Energy competition remodels the metabolic glucose landscape of psoriatic epidermal cells.

Rationale: Skin cells actively metabolize nutrients to ensure cell proliferation and differentiation. Psoriasis is an immune-disorder-related skin disease with hyperproliferation in epidermal keratinocytes and is increasingly recognized to be associated with metabolic disturbance. However, the metabolic adaptations and underlying mechanisms of epidermal hyperproliferation in psoriatic skin remain largely unknown. Here, we explored the role of metabolic competition in epidermal cell proliferation and differentiation in psoriatic skin. Methods: Bulk- and single-cell RNA-sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, and glucose uptake experiments were used to analyze the metabolic differences in epidermal cells in psoriasis. Functional validation in vivo and in vitro was done using imiquimod-like mouse models and inflammatory organoid models. Results: We observed the highly proliferative basal cells in psoriasis act as the winners of the metabolic competition to uptake glucose from suprabasal cells. Using single-cell metabolic analysis, we found that the "winner cells" promote OXPHOS pathway upregulation by COX7B and lead to increased ROS through glucose metabolism, thereby promoting the hyperproliferation of basal cells in psoriasis. Also, to prevent toxic damage from ROS, basal cells activate the glutathione metabolic pathway to increase their antioxidant capacity to assist in psoriasis progression. We further found that COX7B promotes psoriasis development by modulating the activity of the PPAR signaling pathway by bulk RNA-seq analysis. We also observed glucose starvation and high expression of SLC7A11 that causes suprabasal cell disulfide stress and affects the actin cytoskeleton, leading to immature differentiation of suprabasal cells in psoriatic skin. Conclusion: Our study demonstrates the essential role of cellular metabolic competition for skin tissue homeostasis.

Crosstalk between endothelial cells and dermal papilla entails hair regeneration and angiogenesis during aging.

INTRODUCTION: Tissues maintain their function through interaction with microenvironment. During aging, both hair follicles and blood vessels (BV) in skin undergo degenerative changes. However, it is elusive whether the changes are due to intrinsic aging changes in hair follicles or blood vessels respectively, or their interactions. OBJECTIVE: To explore how hair follicles and blood vessels interact to regulate angiogenesis and hair regeneration during aging. METHODS: Single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) analyses were used to identify the declined ability of dermal papilla (DP) and endothelial cells (ECs) during aging. CellChat and CellCall were performed to investigate interaction between DP and ECs. Single-cell metabolism (scMetabolism) analysis and iPATH were applied to analyze downstream metabolites in DP and ECs. Hair-plucking model and mouse cell organoid model were used for functional studies. RESULTS: During aging, distance and interaction between DP and ECs are decreased. DP interacts with ECs, with decreased EDN1-EDNRA signaling from ECs to DP and CTF1-IL6ST signaling from DP to ECs during aging. ECs-secreted EDN1 binds to DP-expressed EDNRA which enhances Taurine (TA) metabolism to promote hair regeneration. DP-emitted CTF1 binds to ECs-expressed IL6ST which activates alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) metabolism to promote angiogenesis. Activated EDN1-EDNRA-TA signaling promotes hair regeneration in aged mouse skin and in organoid cultures, and increased CTF1-IL6ST-ALA signaling also promotes angiogenesis in aged mouse skin and organoid cultures. CONCLUSIONS: Our finding reveals reciprocal interactions between ECs and DP. ECs releases EDN1 sensed by DP to activate TA metabolism which induces hair regeneration, while DP emits CTF1 signal received by ECs to enhance ALA metabolism which promotes angiogenesis. Our study provides new insights into mutualistic cellular crosstalk between hair follicles and blood vessels, and identifies novel signaling contributing to the interactions of hair follicles and blood vessels in normal and aged skin.

Pr2Ni0.8Co0.2O4+δ impregnated La0.6Sr0.4CoO3-δ oxygen electrode for efficient CO2 electroreduction in solid oxide electrolysis cells.

The solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) is an advanced electrochemical device with a promising future in reducing CO2 emissions. Currently, the insufficient oxygen evolution reaction activity in conventional anode materials severely restricts the development of electrolytic CO2. Herein, the PNCO-LSC composite oxygen electrode was exploited by impregnating Pr2Ni0.8Co0.2O4+δ (PNCO) on the surface of La0.6Sr0.4CoO3-δ (LSC) oxygen electrode. The results of electrochemical tests and various physicochemical characterizations indicate that the infiltration of PNCO can lead to a significant improvement in the performance of the cell for CO2 electroreduction by increasing the surface oxygen exchange. The current density of the PNCO-LSC oxygen electrode infiltrated twice at 800 °C and 1.5 V reaches 0.917 A cm-2, which is about 40% higher than that of the bare LSC oxygen electrode. In addition, the single cell did not show significant degradation in a long-term stability test at a current density of 0.4 A cm-2 for 100 h of electrolysis. Therefore, the PNCO-LSC composite oxygen electrode material is effective in enhancing electrolytic CO2 performance.

Dietary oregano essential oil supplementation alters meat quality, oxidative stability, and fatty acid profiles of beef cattle.

This study was conducted to elucidate the effects of oregano essential oil (OEO) supplementation on the meat quality, antioxidant capacity, and nutritional value of the longissimus thoracis muscle in steers. Steers were divided into three groups (n = 9) and fed either a basal diet, or a basal diet supplemented with 130 mg/d OEO, or 230 mg/d OEO for 390 days. The results demonstrated that dietary OEO supplementation increased the total antioxidant capacity and activity of catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase, and decreased pH30min, pH24h, cooking loss, and malondialdehyde content. OEO increased the concentrations of polyunsaturated fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid. In contrast, saturated fatty acids decreased, accompanied by increased essential amino acids, flavor amino acids, and total amino acids in the longissimus thoracis muscle. In summary, dietary OEO supplementation promotes the nutritional and meat quality of beef by maintaining its water-holding capacity and meat color, enhancing its antioxidative capacity, and preventing lipid oxidation.

Mechanical force drives the initial mesenchymal-epithelial interaction during skin organoid development.

Rationale: Stem cells self-organize to form organoids that generate mini-organs that resemble the physiologically-developed ones. The mechanism by which the stem cells acquire the initial potential for generating mini-organs remains elusive. Here we used skin organoids as an example to study how mechanical force drives initial epidermal-dermal interaction which potentiates skin organoids to regenerate hair follicles. Methods: Live imaging analysis, single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis, and immunofluorescence were used to analyze the contractile force of dermal cells in skin organoids. Bulk RNA-sequencing analysis, calcium probe detection, and functional perturbations were used to verify that calcium signaling pathways respond to the contractile force of dermal cells. In vitro mechanical loading experiment was used to prove that the stretching force triggers the epidermal Piezo1 expression which negatively regulates dermal cell attachment. Transplantation assay was used to test the regenerative ability of skin organoids. Results: We found that dermal cell-derived contraction force drives the movement of dermal cells surrounding the epidermal aggregates to trigger initial mesenchymal-epithelial interaction (MEI). In response to dermal cell contraction force, the arrangement of the dermal cytoskeleton was negatively regulated by the calcium signaling pathway which further influences dermal-epidermal attachment. The native contraction force generated from the dermal cell movement exerts a stretching force on the adjacent epidermal cells, activating the stretching force sensor Piezo1 in the epidermal basal cells during organoid culture. Epidermal Piezo1 in turn drives strong MEI to negatively regulate dermal cell attachment. Proper initial MEI by mechanical-chemical coupling during organoid culture is required for hair regeneration upon transplantation of the skin organoids into the back of the nude mice. Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that mechanical-chemical cascade drives the initial event of MEI during skin organoid development, which is fundamental to the organoid, developmental, and regenerative biology fields.

Exploration into the Influencing Factors for the Intention of the Public to Vaccinate against Infectious Diseases Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior-Example of the COVID-19 Vaccine.

