Electrospun electroactive nanofibers of gelatin‐oligoaniline/Poly (vinyl alcohol) templates for architecting of cardiac tissue with on‐demand drug release

In this study, grafted gelatin with oligoaniline (GelOA) was synthesized and then mixed with Poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA). Several scaffolds with different ratio of PVA/GelOA were electrospun to fabricate electroactive scaffolds. GelOA was characterized using Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR); moreover, nanofiber properties were evaluated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyses. Nanofibers diameter was decreased with aniline oligomer increment form 300 to 150 nm because of the hydrophobic nature of the aniline oligomer. Aniline oligomer electroactivity was studied using cyclic voltammetry, which exhibited two redox peaks at 0.4 and 0.6. Moreover, aniline oligomer enhancement resulted in melting point increasing from 220°C to 230°C because of the crystallinity increment. To assess the biocompatibility of nanofibers, cell viability and cell adhesion were tracked using mesenchymal stem cell (MSCs). It was revealed that the presence of aniline oligomer leads to enhancing the conductivity, thermal properties and lowering the degradation rate and drug release. Among of different scaffolds, sample with high content of GelOA shows better behavior in physical and biological properties. Accumulative drug releases under applied electrical field at 40 minutes showed that the drug release for stimulated condition is about 33% more than the unapplied electrical field one.     

Self‐Healing Supramolecular Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering Applications

Self‐healing supramolecular hydrogels have emerged as a novel class of biomaterials that combine hydrogels with supramolecular chemistry to develop highly functional biomaterials with advantages including native tissue mimicry, biocompatibility, and injectability. These properties are endowed by the reversibly cross‐linked polymer network of the hydrogel. These hydrogels have great potential for realizing yet to be clinically translated tissue engineering therapies. This review presents methods of self‐healing supramolecular hydrogel formation and their uses in tissue engineering as well as future perspectives.     

太赫兹光脉冲在生物介质中传播的蒙特卡罗法模拟

太赫兹光脉冲照射生物组织,利用蒙特卡罗方法模拟光脉冲在生物介质内的散射传播过程。光脉冲准垂直入射的情况下,得到了介质表面总漫反射率和总漫透射率与介质散射系数、吸收系数、平均散射余弦,以及介质厚度之间的关系;散射系数越大,总漫反射率越大;平均散射余弦值越小,总漫反射率也越大;同时总漫反射光强随着介质厚度的增加而增大,但存在一个极限值。     

Light Diffraction from Wood Tissue

Electromagnetic analysis of the interaction between light and wood tissue is presented. The wood structure is modelled as a periodic binary structure and the transmitted diffraction efficiencies are calculated using the Fourier modal method. Comparison between theoretical and experimental results from thin wood slice are also presented. The results explain the emergence of the experimentally observed oval scattering pattern on the surface of wood.     

Porous-conductive chitosan scaffolds for tissue engineering, 1. Preparation and characterization

Novel porous-conductive chitosan scaffolds were fabricated by incorporating conductive polypyrrole (PPy) particles into a chitosan matrix and employing a phase separation technique to build pores inside the scaffolds. Conductive polypyrrole particles were prepared with a microemulsion method using FeCl3 as a dopant. The preparation conditions were optimized to obtain scaffolds with controlled pore size and porosity. The conductivity of the scaffolds was investigated using a standard four-point probe technique. It was found that several kinds of scaffolds showed a conductivity close to 10(-3) S.cm(-1) with a low polypyrrole loading of around 2 wt.-%. The main mechanical properties, such as tensile strength, breaking elongation and Young's modulus of the scaffolds, were examined both in the dry and in the hydrated states. The results indicated that a few different kinds of scaffolds exhibited the desired mechanical strength for some tissue engineering applications. The miscibility of polypyrrole and chitosan was also evaluated using a dynamic mechanical method. The presence of significant phase separation was detected in non-porous PPy/chitosan scaffolds but enhanced miscibility in porous PPy/chitosan scaffolds was observed.     

