This work was aimed to explore the effects of ulinastatin nanoparticles on the related inflammatory indicators of cardiac microvascular endothelial cells (CMVECs) induced by lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and its mechanism of action on the inflammatory response to sepsis. First, the solvent diffusion method was applied to prepare drug-loaded ulinastatin nanoparticles, so as to measure the particle size, encapsulation efficiency, and drugloading rate of the ulinastatin nanoparticles. Then, CMVECs were cultivated and damaged by LPS, which were divided into group I (without any treatment), group II (injected with 5,000 μ/mL ulinastatin), group III (with 5,000 μ/mL ulinastatin nanoparticles), IV group (with 10,000 μ/mL ulinastatin nanoparticles), and V group (with 20,000 μ/mL ulinastatin nanoparticles). The changes of cell inflammatory factors in each group before and after intervention were detected, including tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-β (IL-β), interleukin-1 (IL-1), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8), microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3-1 (LC3-1), and autophagy-related gene 5 (Atg5). Finally, 30 healthy male Wistar rats were selected to construct the sepsis rat model by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP), which were divided into a control group (group A), a sham operation group (group B), a ulinastatin group (group C), a low-dose ulinastatin nanoparticle group (group D), a mediumdose ulinastatin nanoparticle group (group E), and a high-dose ulinastatin nanoparticle group (group F). The expression levels of TNF-α, cardiac troponin I (cTnI), endothelin-1 (ET-1), and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK) and phosphorylated-p38 MARK (p-p38 MARK) in serums of the rats were detected. The results demonstrated that the encapsulation rate of ulinastatin nanoparticles was 68.28 ± 2.28 (%), the drugloading rate was 3.26 ± 0.18 (%), and the particle size was 351.25 ± 125.63 (nm), which was higher than the blank nanoparticles of 212.34 ± 98.26 (nm), P 0.05. After the intervention with ulinastatin, the levels of inflammatory factors IL-β, IL-1, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, LC3-1, and Atg5 in each group showed a marked downward trend from time T0 to T2, and there was a statistically great difference among the 6 groups at time T2 (P 0.05). The levels of cTnI, TNF-α, and ET-1 and the protein contents of p-p38 MAPK and p38 MAPK in the serums of group C, D, E, and F were sharply lower than those of group A (P 0.05); the levels of cTnI, TNF-α, and ET-1 and the protein contents of p-p38 MAPK and p38 MAPK in the serums of group D, E, and F were considerably lower than those of group C (P 0.05); and the levels of cTnI, TNF-α, and ET-1 and the protein contents of p-p38 MAPK and p38 MAPK in group E and F were lower extremely than those of group D (P 0.05). It indicated that the ulinastatin nanoparticles could slow down the inflammatory response of CMVECs induced by LPS to inhibit their inflammatory response of septic rats and reduce the expression of myocardial protein.

TiN coating has attracted substantial attention due to its high hardness and good wear resistance. To meet the current more demanding service environment, Al and Si were added to TiN coating to further improve its comprehensive performance in this work. TiAlSiN coatings with different Al content governed by Al target power were prepared on GH169 superalloy by plasma enhanced magnetron sputtering, and the Al content effects on microstructure and mechanical properties of the coatings were explored in detail. The crystal structure, chemical composition, micromorphology and surface roughness of the coatings were analyzed by XRD, SEM, EDS and AFM, respectively. The mechanical properties of the coatings at room temperature including micro-hardness, elastic modulus and bonding strength were evaluated by nano-indentation and nano-scratch, respectively. With the increase of Al target power, Al content in coatings increased, and the preferred orientation of TiN(111) plane was also more and more obvious. At the same time, the surface morphology of the coatings changed from the round cell shape to the hexagonal star shape. The hardness, elastic modulus and adhesion of the coatings increased first and then decreased with the Al content. The TiAlSiN coating with Al content of 19.25% possesses the best comprehensive properties.