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Spinal cord injury (SCI) generally leads to long-term functional deficits and is difficult to repair spontaneously. Many biological scaffold materials and stem cell treatment strategies have been explored, but very little research focused on the method of combining exogenous neural stem cells (NSCs) with a biodegradable conductive hydrogel scaffold. Here, a NSC loaded conductive hydrogel scaffold (named ICH/NSCs) was assembled by amino-modified gelatin (NH

The treatment and management of diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) is a pretty intractable problem for clinical nursing. Urgently, the "Black Box" status of the healing process prevents surgeons from providing timely analysis for more effective diagnosis and therapy of the wound. Herein, we designed a transparent monitoring system to treat and manage the DFUs with blood oozing and hard-healing, which resolved the problem of blind management for the other conductive patches. This system was prepared from a conductive hydrogel patch with ultra-high transparence (up to 93.6%), adhesiveness and hemostasis, which is engineered by assembling

Background. Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is the most common type of glaucoma. The potential influence of some DEGs on the progression of POAG was still incomplete. In this study, we integrated transcriptome data with clinical data to investigate the relationship between them in POAG patients. Methods. The gene expression profile (GSE27276) from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) was used to identify DEGs. The LIMMA package of R was used to identify the DEGs (Diboun et al., 2006). The adjusted P values (adj P value) were calculated instead to avoid the appearance of false-positive results. Genes with |log2 fold change (FC)| larger than 1 and adj P value < 0.01 were taken as DEGs between PH and PC samples. GO (Gene Ontology) function and KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) pathway enrichment analyses of the DEGs were performed. Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) of the DEGs were constructed. Results. A total of 182 DEGs were identified through our analysis, of which 119 genes were upregulated and 63 genes were downregulated. GO enrichment analysis illustrated that these DEGs were mostly enriched into haptoglobin binding, antioxidant activity, and organic acid binding. KEGG enrichment analysis illustrated that these DEGs were mostly enriched into Staphylococcus aureus infection. The most significant module was identified by MCODE consists of 8 DEGs, and BCL11A is the seeded gene. The second most significant module consists of 5 DEGs, and IL1RN is the seeded gene. Conclusion. Our results demonstrate the potential influence of some DEGs on the progression of POAG, providing a comprehensive bioinformatics analysis of the pathogenesis, which may contribute to future investigation into the molecular mechanisms and biomarkers.

To solve the problem of automatic grading of macular edema in retinal images in a more stable and reliable way and reduce the workload of ophthalmologists, an automatic detection and grading method of diabetic macular edema based on a deep neural network is proposed.The enhanced green channels of fundus images are input into the YOLO network for training and testing. Diabetic macular edema is graded according to the distance of the macula and hard exudate. We used multiscale feature fusion to form more comprehensive features on different grain images to improve the effect of hard exudate detection. We adopted K-means++ algorithm to cluster anchor box size and use loss of the original network to guide the regression of hard exudate bounding box and improve the regression accuracy of anchor boxes. We increased the diversity of samples for sample training by data augmentation, including cropping, flipping, and rotating of fundus images, so that each batch of training data can better represent the distribution of samples.The detection accuracy of the proposed method can reach 96% on the MESSIDOR data set. The detection rates of hard exudate with high, median, and low probability are 100%, 79.12%, and 60.40%, respectively.The proposed method exhibits a very good detection stability on healthy and diseased fundus images.

Li S, Wen D, Che S, et al. Onco Targets Ther. 2018;11:3215–3223. The Editor and Publisher of OncoTargets and Therapy wish to retract the published paper. Concerns were raised regarding the alleged manipulation and duplication of tumor images shown in Figure 6B. Specifically: Figure 6B, top row images for sh-NC, appear to be duplicated with images of the same tumors in Figure 2D from Liu et al, 2019 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2019.108862) and Figure 6B from Li et al, 2018 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2018.03.122). Similarly, Figure 6B, bottom row images for sh-LINC00152, also appear to be duplicated with images of the same tumors in Figure 2D from Liu et al, 2019 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2019.108862) and Figure 6B from Li et al, 2018 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2018.03.122). The authors responded to our queries but could not provide a satisfactory explanation for the alleged duplication or provide adequate raw data for their study. The findings of the study were deemed invalid and the Editor requested for the article to be retracted. Our decision-making was informed by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retraction. The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”. This retraction relates to this paper

