Biomechanical evaluation of a novel minimally invasive pedicle bone cement screw applied to the treatment of Kümmel’s disease in porcine vertebrae

Background and objective: Treatment of Kümmel’s Disease (KD) with pure percutaneous kyphoplasty carries a greater likelihood of bone cement displacement due to hardened bone and defect of the peripheral cortex. In this study, we designed a novel minimally invasive pedicle bone cement screw and evaluate the effectiveness and safety of this modified surgical instruments in porcine vertebrae.Methods: 18 mature porcine spine specimens were obtained and soaked in 10% formaldehyde solution for 24 h. 0.5000 mmol/L EDTA-Na2 solution was used to develop in vitro osteoporosis models of porcine vertebrae. They were all made with the bone deficiency at the anterior edge of L1. These specimens were randomly divided into 3 groups for different ways of treatment: Group A: pure percutaneous kyphoplasty (PKP) group; Group B: unilateral novel minimally invasive pedicle bone cement screw fixation combined with PKP group; Group C: bilateral novel minimally invasive pedicle bone cement screw fixation combined with PKP group. The MTS multi-degree of freedom simulation test system was used for biomechanical tests, including axial loading of 500 N pressure, range of motion (ROM) in flexion, extension, left/right lateral bending, and left/right axial rotation at 5 Nm, and the displacement of bone cement mass at maximum angles of 5° and 10°.Result: The three groups were well filled with bone cement, no leakage or displacement of bone cement was observed, and the height of the vertebrae was higher than pre-operation (p < 0.05). In the left/right axial rotation, the specimens were still significantly different (p < 0.05) from the intact specimens in terms of ROM after PKP. In other directions, ROM of all group had no significant difference (p < 0.05) and was close to the intact vertebrae. Compared with PKP group, the relative displacement of bone cement in groups B and C was smaller (p < 0.05).Conclusion: In the in vitro animal vertebral models, the treatment of KD with the placement of novel pedicle minimally invasive bone cement screw combined with PKP can effectively restore the vertebral height, improve the stability of the affected vertebra and prevent the displacement of bone cement. Biomechanically, there is no significant difference between bilateral and unilateral fixation

Improved Aromatic Substitution–Rearrangement-Based Ratiometric Fluorescent Cysteine-Specific Probe and Its Application of Real-Time Imaging under Oxidative Stress in Living Zebrafish

Biothiols, including cysteine (Cys), homocysteine (Hcy), and glutathione (GSH), play a crucial role in many physiological processes. Cys production and metabolism is closely connected with Hcy and GSH; meanwhile, the dynamic antioxidant defenses network by Cys is independent of the GSH system, and Cys can serve as a more effective biomarker of oxidative stress. Hence, it is significant and urgent to develop an efficient method for specific detection of Cys over other biothiols (Hcy/GSH). However, most of the present Cys-specific fluorescent probes distinguished Cys from Hcy through response time, which would suffer from an unavoidable interference from Hcy in long-time detection. In this work, in order to improve the selectivity, we employed an improved aromatic substitution–rearrangement strategy to develop a ratiometric Cys-specific fluorescent probe (Cou–SBD-Cl) based on a new fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) coumarin–sulfonyl benzoxadiazole (Cou–SBD) platform for discrimination of Hcy and GSH. Response of Cou–SBD-Cl to Cys would switch FRET on and generate a new yellow fluorescence emission with a 56.1-fold enhancement of ratio signal and a 99 nm emission shift. The desirable dual-color ratiometric imaging was achieved in living cells and normal zebrafish. In addition, probe Cou–SBD-Cl was also applied to real-time monitor Cys fluctuation in lipopolysaccharide-mediated oxidative stress in zebrafish

Experimental Study on FGH95 Superalloy Turbine Disk Joint Material by Oblique Laser Shock Processing