近红外光谱范围人肝癌变和热凝固导致组织吸收和散射特性的变化

研究了人肝的癌变及热凝固导致其对710,730,750,770,790,810,830,850,870和890 nm的钛宝石激光的吸收和散射特性的变化,实验采用双积分球测量系统以及反向倍增法获取肝组织的吸收和散射特性参数.结果表明:人肝的癌变导致其吸收系数发生了显著的减小,其变化的最大值在850 nm,其值为86.12%,而变化的最小值在750 nm,其值为82.65%.正常人肝组织热凝固导致其吸收系数明显变化,其吸收系数的变化的最大值在710 nm,其值为79.55%,而变化的最小值在790 nm,其值为0.72%.人肝癌组织热凝固导致其吸收系数显著地增大,其变化的最大值在810 nm,其值为78.69%,而变化的最小值在710nm,其值为38.16%.人肝的癌变导致了肝组织的散射系数发生了显著的增大,其变化的最大值在710 nm,其值为158.37%,而变化的最小值在890 nm,其值为136.03%.正常人肝组织热凝固导致其散射系数显著地增大,其变化的最大值在890 nm,其值为632.92%,而变化的最小值在710 nm,其值为587.40%.人肝癌组织热凝固导致其散射系数显著地增大,其变化的最大值在810 nm,其值为384.25%,而变化的最小值在710 nm,其值为330.86%.肝组织的吸收和散射特性的变化也随着激光波长的变化而变化.     

Ultrastructural examination of dentin using focused ion-beam cross-sectioning and transmission electron microscopy

Focused ion-beam (FIB) milling is a commonly used technique for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) sample preparation of inorganic materials. In this study, we seek to evaluate the FIB as a TEM preparation tool for human dentin. Two particular problems involving dentin, a structural analog of bone that makes up the bulk of the human tooth, are examined. Firstly, the process of aging is studied through an investigation of the mineralization in ‘transparent’ dentin, which is formed naturally due to the filling up of dentinal tubules with large mineral crystals. Next, the process of fracture is examined to evaluate incipient events that occur at the collagen fiber level. For both these cases, FIB-milling was able to generate high-quality specimens that could be used for subsequent TEM examination. The changes in the mineralization suggested a simple mechanism of mineral ‘dissolution and reprecipitation’, while examination of the collagen revealed incipient damage in the form of voids within the collagen fibers. These studies help shed light on the process of aging and fracture of mineralized tissues and are useful steps in developing a framework for understanding such processes.     

An object-oriented designed finite-difference time-domain simulator for electromagnetic analysis and design in MRI--applications to high field analyses

This paper presents a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulator for electromagnetic analysis and design applications in MRI. It is intended to be a complete FDTD model of an MRI system including all RF and low-frequency field generating units and electrical models of the patient. The program has been constructed in an object-oriented framework. The design procedure is detailed and the numerical solver has been verified against analytical solutions for simple cases and also applied to various field calculation problems. In particular, the simulator is demonstrated for inverse RF coil design, optimized source profile generation, and parallel imaging in high-frequency situations. The examples show new developments enabled by the simulator and demonstrate that the proposed FDTD framework can be used to analyze large-scale computational electromagnetic problems in modern MRI engineering.     

Biological tissue imaging with time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry and cluster ion sources

Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) using liquid metal ion guns (LMIGs) is now sensitive enough to produce molecular-ion images directly from biological tissue samples. Primary cluster ions strike a spot on the sample to produce a mass spectrum. An image of this sample is achieved by rastering the irradiated point over the sample surface. The use of secondary ion mass spectrometry for mapping biological tissue surfaces provides unique analytical capabilities; in particular, it enables in a single acquisition a large variety of biological compounds to be localised on a micrometer scale and scrutinised for colocalisations. Without any treatment of the sample, this method is fully compatible with subsequent and complementary analyses like fluorescence microscopy, histochemical staining, or even matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation imaging. Basic physical concepts, required instrumentation (ion source and mass analyzer), sample preparation methods, image acquisition, image processing, and emerging biological applications will be described and discussed.     

Monte Carlo simulation of light propagation in adult brain: influence of tissue blood content and indocyanine green

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), applied to a human head, is a noninvasive method in neurointensive care to monitor cerebral hemodynamics and oxygenation. The method is particularly powerful when it is applied in combination with indocyanine green (ICG) as a tracer substance. In order to assess contributions to the measured optical density (OD) which are due to extracerebral circulation and disturb the clinically significant intracerebral signals, we simulated the light propagation in an anatomically representative model of the adult head derived from MRI measurements with the aid of Monte Carlo methods. Since the measured OD signal depends largely on the relative blood content in various transilluminated tissues, we weighted the calculated densities of the photon distribution under baseline conditions within the tissues with the changes and aberrations of the relative blood volumes which we expect to prevail under physiological conditions. Furthermore, the influence of the IGC dye as a tracer substance was assessed. We conclude that up to about different 70% of the measured OD signal may have its origin in the tissues of interest under optimal conditions, which is mainly due to the extrapolated high relative blood content of brain tissue along with the influence of ICG.