plant height, the RIL could be classified into five subgroups, showing the abundant variation of the RIL in their phe- notypes and in the sensitivity to water condition. It was considered that the test RIL were appropriate for the study of the quantitative genetics of wheat drought resistance.