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Objective To investigate the roles of electroacupuncture (EA) in the upregulation of zinc finger protein Cezanne and in its neuroprotective effect on inflammatory injury induced by focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) in rats. Methods SD rats were randomized into sham group, EA group, I/R group and I/R+EA group. Cezanne silencing lentivirus (LV-shCezanne) was injection into the cerebral cortex to study the possible effect of Cezanne silencing on I/R injury, and injection of blank lentivirus (vehicle) as the control. The I/R model was established by conventional method of middle cerebral artery occlusion with ischemia for 2 h followed by reperfusion for 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 h and 7 d, respectively, and then EA was adopted to stimulate the Baihui acupoint and the Hegu and Taichong acupoints on the affected side. Garcia score, TTC staining, Western blotting, cell counting and immunofluorescence assay were performed in each group, so as to detect the neurological deficit score (NDS), infarct size, Cezanne expression in the ischemic cerebral cortex, number and distribution of Cezanne positive cells, and expression of nuclear factor kappa B (NF- κB) p65 in the nucleus and cytoplasm. Results Compared with the sham group, the protein level of Cezanne was increased in EA group at 6 and 48 h (P

In the design of photoharvesting and photoresponsive supramolecular systems in aqueous medium, the fabrication of amphiphilic photoswitches enables a noninvasive functional response through photoirradiation. Although most aqueous supramolecular assemblies are driven by high-energy and biodamaging UV light, we have previously reported a design of amphiphilic donor-acceptor Stenhouse adducts (DASAs) controlled by white light. Herein, we present a series of DASA amphiphiles (DAs) with minor structural modifications on the alkyl linker chain length connecting the DASA motif with the hydrophilic moiety. The excellent photoswitchability in organic medium and the photoresponsiveness in aqueous medium, driven by visible light, were investigated by UV-vis absorption spectroscopy. The assembled supramolecular nanostructures were confirmed by electron microscopy, while the supramolecular packing was revealed by X-ray diffraction analysis. Upon visible-light irradiation, significant transformations of the DA geometry enabled transformations of the supramolecular assemblies on a microscopic scale, subsequently disassembling macroscopic soft scaffolds of DAs. The current work shows promising use for the fabrication of visible-light-controlled macroscopic scaffolds, offering the next generation of biomedical materials with visible-light-controlled microenvironments and future soft-robotic systems., (Copyright © 2024, Hung et al.)

Injectable hydrogel has the advantage to fill the defective area and thereby shows promise as therapeutic implant or cell/drug delivery vehicle for tissue repair. In this study, an injectable hyaluronic acid hydrogel in situ dual-enzymatically cross-linked by galactose oxidase (GalOx) and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) was synthesized and optimized, and the therapeutic effect of this hydrogel encapsulated with bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSC) and nerve growth factors (NGF) for traumatic brain injury (TBI) mice was investigated. Results from in vitro experiments showed that either tyramine-modified hyaluronic acid hydrogels (HT) or NGF loaded HT hydrogels (HT/NGF) possessed good biocompatibility. More importantly, the HT hydrogels loaded with BMSC and NGF could facilitate the survival and proliferation of endogenous neural cells probably by neurotrophic factors release and neuroinflammation regulation, and consequently improved the neurological function recovery and accelerated the repair process in a C57BL/6 TBI mice model. All these findings highlight that this injectable, BMSC and NGF-laden HT hydrogel has enormous potential for TBI and other tissue repair therapy., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2021 The Authors.)