OBJECTIVES: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was applied as an example, and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used as a conceptual model. This study aimed to explore the impact of subjective norms (SNs), attitude towards the behavior (ATT), and perceived behavioral control (PBC) on the intention of the public for regular vaccination during COVID-19. The outcomes can provide certain recommendations for relevant policymakers in developing targeted health education intervention programs in the event of similar events. METHODS: An online survey was performed between 17 April and 14 May 2021, via the online survey platform "WENJUANXING". The multistage stratified cluster sampling was employed, and 2098 participants (1114 males; 53.10%) with a mean age of 31.22 years (SD = 8.29) completed the survey. The survey covered the factors influencing the public's intention to receive future regular vaccinations during COVID-19 based on TPB. The effects of different variables on the public's vaccination intention were analyzed using hierarchical stepwise regression. RESULTS: The public's intention to receive the COVID-19 vaccine (i.e., behavioral intention) in the future was taken as the dependent variable. Gender, age, marital status, education level, per capita monthly household income, vaccine-related knowledge, whether the COVID-19 vaccine was received, subjective norms (SNs), attitude towards the behavior (ATT), and perceived behavioral control (PBC) were used as independent variables. In this way, a hierarchical stepwise multiple regression model was developed. It can be seen from the final model that gender, age, vaccine-related knowledge, vaccination, attitude, SNs, and PBC were all influential factors in the public's intention to get vaccinated in the future, with R2 = 0.399 and adjusted R2 = 0.397 (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: TPB explains the intention of the public to receive future vaccinations to a large extent, and ATT and SNs are the most important influencing factors. It is suggested that vaccine intervention programs be developed to enhance public awareness and acceptance of vaccination. This can be achieved in three aspects, namely, improving the ATT of the public, SNs, and PBC. Furthermore, the influence of gender, age, vaccine knowledge, and previous vaccination behavior on vaccination intention should be taken into account.

[Retracted] PEA15 promotes liver metastasis of colorectal cancer by upregulating the ERK/MAPK signaling pathway.

Following the publication of this paper, it was drawn to the Editors' attention by a concerned reader that certain of the tumor images shown in Fig. 4G and H were strikingly similar to tumor images (albeit oriented differently) which had previously appeared in Fig. 8A in another article published in the journal International Journal of Oncology [Tang B, Li Y, Yuan S, Tomlinson S and He S: Upregulation of the δ opioid receptor in liver cancer promotes liver cancer progression both in vitro and in vivo. Int J Oncol 43: 1281­1290, 2013], indicating that results which were purported to have been obtained under different experimental conditions had been derived from the same original source. In view of the fact that these data had already appeared in another publication prior to its submission to Oncology Reports, the Editor has decided that this paper should be retracted from the Journal. The authors were asked for an explanation to account for these concerns, but the Editorial Office did not receive a satisfactory reply. The Editor apologizes to the readership for any inconvenience caused. [Oncology Reports 41: 43­56, 2019; DOI: 10.3892/or.2018.6825].

Characterization of modified rice straw biochar in immobilizing Bacillus subtilis 168 and evaluation on its role as a novel agent for zearalenone-removal delivery.

Microbial remediation of environmental pollutants can be advanced by carrier based cells immobilization. Whereas the effects of microorganisms immobilized on biochar for removal of zearalenone (ZEN) still remain unknown. Herein, this work presented the characterization of rice straw biochar (RSB) around modification in immobilizing Bacillus subtilis 168 and the role in fighting ZEN in vitro. Specifically, 10% of RSB with pH 5 condition were optimal for bearing cells, where majority of cells loaded inside the pore and minority on surface with agglomeration or scattering status. Octadecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride-inclusion RSB showed better performances including over 93% of ZEN detoxification rate (32.48% in free cells), cells preservation, and stability of detoxification in simulated gastrointestinal environment. RSB treated with sulphuric acid made nutrients adsorption generally less than 6.5%. No residues of α-ZEL and α-ZAL were found in ZEN biotransformation process whether by free cells or composites. Mechanism discussion implied that predominant monolayer chemisorption by RSB and subsequent biodegradation by extracellular enzymes from microorganism involved in ZEN-removal process. Collectively, these findings contribute to provide an applying strategy for coordination of biochar and microorganisms as potentially mycotoxin detoxifying agent in agricultural feed bioremediation and environmental decontamination processes.

Fully Convolutional Networks for Panoptic Segmentation With Point-Based Supervision.

