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IntroductionIschemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is a serious complication of hepatectomy and liver transplantation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the protective effects of salvianolic acid-A (Sal-A) against IRI-induced hepatocellular injury.Material and methodsForty rats were randomly divided into the following four groups: (1) sham group, (2) IR group, (3) Sal-A(10) group and (4) Sal-A(20) group. After 90 min of ischemia and 6 h of reperfusion, serum alanine aminotransferease (ALT) and apartate aminotransferase (AST) levels were measured; the amounts of malondialdehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in the liver tissue were determined; the expression of Bcl-2 and caspase-3 was detected and the severity of apoptosis, inflammation and pathological alterations were evaluated. Also apoptosis and mRNA and protein levels of TLR4 (toll-like receptor 4) were tested.ResultsThe serum aminotransferases, hepatic MDA concentration, and apoptotic cells in the IR group were significantly higher than in the sham group (p < 0.01), whereas the Sal-A group values were lower than in the IR group (p < 0.05). Compared with the IR group, the Sal-A groups had significantly higher Bcl-2 expression and downregulated cleaved caspase-3 expression in liver tissue. Moreover, increased mRNA and protein levels of TLR4 in IR rats and Sal-A could improve the increased mRNA and protein levels of TLR4.ConclusionsSal-A had a synergistically protective effect on the liver tissue against IRI that might be due to decreased oxidative stress, inflammation, hepatocellular apoptosis and include, at least in part, the regulation of TLR4.

Background: Kidney injury commonly occurs following hemorrhagic shock. This study aims to observe the effects of mesenteric lymph duct ligation (MLDL) on the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) levels and the cell membrane adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) activity in the kidneys of rats subjected to hemorrhagic shock. Methods: Wistar rats were assigned into sham, shock, and ligation groups. The hemorrhagic shock model was established in the shock and ligation groups, and MLDL was performed in the ligation group after resuscitation. Renal homogenates were prepared to determine the ATP and ATPase levels at 90 min after hemorrhage and at 0, 1, 3, 6, 12, and 24 h after resuscitation. Results: The ATP levels, and the Na

clean water shortages due to its minimal carbon footprint. [9][10][11][12] Photothermal material is a key component in the interfacial solar evaporation systems. Up to now, the main types of photothermal materials such as carbon-based materials, [11,13] plasmonic metal nanoparticles [14][15][16][17] and narrow band-gap semiconductors, [18] have been widely investigated for solar water evaporation.Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), [19][20][21][22] hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) [23][24][25][26] and transition carbide and nitrides [27][28][29] have been arising extensive interest in photothermal conversion and energy harvesting due to their specific chemical and physical properties. [30] Tungsten disulfide (WS 2 ) , as one of the TMDs materials, has been widely investigated in optoelectronic devices, [31] sensors, [32] energy storage and conversion, [33] and solar steam generation. [34] In addition, WS 2 semiconductor demonstrates a promising photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants (rhodamine B: RhB) due to its narrow bandgap (1.3 eV) and low electronegative valence band, providing an excellent opportunity for both producing clean water and removing the organic pollutants via solar-driven steam generation. [35] Nevertheless, WS 2 materials exhibit short-wave solar light-absorbing, limiting its full-spectra solar energy utilization and reducing photothermal conversion efficiency. [36] Carbon materials, such as graphene, hold high full-wave solar absorption, excellent structural tunability and light-to-heat conversion efficiency, [13] which could offer a platform to adjust the photothermal capacity of WS 2 by fabricating their heterostructures. In the heterostructure system, the graphene acts as the transport pathway for the photo-excited carrier due to its high mobility and can assist exciton or electron-hole pair's dissociation for improving the photoresponse performance of WS 2 samples. [37] The fabrication of WS 2 -graphene heterostructures usually employs the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique or mechanical exfoliation transfer method. [37,38] Although these synthetic processes have high-level controllability, they exhibit low productivity and are only suitable for fundamental research, impeding large-scale manufacturing applications. Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides and graphene have revealed promising applications in optoelectronic and energy storage and conversion. However, there are rare reports of modifying the light-to-heat transformation via preparing their heterostructures for solar steam generation. In this work, commercial WS 2 and sucrose are utilized as precursors to produce 2D WS 2 -O-doped-graphene heterostructures (WS 2 -O-graphene) for solar water evaporation. The WS 2 -O-graphene evaporators demonstrate excellent average water evaporation rate (2.11 kg m −2 h −1 ) and energy efficiency (82.2%), which are 1.3-and 1.2-fold higher than WS 2 and O-doped graphene-based evaporators, respectively. Furthermore, for the real seawater with different pH values (p...

Seawater desalination (SD) is an effective method to solve the shortage of human water resources. Because of the excellent corrosion resistance of metallic materials in natural waters, as well as the best corrosion resistant, low density, high strength and good heat resistance in seawater, titanium and its alloys are considered the desirable marine material, including in SD equipment. This review introduces material characteristics of titanium and its alloys, and three currently most widely used commercial SD technologies: multiple effect desalination (MED), multi-stage flash (MSF) and reverse osmosis (RO). The applications and prospect of titanium and its alloys in SD industry are overviewed and analysed. This paper can be a reference for the future material selection of SD equipment.