Scratch

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common chronic inflammatory skin disorder afflicting from infancy to adults with itching, scratching, and lichenification. We aimed to investigate the effects of esculetin from Fraxinus rhynchophylla on atopic skin inflammation. For induction of atopic skin inflammation, we exposed the ears of female BALB/c mice to house dust mite (Dermatophagoides farinae extract, DFE) and 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB) for 4 weeks. Oral administration of esculetin reduced the symptoms of DFE/DNCB-induced atopic skin inflammation, which were evaluated based on ear swelling and number of scratch bouts...

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper.

In order to metastasize, tumor cells need to migrate and invade the surrounding tissues. It is important to identify compound(s) capable of disrupting the metastasis of invasive cancer cells, especially for hindering invadopodia formation, so as to provide anti-metastasis targeted therapy. Invadopodia are thought to be specialized actin-rich protrusions formed by highly invasive cancer cells to degrade the extracellular matrix (ECM). A curcuminoid analogue known as 2,6-bis-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylidine)cyclohexanone or BHMC has shown good potential in inhibiting inflammation and hyperalgesia...

Ibuprofen (IBU) has been shown to improve periodontal treatment outcomes. The aim of this study was to develop a new anti-inflammatory scaffold by functionalizing an electrospun nanofibrous poly-ε-caprolactone membrane with IBU (IBU-PCL) and to evaluate its impact on periodontal inflammation, wound healing and regeneration in vitro and in vivo. IBU-PCL was synthesized through electrospinning. The effects of IBU-PCL on the proliferation and migration of epithelial cells (EC) and fibroblasts (FB) exposed to Porphyromonas gingivlais lipopolysaccharide (Pg -LPS) were evaluated through the AlamarBlue test and scratch assay, respectively...

Turbidity sensing is very common in the control of drinking water. Furthermore, turbidity measurements are applied in the chemical (e.g., process monitoring), pharmaceutical (e.g., drug discovery), and food industries (e.g., the filtration of wine and beer). The most common measurement technique is nephelometric turbidimetry. A nephelometer is a device for measuring the amount of scattered light of suspended particles in a liquid by using a light source and a light detector orientated in 90° to each other...

The microscopic wear behavior of copper-silver multilayer samples was studied by performing sliding wear tests using a tribo-indenter. Multilayers with an average composition of Cu90Ag10 and Ag layer thicknesses ranging from 2 to 20 nm were grown by magnetron sputtering. For reference, a homogeneous Cu90Ag10 solid solution film was similarly grown. The thin films were subjected to two-dimensional wear tests by rastering a cono-spherical diamond indenter under loads of 100 to 400 µN, for 1 to 20 consecutive passes, or cycles...

Drugs of abuse cause persistent alterations in synaptic plasticity that is thought to underlie addictive-like behaviors. Although, the perisynaptic glial cells are implicated in metabolic maintenance and support of the nervous systems, accumulating evidence suggests that glial cells exert a modulatory action on synaptic functions and participate in synaptic plasticity. However, it is well-documented that glial cells are associated with the acquisition of rewarding effects of abused drugs. The role of hippocampal glial cells in addictive-like behaviors remains poorly understood...

Purpose: To explore the impact of ocular surface insults on the immunomodulatory capacity and phenotype of corneal epithelial cells (CECs) with a focus on epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Methods: Corneas were harvested from mice 6 days following scratch injury, ragweed pollen-induced allergy, or herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection and compared to healthy tissue controls. Corneas were enzymatically digested and CECs phenotypically characterized using flow cytometry...

The aim of this pilot study was to investigate the effects of commercially applied environmental enrichments on behavior and lameness in broilers. Two consecutive flocks of broilers were observed at 16 days and 30 days of age to investigate differences between enriched (peat, bales of lucerne hay, and elevated platforms) and control birds with regards to behavioral activities and lameness. More running (p < .001), worm running (p = .006), play fighting (p = .015), dust bathing (p = .009), and ground pecking while standing (p < ...

The human tympanic membrane (TM) has a thin outer epidermal layer which plays an important role in TM homeostasis and ear health. The specialised cells of the TM epidermis have a different physiology compared to normal skin epidermal keratinocytes, displaying a dynamic and constitutive migration that maintains a clear TM surface and assists in regeneration. Here, we characterise and compare molecular phenotypes in keratinocyte cultures from TM and normal skin. TM keratinocytes were isolated by enzymatic digestion and cultured in vitro...

