Chitinase 3-like 1 induces cancer cell migration in solitary fibrous tumors.

Solitary fibrous tumor (SFT) is a rare mesenchymal tumor that is diagnosed through the detection of the NAB2-STAT6 fusion gene. SFT rarely progresses to malignant tumors; however, metastasis is exhibited in approximately 20% of patients with SFT. In this study, we found that chitinase 3-like 1 (CHI3L1), which induces cancer cell migration, was upregulated in NIH-3T3 cells that were transfected with the NAB2-STAT6 fusion gene. Moreover, the expression levels of the migration markers MMP2 and MMP9 were increased and the p-Akt level was also upregulated. In addition, it was observed that when CHI3L1 siRNA was transfected into NAB2-STAT6-transfected cells, cell migration and proliferation were reduced. Therefore, this study demonstrated that CHI3L1 activates Akt signaling to induce cell migration.

Graphene Oxide Induced Surface Modification for Functional Separators in Lithium Secondary Batteries.

Functional separators, which have additional functions apart from the ionic conduction and electronic insulation of conventional separators, are highly in demand to realize the development of advanced lithium ion secondary batteries with high safety, high power density, and so on. Their fabrication is simply performed by additional deposition of diverse functional materials on conventional separators. However, the hydrophobic wetting nature of conventional separators induces the polarity-dependent wetting feature of slurries. Thus, an eco-friendly coating process of water-based slurry that is highly polar is hard to realize, which restricts the use of various functional materials dispersible in the polar solvent. This paper presents a surface modification of conventional separators that uses a solution-based coating of graphene oxide with a hydrophilic group. The simple method enables the large-scale tuning of surface wetting properties by altering the morphology and the surface polarity of conventional separators, without significant degradation of lithium ion transport. On the surface modified separator, superior wetting properties are realized and a functional separator, applicable to lithium metal secondary batteries, is demonstrated as an example. We believe that this simple surface modification using graphene oxide contributes to successful fabrication of various functional separators that are suitable for advanced secondary batteries.