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cutting-edge field of study to create biological substitutes to maintain, restore, or enhance cartilage function is articular cartilage (AC) tissue engineering. Employing this innovative approach, polymer composites that mimic the structure and function of real cartilage tissues are created by carefully mixing biomaterials of scaffolds, cells, and biochemical components. Naturally polymers have recently gained attention as biomaterials to fabricate scaffolds, for instance, chitosan. Despite its shortcomings such as poor mechanical strength and low stiffness, chitosan-based hydrogel scaffolds have been cross-linked with other synthetic polymers, namely hybrid scaffolds, for future perspective of AC tissue engineering. To mimic AC compartment design, additive manufacturing closely resembles native tissue, and its flexibility is possibly tailored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bone tissue engineering (BTE) provides an alternative for addressing bone defects by integrating cells, a scaffold, and bioactive growth factors to stimulate tissue regeneration and repair, resulting in effective bioengineered tissue. This study focuses on repurposing chitosan from blue swimming crab (Portunus pelagicus) shell waste as a composite scaffold combined with HAP and COL I to improve biocompatibility, porosity, swelling, and mechanical properties. The composite scaffold demonstrated nearly 60% porosity with diameters ranging from 100–200 μm with an interconnected network that structurally mimics the extracellular matrix. The swelling ratio of the scaffold was measured at 208.43 ± 14.05%, 248.93 ± 4.32%, 280.01 ± 1.26%, 305.44 ± 20.71%, and 310.03 ± 17.94% at 1, 3, 6, 12, and 24 h, respectively. Thus, the Portunus pelagicus scaffold showed significantly lower degradation ratios of 5.64 ± 1.89%, 14.34 ± 8.59%, 19.57 ± 14.23%, and 29.13 ± 9.87% for 1 to 4 weeks, respectively. The scaffold supports osteoblast attachment and proliferation for 7 days. Waste from Portunus pelagicus shells has emerged as a prospective source of chitosan with potential application in tissue engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wound healing treatment is a challenging strategy in skin drug delivery due to its complexities. During wound healing stages, fibroblasts deposit extracellular matrix components, which majority is collagen. Issues related to collagen production, including scar formation, and delayed wound healing are essential in wound healing research. Hence, recent studies have focused on assessing macroscopic and microscopic collagen fibers qualitatively and quantitatively. Macroscopic analysis of collagen includes two-dimensional (2D) photographs, planimetric assessments, ultrasonic imaging, and 3D scanning of wounds; as well as histology-based microscopically scoring. Thus, the quantitative assessment of collagen involves Scar Index quantification and collagen content measurement using ImageJ. To date, a comprehensive analysis combining those methods could provide insight for pharmacists, dermatologists, and skin researchers to conduct a precise assessment of the wound healing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A surgical suture is a vital medical device to uphold wounded tissue during surgery. However, the application to improve tissue healing must still be developed. This study offered to solve this problem by incorporating tannic acid (TA) into polydioxanone (PDS) sutures. The PDS suture was immersed in TA complexing with iron (III) solutions in pH 8.0 solution. The engineered suture was successful, as revealed by the OH peak of TA in FTIR spectra. Furthermore, it was confirmed by TA particle appearance under Scanning Electron Microscopy. Contact angle measurement showed better wettability in biological mimicking solutions, such as water, serum, and saline solution. Thereby, it improved in vitro wound healing activity. Moreover, our bioinformatics data showed that TA enhanced the wound healing process by addressing multiple targets in the early phase of inflammation. For instance, it induced platelets to reduce bleeding at the early wound healing stage, activated T cells at the inflammation stage, accelerated epidermis cell proliferation, and activated fibroblast as a key player in wound healing. Due to multiple wound healing targets, our suture system was expected to be emphasized in clinical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bone tissue engineering offers a novel therapy for repairing bone defects or fractures. However, it is becoming increasingly challenging because an ideal scaffold should possess a similar porous structure, high biocompatibility, and mechanical properties that match those of natural bone. To fabricate such a scaffold, biodegradable polymers are often preferred due to their degradability and tailored structure. This study involved the isolation of chitosan from crab shells (Scylla serrata) waste to use as a biomaterial in combination with hydroxyapatite (HAP) and collagen I (COL I) to mimic the extracellular matrix (ECM) composition of bone. After being cast and freeze-dried, it resulted in an interconnected porous scaffold with a porosity of 51.44% ± 2.28% and a pore diameter of 109.88 μm ± 49.84 μm. The swelling ratio of the crab scaffold was measured at 358.31% ± 25.23%, 363.04% ± 1.56%, and 370.11% ± 3.7% at 1, 3, and 6 h, respectively. Consequently, the scaffold exhibited a degradation ratio of 8.17% ± 