Diabetic wounds have impaired healing and a propensity for further morbidity, which may result in amputations. Stromal vascular fraction (SVF) is an autologous source of heterogeneous cell population obtained from adipose tissue, which is rich in stem cells and presents little immunogenicity to the host. In this study, we hypothesized that murine fibroblasts subjected to hyperglycemic conditions co-treated with SVF exhibit greater functional activity through the colorimetric MTT assay and a cell-monolayer in-vitro scratch assay...

The unique properties generated due to the stacking of different atomically thin materials has opened possibilities to tune and engineer new materials for next-generation electronics. The understanding of the interlayer interactions in such stacked structures are of fundamental interest for structure and property correlation. Here, a combined approach of in situ Raman spectroscopy, mechanical straining along with MD simulations has been used to probe one of such interfaces, namely the WS2/MoS2 heterostructure...

Although research on nanopaper structures from cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) is well established, the mechanical behavior is not well understood, especially not when CNF is combined with hard nanoparticles. Cationic CNF (Q-CNF) was prepared and successfully decorated by anionic nanodiamond (ND) nanoparticles in hydrocolloidal form. The Q-CNF/ND nanocomposites were filtered from a hydrocolloid and dried. Unlike many other carbon nanocomposites, the Q-CNF/ND nanocomposites were optically transparent. Reinforcement effects from the nanodiamond were remarkable, such as Young's modulus (9...

Cytochalasin H (CyH) has been shown to exhibit promising anticancer activities against various types of cancers; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. In a previous study, we isolated CyH from the mangrove‑derived endophytic fungus Phomopsis sp. in Zhanjiang, China. In the present study, we further explored the effect of CyH on apoptosis and migration in the human lung adenocarcinoma cell line A549. Cell Counting kit‑8 (CCK‑8) assay was used to observe the effects of CyH on the growth of A549 cells...

The aim of the present study was to investigate transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily M member 2 (TRPM2), a promising therapeutic target and biomarker for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) prognosis, in addition to determining its effects regarding tumor progression and invasion. PDAC is a fatal disease with a poor prognosis, and its associated pathogenic molecular mechanisms remain to be determined. In the present study, combined analysis using genomic and transcriptomic data from two PDAC studies was performed to discover a survival‑associated biomarker of PDAC...

IL‑13 is a proinflammatory cytokine associated with multiple pathological conditions and the promotion of metastasis in lung cancer. Previous studies have demonstrated that IL‑13 and YY1 are associated with PI3K/AKT signaling. In addition, miR‑29a has been found to play a critical role in cell invasion in lung cancer. However, the molecular mechanism of miR‑29a underlying its involvement in IL‑13‑induced lung cancer cell invasion remains largely unknown. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the role of miR‑29a in cell invasion mediated by IL‑13 in lung cancer...

Metformin has been used for the treatment of type II diabetes mellitus for decades. Recently, used of metformin in the therapy of diverse human cancer types has received widespread attention, while the underlying mechanisms have been not fully elucidated. In the current study, 5-ethynyl-20-deoxyuridine assay to detect cell proliferation, flow cytometry to detect apoptosis, scratch wound healing and Transwell migration assay to detect cell migration capacity. The current study reported that metformin inhibited cell proliferation and migration, and promoted apoptosis in ovarian cancer cells, particularly under normoglycemic conditions in vitro...

NADPH oxidases (NOXs) are important in the pathophysiology of fibrotic diseases. The expression and activity of NOXs are regulated by growth factors, including transforming growth factor (TGF‑β). The proliferation of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells following epithelial‑ to‑mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a major pathological change involved in proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR). The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of the novel NOX inhibitor VAS2870 on the TGF‑β‑dependent expression of NOX4 and associated cellular events in RPE cells...

Context: Occupational injuries constitute a global health challenge, yet they receive comparatively modest scientific attention. Pattern of occupational injuries and its safety precautions among wagon repair workers is an important health issue, especially in developing countries like India. Aims: To assess the pattern of occupational injuries and utilization of safety measures among railway wagon repair workshop workers in Jhansi (U.P.). Settings and Design: Railway wagon repair workshop urban area, Jhansi (U...

Summary: BioPyramid is a python package, which serves as a scaffold for building an online application for the exploration of gene expression data. It is designed for bioinformaticians wishing to quickly share transformed data and interactive analyses with collaborators. Current R-based tools similarly address the need to quickly share "omics"-data in an exploratory format, but these are generally small-scale, single-dataset solutions. Biopyramid is written in python pyramid framework and scalable to address longer-term or more complex projects...