Taiwan Textile Research Institute

PurposeAt present, autologous platelet-derived therapies such as platelet-rich plasma is widely used in the clinic, but allogeneic and xenogeneic therapies are currently in the research stage, mainly due to their biocompatibility in vivo. Platelet lysates depleted of antigens such as blood cells are a potential solution for allogeneic or xenogeneic applications. Platelet lysates can successfully promote the growth and differentiation of xenogeneic cells in vitro, but in vivo data are not yet available. This study aims to evaluate whether porcine platelet lysate can effectively avoid inflammatory reaction in rabbit knee joint, and then treat cartilage defect and arthritis.MethodsWe developed porcine platelet lysates containing undetectable antigens such as blood cells and complement. For xenogeneic application, platelet lysate was injected into rabbit knee joints to observe joint responses. To examine cartilage repair, osteochondral defects were created in rabbit knee joints. Rabbits were sacrificed three months after treatment with platelet lysate to observe cartilage regeneration and arthritis.ResultsThe tissue sections in the rabbit knee joints showed no inflammatory reaction. Furthermore, the injection of platelet lysate was found to effectively inhibit the formation of cartilage arthritis in rabbit knee joints.ConclusionOur experimental results show that xenogeneic platelet lysate is a safe and effective method in the treatment of arthritis, which can be used as a research basis for future medical applications. The use of xenogeneic platelet lysate for regenerative therapy in vivo is feasible.

The green macroalga Rhizoclonium was cooked with 5%, 10%, and 20% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) for 4 h (5-N, 10-N, and 20-N groups, respectively); with 5%, 10%, and 20% sodium sulfite (Na2SO3) for 4 h (5-NS, 10-NS, and 20-NS groups, respectively); and with 5%, 10%, and 20% NaOH for 2 h and 1% hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) for 2 h (5-NH, 10-NH, and 20-NH groups, respectively). The 5-NH handsheet showed the best mechanical properties; however, the 10-NH pulp was easier to separate than 5-NH during handsheet making, and 10-NH was more suitable for the industrial process. Thus, the 10-NH group showed the optimal production conditions with an optimal length/width ratio, crystallinity index (CI%), three-dimensional (3D) configuration, and mechanical strength. Substituting 20% 10-NH Rhizoclonium pulp with wood pulp had no significant effect on the mechanical properties of the 100% wood pulp handsheet. However, the fibers of the NS group were flatter and lost their 3D configuration, resulting in low mechanical strength. Overall, Rhizoclonium had its own optimal cooking condition, which was not the same as for wood pulp, and it has potential as a substitute for wood pulp in papermaking.

This study aimed to develop a silk fibroin (SF)-film for the treatment of chronic diabetic wounds. Silk fibroin was purified through a newly developed heating degumming (HD) process and casted on a hydrophobic surface to form SF-films. The process allowed the fabricated film to achieve a 42% increase in transparency and a 32% higher proliferation rate for BALB/3T3 fibroblasts compared to that obtained by conventional alkaline degumming treatment. Fourier transform infrared analysis demonstrated that secondary structure was retained in both HD- and alkaline degumming-derived SF preparations, although the crystallinity of beta-sheet in SF-film after the HD processing was slightly increased. This study also investigated whether conjugating insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) would promote diabetic wound healing and what the optimal dosage is. Using BALB/3T3 cells grown in hyperglycemic medium as a model, it was demonstrated that the optimal IGF-1 dosage to promote the cell growth was approximately 0.65 pmol. Further analysis of wound healing in a diabetic mouse model indicated that SF-film loaded with 3.25 pmol of IGF-1 showed significantly superior wound closure, a 13% increase at the 13th day after treatment relative to treatment with 65 pmol of free IGF-1. Improvement in diabetic wound healing was exerted synergistically by SF-film and IGF-1, as reflected by parameters including levels of re-epithelialization, epithelial tissue area, and angiogenesis. Finally, IGF-1 increased the epithelial tissue area and micro-vessel formation in a dose-dependent manner in a low dosage range (3.25 pmol) when loaded to SF-films. Together, these results strongly suggest that SF-film produced using HD and loaded with a low dosage of IGF-1 is a promising dressing for diabetic wound therapy.

In this research, we make the nanocellulose (NC) using acid hydrolysis and 2,2,6,6-Tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO) method from bacterial cellulose (BC), dispersed in water, incorporated into polyurethane (PU) resin, prepared the composed film and characterized by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), tensile test, and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The NC is introduced into the PU resin by physical means to increase the physical and chemical properties of the waterborne PU. First, the morphological properties of NC, measured by SEM images, tensile test and thermal properties were measured. The results indicated morphological properties in using different preparation methods for the NC were different. The morphological NC prepared by the acid hydrolysis method is a short rod; by the TEMPO method, is a filament. Successfully improved the water-resistance of the waterborne PU films. Depending on the type of resin used, the tensile properties of NC/PU composite films have a different. Compared to pure PU film, the nanocomposites presented thermal stability increases. The addition of NC composite film of NC/w-436 has the maximum elongation when NC is added to 3%. The composite film of NC/w-460 has the maximum elongation when NC is added to 20%.

