The Level and Significance of Circulating Angiotensin-III in Patients with Coronary Atherosclerosis.

OBJECTIVE: Angiotensin-III (Ang-III) is the downstream product of angiotensin-II (Ang-II) metabolized by aminopeptidase A (APA). At present, the research of Ang-III mainly concentrates on hypertension and the central renin-angiotensin system (RAS). However, few studies have focused on the relationship between Ang-III and coronary atherosclerosis (CAS). METHODS AND RESULTS: Plasma Ang-III and APA levels were measured by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 44 normal subjects and 84 patients confirmed as having CAS by coronary angiography. Circulating Ang-III levels were significantly lower in patients with CAS than in normal controls (P = 0.013). APA levels were slightly lower in the CAS group (P = 0.324). According to the severity of atherosclerosis, CAS patients were divided into two groups. Compared with the controls, the APA and Ang-III levels were lower in the high scoring group and APA decreased significantly. CONCLUSIONS: Circulating Ang-III levels were reduced in patients with CAS, and the possible reason may be related to the decrease in the APA level.

Promoting the Phosphidation Process using an Oxygen Vacancy Precursor for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reaction.

Based on previous works, most of the transition metal phosphides (TMPs) were directly prepared by decomposing NaH2 PO2 with the precursors at high temperatures, which resulted in different degrees of phosphidation in the final product. Therefore, it is necessary to design an innovative approach to enhance the degree of phosphidation in the material using crystal defects. Here, oxygen-vacancy iron oxide/iron foam (Ov-Fe2 O3 /IF) was firstly prepared by generating oxygen vacancy in situ in an iron foam through heating in vacuum conditions. Subsequently, FeP/IF was formed by phosphating Ov-Fe2 O3 /IF. Under the effects of oxygen vacancies, oxygen-vacancy iron oxide could be completely phosphatized to produce more active sites on the surface of the material. This, in turn, could result in a catalyst with exceptional hydrogen evolution activity. Thus, the successful fabrication of FeP/IF demonstrated in this work provides an effective and feasible way for the preparation of other high-efficiency catalysts.