Automatic fovea localization is a challenging issue. In this article, we focus on the study of fovea localization and propose a robust fovea localization method. We propose concentric circular sectional symmetry measure (CCSSM) for symmetry axis detection, and region of interest (ROI) determination, which is a global feature descriptor robust against local feature changes, to solve the lesion interference issue, i.e., fovea visibility interference from lesions, using both structure features and morphological features. We propose the index of convexity and concavity (ICC) as the convexity-concavity measure of the surface and provide a quantitative evaluation tool for ophthalmologists to learn whether the occurrence of lesion within the ROI. We propose the weighted gradient accumulation map, which is insensitive to local intensity changes and can overcome the influence of noise and contamination, to perform refined localization. The advantages of the proposed method lies in two aspects. First, the accuracy and robustness can be achieved without typical sophisticated manner, i.e., blood vessel segmentation and parabola fitting. Second, the lesion interference is considered in our plan of fovea localization. Our proposed symmetry-based method is innovative in the solution of fovea detection, and it is simple, practical, and controllable. Experiment results show that the proposed method can resist the interference of unbalanced illumination and lesions, and achieve high accuracy rate in five datasets. Compared to the state-of-the-art methods, high robustness and accuracy of the proposed method guarantees its reliability.

A modified structure Ca(Mg0.8Al0.2)(Si1.8Al0.2)O6 (denoted as CMASO) from the evolution of CaMgSi2O6 (denoted as CMSO) codoped with Ce3+ and Tb3+ ions was designed successfully by solid reaction method for application in phosphor-converted white-light-emitting diode (pc-wLED). The Rietveld refinement of these two structures verified the changes derived from the replacement of some of the Mg2+ and Si4+ ions by Al3+ ions. The band gaps were calculated by density-functional theory (DFT) calculation method to verify the change of Al3+ ions replacing further, and the diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS) proved the veracity of the calculation result. The phosphors CMASO:Ce3+ showed blue emission excited by a wider excitation wavelength from 280 nm to 370 nm. The change of structure lead to the absorbable range broaden and the emission peak shifted to longer wavelength, compared with CMSO:Ce3+, although the amount of emitting center was the same. The reason for these phenomena was discussed in detail. The codoped phosphors CMASO:Ce3+,Tb3+ exhibited different emission colors from blue to green as the concentration of Tb3+ ions increased. Combined with commercial red phosphor CaAlSiN3:Eu2+ and ultraviolet LED (UV-LED) chips, the selected appropriate samples achieved white emission. The correlated color temperature (CCT) was 6137 K and the color rendering index (Ra) was 80.5, indicating that they could act as potential phosphors for possible applications in pc-wLED.

Background Stickler syndrome is a group of connective tissue disorders that can affect eye (myopia, cataract, and retinal detachment), skeleton (spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia and precocious arthritis), craniofacies (midfacial under development and cleft palate), and inner ear (conductive and sensorineural); with the degree of symptoms varying among patients. Mutations in the COL2A1, COL11A1, COL11A2, COL9A1, COL9A2, and COL9A3 procollagen genes cause Stickler syndrome. Case presentation A 16‐year‐old Mongolian girl approached our clinics with retinal detachment. The proband had vitreous degeneration in both eyes, rhegmatogenous retinal detachment in her right eye, a large area of retina degeneration in her left eye, and coupled with severe myopia. No obvious hearing disorder was found, no abnormalities in bones and joints, and her communication and learning capability were also normal. Further clinical examination showed that the patient's other five family members across three generations had vitreous and retina degenerations. Exome sequencing showed a heterozygous splicing variant in COL2A1 in all patients. Conclusions In this case report, a pathogenic splicing variant in the COL2A1 gene was identified in a Mongolian family affected with Stickler syndrome type I by exome sequencing. This heterozygous splicing variant in COL2A1 (NM_001844.4:C.2518‐1G>A) that may impair splicing, which was suggested by in silico prediction. Next‐generation sequencing is helpful for the differential diagnosis of this clinically variable and genetically heterogeneous disorder., For the first time, our study reports a Mongolian family case of STL1 in Chinese population, which expand the spectrum of COL2A1 mutations.