Cold plasma is an emerging technology offering many potential applications for regenerative medicine or tissue engineering. This study focused on the characterization of the carboxylic acid functional groups deposited on polymeric substrates using a plasma polymerization process with an acetic acid precursor. The acetic acid precursor contains oxygen and hydrocarbon that, when introduced to a plasma state, forms the polylactide-like film on the substrates. In this study, polymeric substrates were modified by depositing acetic acid plasma film on the surface to improve hydrophilic quality and biocompatibility. The experimental results that of electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA) to show for acetic acid film, three peaks corresponding to the C–C group (285.0 eV), C–O group (286.6 eV), and C=O group (288.7 eV) were observed. The resulting of those indicated that appropriate acetic acid plasma treatment could increase the polar components on the surface of substrates to improve the hydrophilicity. In addition, in vitro cell culture studies showed that the embryonic stem (ES) cell adhesion on the acetic acid plasma-treated polymeric substrates is better than the untreated. Such acetic acid film performance makes it become a promising candidate as the surface coating layer on polymeric substrates for biomedical application.

The article “Respiratory Rate Estimation by Using ECG, Impedance, and Motion Sensing in Smart Clothing”, written by Chien-Lung Shen, Tzu-Hao Huang, Po-Chun Hsu, Ya-Chi Ko, Fen-Ling Chen, Wei-Chun Wang, Tsair Kao, Chia-Tai Chan was originally published electronically on the publisher’s internet portal (currently SpringerLink) on 1 July 2017 without open access. After publication in volume [37], issue [6], page [826–842] the authors decided to opt for Open Choice and to make the article an open access publication. Therefore, the copyright of the article has been changed to © The Author(s) 2018 and the article is forthwith distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

The effect of the addition of NIR (near infrared reflective pigment filler, nickel antimony titanium yellow rutile) into the polyamide/metallocene-based polyethylene elastomer (mPE) blends on increasing the infrared reflection of PA6 (Polyamide 6) and limiting the thermal heat accumulation in light of environmental and energy conservation concerns was examined. The NIR was included in mPE or mPE-g-MA (maleic anhydride) to form NmPE or NmPE-g-MA masterbatches, respectively, which were used in combination with polyamide 6 (PA6) to prepare PA6/NmPE or PA6/NmPE-g-MA composites. The dispersed domains of mPE modifier were larger in dimension in comparison with those of the corresponding counterparts using mPE-g-MA as the NIR carrier due to the increased interfacial interactions of the anhydride groups of the MA and the amine groups in PA6. NIR tended to increase the crystallization temperature of PA6 of up to 3°C through the nucleation role of the NIR for the NmPE-filled samples. However, this increment was diminished at higher mPE-g-MA content for the NmPE-g-MA-filled samples, suggested to be due to the interaction of mPE-g-MA and PA6 impeding the chain mobility for crystallization growth, offsetting the nucleation role of NIR. The NmPE-g-MA modified samples resulted in the highest improvement in Young’s modulus compared with the NmPE modified samples. An increase of 2 times in the impact strength occurred for PA6/NmPE(60 phr) sample, which increased to a value of 80 ± 5 (J/m). However, a non-break behavior was observed for the PA6/NmPE-g-MA samples at higher modifier contents. The values of infrared reflection increased significantly, indicating the effectiveness of NIR to improve the reflection properties of the prepared composite systems.

This paper presents the design and evaluation of a soft hand exo-sheath integrated with a soft fabric electromyography (EMG) sensor for rehabilitation and activities of daily living (ADL) assistance of stroke and spinal cord injury (SCI) patients. This wearable robot addresses the limitations of the soft robot gloves with design considerations in terms of ergonomics and clinical practice. Its features include: this exo-sheath is based on electric actuation and has been designed to be compact and portable. It reduces the shear force and avoids kinematic singularity comparing with tendon-driven soft gloves as their tendon routings are typically in parallel with individual fingers. Disparate from conventional robotic gloves, this design optimizes a bio-inspired fin-ray structure to enhance the hand proprioception as the palm is not covered by wearable structures. With a novel self-fastening finger clasp design, wearers can self-don/doff the exoskeleton device simplifying ADL assistance. To develop more intuitive control interface, a soft fabric EMG sensor has been developed to understand human intentions. The functionality of this soft robot has been demonstrated with experimental results using the low-level position control, kinematics evaluation and reliable EMG measurements.