Our aim was to investigate whether hot water extract (CLW) of
L. could prevent non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). HepG2 cells were treated with free fatty acid (FFA) mixture (oleic acid: ...palmitic acid, 2:1) for 24 h to stimulate in vitro fatty liver. In addition, C57BL/6 mice were fed 60 kcal% high-fat (HF) diet for eight weeks to induce fatty liver in vivo. Intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and malondialdehyde (MDA) productions were increased by FFA and HF-diet, but supplementation with CLW significantly decreased these levels. CLW treatment ameliorated antioxidant activities that were suppressed by exposure to the FFA and HF-diet. Cluster of differentiation 36 (CD36) and fatty acid transport proteins (FATP2 and FATP5) were increased in HF-diet groups, while CLW suppressed their expression levels. Moreover, sterol regulatory element-binding protein-1c (SREBP-1c), acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase (ACC), and fatty acid synthase (FAS) expression levels were down-regulated in the CLW groups compared to HF-diet groups. On the other hand, 5' adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK), Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPAR-α), and carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1 (CPT-1) expressions were up-regulated in the CLW groups. HF-diet fed mice showed high hepatic triglycerides (TG) content compared to the normal diet mice. However, the administration of CLW restored the hepatic TG level, indicating an inhibitory effect against lipid accumulation by CLW. These results suggest that CLW could be a potentially useful agent for the prevention of NAFLD through modulating fatty acid uptake.
Flexible, transparent and biocompatible polymer nanocomposite films can be fabricated using two-dimensional filler materials, which is of great interest for gas barrier applications. A bio-inspired ...polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanocomposite film was fabricated using sulfanilic acid group functionalized MXene (f-MXene) as the reinforcing filler and boric acid (BA) as the crosslinking agent. The f-MXene/BA/PVA nanocomposite films were characterized in terms of their thermal stability, mechanical properties and gas barrier efficacy, and the results indicated these were significantly improved compared to films made from pure PVA and MXene/BA/PVA nanocomposites. This is due to the homogeneous dispersion of the MXene and strong interfacial covalent bonds created by the BA crosslinkers between the f-MXene and the PVA matrix. The nanocomposite film consisting of 0.5 wt% f-MXene and 0.5 wt% BA (0.5 wt% f-MXene/BA/PVA) shows an oxygen permeability of ~0.73 × 10−2 cc∙cm/m2∙day∙atm, which is a reduction of around 69% in gas permeability compared to that of a pure PVA film. In addition, the initial thermal decomposition temperature of the 0.5 wt% f-MXene/BA/PVA nanocomposite film increased from 257.4 °C to 288.2 °C. Futhermore, the tensile strength of the f-MXene/BA/PVA nanocomposite film improved by 67%, and the modulus was also increased by 49%. These results clearly suggest that the MXene/BA/PVA is an effective nanocomposite film when used as a high-performance gas barrier films. The functionalization of MXene and borate-crosslinking represents a practical method to improve the various properties of a range of polymers.
Future generation power requirement triggers the increasing search for electrocatalysts towards oxygen reduction, which is the pivotal part to enhance the activity of metal–air batteries and fuel ...cells. The present article reports a novel 3 D composite structure weaving 1 D carbon nanotubes (CNT) and 2 D MoS2 nanosheets. The MoS2–CNT composite exhibits excellent electrocatalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline environment. Measurements show better methanol immunity and higher durability than Pt/C, which is considered the state‐of‐the‐art catalyst for ORR. Experimental results suggest that the hybridization of 1 D functionalized multiwalled CNTs (MWCNTs) and exfoliated 2 D MoS2 nanosheet results significant synergistic effect, which greatly promotes the ORR activity. This work presents a new avenue to rationally design a 3 D porous composite out of 1 D and 2 D interlaced components and demonstrate appreciable electrochemical performance of the materials towards ORR activity for fuel cells as well as metal–air batteries.
Triple threat: A 3 D composite structure weaving 1 D carbon nanotubes (CNT) and 2 D MoS2 nanosheets is reported with excellent electrocatalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline environment. Measurements show improved methanol immunity and durability of the 3 D MoS2–CNT composite compared with Pt/C, demonstrating appreciable electrochemical performance of the materials towards ORR activity for fuel cells as well as metal–air batteries.
