Deep eutectic solvent pretreatment of cellulose and development of hydrophobic foaming material.

This work aims to investigate the effects of deep eutectic solvents (DES) on the chemical and physical structure of cellulose. Choline chloride-oxalic acid and choline chloride-oxalic acid-glycerol were selected as solvents and cotton fibers was sued as raw materials to explore the difference between cotton fibers treated separately with two different DES. According to yield analysis, ternary solvents alleviated the degradation of cellulose when comparing to binary solvents, resulting in over 90 % of cellulose being obtained. Particularly, there is an esterification reaction of cellulose during treatment with the DES system, which also affects the performance of the subsequent products. Through the simple use of mechanical foaming with polyvinyl alcohol and the palm wax impregnation process, foams with a water contact angle greater than 140° and excellent mechanical properties can be obtained. The resultant foam material has 5 % linear elastic area, and prominent compressive strength providing potential use in the packaging industry in the replacement of plastic.

Super flexible, self-healing, and self-adhesive double network hydrogel reinforced by okara cellulose nanofibrils.

Inspired by the mussel, tannic acid (TA) was modified onto the surface of self-made cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) to prepare TA@CNFs, which was introduced into borax crosslinked polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to prepare PTC double-network hydrogel with self-healing properties. Through the comparative observation of TEM images and infrared spectra before and after tannic acid modification, the formation of TA@CNFs was proved. The introduction of TA@CNFs greatly increases the fracture stress of PTC hydrogel, which is more than 10 times higher than that of PVA hydrogel without TA@CNFs, and has high fracture strain (1723 %). Moreover, PTC hydrogel has the ability of rapid self-healing, which can heal to the original form within two minutes. In addition, the temperature response ability of PTC hydrogel makes it capable of reshaping. The self-adhesion ability of PTC hydrogel enables it to adhere to the human epidermis to detect motion signals, as sensitive and as stable as a flexible sensor.

Deletion of Schizophrenia Susceptibility Gene Ulk4 Leads to Abnormal Cognitive Behaviors via Akt-GSK-3 Signaling Pathway in Mice.

OBJECTIVES: Despite of strenuous research in the past decades, the etiology of schizophrenia (SCZ) still remains incredibly controversial. Previous genetic analysis has uncovered a close association of Unc-51 like kinase 4 (ULK4), a family member of Unc-51-like serine/threonine kinase, with SCZ. However, animal behavior data which may connect Ulk4 deficiency with psychiatric disorders, particularly SCZ are still missing. METHODS: We generated Emx1-Cre:Ulk4flox/flox conditional knockout (CKO) mice, in which Ulk4 was deleted in the excitatory neurons of cerebral cortex and hippocampus. RESULTS: The cerebral cellular architecture was maintained but the spine density of pyramidal neurons was reduced in Ulk4 CKO mice. CKO mice showed deficits in the spatial and working memories and sensorimotor gating. Levels of p-Akt and p-GSK-3α/ß were markedly reduced in the CKO mice indicating an elevation of GSK-3 signaling. Mechanistically, Ulk4 may regulate the GSK-3 signaling via putative protein complex comprising of two phosphatases, protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) and 1α (PP1α). Indeed, the reduction of p-Akt and p-GSK-3α/ß was rescued by administration of inhibitor acting on PP2A and PP1α in CKO mice. CONCLUSIONS: Our data identified potential downstream signaling pathway of Ulk4, which plays important roles in the cognitive functions and when defective, may promote SCZ-like pathogenesis and behavioral phenotypes in mice.

Effects of montmorillonite (MMT) on the crystallization behavior of poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) by variable-temperature FTIR coupled with difference spectrometry, PCMW2D and 2DCOS analyses.

Effects of montmorillonite (MMT) on the crystallization behavior of poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) were investigated by variable-temperature FTIR spectroscopy. The variations of carbonyl band (1800-1720 cm-1) of different PLLA/MMT nanocomposites were focused due to its strong intensity and the involved abundant structure information. Difference spectrometry was used to evaluate the structural variations of PLLA after introducing MMT, and perturbation correlation moving window two-dimensional analysis (PCMW2D) split the temperature range into two sub-regions, i.e., 32-116 ℃ and 116-152 ℃, on the basis of the spectral variation. Two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2DCOS) was further applied to such sub-regions in order to find the change order between varied PLLA polymorphs. The results showed that less addition of MMT (≤3%) would lead to a well-exfoliated structure, which not only had no nucleation effect for PLLA, but also delayed the cold crystallization to a higher temperature compared with the one of pure PLLA. However, a higher addition of MMT (≥5%) would lead to an intercalated structure, which acted as a nucleating agent and thus advanced the cold crystallization to a lower temperature. Nevertheless, the introduction of MMT cannot affect the phase transition order between the amorphous, the intermediate, the α'- and the α'-PLLAs based on 2DCOS results.

