Renal Artery Reconstruction for Refractory Hypertension Caused by Congenital Renal Artery Deficiency.

Renovascular hypertension is a common cause of secondary hypertension. According to the epidemiological survey, the prevalence of renovascular hypertension accounts for 1-5% of the population with hypertension. Most of the cases are associated with atherosclerosis and Fibromuscular Dysplasia (FMD). Owing to the lack of standard treatment, they will eventually develop into chronic kidney disease, which significantly affects the patient's quality of life. Hypertension is considered a prerequisite for renal artery surgery; renal function research is used to guide the treatment of unilateral lesions because endovascular intervention can only slightly improve hypertension and renal function. We advocate open surgery for patients with congenital dysplasia of renal vascular hypertension, in which the most common surgical operations are aortorenal artery bypass, renal artery endarterectomy, and renal artery replantation. This paper reports a rare case of renovascular hypertension. The patient was a 13-year-old female, and the operation was risky and complicated. He was diagnosed with a congenital absence of the right renal artery. The right renal function was recovered, and the blood pressure was well controlled after the Aorta-Right Renal Artery Bypass.

Optimizing the production of short and medium chain fatty acids (SCFAs and MCFAs) from waste activated sludge using different alkyl polyglucose surfactants, through bacterial metabolic analysis.

Alkyl polyglucose is an environmentally-friendly biosurfactant, which is able to enhance short-chain fatty acids production with different carbon chain lengths and concentrations, during sludge anaerobic fermentation. This presents a promising strategy for sludge re-utilization by effectively converting hazardous sludge into value-added compounds. The maximum yield of short-chain fatty acids produced from sludge was 479.3 and 462.2 mg COD/g VSS, following pretreatment with APG06 and APG1214, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, the short-chain fatty acid production performance by sludge fermentation reported here, achieved a higher level than reported in previous studies. Additionally, these findings indicate that the production of medium-chain fatty acids from sludge can be induced by alkyl polyglucoses. Finally, the microbial community and enzyme activity were also assessed to reveal the mechanism of short-/medium-chain fatty acids biosynthesis under alkyl polyglucose pretreatment. This study demonstrates that alkyl polyglucose provides an environmentally-friendly and effective strategy for enhancing the production of short-/medium-chain fatty acids from waste activated sludge. These findings are useful for the assessment of alkyl polyglucose-assisted production of short-/medium-chain fatty acids, as well as for understanding the interactions between short-/medium-chain fatty acids and microbial communities with key enzymes, to establish short-/medium-chain fatty acids metabolic pathways during sludge fermentation.

Effect of stereocomplex crystal and flexible segments on the crystallization and tensile behavior of poly(l-lactide).

The effects of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and/or poly(d-lactide) (PDLA) blocks on the crystallization and mechanical properties of poly(l-lactide) (PLLA) were investigated systematically via differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarized optical microscopy (POM), wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and tensile testing. The structural evolution during uniaxial stretching of the obtained blends above the glass transition temperature was studied by in situ WAXD. It was observed that the stereocomplex (SC) crystals promoted the nucleation of PLLA homocrystals (α/α' crystal), and flexible PEG blocks could enhance the spherulitic growth rate. The PLLA/PDLA-PEG-PDLA had a higher elongation at break than that of PLLA/PDLA without significant loss in tensile strength and stiffness. In situ WAXD showed that the PLLA/PDLA-PEG-PDLA crystallized faster during stretching. It was shown that the incorporation of SC crystals and flexible PEG blocks could not only accelerate the crystallization but also improve the toughness of PLLA.

High-efficiency removal of lead from wastewater by biochar derived from anaerobic digestion sludge.

The properties of biochar derived from waste activated sludge and anaerobic digestion sludge under pyrolysis temperature varying from 400°C to 800°C were investigated. The heavy metals adsorption efficiency of the sludge-derived biochar was also examined. Among the biochar samples tested, ADSBC600 possessing highly porous structure, special surface chemical behaviors and high thermal stability was found to remove Pb2+ from aqueous solutions efficiently with an adsorption capacity of 51.20mg/g. The Pb2+ adsorption kinetics and isotherm for ADSBC600 can be described using the pseudo second-order model and Langmuir isotherm, respectively. Analysis of the characteristics of biochar before and after metal treatment suggests that electrostatic attraction, precipitation, surface complexation and ion exchange are the possible Pb2+ removal mechanisms. This study demonstrates a successful example of waste refinery by converting anaerobic digestion sludge to feasible heavy metal adsorbents to implement the concept of circular economy.

Blockage of tissue factor ameliorates the lesion of laser-induced choroidal neovascularization in mice.

Choroidal neovascularization (CNV) occurs as a result of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and causes severe vision loss among elderly patients. High expression of tissue factor (TF) was found in the retinas of AMD patients. In this study, we used anti-TF monoclonal antibody to test the effect of the TF blockage on experimental CNV induced by laser photocoagulation of retina in mice. Anti-TF monoclonal antibody or vehicle was administered intravitreally at day 1, 2 or 3 after laser application. We found that TF expression increased, and reached the peak at the 3rd week after the after laser application. Anti-TF monoclonal antibody can predominantly decrease the expression of TF, VEGF and F4/80, and reduced the area of CNV. Anti-TF monoclonal antibody also decreased incidence of CNV and leakage area. There were no pathological changes in the liver, heart, brain or kidney tissue. We conclude that TF plays an important role in CNV and anti-TF monoclonal antibody significantly decreases CNV in mouse model and anti-TF monoclonal antibody may have therapeutic potential in AMD.