in situ Monitoring of Lithium Electrodeposition using Transient Grating Spectroscopy

The mechanisms of lithium electrodeposition, which overwhelmingly affect lithium metal battery performance and safety, remain insufficiently understood due to its electrochemical complexity. Novel, non-destructive and in situ techniques to probe electrochemical interfaces during lithium electrodeposition are highly desirable. In this work, we demonstrate the capability of transient grating spectroscopy to monitor lithium electrodeposition at the micrometer scale by generating and detecting surface acoustic waves that sensitively interact with the deposited lithium. Specifically, we show that the evolution of the frequency, velocity and damping rate of the surface acoustic waves strongly correlate with the lithium nucleation and growth process. Our work illustrates the sensitivity of high-frequency surface acoustic waves to micrometer scale changes in electrochemical cells and establishes transient grating spectroscopy as a versatile platform for future in situ investigation of electrochemical int

Chitosan-conjugated lipid microbubble combined with ultrasound for efficient gene transfection

Non-viral vectors, as gene carriers, have advantages of biological safety and cost-efficiency over viral vectors. However, low transfection efficiency hampers their further clinical application. In this study, we developed a novel chitosan-conjugated lipid microbubble (CMB), which has good biocompatibility and high gene loading capacity. By ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD) technology, plasmid DNA could be efficiently delivered into HEK293T cells. The parameters for UTMD including acoustic intensity (AI), duty cycle (DC), exposure time (ET) and microbubble concentration were systematically optimised. Under the optimal conditions (AI, 1.0 W/cm2; DC, 10%; ET, 60 s; 10% CMBs), the gene transfection efficiency was significantly enhanced, without obvious impairment of the cell viability (over 80%). This study described a novel gene transfection strategy that combines CMBs with ultrasound to facilitate safe and efficient gene transfection in vitro with the potential for in vivo targeted gene delivery

A Combination of UTMD-Mediated HIF-1α shRNA Transfection and TAE in the Treatment of Hepatic Cancer

To explore the antitumor effect of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α short hairpin RNA (HIF-1α shRNA) delivered by ultrasound targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD) and transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) on rats with hepatic cancer. After the models of transplantation hepatoma were established, Wistar rats were randomly divided into 4 groups: Control group, UTMD group, TAE group, and UTMD+TAE group. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) was used to monitor tumor size on day 14 after four different treatments. Western blotting and immunohistochemistry were applied to measure the protein level of HIF-1α and VEGF in the hepatic cancer tissue. In comparison with UTMD+TAE group (21.25±10.68 days), the mean survival time was noticeably shorter in the Control group and TAE group (13.02±4.30 days and 15.03±7.32 days) (p0.05). In addition, our results proved that the tumor sizes in UTMD+TAE group were obviously smaller than those in other groups (p0.05). In this study we tried to explore the antitumor effect through a combination of UTMD-mediated HIF-1α shRNA transfection and TAE on rats with hepatic cancer. Our results showed that UTMD-mediated HIF-1α shRNA transfection and TAE can obviously silence HIF-1α and VEGF expression, thereby successfully inhibiting the growth of the tumor