N-Doped Carbon Dot Hydrogels from Brewing Waste for Photocatalytic Wastewater Treatment

The brewery industry annually produces huge amounts of byproducts that represent an underutilized, yet valuable, source of biobased compounds. In this contribution, the two major beer wastes, that is, spent grains and spent yeasts, have been transformed into carbon dots (CDs) by a simple, scalable, and ecofriendly hydrothermal approach. The prepared CDs have been characterized from the chemical, morphological, and optical points of view, highlighting a high level of N-doping, because of the chemical composition of the starting material rich in proteins, photoluminescence emission centered at 420 nm, and lifetime in the range of 5.5-7.5 ns. With the aim of producing a reusable catalytic system for wastewater treatment, CDs have been entrapped into a polyvinyl alcohol matrix and tested for their dye removal ability. The results demonstrate that methylene blue can be efficiently adsorbed from water solutions into the composite hydrogel and subsequently fully degraded by UV irradiation

Precursor-Dependent Photocatalytic Activity of Carbon Dots

This work systematically compares both structural features and photocatalytic performance of a series of graphitic and amorphous carbon dots (CDs) prepared in a bottom-up manner from fructose, glucose, and citric acid. We demonstrate that the carbon source and synthetic procedures diversely affect the structural and optical properties of the CDs, which in turn unpredictably influence their photo electron transfer ability. The latter was evaluated by studying the photo-reduction of methyl viologen. Overall, citric acid-CDs were found to provide the best photocatalytic performance followed by fructose- and glucose-CDs. However, while the graphitization of glucose- and citric acid-CDs favored the photo-reaction, a reverse structure-activity dependence was observed for fructose-CDs due to the formation of a large graphitic-like supramolecular assembly. This study highlights the complexity to design in advance photo-active bio-based carbon nanomaterials

Intracerebroventricular Administration of Neuropeptide Y Induces Hepatic Insulin Resistance via Sympathetic Innervation

OBJECTIVE—We recently showed that intracerebroventricular infusion of neuropeptide Y (NPY) hampers inhibition of endogenous glucose production (EGP) by insulin in mice. The downstream mechanisms responsible for these effects of NPY remain to be elucidated. Therefore, the aim of this study was to establish whether intracerebroventricular NPY administration modulates the suppressive action of insulin on EGP via hepatic sympathetic or parasympathetic innervation

Adrenergic β2 receptor activation stimulates anti-inflammatory properties of dendritic cells in vitro

Vagal nerve efferent activation has been shown to ameliorate the course of many inflammatory disease states. This neuromodulatory effect has been suggested to rest on acetylcholine receptor (AChR) activation on tissue macrophages or dendritic cells (DCs). In more recent studies, vagal anti-inflammatory activity was shown involve adrenergic, splenic, pathways. Here we provide evidence that the adrenergic, rather than cholinergic, receptor activation on bone marrow derived DCs results in enhanced endocytosis uptake, enhanced IL-10 production but a decreased IL-6, IL-12p70 and IL-23 production. In antigen specific T cell stimulation assays, adrenergic β2 receptor activation on bone marrow DCs led to an enhanced potential to induce Foxp3 positive suppressive Treg cells. These effects were independent of IL10-R activation, TGFβ release, or retinoic acid (RA) secretion. Hence, adrenergic receptor β2 activation modulates DC function resulting in skewing towards anti-inflammatory T cell phenotypes

Effect of transforming growth factor-β2 on biological regulation of multilayer primary chondrocyte culture

YesCytokines are extremely potent biomolecules that regulate cellular functions and play multiple roles in initiation and inhibition of disease. These highly specialised macromolecules are actively involved in control of cellular proliferation, apoptosis, cell migration and adhesion. This work, investigates the effect of transforming growth factor-beta2 (TGF-β2) on the biological regulation of chondrocyte and the repair of a created model wound on a multilayer culture system. Also the effect of this cytokine on cell length, proliferation, and cell adhesion has been investigated. Chondrocytes isolated from knee joint of rats and cultured at 4 layers. Each layer consisted of 2 × 105 cells/ml with and without TGF-β2. The expression of mRNA and protein levels of TGF-β receptors and Smad1, 3, 4, and 7 have been analysed by RT-PCR and western blot analysis. The effect of different supplementations in chondrocyte cell proliferation, cell length, adhesion, and wound repair was statistically analysed by One-way ANOVA test. Our results showed that the TGFβ2 regulates mRNA levels of its own receptors, and of Smad3 and Smad7. Also the TGF-β2 caused an increase in chondrocyte cell length, but decreased its proliferation rate and the wound healing process. TGF-β2 also decreased cell adhesion ability to the surface of the culture flask. Since, TGF-β2 increased the cell size, but showed negative effect on cell proliferation and adhesion of CHC, the effect of manipulated TGF-β2 with other growth factors and/or proteins needs to be investigated to finalize the utilization of this growth factor and design of scaffolding in treatment of different types of arthritis