The FGH95 superalloy used for turbine disk manufacturing was strengthened by the oblique laser shock processing (OLSP). The laser energy, beam diameter, and number of impacts were selected as the test factors, and the three-factor three-level oblique laser shock processing orthogonal test was carried out. Based on the analysis of variance and range of the surface residual stress, microhardness, roughness, tensile strength, and yield strength of FGH95 superalloy after LSP, the factor level combination of relative best comprehensive performance was obtained. The results showed that, within the 10% confidence level, the order of influencing factors with significant difference is: laser energy > number of impacts > beam diameter. Compared with the unimpacted sample, the microhardness of the material surface was increased by about 25% after OLSP. With the increase of laser energy, the dimple distribution of the sample was more uniform, smaller in size, and shallower in depth. However, the thickness of the affected layer was very low, and there was no significant effect on the tensile properties. In general, and under the test conditions selected in this study, the combination of 8 Joule laser energy, 3 mm beam diameter, and three impacts can be selected to obtain the best comprehensive performance. The results of this paper provide a reference for the OLSP of the FGH95 superalloy turbine disk and other aero engine parts

Formation and distribution of the high quality reservoirs in a deep saline lacustrine basin: A case study from the upper part of the 4th member of Paleogene Shahejie Formation in Bonan sag, Jiyang depression, Bohai Bay Basin, East China

The upper part of the 4th member of Paleogene Shahejie Formation in Bonan sag, Bohai Bay Basin, East China was taken as the study object. Conventional core analysis, casting and conventional thin section inspection, scanning electron microscope observation, particle size analysis and fluid inclusion analysis were carried out on cores, and the data from these analyses and tests was used to find out the evolution of diagenetic environment of the saline lacustrine basin and the main factors controlling the deep formation of high quality reservoirs. The diagenetic environment of the saline lacustrine basin experienced alkali and acid alternation. In the early alkali diagenetic environment, large amounts of carbonate cement filled the primary pores, making the reservoir porosity reduce sharply from 37.3% to 18.77%, meanwhile, keeping the primary pores from compaction, and retaining the dissolution space. In the middle-late stage of acid diagenetic environment, early carbonate cement was dissolved, resulting in rise of reservoir porosity by 10.59%, and thus the formation of the deep high quality reservoirs. The distribution of high quality deep reservoirs is controlled by the development of gypsum salt rock, source rock, fracture system and sedimentary body distribution jointly. Deeply buried high quality reservoirs in the upper part of the 4th member of the Shahejie Formation in Bonan sag are nearshore subaqueous fan-end sandstone and some fan-medium fine conglomerate buried at 3 400−4 400 m in the north steep slope. Key words: Bohai Bay Basin, Bonan sag, 4th member of Paleogene Shahejie Formation, saline lacustrine basin, high quality reservoir, formation mechanis

A Unique Approach to Development of Near-Infrared Fluorescent Sensors for in Vivo Imaging

Near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent sensors have emerged as promising molecular tools for imaging biomolecules in living systems. However, NIR fluorescent sensors are very challenging to be developed. Herein, we describe the discovery of a new class of NIR fluorescent dyes represented by <b>1a</b>/<b>1c</b>/<b>1e</b>, which are superior to the traditional 7-hydroxycoumarin and fluorescein with both absorption and emission in the NIR region while retaining an optically tunable hydroxyl group. Quantum chemical calculations with the B3LYP exchange functional employing 6-31G­(d) basis sets provide insights into the optical property distinctions between <b>1a</b>/<b>1c</b>/<b>1e</b> and their alkoxy derivatives. The unique optical properties of the new type of fluorescent dyes can be exploited as a useful strategy for development of NIR fluorescent sensors. Employing this strategy, two different types of NIR fluorescent sensors, <b>NIR-H</b>_<b>2</b><b>O</b>_<b>2</b> and <b>NIR-thiol</b>, for H₂O₂ and thiols, respectively, were constructed. These novel sensors respond to H₂O₂ or thiols with a large turn-on NIR fluorescence signal upon excitation in the NIR region. Furthermore, <b>NIR-H</b>_<b>2</b><b>O</b>_<b>2</b> and <b>NIR-thiol</b> are capable of imaging endogenously produced H₂O₂ and thiols, respectively, not only in living cells but also in living mice, demonstrating the value of the new NIR fluorescent sensor design strategy. The new type of NIR dyes presented herein may open up new opportunities for the development of NIR fluorescent sensors based on the hydroxyl functionalized reactive sites for biological imaging applications in living animals

