Hemostatic fabrics are most commonly used in baseline emergency treatment; however, the unnecessary blood loss due to the excessive blood absorption by traditional superhydrophilic fabrics is overlooked. Herein, for the first time, superhydrophobic/superhydrophilic Janus fabrics (superhydrophobic on one side and superhydrophilic on the other) are proposed: the superhydrophilic part absorbs water in the blood to expedite the clotting while the superhydrophobic part prevents blood from further permeating. Compared with the common counterparts, effective bleeding control with reducing blood loss more than 50% can be achieved while the breathability largely remain by using Janus fabrics. The proposed prototypes can even prolong the survival time in the rat model with serious bleeding. This strategy for reducing blood loss via simply tuning wettability is promising for the practical applications.

Given the novel applications of graphene materials in biomedical and electronics industry, the health hazards of these particles have attracted extensive worldwide attention. Although many studies have been performed on graphene material-induced toxic effects, toxicological data for the effect of graphene materials on the nervous system are lacking. In this study, we focused on the biological effects of graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) materials on PC12 cells, a type of traditional neural cell line. We found that GO and rGO exerted significant toxic effects on PC12 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Moreover, apoptosis appeared to be a response to toxicity. A potent increase in the number of PC12 cells at G0/G1 phase after GO and rGO exposure was detected by cell cycle analysis. We found that phosphorylation levels of ERK signaling molecules, which are related to cell cycle regulation and apoptosis, were significantly altered after GO and rGO exposure. In conclusion, our results show that GO has more potent toxic effects than rGO and that apoptosis and cell cycle arrest are the main toxicity responses to GO and rGO treatments, which are likely due to ERK pathway regulation.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of microteaching combined with the BOPPPS method (bridge‐in, learning objective, pretest, participatory learning, posttest, and summary) on a dental materials course for predoctoral dental students. Participants were 105 fourth‐year students in a dental school in China in 2016 and 2017. The control group consisted of 51 students who received conventional teaching, while the experimental group consisted of 54 students who received dental materials education from teachers using microteaching combined with the BOPPPS method. Teaching effectiveness was evaluated by all students after each class, and examination scores for the two groups were compared. The results showed that the evaluations of teacher performance in the experimental group were superior to those in the control group in two areas: effectiveness of communication and clear interpretation of abstract ideas and theories. The evaluation scores for teaching effectiveness were significantly better for the experimental group than for the control group (students were encouraged to participate in class discussion, instructor stimulated interest in the course subject, instructor encouraged students to think for themselves, students learned and understood the subject materials in the course). In addition, the experimental group had significantly higher examination scores than the control group. These results suggest that microteaching based on the BOPPPS model could stimulate the interest and enthusiasm of dental students, improve students' thinking ability, help teachers generate innovative teaching ideas, and improve teaching quality. The findings provide a scientific and rigorous theoretical basis for the promotion of this combined teaching model in various disciplines.

BackgroundThe extensive biological applications of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) in stomatology have created serious concerns about their biotoxicity. In our previous study, ZnO NPs were confirmed to transfer to the central nervous system (CNS) via the taste nerve pathway and cause neurodegeneration after 30 days of tongue instillation. However, the potential adverse effects on the brain caused by tongue-instilled ZnO NPs are not fully known.MethodsIn this study, the biodistribution of Zn, cerebral histopathology and inflammatory responses were analysed after 30 days of ZnO NPs tongue instillation. Moreover, the molecular mechanisms underlying neuroinflammation in vivo were further elucidated by treating BV2 and PC12 cells with ZnO NPs in vitro.ResultsThis analysis indicated that ZnO NPs can transfer into the CNS, activate glial cells and cause neuroinflammation after tongue instillation. Furthermore, exposure to ZnO NPs led to a reduction in cell viability and induction of inflammatory response and calcium influx in BV2 and PC12 cells. The mechanism underlying how ZnO NPs induce neuroinflammation via the Ca2+-dependent NF-κB, ERK and p38 activation pathways was verified at the cytological level.ConclusionThis study provided a new way how NPs, such as ZnO NPs, induce neuroinflammation via the taste nerve translocation pathway, a new mechanism for ZnO NPs-induced neuroinflammation and a new direction for nanomaterial toxicity analysis.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12989-018-0274-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.