Materials are the basis for human being survival and social development. To keep abreast with the increasing needs from all aspects of human society, there are huge needs in the development of advanced materials as well as high-efficiency but low-cost manufacturing strategies that are both sustainable and tunable. Synthetic biology, a new engineering principle taking gene regulation and engineering design as the core, greatly promotes the development of life sciences. This discipline has also contributed to the development of material sciences and will continuously bring new ideas to future new material design. In this paper, we review recent advances in applications of synthetic biology in material sciences, with the focus on how synthetic biology could enable synthesis of new polymeric biomaterials and inorganic materials, phage display and directed evolution of proteins relevant to materials development, living functional materials, engineered bacteria-regulated artificial photosynthesis system as well as applications of gene circuits for material sciences.

Objective: To evaluate one-stage repair of leg open fracture with soft tissue defect by fixation plus skin flap. Methods: From January 2011 to January 2018, 34 patients with leg open fracture plus soft tissue defect were treated at Department of Orthopedics, The Second Affiliated Hospital to Harbin Medical University. They were 31 males and 3 females, aged from 13 to 54 years(average, 35 years). According to the Gustilo classification, the defects were type ⅢA in 31 cases and type ⅢB in 3 cases. The wound size ranged from 6 cm×3 cm to 25 cm×10 cm. All patients were treated with emergency fracture fixation and flap repair by one stage after thorough debridement. Internal bone plating was performed in 32 patients and external fixation at a single arm in 2 patients. All defects were repaired with a free anterolateral thigh flap. Flap survival, vascular crisis and bone infection were followed up postoperatively. Results: All the free flaps survived in the 34 cases with no vascular crisis. These patients were followed up for 6 months to 3 years (average, 10 years). The flaps healed well, with good appearance and soft texture. No bone infection occurred at the defective sites. After postoperative rehabilitation, the knee extension ranged from 160° to 180°, knee flexion from 90° to 110°, ankle dorsal extension from 90° to 110°, and ankle plantar flexion from 100° to 120°. Conclusion Soft tissue defects in leg open fracture can be effectively treated by flap repair after thorough debridement at the same time of fracture fixation, because the primary wound healing can avoid infection and lead to fine survival of the flap.

Objective:Objectives To investigate the predictive value of color Doppler flow imaging (CDFI) for the proteinuria following pyeloplasty for congenital ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO) in children.Methods:We identified a series of 206 children with a mean age of (20.0±28.8) months (1-132 months), consisted of 171 males and 35 females, diagnosed with congenital UPJO accepted pyeloplasty from January 2014 to September 2018, the preoperative mean urinary Albumin/Creatinine Ratio (ACR) was (17.3±160.1) mg/mmol and the mean β2-microglobulin/Creatinine Ratio (β2-MG/Cr) was (135.6±383.8) μg/mmol, ultrasound showed a mean renal pelvis dilatation of (3.1±1.5) cm and a mean cortical thickness of (0.3±0.1) cm, and classified as grade Ⅰ-Ⅴ according to the blood flow distribution in renal by CDFI, these children were divided into three groups of increased, decreased and unchanged blood flow according to the postoperative CDFI within 1 week, the postoperative urinary protein and renal function indexes within 1 week and 2 years were retrospectively analysed among groups.Results:Within 1 week postoperatively, an increased, decreased and unchanged blood flow occurred in 113 (54.9%), 31(15.0%), 62(30.1%) children, respectively. Urinary ACR in above mentioned groups was (112.3±400.7), (16.1±29.3), (32.7±48.4) mg/mmol, β2-MG/Cr was (887.4±6061.0), (50.2±62.7), (51.9±57.8)μg/mmol, there were significant differences among groups ( P<0.01). Contralateral hydronephrosis occurred in 21(18.6%), 4(12.9%), 8(12.9%) children, urinary N-Acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) was (7.5±5.2), (7.0±5.4)、(5.7±4.5) U/L, these indexes showed no significant differences among groups. There was a positive correlation between the increased blood flow level and the decreased renal pelvis dilatation (Spearman’s correlation coefficient 0.2, P<0.01), ACR (Spearman’s correlation coefficient 0.4, P<0.01) and β2-MG/Cr (Spearman’s correlation coefficient 0.3, P<0.01). After a follow up of 2 years, 67 children were diagnosed with proteinuria in this series, 51 cases of them with an increased blood flow, which had significantly higher percentage than children with a decreased (4 cases, 12.9%) or unchanged blood flow (12 cases, 19.3%). Logistic multivariate analysis indicated that early postoperative (within 1 week) increased blood flow ( OR=1.9, 95% CI 1.5-2.6), contralateral hydronephrosis ( OR=2.2, 95% CI 1.1-4.8) and urinary NAG ( OR=1.1, 95% CI 1.0-1.1) were predictive of proteinuria, the increased blood flow was independent predictor of proteinuria (Ⅰ level increased: OR=1.9, 95% CI 1.5-2.6). Conclusions:The CDFI reveals good predictive value for the postoperative proteinuria, an early marked increased blood flow postoperatively indicated risk of proteinuria in the long term.