Coumarin-Based Turn-On Fluorescence Probe for Specific Detection of Glutathione over Cysteine and Homocysteine

We have prepared a turn-on fluorescent probe for biothiols based on bromoketo coumarin (<b>KC-Br</b>). The emission intensity of the coumarin chromophore is modulated by both the heavy atom effect and internal charge transfer (ICT) process. The probe <b>KC-Br</b> is intrinsically nonfluorescent; however, after being reacted with thiols, the bromide moiety is substituted by the −SH group, which elicits a significant fluorescence increase. We surmised the free −NH₂ group would further react with carbonyl in the Cys/Hcy-substituted intermediate product yielding to Schiff base compound <b>KC-Cys</b>/<b>KC-Hcy</b>, but not in compound <b>KC-GSH</b>. The ICT effect has a stronger influence in compound <b>KC-GSH</b> than that in compound <b>KC-Cys</b>/<b>KC-Hcy</b>, resulting in compound <b>KC-GSH</b> having a stronger fluorescence. Thus, the probe has a good selectivity for GSH over other various biologically relevant species and even two other similar biothiols (Cys/Hcy) and could image glutathione (GSH) in living cells. We expect the design concept presented in this work would be widely used for the design of fluorescent probes for distinguishing among biothiols

IL18R1-Related Molecules as Biomarkers for Asthma Severity and Prognostic Markers for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

To determine the role of inflammation-related proteins in predicting asthma severity and outcome, 92 inflammation-related proteins were measured in the asthmatic serum using Olink analysis. Different bioinformatics algorithms were developed to cross analyze with the single-cell or transcriptome data sets from the Gene Expression Omnibus database to explore the role of IL18R1 and related genes in asthma and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Olink identified 52 differentially expressed proteins in asthma. They were strongly linked to the cytokine–cytokine receptor interaction, TNF, and NF-κB signaling pathway. Seven proteins were found in both single-cell RNA and Olink analyses. Among them, IL18R1 was predominantly expressed in mast cells, and the results suggested enhanced communication between mast cells and CD 8+ T cells. IL18R1 was upregulated in serum and induced sputum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of patients with uncontrolled or severe asthma. IL18R1 was positively correlated with TNFSF1 and OSM and S100A12. The diagnostic efficacy of these serum IL18R1-related molecules for asthma ranged from 0.839 to 0.921. Moreover, high levels of IL18R1, TNFSF1, OSM, and S100A12 were significantly associated with shorter survival times and worse lung function. IL18R1-related molecules may serve as biomarkers for monitoring uncontrolled or severe asthma and as prognostic markers for IPF

Construction of S-N-C bond for boosting bacteria-killing by synergistic effect of photocatalysis and nanozyme

Bacterial infection-related diseases are major public safety issues leads to millions of deaths annually. Herein, a porous sulfur doped graphitic carbon nitride (g-SCN) for ecofriendly, metal-free and low systemic toxicity were synthesized. Sulfur doping enables to broaden the absorption spectrum and promote the photocarriers separation for photocatalysis enhancement. Moreover, sulfur element will coordinate with nitrogen, changing the electronic state and endowing g-SCN with the property of nanozyme. More importantly, we established different models and confirmed that S-N-C coordination is the source of peroxidase (POD)-like activity through theory and experiment. The increased specific surface area of g-SCN, ascribing to the porous structure, makes it easier to trap bacteria. With the synergistic effect of photocatalysis and nanozyme, the prepared g-SCN has the ability to kill both gram-negative and gram-positive bacterium, with an antibacterial efficiency up to 100%. This work provides innovative synergistic strategy for constructing nanomaterials for highly efficient antibacterial therapy