Display omitted
The pseudocapacitive metal oxide anchored nanocarbon-based three-dimensional (3D) materials are considered attractive electrode materials for high-performance supercapacitor ...applications. However, the complex multistep synthesis approaches raise production costs and act as a major barrier to the practical real-world field. To overcome this limitation, in this study, an easily scalable and effective fabrication approach for the development of iron oxide (Fe3O4) anchored highly porous carbon nanotube hybrid foam (f-Fe3O4/O-CNTF) with micro/mesoporous structure was suggested to improve the durability and energy storage performance. The surface morphology-tuned f-Fe3O4/O-CNTF (f-Fe3O4/O-CNTF(M)) was fabricated through electromagnetic interaction between the anchored magnetic Fe3O4 on the CNT surface and the applied magnetic field. The obtained results clearly demonstrated that the changed surface morphology of the f-Fe3O4/O-CNTF(M) strongly affected the meso- and micropore structure, electrochemical performance, and durability. Consequently, the f-Fe3O4/O-CNTF(M) showed an almost 120% enhanced specific surface area and nearly 1.9 times increased specific capacitance compared to that of the f-Fe3O4/O-CNTF. Furthermore, the changed surface morphology successfully prevented the re-aggregation of the initial structure and significantly improved durability. As a result, f-Fe3O4/O-CNTF(M) showed outstanding cycling stability, maintaining almost 100% capacitance retention after 14,000 cycles. Consequently, the assembled symmetric supercapacitor device delivered an energy density of 20.1 Wh·kg−1 at a power density of 0.37 kW·kg−1 with good cycling stability. These results suggest that the f-Fe3O4/O-CNTF(M) can potentially be used as an electrode for supercapacitors with good durability.
Scope
To determine the correlation between obesity and insulin resistance in skeletal muscle and liver tissues, this study isolates exosomes from adipose tissue under obese conditions and ...investigates the effect of adipose tissue‐derived exosomes (Ad‐exosomes) in mouse muscle (C2C12 cells) and liver cell lines (AML12 cells).
Methods and results
The study isolates exosomes from the adipose tissue of normal diet‐fed mice or high‐fat diet (HFD)‐fed obese mice and confirms the uptake into differentiated C2C12 and AML12 cells. Ad‐exosomes from HFD‐fed mice induce insulin resistance, triglyceride (TG) accumulation, endoplasmic reticulum stress, and inflammation in both C2C12 and AML12 cells. Interestingly, the study finds that the TG accumulation induces by Ad‐exosomes from HFD‐fed obese mice is dramatically increased in AML12 cells compared with that in the differentiated C2C12 cells, and glucose uptake following the same treatment is decreased in C2C12 cells and increased in AML12 cells. In addition, Ad‐exosomes from HFD‐fed obese mice cause not only TG accumulation but also lipogenesis in AML12 cells.
Conclusions
The results suggest that Ad‐exosomes from HFD‐fed obese mice cause insulin resistance in both the muscles and liver, but their effects on metabolism during the development of insulin resistance vary between tissues.
A schematic diagram showing the possible mechanism of adipose tissue‐derived exosome roles in obesity‐mediated insulin resistance and triglyceride accumulation in muscle and liver cells.
The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of low-molecular-weight fish collagen (valine-glycine-proline-hydroxyproline-glycine-proline-alanine-glycine; LMWCP) on H
O
- or LPS-treated ...primary chondrocytes and monoiodoacetate (MIA)-induced osteoarthritis rat models. Our findings indicated that LMWCP treatment exhibited protective effects by preventing chondrocyte death and reducing matrix degradation in both H
O
-treated primary chondrocytes and cartilage tissue from MIA-induced osteoarthritis rats. This was achieved by increasing the levels of aggrecan, collagen type I, collagen type II, TIMP-1, and TIMP-3, while simultaneously decreasing catabolic factors such as phosphorylation of Smad, MMP-3, and MMP-13. Additionally, LMWCP treatment effectively suppressed the activation of inflammation and apoptosis pathways in both LPS-treated primary chondrocytes and cartilage tissue from MIA-induced osteoarthritis rats. These results suggest that LMWCP supplementation ameliorates the progression of osteoarthritis through its direct impact on inflammation and apoptosis in chondrocytes.