The treatment of large segmental bone defects and complex types of fractures caused by trauma, inflammation, or tumor resection is still a challenge in the field of orthopedics. Various natural or synthetic biological materials used in clinical applications cannot fully replicate the structure and performance of raw bone. This highlights how to endow materials with multiple functions and biological properties, which is a problem that needs to be solved in practical applications. Hydrogels with outstanding biocompatibility, for their casting into any shape, size, or form, are suitable for different forms of bone defects. Therefore, they have been used in regenerative medicine more widely. In this review, versatile hydrogels are compounded with nanoparticles of different dimensions, and many desirable features of these materials in bone regeneration are introduced, including drug delivery, cell factor vehicle, cell scaffolds, which have potential in bone regeneration applications. The combination of hydrogels and nanoparticles of different dimensions encourages better filling of bone defect areas and has higher adaptability. This is due to the minimally invasive properties of the material and ability to match irregular defects. These biological characteristics make composite hydrogels with different dimensional nanoparticles become one of the most attractive options for bone regeneration materials.

Two CuxIy-based copper–organic frameworks with multiple secondary building units (SBUs), [(Cu4I4)8(Cu8I6)(Dabco)8Cu12L24DMF12]·2NO3−·17DMF (1) and [(Cu4I4)CuL2(Dabco)1.5]·10H2O·2DMF (2) (Dabco = 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane, H2L = 4-pyridylbenzoate, DMF = N,N-dimethylformamide), have been successfully synthesized under solvothermal conditions and structurally characterized. Compound 1 possesses a 24-connected twisty truncated cuboctahedra supermolecular building block (SBB) constructed from a rare Cu8I6 cluster and 8 tetrahedral Cu4I4 SBUs, which is the first reported SBB based on CuxIy clusters. Compound 2 is a doubly interpenetrated MOF based on Cu4I4 and Cu-paddlewheel SBUs with a (4,6)-connected network. It is worth noting that the BET surface area of compound 2 ranks highly among the CuxIy-based MOF materials. In addition, both compounds exhibit high performance for I2 sorption and release.

Two novel porous MOFs, [Cu2Cl(TZI)(H2O)3]·4DMA (compound 1) and [Cu2(TZI)(OH)(DMF)]·DMF·H2O (compound 2) (H3TZI = 5-(tetrazol-5-yl)isophthalic acid, DMA = N,N-dimethylacetamide, and DMF = N,N-dimethylformamide), have been successfully synthesized using the same ligand consisting of isophthalate and tetrazolate groups and CuCl2·2H2O through the secondary building unit (SBU) strategy. Both compounds are constructed from copper cluster-based SBUs. Compound 1 is made up of two different cages based on a Cu paddlewheel and rare-reported double-crown like hexanuclear Cu cluster. In this SBU, the Cu atom adopts a five-coordination in a trigonal bipyramidal configuration, which is very rare in reported MOFs. Moreover, compound 1 with dual functionalities of open metal sites (OMSs) and N-rich Lewis basic sites (LBSs) exhibits good CO2 adsorption (92 cm3 g−1 at 273 K) and high-effect separation ability (9.6 for CO2/CH4 = 0.5/0.5 under 1 bar at 298 K).

