Nanostructural Engineering of Electrospun Poly(vinyl alcohol)/Carbon Nanotube Mats into Dense Films for Alcohol Dehydration

Pervaporation is a green process that consumes low energy and does not require solvents for separation. In this work, interfacial engineering of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/carbon nanotube (CNT) electrospun fibers was attempted to fabricate dense membranes for pervaporation. Ethanol and water were used as nonsolvent and solvent, respectively, to alter the nanoscopic configuration of the fibers through interfacial solvent interactions. PVA and PVA/CNT mats with micron-sized pores (>100 μm) were prepared by optimizing electrospinning conditions. The mats were compacted via immersion in ethanol. They exhibited asymmetric close-packed top and bottom layers and porous intermediate layers. Further consolidation was achieved using water to fuse the fibers. The mats with more than 1.5 wt % CNT loading were stable against water owing to the cross-linking between CNTs and PVA. Because of the uniform dispersion of CNTs into the PVA matrix, the PVA/CNT dense films exhibited higher water/ethanol selectivity and water flux than those exhibited by similar films prepared by solution-casting. Thus, simple interfacial engineering of electrospun mats presented in this work successfully generates high-performance PVA/CNT membranes. A high alcohol dehydration performance and time-efficient membrane fabrication are achieved

Making new media : creative production and digital literacies

hNSCs express diverse trophic factors. (A) In vitro proliferating and differentiated hNSCs expressed BDNF, NTF3, NTF4, NGF, VEGF, FGF2, and GDNF. (B) Western blotting analysis showed that hNSCs secreted higher levels of BDNF, NTF3, NTF4, NGF, and VEGF into the culture medium than human foreskin fibroblasts secrete. (TIFF 127 kb

Additional file 9: Table S2. of Human neural stem cells alleviate Alzheimer-like pathology in a mouse model

Sequences of primers used for reverse transcription (RT) and quantitative (q) PCR. (DOCX 25 kb

Additional file 8: Table S1. of Human neural stem cells alleviate Alzheimer-like pathology in a mouse model

List of primary antibodies used in immunohistochemistry (IHC) and western blot (WB). (DOCX 28 kb

Additional file 6: Figure S6. of Human neural stem cells alleviate Alzheimer-like pathology in a mouse model

NSE/APPsw transgenic mouse-derived brain slices treated with BDNF-depleted CM. (A) Western blot showed that hNSCs secreted high level of BDNF into the cultured medium (lane 1; CM), and anti-BDNF antibody-mediated immunoprecipitation effectively removed BDNF in CM (lane 2; BDNF-depleted CM). Another SDS-PAGE gel was in parallel performed with silver staining to verify even loading. (B) Brain slices treated with DMEM (Ctr), CM, BDNF-depleted CM. Western blot analysis of phosphorylated tau (AT180) and BACE1 (n = 3 per group, where n is the number of experiments). All data represent mean ± SEM. Error bars indicate ± SEM. Mann–Whitney U-test, *p < 0.05. (TIFF 2110 kb

Additional file 4: Figure S4. of Human neural stem cells alleviate Alzheimer-like pathology in a mouse model

The expression of Aβ-degrading enzymes in both in vivo and in vitro. (A) Transplantation of hNSCs (NSC, n = 7) did not significantly alter the levels of Mme and Ide expression in NSE/APPsw transgenic mice compared with vehicle injection (Veh, n = 6). (B) In vitro expression of Aβ-degrading enzymes in hNSCs. hNSCs under proliferation and differentiation conditions expressed IDE, MME, ECE1 (endothelin converting enzyme 1), ECE2 (endothelin converting enzyme 2), MMP2 (matrix metalloproteinase 2), PLAT (plasminogen activator, tissue), PLAU (plasminogen activator, urokinase), ACE (angiotensin 1 converting enzyme), and CTSB (cathepsin B). On western blot, there were no differences in the levels of Aβ42 in the media containing 1 μM soluble Aβ42 peptides between wells with and without incubation with hNSCs for 2 days. The number of mice (n) in A is indicated. All data represent mean ± SEM. Error bars indicate ± SEM. (TIFF 3170 kb

Additional file 1: Figure S1. of Human neural stem cells alleviate Alzheimer-like pathology in a mouse model

GFP expression by lenti-GFP-transduced hNSCs. Proliferating lenti-GFP-transduced hNSCs form neurospheres in culture dishes (A) and express GFP (B). Flow cytometry analysis using FlowJo (version 9.3.3) software showed that 94.5 % of all cells are GFP-positive (blue line histogram in C). The red line histogram is the negative control. Scale bar, 100 μm. (TIFF 310 kb