Search

Reducing the sulfur content in high-sulfur petroleum coke (HSPC) has become an urgent issue, however, remains a great challenge with the development of petroleum refining industry. Herein, a highly-efficient catalyst quaternary ammonium phosphotungstate ionic liquid [(C4H9)4N]3PW12O40 (C4@HPA) was initiated to activate H2O2, and the sulfur content of HSPC was remarkably decreased from 4.46 wt.% to 2.76 wt.% at a relatively mild temperature (70 oC), which is discernible below than 1400 oC in industry. The characterization results showed that only sulfate can be removed, while sulfoxide and sulfone were retained in petroleum coke. Moreover, the desulfurization activity of C4@HPA/H2O2 to thiophene sulfides decreases as follows: Thiophene > 2-Methylthiophene > 2,5-Dimethylthiophene > Dibenzothiophene > 4-Methyldibenzothiophene. It reveals that the sulfur of 4-MDBT is the most difficult to be removed. Therefore, this founding here may shine light on the understanding and construction of efficient catalyst for desulfurization of high-sulfur petroleum coke in industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing numbers of cases of wound disease are now posing a big challenge in China. For more convenience of wound patients, wound management in community health care centers under the supervision of a specialist at general hospitals is an ideal solution. To ensure an accurate diagnosis in community health clinics, it is important that “the same language” for wound description, which may be composed of unified format description, including wound image, must be achieved. We developed a wound information management system that was built up by acquisition terminal, wound description, data bank, and related software. In this system, a 3G mobile phone was applied as acquisition terminal, which could be used to access to the data bank. This documentation system was thought to be an appropriate proposal for community wound care because of its objectivity, uniformity, and facilitation. It also provides possibility for epidemiological study in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This meta-analysis was designed to evaluate the clinical outcomes of transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) conducted utilizing stents of different diameters, thus providing recommendations for more logical selections of covered stents for patients with portal hypertension, in particular for the Asian population., Materials and Methods: Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wan Fang were searched for randomized controlled trials and cohort studies from inception until February 2023. The meta-analysis was carried out using Revman 5.4 Software. Heterogeneity between researches was assessed by the χ2 test and I2 index. The outcomes evaluated were the incidence of post-TIPS hepatic encephalopathy (HE), variceal rebleeding, shunt dysfunction, 1-year overall survival and decrease in portal pressure gradient (PPG)., Results: Eight appropriate clinical trials with 1246 patients were selected (638 and 608 patients in the experimental and control groups, respectively). In regards to preoperative PPG reduction, there was no discernible difference between the two groups [mean difference = 1.15, 95% confidence interval (CI) = -0.29-2.58, P = 0.12]. The rate of post-TIPS HE was significantly higher in patients in the 8 mm stent group than in the 6-7 mm stent group [odds ratio (OR) = 0.54, 95% CI = 0.42-0.70, P < 0.00001, I2 = 46%]. There were no significant differences in the rates of variceal rebleeding (OR = 1.05, 95% CI = 0.67-1.65, P = 0.84, I2 = 0%), shunt dysfunction (OR = 0.88, 95% CI = 0.53-1.47, P = 0.64, I2 = 0%) and 1-year overall survival (OR = 0.86, 95% CI = 0.50-1.50, P = 0.61, I2 = 0%)., Conclusion: Asian populations with portal hypertension may benefit more from TIPS with 6-7 mm covered stents because they can reduce the risk of postoperative HE while offering similar efficacy when compared to 8 mm covered stents., (Copyright © 2023 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Electroacupuncture (EA) has both anti-inflammatory and cardio-protective effects. Activation of calpain pathway is involved in several myocardiopathy. In sepsis, the role of calpain-2-regulated STAT3 in cardio-protective mechanism of electroacupuncture remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the mechanism by which electroacupuncture reduces cardiac inflammation and apoptosis and improves cardiac function during sepsis. Electroacupuncture pretreatment for 7 days was applied in septic cardiomyopathy model induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). lipopolysaccharide-induced sepsis was associated with a dramatically systemic inflammation and cardiac dysfunction, which was alleviated by electroacupuncture pre-treatment. Lipopolysaccharide resulted in increases of pro-inflammatory factors (TNF-α,IL1βand IL-6) and apoptosis (TUNEL staining and BAX/Bcl2) via activation of calpain-2/STAT3 pathway.Electroacupuncture pre-treatment inhibited LPS-induced activation of cardiac calpain-2/STAT3 signalling and ameliorated inflammatory and apoptosis. Additionally, inhibition of calpain-2 expression using the corresponding siRNA decreased the Phosphorylation of STAT3,pro-inflammatory factors and apoptosis in lipopolysaccharide- treated cardiomyocytes, confirming that calpain-2 activated p-STAT3 participate in septic cardiomyopathy. Furthermore, suppression of STAT3 by stattic enhanced anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptosis effects of electroacupuncture. These findings reveal mechanisms of electroacupuncture preconditioning protection against cardiac inflammation and apoptosis in sepsis mouse via calpain-2/STAT3 pathway and may provide novel targets for clinical treatments of the sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Li, Wang, Ying, Zheng, Tan, Yu, Gong, Li, Deng, Yang, Li and Jiang.)

