Activating Endogenous Neurogenesis for Spinal Cord Injury Repair: Recent Advances and Future Prospects

After spinal cord injury (SCI), endogenous neural stem cells are activated and migrate to the injury site where they differentiate into astrocytes, but they rarely differentiate into neurons. It is difficult for brain-derived information to be transmitted through the injury site after SCI because of the lack of neurons that can relay neural information through the injury site, and the functional recovery of adult mammals is difficult to achieve. The development of bioactive materials, tissue engineering, stem cell therapy, and physiotherapy has provided new strategies for the treatment of SCI and shown broad application prospects, such as promoting endogenous neurogenesis after SCI. In this review, we focus on novel approaches including tissue engineering, stem cell technology, and physiotherapy to promote endogenous neurogenesis and their therapeutic effects on SCI. Moreover, we explore the mechanisms and challenges of endogenous neurogenesis for the repair of SCI

A secret of high-rate mass transfer in anammox granular sludge : "lung-like breathing"

The granulation of anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox) biomass can play a key role in developing stable and high-rate working of anammox process. It is important to know the working mechanism of anammox granular sludge (AnGS) for the optimization of reactor performance. In this study, a “lung-like breathing” determinator was invented to investigate the working behavior of AnGS in the bioreactor. The results showed that the AnGS had a regular expansion and contraction phenomenon, which was called “lung-like breathing”. With the biological loading rate (BLR) at 0.114 kg-N/(kg-VSS·d), the expansion and contraction amplitude (ExCA) was 1.29 ± 0.05%, and the expansion and contraction frequency (ExCF) was 39.3 ± 1.6 times/h. The AnGS cultivated in a bioreactor with higher nitrogen removal rate (NRR) was found to have the higher ExCA and ExCF when determinated at the same BLR, and the “lung-like breathing” behavior of one type of AnGS was revealed to bear a significantly (p < 0.05) positive correlation with the specific anammox activity (SAA). The mass transfer flux from “lung-like breathing” was far greater than that from molecular diffusion, which was regarded as a vital mechanism for the AnGS to demonstrate its high activity. These findings provided theoretical basis and technical parameters for the optimization of anammox nitrogen removal process.This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51578484) and Research Funds for Central Universities (2017xzzx010-03). Major Scientific and Technological Specialized Project of Zhejiang Province (2015C03013) was also be highly appreciated

Thiamine deficiency contributes to synapse and neural circuit defects

Abstract Background The previous studies have demonstrated the reduction of thiamine diphosphate is specific to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and causal factor of brain glucose hypometabolism, which is considered as a neurodegenerative index of AD and closely correlates with the degree of cognitive impairment. The reduction of thiamine diphosphate may contribute to the dysfunction of synapses and neural circuits, finally leading to cognitive decline. Results To demonstrate this hypothesis, we established abnormalities in the glucose metabolism utilizing thiamine deficiency in vitro and in vivo, and we found dramatically reduced dendrite spine density. We further detected lowered excitatory neurotransmission and impaired hippocampal long-term potentiation, which are induced by TPK RNAi in vitro. Importantly, via treatment with benfotiamine, Aβ induced spines density decrease was considerably ameliorated. Conclusions These results revealed that thiamine deficiency contributed to synaptic dysfunction which strongly related to AD pathogenesis. Our results provide new insights into pathogenesis of synaptic and neuronal dysfunction in AD

The performance of anammox reactor during start-up : enzymes tell the story

Start-up is the first and essential step in the operation of anammox (anaerobic ammonia oxidation) reactor. It is helpful to know the progress of start-up for the real-time optimization of reactor performance. In this work, a start-up mode was successfully established, by which the anammox reactor was smoothly put into use, with NLR (Nitrogen Loading Rate) and NRR (Nitrogen Removal Rate) of 11.0 and 10.1 kg-N /(m3 d), respectively. During the start-up, the dehydrogenase, alkaline phosphatase, hydrazine oxidase and heme of the anammox granular sludge were investigated and their activity/content was correlated with the reactor performance. The activity of dehydrogenase and alkaline phosphatase was found to decrease with the elevation of NLR. On the contrary, the hydrazine oxidase activity and heme content were observed to increase with the elevation of NLR. Based on the relative enzyme level, an enzyme indicator system was created to monitor the start-up progress of anammox reactor

