Search

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have attracted great research attention due to their outstanding optoelectronic properties. The low-temperature synthesizing process of organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites can provide a significant advantage of reducing the manufacturing cost of solar cells. However, at the same time, this also brings challenges to PSCs in the form of long-term stability. Because of the low vacancy formation energy, organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites suffer from serious ion migration issue. Also, this ion migration will lead to a series of stability problems, which can hardly be addressed by encapsulation. Currently, modifying the surface of perovskite by an ion-blocking layer is a common strategy for achieving highly stable PSCs. These strategies could effectively address the stability issues caused by the interfacial ion diffusion between perovskite and the charge transport layer. However, the ion migration inside the perovskite layer could be still a knotty problem, which is difficult to be solved through surface modification. Herein, we propose a novel strategy to mitigate the internal ion migration by inserting two-dimensional graphene oxide (GO) into a perovskite layer. Close-space sublimation and ultrasonic spray coating were employed to prepare perovskite and GO layers, respectively. We found that the ion migration in the as-prepared perovskite/GO/perovskite can be successfully mitigated by the GO interlayer. As a result, the champion PSC with a GO interlayer maintained 85% of its initial power conversion efficiency (PCE) after 96 h of continuous illumination. By contrast, the efficiency of the PSC without a GO interlayer declined rapidly and maintained only 50% of the initial value. We believe that this novel interlayer strategy could provide a new idea and approach to preparing highly stable PSCs.

Doxorubicin (Dox)-loaded or selenium-substituted hydroxyapatite (HA) has been developed to achieve anti-osteosarcoma or bone regeneration in a number of studies. However, currently, there is a lack of studies on the combination of Dox and selenium loading in/on HA and comparative research studies on which form and size of HA are more suitable for drug loading and release in the treatment osteogenesis after osteosarcoma resection. Herein, selenium-doped rod-shaped nano-HA (n-HA) and spherical mesoporous HA (m-HA) were successfully prepared. The doping efficiency of selenium and the Dox loading capacity of selenium-doped HA with different morphologies were studied. The release kinetics of Dox and the selenium element in phosphate-buffered saline with different pH values was also comparatively investigated. The drug loading results showed that n-HA exhibited 3 times higher selenium doping amount than m-HA, and the Dox entrapment efficiency of selenium-doped n-HA (0.1Se-n-HA) presented 20% higher than that of selenium-doped m-HA (0.1Se-m-HA). The Dox release behaviors of HA in two different morphologies showed similar release kinetics, with almost the same Dox releasing ratio but slightly more Dox releasing amount in selenium-doped HA than in HA without selenium. The selenium release from selenium-doped n-HA-D (0.1Se-n-HA-D) particles was 2 times as much as that of selenium-doped m-HA-D (0.1Se-m-HA) particles. Our study indicated that n-HA loaded with Dox and selenium may be a promising drug delivery strategy for inhibition of osteosarcoma recurrence and promoting osteogenesis simultaneously.

Sporadic thumb polydactyly with nonfamily inheritance is the most common in clinical work. This study focused on characterization of GLI3 gene function. We constructed the plasmid with p.m948i point mutation of GLI3 and transfected it into mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) to study the effects and potential mechanism of the mutant gene. The RNA of GLI3 mutant cells was extracted and analyzed by transcriptome sequencing and bioinformatics. Finally, we constructed cbx3 overexpression plasmid, designed siRNA for gene silencing, and transfected it into the MEFs. Cell proliferation and invasion ability of the MEFs were examined. The results showed that there were 2,452 differential expression genes in the MEFs transfected with GLI3 mutant plasmid compared with wild-type MEFs. The results of differential expression analysis showed that the cbx3 gene was significantly up-regulated. Overexpression of cbx3 in MEFs promoted cell proliferation and invasion, while siRNA knockdown of cbx3 expression reduced proliferation and invasion. GLI3 gene mutation in MEFs resulted in cbx3 up-regulation and promoted MEF proliferation and invasion. This study further clarified the potential function of GLI3 in limb development, established a new relationship between gene mutation and polydactyly, and preliminarily clarified the possible signal pathway, all of which have laid a foundation for further study on the etiology of polydactyl.

Background Polydactyly is one of the most common hereditary limb malformation characterized by additional digits in hands and/or feet. With extra fingers/toes, which could be very problematic, polydactyly patients are usually treated in early childhood by removing of extra digits with surgery. Genetically, polydactyly is caused by mutations of genes that involve in digit formation. Methods In the current report, we performed genetic analysis for polydactyly using DNA samples from a cohort of 20 Chinese patients. All patients show preaxial polydactyly in one of their hands. Results With whole‐exome sequencing (WES), we have identified two novel heterozygous mutations c.G2844A in GLI3 gene (OMIM 165240) and c.1409_1410del in EVC gene (OMIM 604831). Compound heterozygous mutations that affect KIAA0586 gene (OMIM 610178) are also detected. Proteins encoded by the genes have important roles in primary cilia and regulate sonic hedgehog signaling pathway. Conclusion Our study highlights the important roles of primary cilia in limb development, and helps to further understand the molecular mechanisms for polydactyly formation.

A bi-solvent system (ethanol and water) with the presence of l -glutamic acid (L-glu) was developed to achieve the controlled synthesis of whisker-like or urchin-like Sr-substituted HA (SrHA) through hydrothermal treatment. The effects of initial temperature of aqueous solution (ASIT), the presence of Sr, and ethanol proportion on HA morphology were investigated and the underlying mechanisms were illustrated. The results indicate that Sr and ethanol have antagonistic effects on the size of HA whisker, the introduction of Sr tends to reduce the whisker size, while the addition of ethanol tends to increase the nucleation efficiency. Finally, the whisker size and uniformity of SrHA can be regulated via ethanol proportion in the bi-solvent system. ASIT mainly affects the uniformity of solution by affecting Brownian motion in solution, which couples with the different solubility of l -glu and reactant ions in water and ethanol, ultimately determines whether the morphology of HA is whisker-like or urchin-like. Our bi-solvent system simplifies the complex process of template agent screening compared with the ways that introducing several templates agents to achieve the morphology regulation, and enriches the methods of controlled synthesis of different morphological Sr-HA. This feasible method may provide new strategy for simplifying the synthesis of other ions-doping HA with a certain morphology.