In this paper, we present a conceptually simple, strong, and efficient framework for fully- and weakly-supervised panoptic segmentation, called Panoptic FCN. Our approach aims to represent and predict foreground things and background stuff in a unified fully convolutional pipeline, which can be optimized with point-based fully or weak supervision. In particular, Panoptic FCN encodes each object instance or stuff category with the proposed kernel generator and produces the prediction by convolving the high-resolution feature directly. With this approach, instance-aware and semantically consistent properties for things and stuff can be respectively satisfied in a simple generate-kernel-then-segment workflow. Without extra boxes for localization or instance separation, the proposed approach outperforms the previous box-based and -free models with high efficiency. Furthermore, we propose a new form of point-based annotation for weakly-supervised panoptic segmentation. It only needs several random points for both things and stuff, which dramatically reduces the annotation cost of human. The proposed Panoptic FCN is also proved to have much superior performance in this weakly-supervised setting, which achieves 82% of the fully-supervised performance with only 20 randomly annotated points per instance. Extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of Panoptic FCN on COCO, VOC 2012, Cityscapes, and Mapillary Vistas datasets. And it sets up a new leading benchmark for both fully- and weakly-supervised panoptic segmentation.

The impact of vaccine hesitation on the intentions to get COVID-19 vaccines: The use of the health belief model and the theory of planned behavior model.

Object: During the later period of the COVID-19 pandemic, the public has been at risk of the evolving COVID-19 variants and hesitated to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to a certain extent. In this context, the health belief model (HBM) and the theory of planned behavior model (TPB) were used to compare and summarize the relationship between vaccine hesitation/non-hesitation and the intentions to get COVID-19 vaccines and its influencing factors. Methods: The cross-sectional, population-based online survey was conducted from 14 April to 30 April 2021, and 1757 respondents were recruited to participate in the survey through the Wenjuanxing online survey platform. The HBM and TPB covariate scores were expressed using means and standard deviations and compared between groups using t-tests. Backward multiple linear regression models were used to explore the factors influencing the public's intentions to receive the COVID-19 vaccines. Results: This study found that educational background is one of the factors influencing vaccine hesitation. Most people with high education do not hesitate (65.24%), while a more significant proportion of people with low education have vaccine hesitation (66.00%). According to HBM, for the vaccine hesitation group, self-efficacy, family advice, and doctor's advice were the most critical factors affecting the public's future vaccination intentions; for the vaccine non-hesitation group, self-efficacy, doctor's advice, and perceived benefits are the most important influencing factors. According to the TPB, the subjective norm is the most critical factor affecting the future vaccination intention of the vaccine hesitation group, and the attitude toward behavior is the most critical factor affecting the future vaccination intention of the vaccine non-hesitation group. Conclusions: In the context of COVID-19, the public's hesitation on the "current" vaccines will still affect future vaccination intentions. Using HBM and TPB would help health policymakers and healthcare providers formulate intervention plans.

A Fusion Algorithm of Object Detection and Tracking for Unmanned Surface Vehicles.

To provide reliable input for obstacle avoidance and decision-making, unmanned surface vehicles (USV) need to have the function of sensing the position of other USV targets in the process of cooperation and confrontation. Due to the small size of the target and the interference of the water and sky background, the current algorithms are prone to missed detection and drift problems when detecting and tracking USV. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a fusion algorithm of detection and tracking for USV targets. To solve the problem of vague features in the single-frame image, high-resolution and deep semantic information are obtained through a cross-stage partial network, and the anchor and convolution structure in the network has been improved given the characteristics of USV; besides, to meet the real-time requirements, the detected target is quickly tracked through correlation filtering, and the correlation characteristics of multi-frame images are obtained; then, the correlation characteristics are used to significantly reduce missed detection, and the tracking drift problems are corrected, combined with high-resolution semantic features of a single frame. Finally, the fusion algorithm is designed. In this paper, we constructed a picture dataset and a video dataset to test the effect of detection, tracking, and fusion algorithm separately, which proves the superiority of the fusion algorithm in this paper. The results show that, compared with a single detection algorithm and tracking algorithm, the fusion one can increase the success rate by more than 10%.

Analysis of the Impact of Media Trust on the Public's Motivation to Receive Future Vaccinations for COVID-19 Based on Protection Motivation Theory.