In this study, we report an effective synthesis approach for fabricating low-density polyethylene (LDPE)-based multi-functional composite through hybridization with short PE chain branched boron ...nitride nanosheet (BNNS) to be applied as a high-performance hot-melt adhesive (HMA) type thermal interface material (TIM). To enhance the thermal and mechanical properties of BNNS/LDPE, the BNNS surface was modified with short PE chain (PE–g–BNNS) via nitrene coupling reaction to improve the interfacial bonding force between the BNNS with LDPE. As a result, PE–g–BNNS/LDPE exhibited 22% increase in through-plane and 66% increase in in-plane thermal conductivity compared to the BNNS/LDPE. Its heat radiation performance was also increased by about 11% compared to the bare LDPE. In addition, the PE–g–BNNNS/LDPE shows 66% increase in tensile strength and 350% enhancement in modulus compared to the bare LDPE, suggesting that the PE–g–BNNNS/LDPE could be used as a TIM to meet the requirements for application in high-tech electronic devices.
Display omitted
•The effective synthesis way to fabrication of high-performance BNNS/LDPE composites.•Efficient heat conduction paths were constructed by linked PE-g-BNNS with LDPE.•Enhance the performance by strengthening the coupling between BNNS and LDPE matrix.•The BNNS/LDPE composites with excellent comprehensive properties can be used as TIM.
In this study, carbon nanotube (CNT) hybrid aerogels with high mechanical properties were fabricated by interconnecting structural networks of CNTs using poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) through ...amine-functionalized iron oxide (NH2-Fe). Consequently, Fe-CNT-PVA hybrid aerogels exhibited good structural stabilities, even under repeated loads due to the interconnection bonding with PVA between neighboring CNTs. Furthermore, compared to the Fe-CNT aerogels, the Fe-CNT-PVA hybrid aerogels showed ∼3 times higher specific surfaces due to the tuning of the internal morphology by controlling electromagnetic interactions between NH2-Fe on the surface of the CNTs and the applied magnetic field. These results clearly show that CNT aerogels with both improved structural stabilities and specific surface areas can be fabricated by the method proposed in this study.
Lithium iron phosphate olivine (LFP) and lithium manganese oxide spinel (LMO) are competitive and complementary to each other as cathode materials for lithium ion batteries, especially for use in ...hybrid electric vehicles and electric vehicles. Interest in these materials, due to their low cost and high safety, has pushed research and development forward and toward high performance in terms of rate capability and capacity retention or cyclability at a high temperature of around 60 degreeC. From the view point of basic properties, LFP shows a higher gravimetric capacity while LMO has better conductivities, both electrically and ionically. According to our comparison experiments, depending on the material properties and operational potential window, LFP was favored for fast charging while LMO led to better discharge performances. Capacity fading at high temperatures due to metal dissolution was revealed to be the most problematic issue of LFP and LMO-based cells for electric vehicles (EVs), with thicker electrodes, in the case of no additives in the electrolyte and no coating to prevent metal dissolution on cathode materials. Various strategies to enhance the properties of LFP and LMO are ready for the realization of EVs in the near future.
The present study aimed to investigate the antihypercholesterolemic effects of krill oil supplementation in high-cholesterol diet-induced hypercholesterolemic rats, and the mechanisms underlying ...these effects. Rats were divided into five groups: normal control, control (high-cholesterol diet), krill oil 100 mg/kg b.w. (high-cholesterol diet with Krill oil 100 mg/kg b.w.), and krill oil 200 mg/kg b.w. (high-cholesterol diet with Krill oil 200 mg/kg b.w.). After 12 weeks, the rats were sacrificed to observe the effects of krill oil on cholesterol synthesis and excretion. We found that krill oil supplementation suppressed total triglycerides, total cholesterol, and LDL-cholesterol levels, as well as HMG-CoA reductase activity. It stimulated AMPK phosphorylation, LDL receptor and ACAT2 expression in the liver, and the fecal output of cholesterol. Furthermore, it decreased the levels of P-selectin, sVCAM-1, and NO, as well as aortic wall thickness, demonstrating its role in the prevention of atherosclerosis. Thus, we suggest that krill oil supplementation can reduce LDL-cholesterol levels in the blood during hypercholesterolemia by stimulating the uptake of LDL-cholesterol into tissue and cholesterol excretion, as well as inhibition of cholesterol synthesis.
PDF
