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Ion exchange membranes (IEMs) have a wider application in water purification, electrolytic process, and ion separation. The improvement of IEMs performance through sulfonation treatment is limited, which seriously affects their application. Therefore, the incorporation of two-dimensional MXene can serve as a new breakthrough for exploration. However, the size of MXene nanosheets has not received significant attention in the studies of preparing composite membranes. The focus of this work was to explore the effect of MXene nanosheets on IEMs from the perspective of nanosheet size. Specifically, by adjusting the sizes of MXene nanosheets using simple sonication treatment, the continuous ion transport channels were constructed by connecting non-conductive regions in the matrix owing to uniform distribution and abundant hydroxyl functional groups of MXene nanosheets. Afterwards, content regulation was supplemented to increase the distribution density of negatively charged MXene nanosheets in the matrix, thereby further increasing the migration rate of ions. Through this special synergistic regulatory effect, the performance of the composite membrane was maximally improved. Additionally, SPM membrane achieved better IEC and permeability, as well as lower membrane area resistance compared to pristine SPSF membrane. When applied to the ED process, SPM1.0%-1.5h membrane revealed higher desalination performance (90.4 %) and current efficiency (104.2 %) compared to pristine SPSF membrane (86.6 % and 99.7 %, respectively). [Display omitted] • The introduction of MXene provided the additional ion transport channel. • MXene with different layer sizes was obtained by controlling sonication time. • MXene improved the dispersion in the matrix and hydrophilicity of membrane. • The embedding of MXene enabled excellent electrodialysis performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Autophagy is a self-degrading process. Previously, we showed that insulin-like growth factor binding protein-related protein 1 (IGFBPrP1) is a novel transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ1)-interacting factor in liver fibrosis; the role of TGFβ1-mediated autophagy in hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) activation has been investigated. However, whether autophagy is regulated by IGFBPrP1 remains unknown.Aims: We investigated the interactions among IGFBPrP1, autophagy, and activation of primary rat HSCs.Methods: Primary HSCs were separated from Sprague Dawley rats by two-step enzymatic digestion, and then, we overexpressed or inhibited IGFBPrP1 expression in HSCs under serum-starved condition. Autophagy inducer rapamycin or inhibitor 3-methyladenine (3MA) was used to assess the relationship between autophagy and HSCs activation.Results: We observed the expression of activation marker α-SMA and autophagy markers such as LC3B and Beclin1, which were significantly increased in HSCs treated with adenovirus vector harboring the IGFBPrP1 gene (AdIGFBPrP1) compared to cells cultured under serum-starved. In comparison, HSCs treated with shIGFBPrP1 showed opposite results. Furthermore, HSCs activation and autophagy increased when cells were treated with rapamycin, whereas opposite results were obtained when cells were treated with 3MA. AdIGFBPrP1 treatment downregulated the phosphorylation of Akt and mTOR.Conclusion: Autophagy was induced in IGFBPrP1-treated primary HSCs, and IGFBPrP1-induced autophagy promoted the activation of HSCs and extracellular matrix expression, the underlying mechanism of which may involve the phosphatidylinositide 3-kinase/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A putative transcription factor, named RAMY, that binds to the 20-bp O2S sequences of the regulatory region of the Amy2 gene promoter has been identified using the yeast one-hybrid system from a rice library. The full length RAMY cDNA clone encodes a 218-amino acid protein and is homologous to the late embryogenesis-abundant protein (LEA5). In vitro mutagenesis and electrophoretic mobility shift assays confirmed that RAMY can bind with O2S specifically through an unusual zinc finger with a CXCX(4)CX(2)H consensus sequence. Low levels of RAMY mRNAs were detected in rice leaves and roots by Northern blot hybridization. The plant hormone gibberellin (GA) induces expression of both RAMY and Amy2 genes, as performed by Northern blot hybridization, but the increase in RAMY mRNA level occurs prior to that of the Amy2 mRNA level in the GA-treated aleurone tissues. These data suggest that RAMY may act as a trans-acting protein and is probably involved in the GA-induced expression of the rice alpha-amylase gene.