Role of the sympathetic nervous system in carbon tetrachloride-induced hepatotoxicity and systemic inflammation

Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) is widely used as an animal model of hepatotoxicity and the mechanisms have been arduously studied, however, the contribution of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) in CCl4-induced acute hepatotoxicity remains controversial. It is also known that either CCl4 or SNS can affect systemic inflammatory responses. The aim of this study was to establish the effect of chemical sympathectomy with 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) in a mouse model of CCl4-induced acute hepatotoxicity and systemic inflammatory response. Mice exposed to CCl4 or vehicle were pretreated with 6-OHDA or saline. The serum levels of aminotransferases and alkaline phosphatase in the CCl4-poisoning mice with sympathetic denervation were significantly lower than those without sympathetic denervation. With sympathetic denervation, hepatocellular necrosis and fat infiltration induced by CCl4 were greatly decreased. Sympathetic denervation significantly attenuated CCl4-induced lipid peroxidation in liver and serum. Acute CCl4 intoxication showed increased expression of inflammatory cytokines/chemokines [eotaxin-2/CCL24, Fas ligand, interleukin (IL)-1α, IL-6, IL-12p40p70, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1/CCL2), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)], as well as decreased expression of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and keratinocyte-derived chemokine. The overexpressed levels of IL-1α, IL-6, IL-12p40p70, MCP-1/CCL2, and TNF-α were attenuated by sympathetic denervation. Pretreatment with dexamethasone significantly reduced CCl4-induced hepatic injury. Collectively, this study demonstrates that the SNS plays an important role in CCl4-induced acute hepatotoxicity and systemic inflammation and the effect may be connected with chemical- or drug-induced hepatotoxicity and circulating immune response

Circadian expression of clock genes and clock-controlled genes in the rat retina.

The circadian expression patterns of genes encoding for proteins that make up the core of the circadian clock were measured in rat retina using real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR). Transcript levels of several genes previously used for normalization of qPCR assays were determined and the effect of ischemia-reperfusion on the expression of clock genes was studied. Statistically significant circadian changes in transcript levels were found for: Per2, Per3, Cry2, Bmal1, Rora, Rorb, and Rorc with changes ranging between 1.6- and 2.6-fold. No changes were found for Per1, Cry1, Clock, Rev-erb alpha, and Rev-erb beta. Significant differences in transcript levels were observed for several candidate reference genes: HPRT, GAPDH, rhodopsin, and Thy1 and, consequently, the use of these genes for normalization purposes in qPCR or Northern blots may lead to erroneous conclusions. Ischemia-reperfusion leads to a persistent decrease of Per1and Cry2, which may be related to the selective degeneration of amacrine and ganglion cells. We conclude that while all clock genes are expressed in the retina, only a few show a clear circadian pattern.

Sustainable Strategies in the Synthesis of Lignin Nanoparticles for the Release of Active Compounds: A Comparison

The preparation of nanoparticles represents a powerful tool for lignin valorization, as it combines easy methodologies with high application potential. Different synthetic strategies and various lignin sources have been employed in the process. However, the great variability in the lignin structure prevents a direct comparison of the so far reported lignin nanoparticles (LNPs), especially as regards their physicochemical and functional properties. To this purpose, two green protocols, that is, solvent-antisolvent and hydrotropic, were optimized and used to generate LNPs from the same softwood kraft lignin. The nanomaterials were fully characterized to extrapolate structure/property relationships and reveal any differences in the mechanism of self-assembly. Furthermore, tests on methylene blue entrapment capacity and release behavior at two different pH values (2.0 and 7.4) evidenced a clear dependence on the LNPs characteristics and thus on the strategy adopted for their production