Preparation of Porous Graphene@Mn3O4 and Its Application in the Oxygen Reduction Reaction and Supercapacitor

Porous graphene has been recognized as a promising material for applications in electrochemical applications. Engineering the porous graphene-based hierarchical and hybrid structures is a promising way to further improve the electrochemical performances. Here, we reported a rational design of the porous graphene@Mn3O4 (PGM) structure for the applications in both the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and supercapacitor. Thanks to the efficient porous graphene substrate and rational decoration of Mn3O4, the catalytic performance of as-prepared PGM is comparative to that of Pt/C when used as electrocatalysts for the ORR, showing a relatively positive onset and half-wave potential (0.89 and 0.81 V) and a large diffusion-limiting current density (5.85 mA cm(-2)). In addition, PGM also shows good specific capacitance (208.3 F g(-1)), cycle stability, and rate performance when used in the supercapacitor electrodes and asymmetric device (maximum energy density of 30.1 Wh kg(-1) and power density of 9500 W kg(-1))

Clinical Effect and Rotational Stability of TICL in the Treatment of Myopic Astigmatism

Purpose. To investigate the clinical outcomes and possible risk factors associated with rotational stability after the implantation of a V4c toric implantable Collamer lens (TICL) for the correction of moderate to high myopic astigmatism. Methods. A total of 112 eyes of 66 patients with moderate to high myopic astigmatism underwent TICL implantation. All patients were followed up for more than 1 year. The uncorrected and best-corrected visual acuity (UCVA and BCVA), astigmatism and spherical equivalent, intraocular pressure, vault, endothelial cell morphometry, and rotation of the TICL axis were assessed at l day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months postoperatively. Postoperative rotation was defined as the angle between the intended axis and the achieved axis. Regression analysis was used to investigate the possible risk factors for TICL rotation postoperatively. Results. The mean efficacy index and safety index 12 months postoperatively were 1.03 ± 0.09 and 1.05 ± 0.10, respectively. All patients had the same or better visual acuity than preoperatively. The mean astigmatism value decreased from −1.86 ± 0.79 D preoperatively to −0.37 ± 0.35 D. The mean absolute axis deviation of the TICL at the last follow-up was 2.75 ± 2.04° (range, 0°∼11°). The mean manifest refraction spherical equivalent (MRSE) changed from -9.04 ± 2.67 D preoperatively to −0.67 ± 0.51 D postoperatively. The logistic regression demonstrated that the absolute degree of TICL rotation had a significant association with the fixation angle of the TICL and the size of the lens (P=0.003, P=0.026, resp.). Conclusion. The results of our study support that TICL implantation is safe, effective, and predictable in the treatment of moderate to high myopic astigmatism, with relatively good postoperative rotational stability

Characteristics of microbial communities and their correlation with environmental substrates and sediment type in the gas-bearing formation of Hangzhou Bay, China

Shallow gas is a kind of natural gas buried in shallow strata, generally, with methane as the main component, endowing it a potential energy resource while also a potential risk to the safety of ground engineering and environment. Microbial activity is usually regarded as an important driving force to generate shallow gas via metabolizing the environmental substrates. Therefore, the research on the microbial communities will be helpful to reveal the distribution of shallow gas in the gas-bearing formation. In this study, 30 sediment samples below the seabed in Hangzhou Bay (China) from depths of 1.5 m to 55 m were collected to investigate their microbial community, environmental characteristics and sediment type (clay or sand). It turned out that the presence of shallow gas had a good correlation with the distribution of archaea rather than bacteria, with the dominant microbe of Bathyarchaeota, Thaumarchaeota, and Euryarchaeota in the formation. Methanosarcinaceae and ANME-1a with the capacity of methane metabolism occupied high proportions. The correlation analysis and redundancy analysis (RDA) suggested that ammonium was a key environmental substrate to indicate the microbial community in the formation. The sediment type was proposed to shape environmental substrates in the formation, thus further affecting the microbial communities. The clay strata were demonstrated to have an important role in the generation and distribution of shallow gas, and more attention should be paid in terms of its resource discovery and engineering safety assessment.Published versio