Disturbance of the internal environment in the spinal cord after spinal cord injury (SCI) is an important cause of the massive death of neurons in the injury area and one of the major problems that lead to the difficult recovery of motor function in patients. Rehmannia glutinosa , a famous traditional Chinese medicine, is commonly used in neurodegenerative diseases, whereas an iridoid glycoside extract of catalpol (CAT), with antioxidant, antiapoptotic, and neuroprotective pharmacological effects. However, the neuroprotective and anti-apoptosis mechanism of CAT in SCI remains unclear. In our study, we found that CAT has a restorative effect on the lower limb motor function of rats with SCI by establishing a rat model of SCI and treating CAT gavage for 30 days. Our study further found that CAT has the effect of inhibiting apoptosis and protecting neurons, and the action pathway may reduce endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress by inhibiting CHOP and GRP78 expression and then reduce apoptosis and protect neurons through the Caspase3/Bax/Bcl-2 pathway. In conclusion, we demonstrated that CAT can treat SCI by inhibiting ER stress-mediated neuronal apoptosis and has the potential to be a clinical drug for the treatment of SCI., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Huang, Gong, Lin, Feng, Ma, Tu, Cai, Liu, Lv, Lv, Wu, Lu, Zhao, Ying, Li, Ni and Chen.)

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common chronic liver disease worldwide. Exercise is a therapeutic strategy for preventing NAFLD. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms by which NAFLD can be ameliorated through exercise are still not clear. This study investigates the mechanisms by which exercise suppresses NAFLD development induced by a high-fat diet (HFD) in mice. Male 6-week-old C57BL/6J mice were fed a normal diet or HFD for 12 weeks and then induced to swim or remain sedentary for 8 weeks. Histomorphology, inflammatory factors, fat metabolizing enzymes, fibrosis, and steatosis were determined in HFD-fed mouse liver, and levels of hepatic enzymes and molecules in the related pathways were analyzed. NAFLD mice showed evident steatosis, fibrosis, and liver injury, and an increased expression of HMGCS2, Wnt3a/ β-catenin, and phosphorylated (p)-AMPK in the liver. Exercise significantly attenuated these symptoms and downregulated the level of Wnt3a/β-catenin in lipotoxic liver tissue. Inhibition of HMGCS2 expression decreased the activation of the Wnt3a/β-catenin pathway and lowered p-AMPK in palmitate-treated HepG2. Our results suggest that exercise prevents NAFLD-associated liver injury, steatosis, and fibrosis. Exercise-mediated hepatoprotection was achieved partly via the blocking of the upregulation of HMGCS2 and the attenuation of the Wnt3a/β-catenin pathway.

With the growth of aging society, China has become the country of population with the highest incidence of diabetes in the world. Diabetes leads to pathological changes in vascular and nervous system, rendering the diabetic skin fragile and hard to heal if wounded; in the end most diabetic wounds tend to become chronic skin ulcers. The refractory diabetic wound is the result of various endogenous and exogenous factors. It is a quite complicated pathophysiologic event which lacks an effective and specific therapeutic method in clinic. The use of stem cells could be a new approach of treating diabetic chronic wounds since they have a potential ability of self-renovation and multi-directional differentiation which will promote angiogenesis and wound healing process, thus be beneficial in the care of ischemia diseases of the lower limb. This article reviews basic theory of treating diabetic wound and the changes in microenvironment, and prompts many successful cases in curing refractory diabetic wounds.

Objective: To review the research progress in the treatment of bone defect or osteomyelitis with drug-carried bionic nano-bone so as to offer some theoretic supports and experimental references for those relative researchers., Methods: The related literature was reviewed. The research progress in the treatment of bone defect or osteomyelitis with drug-carried bionic nano-bone was analyzed, which included the designing and preparing of drug-carried nano composites, the way of making infected bone defect animal models, and the general steps, test indexes and results., Results: Traumatic osteomyelitis and bone defect were two kinds of disease to difficulty cure in nowadays clinical orthopaedics. The osteomyelitis, especially chronic one was quite troublesome during the treatments. Many researchers made artificial bone with nano-materials and added drugs into them by various ways for the purpose of controlling infection and repairing bone defection simultaneously. But these researches were still at the laboratory phase, lacking the criterions of making relative animal models, and needed to be improved in the way of drug slow-releasing and nano-scaffold producing., Conclusion: The drug-carried bionic nano-bone as a kind of newly emerging replacement material has splendid effects in the treatments of traumatic large area bone defect or osteomyelitis and will have a brilliant future.