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Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic disease mainly caused by insufficient insulin secretion and insulin resistance. In addition, T2DM is often accompanied by dysregulation of lipid metabolism and...

Magnetic soft materials (MSM) show excellent potential in soft robotics, biomedicine, and sensors because of their excellent magnetic response, reversible deformation, and controlled motion. A hard magnetic soft material (HASM) that can be obtained by adding hard magnetic particles to a soft material matrix. By programing the spatial magnetization profile of the HASM object and manipulating the driving magnetic field, it exhibits excellent shape manipulation performance with unconstrained, reversible deformation transformation and controlled motion. In this study, a HASM ink consisting of hard magnetic NdFeB particles with a soft silicone rubber matrix was prepared. A 4D printing strategy using 3D injection printing technology combined with origami magnetization technology is used to fabricate 3D structured HASM objects for flexible shape programmability. A variety of programed shapes of HASM straight beams with bionic fish tails were fabricated by 4D printing strategy. The HASM straight beam is driven by the magnetic field, which can quickly realize the transformation and change of the preset shape as well as the shape of the HASM beam. The HASM bionic fish tail can swing rapidly under the action of the driving magnetic field. It shows a broad potential in the field of soft and bionic robots.

Insulin resistance is the major factor involved in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. Although the oral drug metformin (MH) is widely used to reduce hyperglycemia, it is associated with adverse effects. Therefore, there is an urgent need to search for safe and natural foods that do not cause adverse effects as alternatives to commercial drugs. In this study, the active substances from Spirulina platensis, Grifola frondosa, Panax ginseng, and chromium-rich yeast were used to obtain Spirulina functional formulations (SFFs), and its therapeutic effects on mice with glycolipid metabolism disorder (GLD) were investigated. Results showed that SFFs not only improved glycolipid metabolism and reduced inflammation in mice with GLD but also showed good regenerative effects on the liver, jejunum, and cecum tissues. Moreover, SFFs could inhibit the growth of harmful microbes in the intestine and promote the proliferation of beneficial bacteria, thereby promoting the production of short-chain fatty acids and further regulating GLD. Additionally, SFFs significantly increased the expression of INS, INSR, IRS-1, PI3K, AKT-1, and GLUT-4 genes and significantly decreased that of GSK-3β in the INS/PI3K/GLUT-4 signaling pathway. Therefore, the findings of this study suggest that SFFs can be further developed as a new class of therapeutic agents against GLD.