Helical spring template fabrication of cell‐laden microfluidic hydrogels for tissue engineering

Cell‐laden microfluidic hydrogels find great potential applications in microfluidics, tissue engineering, and drug delivery, due to their ability to control mass transport and cell microenvironment. A variety of methods have been developed to fabricate hydrogels with microfluidic channels, such as molding, bioprinting, and photopatterning. However, the relatively simple structure available and the specific equipment required limit their broad applications in tissue engineering. Here, we developed a simple method to fabricate microfluidic hydrogels with helical microchannels based on a helical spring template. Results from both experimental investigation and numerical modeling revealed a significant enhancement on the perfusion ability and cell viability of helical microfluidic hydrogels compared to those with straight microchannels. The feasibility of such a helical spring template method was also demonstrated for microfluidic hydrogels with complex three‐dimensional channel networks such as branched helical microchannels. The method presented here could potentially facilitate the development of vascular tissue engineering and cell microenvironment engineering. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2013; 110: 980–989. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Inhibitory Effects of Nitrogen Deposition on Asymbiotic Nitrogen Fixation are Divergent Between a Tropical and a Temperate Forest

Ecosystems - Asymbiotic nitrogen (N) fixation (ANF) is an important source of N in pristine forests and is predicted to decrease with N deposition. Previous studies revealing N fixation in response...     

K‐Birnessite Electrode Obtained by Ion Exchange for Potassium‐Ion Batteries: Insight into the Concerted Ionic Diffusion and K Storage Mechanism

Novel and low‐cost rechargeable batteries are of considerable interest for application in large‐scale energy storage systems. In this context, K‐Birnessite is synthesized using a facile solid‐state reaction as a promising cathode for potassium‐ion batteries. During synthesis, an ion exchange protocol is applied to increase K content in the K‐Birnessite electrode, which results in a reversible capacity as high as 125 mAh g^?1 at 0.2 C. Upon K⁺ exchange the reversible phase transitions are verified by in situ X‐ray diffraction (XRD) characterization. The underlying mechanism is further revealed to be the concerted K⁺ ion diffusion with quite low activation energies by first‐principle simulations. These new findings provide new insights into electrode process kinetics, and lay a solid foundation for material design and optimization of potassium‐ion batteries for large‐scale energy storage.     

High-Throughput-Methyl-Reading (HTMR) assay: a solution based on nucleotide methyl-binding proteins enables large-scale screening for DNA/RNA methyltransferases and demethylases

Epigenetic therapy has significant potential for cancer treatment. However, few small potent molecules have been identified against DNA or RNA modification regulatory proteins. Current approaches for activity detection of DNA/RNA methyltransferases and demethylases are time-consuming and labor-intensive, making it difficult to subject them to high-throughput screening. Here, we developed a fluorescence polarization-based ‘High-Throughput Methyl Reading’ (HTMR) assay to implement large-scale compound screening for DNA/RNA methyltransferases and demethylases-DNMTs, TETs, ALKBH5 and METTL3/METTL14. This assay is simple to perform in a mix-and-read manner by adding the methyl-binding proteins MBD1 or YTHDF1. The proteins can be used to distinguish FAM-labelled substrates or product oligonucleotides with different methylation statuses catalyzed by enzymes. Therefore, the extent of the enzymatic reactions can be coupled with the variation of FP binding signals. Furthermore, this assay can be effectively used to conduct a cofactor competition study. Based on the assay, we identified two natural products as candidate compounds for DNMT1 and ALKBH5. In summary, this study outlines a powerful homogeneous approach for high-throughput screening and evaluating enzymatic activity for DNA/RNA methyltransferases and demethylases that is cheap, easy, quick, and highly sensitive.     

刺参养殖池塘初级生产力及其粒级结构周年变化

研究了刺参(Apostichopus japonicus Selenka)养殖池塘浮游植物初级生产力及粒级结构的周年变化规律,旨在明确刺参养殖池塘的基础生态学特征,为刺参养殖生产和管理提供科学支持。结果表明:刺参养殖池塘初级生产力年平均值为(5.16±3.04)gO2m-2d-1,全年呈现明显的季节变化,初级生产量分别在初春、夏季和初冬形成高峰。初级生产力群落净产量占毛产量的50.2%。P/R值与日P/B系数的年平均值分别为2.20±1.25和0.39±0.35。按初级生产力水平和P/R值划分的水体营养类型,调查刺参养殖池塘属富营养型水体;初级生产量随深度的增加而递减,最高生产层约在透明度的0.5倍处,且0.5倍透明度(约50 cm)以上水层初级生产量占水柱总产量的56.3%;不同粒级浮游植物生产量占总生产量的百分比具有明显的季节变化。除夏季外,以小型浮游植物(micro-,20—200μm)对初级生产力的贡献最大(43.5%),夏季为微型浮游植物(nano-,2—20μm)对初级生产力贡献最大(35.3%)。以年平均值计算,不同粒级浮游植物初级生产量占总生产量百分比的大小顺序为:小型(40.1%)微型(28.2%)中大型(16.1%)超微型(15.7%)。回归分析表明:试验池塘初级生产力水平与水温、营养盐中的氨氮和亚硝酸氮均呈显著的相关关系(P0.05)。结果提示,刺参养殖池塘初级生产力的季节变化显著,垂直分布并不均匀,小型浮游植物是其生态系统中的主要生产者。