ObjectivesTo evaluate the anticancer effects of lupeol in retinoblastoma cells.MethodsWERI-Rb-1 and Y-79 cell lines were used to evaluate the anticancer effect of lupeol. After lupeol treatment, the viability, proliferation, apoptosis, cancer stem-like properties, autophagy and in vivo tumour xenograft formation were detected.Key findingsIn this study, lupeol decreased cell viability in both WERI-Rb-1 and Y-79 cell lines. Lupeol could also inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis of RB cells, with increased Bax level and decreased Ki67, survivin and Bcl-2 levels. Furthermore, lupeol could suppress the spheroid formation and stem-like properties of RB cells. Moreover, LC3 II/LC3 I ratio and the levels of Beclin1 and ATG7 were increased after lupeol treatment, indicating that lupeol could induce autophagy in RB cells. Next, the inhibitory effect of lupeol on the phosphoinositide 3-kinase/protein kinase B/mammalian target of rapamycin pathway was observed. In tumour-bearing mice, lupeol suppressed tumour growth, and this might relate to its role in cell apoptosis, autophagy and stem-like properties.ConclusionsLupeol suppressed proliferation and cancer stem-like properties, and promoted autophagy and apoptosis of RB cells by restraining the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway.

Background Cataracts are commonly seen during the diagnosis of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) or occur following its surgical management. Refractive changes following combined phacoemulsification and vitrectomy (phacovitrectomy) can affect the quality of vision. This study aimed to evaluate the refractive changes following vitrectomy versus phacovitrectomy in patients with RRD. Methods A total of 96 patients who underwent retinal surgery for RRD in one eye, between August 2016 and January 2018, were enrolled and divided into three groups. In 18 eyes, 23-gauge transconjunctival sutureless vitrectomy (23G TSV) was performed (group A); 25G TSV was performed in 49 eyes (group B), and phacovitrectomy with 25G TSV was performed in 29 eyes (group C). Silicone oil was injected after the surgery in all three groups. Anterior and posterior corneal astigmatism, axial length (AL), and anterior chamber depth (ACD) were measured at baseline and postoperatively at 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months. Results Anterior and posterior corneal astigmatism did not change, and AL continued to increase for 3 months after surgery, whereas ACD decreased postoperatively but quickly returned to baseline in groups A and B. In group C, anterior and posterior corneal astigmatism, AL, and ACD increased postoperatively, and corneal astigmatism returned to baseline by 3 months, but AL and ACD continued to increase for 3 months. Conclusion Vitrectomy alone does not affect anterior or posterior corneal astigmatism. Following vitrectomy, the AL increases, while the ACD decreases transiently. When vitrectomy is combined with phacoemulsification for cataract removal, the anterior and posterior corneal astigmatism increases transiently, while AL and ACD are enlarged for several months following surgery.

A modified structure Ca(Mg

Students borrow books in university libraries with diverse motivations that associated with individual demographic characterists and therefore group into communities of students. In this paper, we analyze the relationship between demographic characterists and network communities of student borrowing behaviors using CDM. Taking the library system of Jilin University as a case study, we construct network with students as nodes and the connections between them as edges weighted by the number of shared borrowing books. The communities identify the group of students with borrowing similar books. The communities identify the group of students with borrowing similar books. Demographic characterists are mapped into nodes in the network and serve as independent variables to classify the community categories of students.

Songhe Li,1 Dacheng Wen,2 Songtian Che,3 Zhihua Cui,1 Yabin Sun,1 Hua Ren,1 Jilong Hao1 1Department of Ophthalmology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Gastrointestinal Nutrition and Hernia Surgery, The Second Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Ophthalmology, The Second Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, People’s Republic of China Background: A growing body of evidence supports the involvement of long noncoding RNA 00152 (LINC00152) in the progression and metastasis of multiple cancers. However, the exact roles of LINC00152 in the progression of human retinoblastoma (RB) remain unknown. We explored the expression and biological function of human RB.Materials and methods: The expression level of LINC00152 in RB tissues and cells was analyzed using quantitative real-time PCR. The function of LINC00152 was determined using a series of in vitro assays. In vivo, a nude mouse model was established to analyze the function of LINC00152. Gene and protein expressions were detected using quantitative real-time PCR and Western blot assays, respectively.Results: The expression of LINC00152 mRNA was upregulated in RB tissues and cell lines. Knockdown of LINC00152 significantly inhibited cell proliferation, colony formation, migration, and invasion and promoted cell apoptosis and caspase-3 and caspase-8 activities in vitro, as well as suppressing tumorigenesis in vivo. We identified several genes related to proliferation, apoptosis, and invasion including Ki-67, Bcl-2, and MMP-9 that were transcriptionally inactivated by LINC00152.Conclusion: Taken together, these data implicate LINC00152 as a therapeutic target in RB. Keywords: retinoblastoma, LINC00152, proliferation, invasion