2.59%, 21.62% ± 5.43%, 22.59% ± 14.23%, and 23.12% ± 6.28% over the course of 1 to 4 weeks. It demonstrated excellent biocompatibility with MG-63 osteosarcoma cells. Although the compression strength was lower than 2-12 MPa, the crab scaffold can still be applied effectively for non-load-bearing bone defects. Crab shell waste emerges as a promising source of chitosan for tissue engineering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In cases of chronic diabetes, hyperglycemia triggers the activation of various molecular pathways. To control hyperglycemia in diabetic patients, anti-diabetic agents should precisely target these specific molecular pathways or elaborate on protein targets within the molecular cascade. However, it's important to note that anti-diabetic medications often come with significant side effects, including the risk of hypoglycemic coma and potential liver and kidney complications. Therefore, the inclusion of medicinal plants with anti-hypoglycemic properties continues to be crucial for diabetes management. Neolignan, a biosynthesis product of the shikimate pathway in plants, has previously shown in vitro anti-diabetic activity. This study was designed to identify neolignan's multiple molecular targets and its molecular cascade for inhibiting diabetes. The researchers mined online databases for genes related to diabetes and hyperglycemia, as well as genes affected by neolignan. The Venn diagram result of these genes was further utilized to figure out a network of proteinprotein interaction and gene clustering. In summary, the study identified proteins targeted by neolignan, which include IGFR-1, EGFR, the inflammatory cytokine TNF-a, the chaperone protein Hsp90, as well as various downstream signaling molecules such as MAPK8, SCR, PI3K, and JAK1. These proteins work in concert during neolignan treatment to support its anti-diabetic activity. This research provides an initial glimpse into the molecular mechanisms of neolignan in diabetes treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pectin is widely used as the main polymer in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and biomedical applications. The pectin utilization in diverse fields can contribute to fruit waste processing since waste such as fruit peel serves as a pectin source. This study is aimed to analyze the extraction temperature effect on the physicochemical properties of extracted pectin from various tropical fruit peel waste. In this study, we determined the extracted pectin’s physicochemical properties from peel wastes of tropical fruits like papaya, lime, lemon, and dragon fruit using 3% citric acid at 65 and 90°C. A higher pectin yield resulted from a higher extraction temperature of 90oC (8.78 to 27.03 %) than that obtained at 65oC (5.78 to 17.71 %). The spectra of Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) mainly showed the degradation of pectin, specifically in the cases of papaya, lime, and lemon, indicated by the higher OH peak intensity. All samples extracted were high methoxyl pectin (HM), with degrees of esterification (DE) ranging from 56.98 to 89.63%. Among the fruit peels studied, only the lemon peel pectin extracted at 90°C, with anhydrouronic acid (AUA) content of 77.35%, meets the criteria for food additives and pharmaceutical purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning cell biology in science subject is a challenging for elementary students in Indonesia. Not only it is implicitly taught in the science subject, but it also needs an intangible imagination to understand the cell’s organelles and their function. Therefore, a recreating method to explain about the cells the cell’s organelles and their function. In our program, the 5th and 6th of elementary students were explained about cells, organelles and their function in the first week class. Thus, they also were taught to observe cells under light microscope. Moreover, we developed the cells model by creating it from the edible materials such as cake, candies, messes, and biscuits; followed by fun game. While the cognitive ability of the students was evaluated with pre-and post-test. Our method increased the level of understanding of the students to learn cell biology. However, the standard deviation of student cognitive ability was highly varied in both classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Native and artificial extracellular matrices (ECMs) have been widely applied in biomedical fields as one of the most effective components in tissue regeneration. In particular, ECM-based drugs are expected to be applied to treat diseases in organs relevant to urology, because tissue regeneration is particularly important for preventing the recurrence of these diseases. Native ECMs provide a complex in vivo architecture and native physical and mechanical properties that support high biocompatibility. However, the applications of native ECMs are limited due to their tissue-specificity and chemical complexity. Artificial ECMs have been fabricated in an attempt to create a broadly applicable scaffold by using controllable components and a uniform formulation. On the other hands, artificial ECMs fail to mimic the properties of a native ECM; consequently, their applications in tissues are also limited. For that reason, the design of a versatile, hybrid ECM that can be universally applied to various tissues is an emerging area of interest in the biomedical field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]