Object: Media trust is one of the essential factors affecting health behavior. Based on the protection motivation theory (PMT), this study explores the impact of different public media trust (traditional media, social media, interpersonal communication) on future COVID-19 vaccine motivation. Methods: The online survey was conducted from 14 April to 30 April 2021, and 2098 adults were recruited to participate in the online survey through the Wenjuanxing online survey platform. The survey included the PMT constructs (threat appraisal, coping appraisal, and motivation for future COVID-19 vaccination), trust in different media, vaccine hesitation reasons, and implementation of other non-pharmaceutical interventions. Structural equation model (SEM) was used for latent variable analysis, and Spearman linear correlation coefficient matrix was used to explore the relationships between variables. Results: In terms of trust in different media, participants who had a higher education level (p = 0.038), who was married (p = 0.002), and who had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 during the survey (p = 0.002) show greater trust in traditional media. Participants who were married (p = 0.001), who had a relatively high income (p = 0.020), and who had not been vaccinated (p = 0.044) show greater trust in social media. Older participants (p < 0.001) and married (p < 0.001) showed greater trust in interpersonal communication. In the structural equation, trust in traditional media had a direct positive impact on perceived severity (ß = 0.172, p < 0.001) and a direct negative impact on internal rewards (ß = -0.061, p < 0.05). Trust in both traditional and social media separately had a direct positive impact on self-efficacy (ß = 0.327, p < 0.001; ß = 0.138, p < 0.001) and response efficiency (ß = 0.250, p < 0.001; ß = 0.097, p < 0.05) and a direct negative impact on response costs (ß = -0.329, p < 0.001; ß = -0.114, p < 0.001). Trust in interpersonal communication had a direct positive impact on external rewards (ß = 0.186, p < 0.001) and response costs (ß = 0.091, p < 0.001). Overall, traditional media trust had an indirect positive influence on vaccine motivation (ß = 0.311), social media trust had an indirect positive influence on vaccine motivation (ß = 0.110), and interpersonal communication had an indirect negative influence on vaccine motivation (ß = -0.022). Conclusion: This study supports the use of PMT as an intermediate variable to explore the effect of media trust on vaccination intention. High trust in traditional media has helped reduce vaccine hesitation, increased the public's future COVID-19 vaccination motivation, and maintained other non-pharmacological interventions. Social media also had a certain promotion effect on vaccine motivation. In this context, attention should also be paid to interpersonal communication, and the science publicity work was suggested for an individual's family members and friends in the future to improve the quality and ability of interpersonal communication.

Urban trees in university campus: structure, function, and ecological values.

University campuses usually have more trees and can provide various ecosystem services. However, there are few reports on tree ecosystem services of Chinese university campuses, especially in northern China. This study investigated the trees in the campus of Shenyang Institute of Technology and analyzed its ecological benefits and monetary value through i-Tree Streets. The campus trees contained a total of 5193 trees of 66 species, of which Catalpa ovata G. Don, Acer mono Maxim., Rhus typhina Nutt, and Salix babylonica L. accounted for 59.7% of the total number. The age structure of the trees in the campus was not ideal, with 71.5% of young trees, 24.0% of maturing trees, 4.5% of mature trees, and only 0.04% of old trees. The trees in the campus provided more energy saving benefits ($60,850, $11.7/tree), carbon reduction benefits ($34,318, $6.6/tree) and aesthetic benefits ($30,150, $5.8/tree). The benefits resulted from air pollutant removal ($12,889, $2.5/tree) and rainwater runoff interception ($15,534, $3.0/tree) were smaller. In addition, tree species with more maturing trees and mature trees (i.e., with larger diameter at breast height) and large leaf area in the campus contributed significantly to ecosystem services. Our results can provide suggestions and certain insights for Chinese campus greening managers in tree species selection and tree management.

What Factors Predict the Adoption of Type 2 Diabetes Patients to Wearable Activity Trackers-Application of Diffusion of Innovation Theory.

