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Summary: Osteoporosis has gradually become a major public health problem. Further elucidation of the pathophysiological mechanisms that induce osteoporosis and identification of more effective therapeutic targets will have important clinical significance. Experiments in vitro on bone marrow stem cells (BMSCs) subjected to osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation and in vivo on surgical bilateral ovariectomy (OVX) mouse models revealed that exosomes of vascular endothelial cells (EC-EXOs) can promote osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs and inhibit BMSC adipogenic differentiation through miR-3p-975_4191. Both miR-3p-975_4191 and curcumin can target tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and act synergistically to regulate BMSCs fate differentiation and delay the progression of osteoporosis. Our findings suggest that EC-EXOs may exert a synergistic effect with curcumin in reversing the progression of osteoporosis by targeting TNF via miR-3p-975_4191. Our study may provide therapeutic options and potential therapeutic targets for osteoporosis and thus has important clinical implications.

Selenium (Se) as an essential nutrient for human beings at trace concentrations, the allowable concentration for the human is only 40 μg/L. Iron sulfide (FeS) nanoparticles have been applied for excessive of selenium (Se) remediation in surface water and groundwater. In this study, FeS nanoparticles were anchored onto biochar (BC) to reduce agglomeration of FeS and prepared into the composite of FeS-BC by pyrolysis to economically and efficiently remove Se(IV) from simulated wastewater based on the excellent performance of FeS and the low cost of BC. Characterizations presented the uniform anchorage of FeS on the BC surface to prevent agglomeration. The results of batch experiments revealed that the removal of Se(IV) by FeS-BC nanomaterials significantly depended on the pH value, with the maximum removal of ∼174.96 mg/g at pH 3.0. A pseudo-second-order kinetic model well reflected the kinetic removal of Se(IV) in pure Se(IV) solution with different concentration, as well as the coexistence of K+, Ca2+, Cl-, and SO42- ions. The presence of K+ ions significantly inhibited the removal of Se(IV) with the increase of K+ ion concentration compared with the effect of the other three ions. SEM-EDS and XPS analyses indicated that the removal process was achieved through adsorption by surface complexation, and reductive precipitation of Se(IV) into Se0 with the electron donor of Fe(II) and S(-II) ions. The FeS-BC nanomaterial exhibited an excellent application prospect in the remediation of Se(IV).