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Hydronephrosis is one of the most common diseases in urology. However, due to the difficulties in clinical trials and the lack of reliable

Insulin resistance (IR) is a typical sign of metabolic dysregulation caused by fine particulate matter (PM2.5), but the underlying signaling has not been clearly determined. Herein, a microfluidic liver-kidney microphysiological system (LK-MPS) is presented to assess the signaling pathways of IR generated by PM2.5 at 200 μg/mL for 24 h. The LK-MPS device consisted of a biomimetic liver-kidney architecture and reconstructed two circulation paths: the liver metabolism-kidney excretion (LM-KE) and kidney excretion-liver metabolism (KE-LM), by which PM2.5 is feasibly distributed in the two organs. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis revealed that PM2.5 can embed in the cytoplasm and nuclei, undergo transport by vesicles, and lead to the destruction of mitochondria. Further comprehensive immunofluorescence, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) and untargeted metabolomic analyses confirmed that PM2.5 disturbed the classic IRS-1/AKT signaling pathway (INSR, IRS-1, PI3K, AKT, GLUT2, GLUT4, and FOXO1 downregulated) and IR-related metabolic pathways: UDP-hexosamine (UDP-GlcNAc), gluconeogenesis (β-d-glucose 6-phosphate), and lipid biosynthesis (ceramide (Cer) and triacylglycerol (TG)) pathways, leading to the disorder of glucose levels. Collectively, these disorders aggravate hepatic and renal IR. Pearson's correlation coefficient test showed that elemental carbon (EC), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and metals (Ca, Co, and V) were negatively correlated to the dysregulated proteins (INSR, IRS-1, AKT, FOXO1, GLUT2, and GLUT4). These findings may partially explain IR-related signaling pathways triggered by PM2.5.

Insulin resistance (IR) is a typical sign of metabolic dysregulation caused by fine particulate matter (PM

PM2.5 (particulate matter less than 2.5 μm in diameter) is considered as a harmful carcinogen. Determining the precise relationship between the chemical constituents of PM2.5 in the air and cancer progression could aid the treatment of environment related disease and establishing risk reduction strategies. Herein, we used transcriptomics (RNA-seq) and an integrated microfluidic system to identify the global gene expression and differential target proteins expression induced by ambient fine particles collected from the heavy haze in China. The results clearly indicated that cancer related pathways exhibited the strongest dysregulation. The ambient fine particles could be uptaken into the cells by pinocytosis, mainly promoting the PI3K-Akt pathway, FGF/FGFR/MAPK/VEGF signaling, and the JAK-STAT pathway, leading to evading apoptosis, sustained angiogenesis, and cell proliferation, which are the most important hallmarks of cancer. And fine particles also have been demonstrated to create intracellular reactive...

PM

Highly efficient capture and enrichment is always the key for rapid analysis of airborne pathogens. Herein we report a simple microfluidic device which is capable of fast and efficient airborne bacteria capture and enrichment. The device was validated with Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Mycobacterium smegmatis. The results showed that the efficiency can reach close to 100% in 9 min. Compared with the traditional sediment method, there is also great improvement with capture limit. In addition, various flow rate and channel lengths have been investigated to obtain the optimized condition. The high capture and enrichment might be due to the chaotic vortex flow created in the microfluidic channel by the staggered herringbone mixer (SHM) structure, which is also confirmed with flow dynamic mimicking. The device is fabricated from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), simple, cheap, and disposable, perfect for field application, especially in developing countries with very limited modern instruments.

Airborne Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the main source of tuberculosis infection, which is known as one of the worldwide infectious diseases. Direct capture and analysis of airborne Mycobacterium tuberculosis is essential for disease prevention and control. At present, low concentration of pathogens directly collected from the air is the major drawback for rapid analysis. Herein an integrated microfluidic system capable of airborne Mycobacterium tuberculosis capture, enrichment, and rapid bacteriological immunoassay was developed. The whole detection time was decreased to less than 50 min including 20 min of enrichment and 30 min of immunoreaction analysis. It had the advantages of low detection limit, fast detection speed, and low reagent consumption compared with conventional techniques, showing the potential to become a new airborne pathogen analysis platform.