Here we investigate the physical and chemical properties of chiral self-assembling peptides and the role of uterine trauma regeneration. The circular dichroism was used to analyze secondary structure of chiral self-assembled peptide, and Congo red staining was used to observe the macroscopic process of peptide self-assembling. Erythrocyte lysis assay was used to examine the cleavage of peptide on cell membrane. The nanofiber scaffolds self-assembled by Chiral self-assembling peptides were used as the three-dimensional culture material to observe the growth effect of Hela cell. CCK-8 (cell counting kit-8) was used to study cell viability level between 2D (2-dimensional) and 3D (3-dimensional) culture environment. Rats endometrium curettage model was founded to evaluate the changes by immunohistochemistry staining and and HE staining. The secondary structure of chiral self-assembling peptides was stable β-sheet, and peptide could form dense membrane structure after 24 hours self-assembling cultured in salt ions. There was no harmful for the cell membrane of the peptide before and after self-assembling. Animal experiments show that chiral self-assembling peptide can significantly reduce the inflammatory response, promote the production of neovascularization, and accelerate the repair process. Chiral self-assembling peptide, as a new type of scaffold material, can construct a three-dimensional cell culture environment and used to repair uterine trauma.
Animals ; Endometrium ; Female ; HeLa Cells ; Humans ; Nanofibers ; Peptides ; Rats ; Regeneration

Objective: To investigate the clinico-pathological characteristics, outcomes and their predictors in malignant hypertension related kidney injury with and without primary glomerular diseases. Methods: Patients with clinical diagnosis of malignant hypertension, biopsy-proven kidney injury caused by malignant hypertension and complete clinical data from January 2010 to December 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. According to clinical and renal pathology, patients were divided into malignant hypertension related kidney injury without primary nephropathy group and with primary nephropathy group. Clinico-pathological characteristics and outcomes were evaluated and compared between malignant hypertension related kidney injury with and without primary glomerular diseases. Results: Totally 31 biopsy-proven kidney injury patients were analyzed. Among them, there were 18 cases with primary glomerular diseases and 13 cases without primary glomerular diseases, with age of (32.5±6.5) years old and (34.7±8.1) years old, respectively. There were 12 males in both group. The proportion of primary IgA nephropathy was higher (16/18) in the group of malignant hypertension related kidney injury with primary glomerular diseases. Malignant hypertension with primary glomerular diseases patients had lower plasma albunin level [(32.7±6.4) g/L vs (38.5±7.3) g/L, P=0.027], higher 24-hour proteinuria level [(4.03±2.71) g vs (1.45±0.98) g, P=0.002] and higher incidence rates of dysmorphic hematuria (14/18 vs 0, P=0.001) than those without primary glomerular diseases patients. Glomerular sclerosis, mesangial proliferation, tubular atrophy and interstitial fibrosis were more severe in malignant hypertension with primary glomerular diseases patients (all P<0.05), but the ischemic wrinkling of glomerular capillary was more severe in malignant hypertension without primary glomerular diseases (P<0.01). There were no differences of acute or chronic malignant hypertensive injury in small artery and in afferent arterioles between the two groups. Cox regression analysis showed that loss of brush-border with flattening of tubular epithelium was the predictor for renal partial recovery (HR=5.956, 95% CI 1.198-29.614, P=0.029). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that malignant hypertension patients with primary glomerular diseases had shorter renal survival time than those without primary glomerular diseases [(24.1±9.3) months vs (56.6±12.4) months], and accumulative renal survival rate of malignant hypertension patients with primary glomerular diseases was lower than that without primary glomerular diseases (11.6% vs 53.3%, Log-rank χ²=5.022, P=0.025). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that severe tubular atrophy and interstitial fibrosis were independent risk factors for end-stage renal disease in malignant hypertension patients (HR=5.870, 95% CI 1.372-25.112, P=0.017). Conclusions Malignant hypertension with primary glomerular diseases patients have more severe clinico-pathological renal impairment and poorer prognosis of long-term renal survival than those without primary glomerular diseases. Acute renal tubular injury (loss of brush-border with flattening of tubular epithelium) is the only predictor of renal function improvement in patients with malignant hypertension and renal impairment within one year. Tubular atrophy/interstitial fibrosis is a risk factor for end-stage renal disease in patients with malignant hypertension. Renal biopsy is an indispensable tool for predicting short-term and long-term renal outcomes.