Developing Regenerative Treatments for Developmental Defects, Injuries, and Diseases Using Extracellular Matrix Collagen-Targeting Peptides.

Collagen is the most widespread extracellular matrix (ECM) protein in the body and is important in maintaining the functionality of organs and tissues. Studies have explored interventions using collagen-targeting tissue engineered techniques, using collagen hybridizing or collagen binding peptides, to target or treat dysregulated or injured collagen in developmental defects, injuries, and diseases. Researchers have used collagen-targeting peptides to deliver growth factors, drugs, and genetic materials, to develop bioactive surfaces, and to detect the distribution and status of collagen. All of these approaches have been used for various regenerative medicine applications, including neovascularization, wound healing, and tissue regeneration. In this review, we describe in depth the collagen-targeting approaches for regenerative therapeutics and compare the benefits of using the different molecules for various present and future applications

Hypoxic Preconditioning Enhances Survival and Proangiogenic Capacity of Human First Trimester Chorionic Villus-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Fetal Tissue Engineering.

Prenatal stem cell-based regenerative therapies have progressed substantially and have been demonstrated as effective treatment options for fetal diseases that were previously deemed untreatable. Due to immunoregulatory properties, self-renewal capacity, and multilineage potential, autologous human placental chorionic villus-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (CV-MSCs) are an attractive cell source for fetal regenerative therapies. However, as a general issue for MSC transplantation, the poor survival and engraftment is a major challenge of the application of MSCs. Particularly for the fetal transplantation of CV-MSCs in the naturally hypoxic fetal environment, improving the survival and engraftment of CV-MSCs is critically important. Hypoxic preconditioning (HP) is an effective priming approach to protect stem cells from ischemic damage. In this study, we developed an optimal HP protocol to enhance the survival and proangiogenic capacity of CV-MSCs for improving clinical outcomes in fetal applications. Total cell number, DNA quantification, nuclear area test, and cell viability test showed HP significantly protected CV-MSCs from ischemic damage. Flow cytometry analysis confirmed HP did not alter the immunophenotype of CV-MSCs. Caspase-3, MTS, and Western blot analysis showed HP significantly reduced the apoptosis of CV-MSCs under ischemic stimulus via the activation of the AKT signaling pathway that was related to cell survival. ELISA results showed HP significantly enhanced the secretion of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) by CV-MSCs under an ischemic stimulus. We also found that the environmental nutrition level was critical for the release of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). The angiogenesis assay results showed HP-primed CV-MSCs could significantly enhance endothelial cell (EC) proliferation, migration, and tube formation. Consequently, HP is a promising strategy to increase the tolerance of CV-MSCs to ischemia and improve their therapeutic efficacy in fetal clinical applications

The Impacts of Optimizing Model‐Dependent Parameters on the Antarctic Sea Ice Data Assimilation

Given the role played by the historical and extensive coverage of sea ice concentration (SIC) observations in reconstructing the long‐term variability of Antarctic sea ice, and the limited attention given to model‐dependent parameters in current sea ice data assimilation studies, this study focuses on enhancing the performance of the Data Assimilation System for the Southern Ocean in assimilating SIC through optimizing the localization and observation error estimate, and two assimilation experiments were conducted from 1979 to 2018. By comparing the results with the sea ice extent of the Southern Ocean and the sea ice thickness in the Weddell Sea, it becomes evident that the experiment with optimizations outperforms that without optimizations due to achieving more reasonable error estimates. Investigating uncertainties of the sea ice volume anomaly modeling reveals the importance of the sea ice‐ocean interaction in the SIC assimilation, implying the necessity of assimilating more oceanic and sea‐ice observations

Improving Arctic sea-ice thickness estimates with the assimilation of CryoSat-2 summer observations

Rapidly shrinking Arctic sea ice has had substantial impacts on the Earth system. Therefore, reliably estimating the Arctic sea-ice thickness (SIT) using a combination of available observations and numerical modeling is urgently needed. Here, for the first time, we assimilate the latest CryoSat-2 summer SIT data into a coupled ice-ocean model. In particular, an incremental analysis update scheme is implemented to overcome the discontinuity resulting from the combined assimilation of biweekly SIT and daily sea-ice concentration (SIC) data. Along with improved estimates of sea-ice volume, our SIT estimates corrected the overestimation of SIT produced by the reanalysis that assimilates only SIC in summer in areas where the sea ice is roughest and experiences strong deformation, e.g., around the Fram Strait and Greenland. This study suggests that the newly developed CryoSat-2 SIT product, when assimilated properly using our approach, has great potential for Arctic sea-ice simulation and prediction.</jats:p

Better synoptic and subseasonal sea ice thickness predictions are urgently required: a lesson learned from the YOPP data validation

In the context of global warming, Arctic sea ice has declined substantially during the satellite era (Kwok 2018). The retreating and thinning of Arctic sea ice provide opportunities for human activities in the Arctic, such as tourism, fisheries, shipping, natural resource exploitation, and wildlife management; however, new risks emerge. To ensure the safety and emergency management of human activities in the Arctic, reliable Arctic sea ice prediction is essential

Influence of nitrogen on corrosion behaviour of high nitrogen martensitic stainless steels manufactured by pressurized metallurgy

Effect of nitrogen on microstructure and corrosion behaviour of high nitrogen martensitic stainless steels manufactured by pressurized metallurgy was investigated by microscopy, electrochemical and spectroscopy analyses. Results indicated that increasing nitrogen content significantly enhanced the corrosion properties of martensitic stainless steels, while excess nitrogen deteriorated the corrosion resistance. The impacts of increased nitrogen content could be summarized as three aspects: the change of precipitation content and conversion of main precipitates from MC to MN; the enhanced protection performance of passive film by enrichment of Cr, especially CrO and CrN; the improved repassivation ability by increased nitrogen content in solid solution