BACKGROUND Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common malignant and lethal type of primary central nervous system tumor in humans. In spite of its high lethality, a small percentage of patients have a relatively good prognosis, with median survival times of 36 months or longer. The identification of clinical subsets of GBM associated with distinct molecular genetic profiles has made it possible to design therapies tailored to treat individual patients. METHODS We compared microarray data sets from long-term survivors (LTSs) and short-term survivors (STSs) to screen for prognostic biomarkers in GBM patients using the WebArrayDB platform. We focused on FBLN4, IGFBP-2, and CHI3L1, all members of a group of 10 of the most promising, differentially regulated gene candidates. Using formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded GBM samples, we corroborated the relationship between these genes and patient outcomes using methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for MGMT methylation status and quantitative reverse transcription PCR for expression of these genes. RESULTS Expression levels of the mRNAs of these 3 genes were higher in the GBM samples than in normal brain samples and these 3 genes were significantly upregulated in STSs compared to the levels in LTS samples (P

Background Pathological retinal neovascularization is a disease characterized by abnormal angiogenesis in retina that is a major cause of blindness in humans. Previous reports have highlighted the involvement of microRNAs (miRNAs) in retinal angiogenesis. Therefore, we aimed at exploring the mechanism underlying miR-203 regulating the progression of pathological retinal neovascularization. Methods Initially, the mouse model of pathological retinal neovascularization disease was established and the hypoxia-induced human retinal microvascular endothelial cells (HRMECs) were generated. Then, miR-203 and SNAI2 expression in HRMECs and retinal tissues was examined. Subsequently, the effects of miR-203 and SNAI2 on viability, migration, apoptosis and angiogenesis of HRMECs were investigated, with the expression of Bax, Ki-67, MMP-2, MMP-9, VEGF and CD34 measured. Finally, the regulation of miR-203 or SNAI2 on GSK-3β/β-catenin pathway was determined through examining the levels of phosphorylated p-GSK-3β and β-catenin. Results Poorly expressed miR-203 and highly expressed SNAI2 were found in HRMECs and retinal tissues of pathological retinal neovascularization. Importantly, overexpressed miR-203 or silencing SNAI2 inhibited viability, migration and angiogenesis but promoted apoptosis of HRMECs, evidenced by elevated Bax expression but reduced expression of Ki-67, MMP-2, MMP-9, VEGF and CD34. Moreover, overexpression of miR-203 was found to repress the GSK-3β/β-catenin pathway by downregulating SNAI2. Conclusion Collectively, this study demonstrated that overexpression of miR-203 suppressed the angiogenesis in mice with pathological retinal neovascularization disease via the inactivation of GSK-3β/β-catenin pathway by inhibiting SNAI2, which provided a novel therapeutic insight for pathological retinal neovascularization disease.

Typically, sialic acids (SA) with a nine-carbon backbone are found at the glycan chain termini on the cell membranes, which play crucial roles in various physiological and pathological processes. The expression level of SA in the blood serum has been reported to correlate with various disease states among cancer. In this study, a novel approach for preparing fluorescent boronic-acid-modified carbon dots (C-dots) for the detection of SA was developed. The functionalized C-dots were synthesized by a facile, one-step hydrothermal method using 3-pyridineboronic acid as the sole carbon source. The added SA selectively recognized the C-dots, leading to the fluorescence quenching of the C-dots in a linear range of 80–4000 μM with a detection limit of 54 μM. The as-developed boronic-acid nanoprobe was successfully applied for the detection of SA in human serum samples with satisfactory results. In addition, this method afforded results within 4 min. Compared to other methods, this new proposed approach was simpler and exhibited excellent sensitivity and selectivity, demonstrating immense potential as an alternative for SA detection.