Background: Globally, diabetes has brought an enormous burden to public health resources, and the situation of disease burden caused by diabetes in China is especially severe. China is currently facing the dual threat of aging and diabetes, and wearable activity trackers could promote elderly diabetic patients' physical activity levels and help them to manage blood glucose control. Therefore, examining the influencing factors of elderly patients' adoption intention is critical as wearing adoption determines actual wearing behaviors. Objective: This study aims to explore the predicting factors of Chinese elderly type 2 diabetic patients' adoption intention to wearable activity trackers and their actual wearing behavior, using diffusion of innovation theory as the theoretical framework. We hope to provide insights into future interventions using wearable activity trackers as tools to improve the outcome of patients. Methods: Wearable activity trackers were freely distributed to type 2 diabetic patients in Beijing, China. A questionnaire survey was conducted to examine predicting factors of adoption intention after a week's try-on. Actual wearing behavior for 3-month was obtained from the exclusive cloud. Data were analyzed with structural equation modeling. Results: A total of 725 patients completed the questionnaire. Patients had a mean age of 60.3 ± 7.6 years old and the educational level was generally lower. The results indicated that observability was the primary influencing factor of patients' adoption intention (ß = 0.775, P < 0.001). Relative advantage (ß = 0.182, P = 0.014) and perceived social image (ß = 0.080, P = 0.039) also had a positive influence while perceived risk (ß = -0.148, P < 0.001) exerted a negative influence. In addition, results showed that the more intention led to the better actual wearing behavior (ß = 0.127, P = 0.003). Observability (ß = 0.103, P = 0.005), perceived ease (ß = 0.085, P = 0.004), and relative advantage (ß = 0.041, P = 0.009) also indirectly influenced the wearing behavior. Conclusion: The intentions of Chinese elderly type 2 diabetic patients to wearable activity trackers directly influenced the actual wearing behavior. In addition, their adoption intention to wearable activity trackers was mainly influenced by observability, perceived ease to use, relative advantage, perceived risk, and social image.

A comparative study on the prediction of the BP artificial neural network model and the ARIMA model in the incidence of AIDS.

BACKGROUND: As a kind of widely distributed disease in China, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) has been quickly growing each year, become a serious problem and caused serious damage to the life and health of people and the social events of China and the world because of its high fatality rate. It has been much concerned by all aspects of society. Therefore, developing early warning technology and finding the trend of early development are of quite significance to prevent and control human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS. This study aimed to explore a suitable model for the morbidity of AIDS in China and establish a professional and feasible disease prediction model for the prevention and control works of AIDS. METHODS: At present, the traditional linear model is still utilized by most scholars to predict the incidence of HIV/AIDS. In addition, some scholars may attempt to use the nonlinear prediction model. Both prediction models showed good fitting and prediction effects. In China, the incidence of AIDS presents linear and nonlinear characteristics. In this research, the nonlinear back propagation artificial neural network (BP-ANN) model and the typical auto-regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) linear model were applied to predict the incidence of HIV/AIDS and compare their fitting effects. RESULTS: Both models were capable of predicting the expected cases of AIDS. It was seen that ARIMA and BP-ANN models could be used to forecast the monthly incidence of HIV/AIDS, but the fitting and forecasting effects of the nonlinear BP neural network model were better than those of the traditional linear ARIMA model. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, it was further concluded that the BP-ANN model was a suitable way to monitor and predict the change trend and morbidity of AIDS in China.

A Bioinspired Flexible Film Fabricated by Surface-Tension-Assisted Replica Molding for Dynamic Control of Unidirectional Liquid Spreading.

The unidirectional liquid spreading without external energy input has presently aroused widespread concern. Recently, on the peristome of Nepenthes alata, a novel 2D unidirectional liquid spreading has been reported. It has been revealed that its exquisite superhydrophilic multistage microstructure, overlapping microcavities with arc-shaped edges and wedge-shaped corners, is the main reason for this phenomenon. To fabricate a peristome-inspired surface, a replica molding method is highly efficient and provides an ideal structure. However, the curved shape of the finally formed surface cannot be adjusted, and a specific surface shows only one type of liquid spreading state, greatly limiting its potential application. Here, we aimed to develop a novel surface-tension-assisted replica molding method to fabricate an artificial peristome film. The artificial peristome film was fabricated by pouring styrenic block copolymers (SBS) dissolved in organic solvents into a negative replica prepared in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), based on the natural peristome. With volatilizing the organic solvent, the SBS agglomerates formed an artificial peristome film via surface tension effects. More importantly, the PDMS-negative replica swelled in the organic solvent and then returned to the original size, which is conducive for replicating microstructures. The liquid spreading speed could be dynamically controlled by stretching the artificial peristome film. We demonstrated that the microcavity wedge angle decreases with an increasing stretching ratio. A smaller wedge angle can result in a much stronger unidirectional liquid spreading ability. This study provides insight into the dynamic control of unidirectional liquid spreading for novel pump-free medical microfluidic devices.

