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Objective·To explore the feasibility of applying improved pathological section boxes based on image post-processing and 3D printing technology to assisting artificial intelligence (AI) in stitching pathological images of bone tumors.Methods·Bone tumor patients who underwent tumor resection surgery between February 2022 and August 2022 were enrolled. Patients and their postoperative tumor specimens were examined by CT and MRI. The skeletal anatomical landmarks of bone tumors were used to register the preoperative CT, and MRI and the postoperative CT images. The personalized pathological slice box was improved and 3D printed to guide the cutting direction of bone tumor specimens. The large pathological slices were grid-like segmented and performed with hematoxylin-eosin staining. After AI stitching the pathological images, the pathological tumor boundaries were compared with the preoperative radiological boundaries.Results·Four patients with bone tumors (2 bone metastatic neoplasm, 1 osteosarcoma, and 1 chondrosarcoma; 3 males and 1 female) were collected to design the pathological section box with an average age of (40.25±25.70) years. The lesions included 3 cases of femur and 1 case of ilium. The mean maximum tumor diameter was (12.10±4.02) cm. The modified 3D printed pathological section box could fit the surface of bone tumor individually,and overcame the problems of difficult cutting or inaccurate cutting location caused by excessive movement of bone tumor specimens in the primary pathological section box. The pathological boundaries could be completely obtained and compared with the preoperative MRI boundaries for colocalization. The outline features of the section boxes could help AI to restore the permutation of pathological fragments, and the image stitching time decreased from the previous seventy hours to one hour while the boundary coincidence rates increased to 90%.Conclusion·The improved pathological section box of 3D printing can accurately assist AI in stitching pathological images, greatly improve the efficiency of pathological image stitching and achieve the colocalization between preoperative MRI and pathological images of bone tumor specimens.

Tumor microenvironment (TME) plays an important role in the tumor progression. Among TME components, cancer‐associated fibroblasts (CAFs) show multiple tumor‐promoting effects and can induce tumor immune evasion and drug‐resistance. Regulating CAFs can be a potential strategy to augment systemic anti‐tumor immunity. Here, the study observes that hydrogen treatment can alleviate intracellular reactive oxygen species of CAFs and reshape CAFs' tumor‐promoting and immune‐suppressive phenotypes. Accordingly, a controllable and TME‐responsive hydrogen therapy based on a CaCO3 nanoparticles‐coated magnesium system (Mg‐CaCO3) is developed. The hydrogen therapy by Mg‐CaCO3 can not only directly kill tumor cells, but also inhibit pro‐tumor and immune suppressive factors in CAFs, and thus augment immune activities of CD4+ T cells. As implanted in situ, Mg‐CaCO3 can significantly suppress tumor growth, turn the "cold" primary tumor into "hot", and stimulate systematic anti‐tumor immunity, which is confirmed by the bilateral tumor transplantation models of "cold tumor" (4T1 cells) and "hot tumor" (MC38 cells). This hydrogen therapy system reverses immune suppressive phenotypes of CAFs, thus providing a systematic anti‐tumor immune stimulating strategy by remodeling tumor stromal microenvironment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To investigate the adverse effects of low-concentration isocyanate exposure on airway inflammation and lung function and to explore the application of fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) in occupational health examinations of isocyanate-exposed workers. Methods From 2016 to 2017, a total of 192 workers exposed to isocyanates were selected as the exposure group, and 91 with similar age and gender composition (office and/or logistics personnel) without any exposure to occupational hazards (as references) were studied. Monitoring data of airborne isocyanate concentration in workplaces in the past 5 years were collected. The basic information of all workers was collected, and their lung function, FeNO, and salbutamol bronchial dilation tests were performed. The differences in various indicators among these two groups of workers were compared. Results The airborne isocyanate concentration in workplaces over the past 5 years was significantly lower than the national occupational exposure limit. The forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in first second (FEV1) of the exposed workers were higher than those of the reference group, while FEV1/FVC was lower than that of the reference group, and the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.001). There was no significant difference in FeNO levels between the exposed workers and the reference workers (P > 0.05). The FEV1/FVC ratio was higher in the exposed workers with exposure time < 7 years than workers with exposure time≥ 7 years (P < 0.05), while there was no significant difference in FeNO levels between these two groups (P > 0.05). There was no significant difference in various indicators of lung function among different workers grouped according to the FeNO levels (P > 0.05). Among 192 exposed workers, 13 had FeNO levels higher than 50 ppb (1 ppb = 1 × 10-9), and among 9 workers receiving bronchial dilation tests 3 workers were positive. Conclusions FEV1/FVC could better reflect the adverse effect of isocyanate, a type of asthmagens, on lung function. FeNO levels cannot indicate the occupational low -level isocyanate exposure, while positive changes shown by bronchial dilation tests in exposed populations occur earlier than changes in lung function. The combination of FeNO measurement and bronchial dilation tests could have certain predictive value for diagnosing and screening occupational asthma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osteoporosis results in decreased bone mass and insufficient osteogenic function. Existing titanium alloy implants have insufficient osteoinductivity and delayed/incomplete fracture union can occur when used to treat osteoporotic fractures. Copper ions have good osteogenic activity, but their dose-dependent cytotoxicity limits their clinical use for bone implants. In this study, titanium alloy implants functionalized with a TiCu/TiCuN coating by arc ion plating achieved a controlled release of copper ions in vitro for 28 days. The coated alloy was co-cultured with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells and showed excellent biocompatibility and osteoinductivity in vitro. A further exploration of the underlying mechanism by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and western blotting revealed that the enhancement effects are related to the upregulation of genes and proteins (such as axin2, β-catenin, GSK-3β, p-GSK-3β, LEF1 and TCF1/TCF7) involved in the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. In vivo experiments showed that the TiCu/TiCuN coating significantly promoted osteoporotic fracture healing in a rat femur fracture model, and has good in vivo biocompatibility based on various staining results. Our study confirmed that TiCu/TiCuN-coated Ti promotes osteoporotic fracture healing associated with the Wnt pathway. Because the coating effectively accelerates the healing of osteoporotic fractures and improves bone quality, it has significant clinical application prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]