Search Results
Durable endothelium-mimicking coating for surface bioengineering cardiovascular stents
2021, Ma, Qing, Shi, Xiuying, Tan, Xing, Wang, Rui, Xiong, Kaiqin, Maitz, Manfred F., Cui, Yuanyuan, Hu, Zhangmei, Tu, Qiufen, Huang, Nan, Shen, Li, Yang, Zhilu
Mimicking the nitric oxide (NO)-release and glycocalyx functions of native vascular endothelium on cardiovascular stent surfaces has been demonstrated to reduce in-stent restenosis (ISR) effectively. However, the practical performance of such an endothelium-mimicking surfaces is strictly limited by the durability of both NO release and bioactivity of the glycocalyx component. Herein, we present a mussel-inspired amine-bearing adhesive coating able to firmly tether the NO-generating species (e.g., Cu-DOTA coordination complex) and glycocalyx-like component (e.g., heparin) to create a durable endothelium-mimicking surface. The stent surface was firstly coated with polydopamine (pDA), followed by a surface chemical cross-link with polyamine (pAM) to form a durable pAMDA coating. Using a stepwise grafting strategy, Cu-DOTA and heparin were covalently grafted on the pAMDA-coated stent based on carbodiimide chemistry. Owing to both the high chemical stability of the pAMDA coating and covalent immobilization manner of the molecules, this proposed strategy could provide 62.4% bioactivity retention ratio of heparin, meanwhile persistently generate NO at physiological level from 5.9 ± 0.3 to 4.8 ± 0.4 × 10−10 mol cm−2 min−1 in 1 month. As a result, the functionalized vascular stent showed long-term endothelium-mimicking physiological effects on inhibition of thrombosis, inflammation, and intimal hyperplasia, enhanced re-endothelialization, and hence efficiently reduced ISR.
No Evidence for a Significant Impact of Heterogeneous Chemistry on Radical Concentrations in the North China Plain in Summer 2014
2020, Tan, Zhaofeng, Hofzumahaus, Andreas, Lu, Keding, Brown, Steven S., Holland, Frank, Huey, Lewis Gregory, Kiendler-Scharr, Astrid, Li, Xin, Liu, Xiaoxi, Ma, Nan, Min, Kyung-Eun, Rohrer, Franz, Shao, Min, Wahner, Andreas, Wang, Yuhang, Wiedensohler, Alfred, Wu, Yusheng, Wu, Zhijun, Zeng, Limin, Zhang, Yuanhang, Fuchs, Hendrik
The oxidation of nitric oxide to nitrogen dioxide by hydroperoxy (HO2) and organic peroxy radicals (RO2) is responsible for the chemical net ozone production in the troposphere and for the regeneration of hydroxyl radicals, the most important oxidant in the atmosphere. In Summer 2014, a field campaign was conducted in the North China Plain, where increasingly severe ozone pollution has been experienced in the last years. Chemical conditions in the campaign were representative for this area. Radical and trace gas concentrations were measured, allowing for calculating the turnover rates of gas-phase radical reactions. Therefore, the importance of heterogeneous HO2 uptake on aerosol could be experimentally determined. HO2 uptake could have suppressed ozone formation at that time because of the competition with gas-phase reactions that produce ozone. The successful reduction of the aerosol load in the North China Plain in the last years could have led to a significant decrease of HO2 loss on particles, so that ozone-forming reactions could have gained importance in the last years. However, the analysis of the measured radical budget in this campaign shows that HO2 aerosol uptake did not impact radical chemistry for chemical conditions in 2014. Therefore, reduced HO2 uptake on aerosol since then is likely not the reason for the increasing number of ozone pollution events in the North China Plain, contradicting conclusions made from model calculations reported in the literature. © 2020 American Chemical Society.
Long-Term Effects of Cold Atmospheric Plasma-Treated Water on the Antioxidative System of Hordeum vulgare
2022, Bussmann, Frederik, Krüger, Andrea, Scholz, Caterina, Brust, Henrike, Stöhr, Christine
Facing climate change, the development of innovative agricultural technologies securing food production becomes increasingly important. Plasma-treated water (PTW) might be a promising tool to enhance drought stress tolerance in plants. Knowledge about the effects of PTW on the physiology of plants, especially on their antioxidative system on a long-term scale, is still scarce. In this work, PTW was applied to barley leaves (Hordeum vulgare cv. Kosmos) and various constituents of the plants’ antioxidative system were analyzed 30 days after treatment. An additional drought stress was performed after foliar PTW application followed by a recovery period to elucidate whether PTW treatment improved stress tolerance. Upon PTW treatment, the Total Antioxidant Capacity (TAC) in leaves and roots was lower in comparison to deionized water treated plants. In contrast, PTW treatment caused a higher content of chlorophyll, quantum yield and total ascorbate content in leaves compared to deionized water treated plants. After additional drought application and subsequent recovery period, an enhancement of values for TAC, contents of malondialdehyde, glutathione as well as activity of ascorbate peroxidase indicated a possible upregulation of antioxidative properties in roots. Hydrogen peroxide and nitric oxide might mediate abiotic stress tolerance and are considered as key components of PTW.