The application of Compont gel in chronic obstructive jaundice rats model.

PURPOSE: To establish a new rat model, the pathogenesis of which is closer to the clinical occurrence of chronic obstructive jaundice with liver fibrosis. METHODS: 90 SD rats were randomly divided into 3 groups. Group A common bile duct ligation, group B common bile duct injection compont and group C injection saline. The serum of three groups was extracted, and the liver function was detected by ELISA. HE staining, Masson staining and immunohistochemistry were used to detect liver pathology. RESULTS: Group B showed a fluctuant development of jaundice, obstructive degree reached a peak at 2 weeks, and decreased from 3 weeks. HA, LA and PCIII were significantly higher than control group. 3 weeks after surgery, liver tissue fibrosis occurred in group B, and a wide range of fiber spacing was formed at 5 weeks. Immunohistochemistry showed that hepatic stellate cells were more active than the control group. CONCLUSION: Intra-biliary injection of Compont gel is different from the classic obstructive jaundice animal model caused by classic bile duct ligation, which can provide an ideal rat model of chronic obstructive jaundice with liver fibrosis.

High expression of ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase 22 is associated with poor prognosis in hepatitis B virus-associated liver cancer.

Deubiquitinating enzymes regulate protein activity and cell homeostasis by removing ubiquitin moieties from various substrates. Ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase 22 (USP22) is a member of the deubiquitinating protease family and is associated with the development of several tumor types. A previous study demonstrated that USP22 is highly expressed in liver cancer, and its high expression is associated with resistance to chemotherapy. However, the role of USP22 in hepatitis B virus (HBV)-associated liver cancer has not yet been elucidated. The current study demonstrated that USP22 was highly expressed in the tissues of patients with HBV-associated liver cancer, and its high expression was associated with clinicopathological characteristics, including tumor size, clinical stage and prognosis. Further results indicated that USP22 may regulate the proliferative and apoptotic abilities of HepG2.2.15 cells. Additionally, investigation into the underlying mechanism, using small interfering RNA, revealed that the downregulation of USP22 inhibited proliferation and promoted apoptosis though the phosphoinositide 3-kinase/protein kinase B signaling pathway. Therefore, USP22 has the potential to be used as an independent predictor of patient prognosis, as well as a therapeutic target for the treatment of HBV-associated liver cancer.

CBX8 exhibits oncogenic properties and serves as a prognostic factor in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Polycomb group family is a class of proteins that have important roles in both physiological and pathological processes, and its family member Chromobox homolog 8 (CBX8) regulates cell differentiation, aging, and cell cycle progression in numerous carcinomas; however, the effects and underlying mechanisms of CBX8 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are rarely reported. We found that CBX8 expression in clinical HCC specimens correlates inversely with patient survival. In HCC cells, we found that enforced overexpression of CBX8 induces epithelial-mesenchymal transition, invasive migration, and stem cell-like traits, which are associated with increased tumor growth and metastasis in mice. Conversely, CBX8 silencing inhibits the aggressive phenotype of HCC cells that have high CBX8 expression. Mechanistically, CBX8 modulates H3K27me3 in the gene promoter of bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4), which is associated with active BMP4 transcription and, consequently, the activation of Smads and mitogen-activated protein kinases. BMP4 expression reverses the effects of CBX8 silencing in inhibiting epithelial-mesenchymal transition, stemness, and metastasis. Our results establish CBX8 as a critical driver of HCC stem cell-like and metastatic behaviors and characterize its role in modulating BMP4 expression. These findings have implications for the targeting of CBX8 as an approach to HCC prognosis and treatment.