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The hydrophilicity of the extracellular matrix is one of the most important factors affecting cell adhesion in tissue engineering. In the present study, to improve the cellular biocompatibility of poly( ε -caprolactone) (PCL) nanofiber scaffolds, their surface hydrophilicity was enhanced by electrospinning PCL with biocompatible, amphiphilic poly( N -vinylpyrrolidone)- b -PCL (PVP- b -PCL) block copolymer. The PVP- b -PCL block copolymer ( M n = 26,300 g/mol, M w / M n = 1.14) was synthesized using 2-hydroxyethyl 2-(ethoxycarbonothioylthio)propanoate as a dual initiator for reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer polymerization and ring opening polymerization in a one-pot procedure. As the content of PVP- b -PCL block copolymer increased, the surface of the PCL/PVP- b -PCL nanofiber scaffolds became more hydrophilic. The scaffolds showed no cytotoxicity, better cell adhesion, and improved viability of primary fibroblasts than PCL scaffolds, and did not lose their structure during cell culture. In particular, the PCL/PVP- b -PCL (90/10, w/w) nanofiber scaffold produced the highest cell viability, suggesting that appropriate scaffold hydrophilicity is required to enhance cell activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Anti-glycation activity of our anti-oxidant quinone library was measured and several 2,3-dimethoxy-5-methyl-1,4-benzoquinones and 2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinones were identified as novel inhibitors of glycation, of which 2,3-dimethoxy-5-methyl-1,4-benzoquinones 13b is the most potent glycation inhibitor with around 50μM of the IC50 value. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: As a facile and scalable approach to the surface modification of high-voltage cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries, direct UV-assisted conformal coating of poly(tris(2-(acryloyloxy)ethyl) phosphate) (PTAEP) gel polymer electrolyte on as-formed LiNi1/3Co1/3Mn1/3O2 (NCM) cathode is presented. The smooth and continuous PTAEP coating layer with nanometer-thickness (∼20 nm) is successfully introduced on the NCM surface without impairing electronic/ionic conduction pathways preformed in the NCM cathode. Owing to this structural uniqueness, the PTAEP-coated NCM cathode significantly improves the high-voltage (4.6 V) cycling performance and mitigates the exothermic reaction between the delithiated NCM and liquid electrolyte. This demonstrates that the conformal PTAEP nanocoating layer proposed herein, which is completely different from conventional inorganic material-based coating layers, acts as a new ion-conductive protective film that effectively suppresses unwanted interfacial side reactions between the high-voltage cathode materials and liquid electrolyte. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]