Nitric oxide density distributions in the effluent of an RF argon APPJ: Effect of gas flow rate and substrate
2014, Iseni, S., Zhang, S., Van Gessel, A.F.H., Hofmann, S., Van Ham, B.T.J., Reuter, S., Weltmann, K.-D., Bruggeman, P.J.
The effluent of an RF argon atmospheric pressure plasma jet, the so-called kinpen, is investigated with focus on the nitric-oxide (NO) distribution for laminar and turbulent flow regimes. An additional dry air gas curtain is applied around the plasma effluent to prevent interaction with the ambient humid air. By means of laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) the absolute spatially resolved NO density is measured as well as the rotational temperature and the air concentration. While in the laminar case, the transport of NO is attributed to thermal diffusion; in the turbulent case, turbulent mixing is responsible for air diffusion. Additionally, measurements with a molecular beam mass-spectrometer (MBMS) absolutely calibrated for NO are performed and compared with the LIF measurements. Discrepancies are explained by the contribution of the NO2 and N2O to the MBMS NO signal. Finally, the effect of a conductive substrate in front of the plasma jet on the spatial distribution of NO and air diffusion is also investigated.
Assessing the contribution of soil NOx emissions to European atmospheric pollution
2021, Skiba, Ute, Medinets, Sergiy, Cardenas, Laura M., Carnell, Edward John, Hutchings, Nick, Amon, Barbara
Atmospheric NOx concentrations are declining steadily due to successful abatement strategies predominantly targeting combustion sources. On the European continent, total NOx emissions fell by 55% between 1990 and 2017, but only modest reductions were achieved from the agricultural sector; with 7.8% from 20 Eastern European countries and 19.1% from 22 Western European countries. Consequently, the share of agricultural NOx emissions for these 42 European countries have increased from 3.6% to 7.2%. These values are highly uncertain due to serious lack of studies from agricultural soils and manure management. The emission factor (EFNO 1.33%), currently used for calculating soil NOx emissions from European agricultural categories ‘N applied to soils’ and ‘manure management’ was evaluated here by including recently published data from temperate climate zones. The newly calculated EFNO (average 0.60%, 0.0625th%/0.5475th%, n = 65 studies) is not notably different from the current value, given the large uncertainties associated with the small pool of studies, and therefore continued use of EFNO (1.33%) is recommended until more data become available. An assessment of the contribution of agricultural and non-agricultural NOx sources found that of the 42 European countries, the 8 most populated countries achieved considerable reductions (1990–2017) from categories ‘non-agricultural sources’ (55%), ‘N applied to soils’ (43%) and ‘manure management’ (1.2%), compared to small reductions from the remaining 34 countries. Forests are also large sources of soil NOx. On average, emissions from Eastern European forests were 4 times larger than from ‘N applied agricultural soil’, whereas Western European NOx emissions from ‘N applied agricultural soil’ were two times larger than from forest soils. Given that non-agricultural sources of NOx continue to decline, soil related emissions from agriculture, forests and manure management become more important, and require rigorous investigation in order to improve atmospheric pollution forecasts.
Endothelium-Mimicking Multifunctional Coating Modified Cardiovascular Stents via a Stepwise Metal-Catechol-(Amine) Surface Engineering Strategy
2020, Yang, Ying, Gao, Peng, Wang, Juan, Tu, Qiufen, Bai, Long, Xiong, Kaiqin, Qiu, Hua, Zhao, Xin, Maitz, Manfred F., Wang, Huaiyu, Li, Xiangyang, Zhao, Qiang, Xiao, Yin, Huang, Nan, Yang, Zhilu
Stenting is currently the major therapeutic treatment for cardiovascular diseases. However, the nonbiogenic metal stents are inclined to trigger a cascade of cellular and molecular events including inflammatory response, thrombogenic reactions, smooth muscle cell hyperproliferation accompanied by the delayed arterial healing, and poor reendothelialization, thus leading to restenosis along with late stent thrombosis. To address prevalence critical problems, we present an endothelium-mimicking coating capable of rapid regeneration of a competently functioning new endothelial layer on stents through a stepwise metal (copper)-catechol-(amine) (MCA) surface chemistry strategy, leading to combinatorial endothelium-like functions with glutathione peroxidase-like catalytic activity and surface heparinization. Apart from the stable nitric oxide (NO) generating rate at the physiological level (2:2 × 10a'10 mol/cm2/min lasting for 60 days), this proposed strategy could also generate abundant amine groups for allowing a high heparin conjugation efficacy up to ∼1 μg/cm2, which is considerably higher than most of the conventional heparinized surfaces. The resultant coating could create an ideal microenvironment for bringing in enhanced antithrombogenicity, anti-inflammation, anti-proliferation of smooth muscle cells, re-endothelialization by regulating relevant gene expressions, hence preventing restenosis in vivo. We envision that the stepwise MCA coating strategy would facilitate the surface endothelium-mimicking engineering of vascular stents and be therefore helpful in the clinic to reduce complications associated with stenosis. © 2020 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All rights reserved.