The role of PTEN in primary sensory neurons in processing itch and thermal information in mice.

PTEN is known as a tumor suppressor and plays essential roles in brain development. Here, we report that PTEN in primary sensory neurons is involved in processing itch and thermal information in adult mice. Deletion of PTEN in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) is achieved in adult Drg11-CreER: PTENflox/flox (PTEN CKO) mice with oral administration of tamoxifen, and CKO mice develop pathological itch and elevated itch responses on exposure to various pruritogens. PTEN deletion leads to ectopic expression of TRPV1 and MrgprA3 in IB4+ non-peptidergic DRG neurons, and the TRPV1 is responsive to capsaicin. Importantly, the elevated itch responses are no longer present in Drg11-CreER: PTENflox/flox: TRPV1flox/flox (PTEN: TRPV1 dCKO) mice. In addition, thermal stimulation is enhanced in PTEN CKO mice but blunted in dCKO mice. PTEN-involved regulation of itch-related gene expression in DRG neurons provides insights for understanding molecular mechanism of itch and thermal sensation at the spinal level.

PDK1 Regulates the Maintenance of Cell Body and the Development of Dendrites of Purkinje Cells by pS6 and PKCγ.

3-Phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase-1 (PDK1) plays a critical role in the development of mammalian brain. Here, we investigated the role of PDK1 in Purkinje cells (PCs) by generating the PDK1-conditional knock-out mice (cKO) through crossing PV-cre or Pcp2-cre mice with Pdk1fl/fl mice. The male mice were used in the behavioral testing, and the other experiments were performed on mice of both sexes. These PDK1-cKO mice displayed decreased cerebellar size and impaired motor balance and coordination. By the electrophysiological recording, we observed the reduced spontaneous firing of PCs from the cerebellar slices of the PDK1-cKO mice. Moreover, the cell body size of PCs in the PDK1-cKO mice was time dependently reduced compared with that in the control mice. And the morphologic complexity of PCs was also decreased after PDK1 deletion. These effects may have contributed to the reduction of the rpS6 (reduced ribosomal protein S6) phosphorylation and the PKCγ expression in PDK1-cKO mice since the upregulation of pS6 by treatment of 3-benzyl-5-((2-nitrophenoxy) methyl)-dihydrofuran-2(3H)-1, the agonist of mTOR1, partly rescued the reduction in the cell body size of the PCs, and the delivery of recombinant adeno-associated virus-PKCγ through cerebellar injection rescued the reduced complexity of the dendritic arbor in PDK1-cKO mice. Together, our data suggest that PDK1, by regulating rpS6 phosphorylation and PKCγ expression, controls the cell body maintenance and the dendritic development in PCs and is critical for cerebellar motor coordination.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Here, we show the role of 3-phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase-1 (PDK1) in Purkinje cells (PCs). The ablation of PDK1 in PCs resulted in a reduction of cell body size, and dendritic complexity and abnormal spontaneous firing, which attributes to the motor defects in PDK1-conditional knock-out (cKO) mice. Moreover, the ribosomal protein S6 (rpS6) phosphorylation and the expression of PKCγ are downregulated after the ablation of PDK1. Additionally, upregulation of rpS6 phosphorylation by3-benzyl-5-((2-nitrophenoxy) methyl)-dihydrofuran-2(3H)-1 partly rescued the reduction in cell body size of PCs, and the overexpression of PKCγ in PDK1-KO PCs rescued the reduction in the dendritic complexity. These findings indicate that PDK1 contributes to the maintenance of the cell body and the dendritic development of PCs by regulating rpS6 phosphorylation and PKCγ expression.

Isothermal crystalline polymorphs of poly(l-lactic acid) by FTIR coupled with two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy and perturbation-correlation moving-window two-dimensional analysis.

The evolutions of the crystalline polymorphs of poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA) at 85 °C and 145 °C were respectively studied by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy coupled with two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2DCOS) and perturbation-correlation moving-window two-dimensional (PCMW2D) analysis in the carbonyl stretching band region (1820-1720 cm-1). The perturbation region was divided into a few sub-regions by PCMW2D based on the spectral variations. Further 2DCOS analyses were implemented on these sub-regions. Four stages were identified for crystallization at 85 °C, in which the transformation of amorphous PLLA to α'-PLLA was found in the initial stage (0-30 min), while some of α'-PLLA was also changed to α-PLLA in the growth stage (30-150 min). For isothermal crystallization at 145 °C, the amorphous and the intermediate PLLAs were first changed to the crystalline forms in the initial period (0-30 min), then alternate changes between α-, α'- and intermediate phases occurred in the other periods with the extension of crystallization.