Long Bai

Queensland University of Technology | QUT · Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation

Organoids have emerged as crucial platforms in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine but confront challenges in faithfully mimicking native tissue structures and functions. Bioprinting technologies offer a significant advancement, especially when combined with organoid bioinks-engineered formulations designed to encapsulate both the architec...

Addressing large bone defects remains a significant challenge owing to the inherent limitations in self‐healing capabilities, resulting in prolonged recovery and suboptimal regeneration. Although current clinical solutions are available, they have notable shortcomings, necessitating more efficacious approaches to bone regeneration. Organoids derive...

Posttraumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) patients are often diagnosed by X-ray imaging at a middle-late stage when drug interventions are less effective. Early PTOA is characterized by overexpressed matrix metalloprotease 13 (MMP13). Herein, we constructed an integrated diagnosis and treatment micelle modified with MMP13 enzyme-detachable, cyanine 5 (Cy...

Hair loss is characterized by the inability of hair follicles (HFs) to enter the telogen‐anagen transition (TAT) and lack of de novo HFs. Current pharmaceutical therapies and surgical modalities have been largely limited to regulating hair regrowth efficiently without side effects and lacking treatment compliance. Here, this work proposes a materio...

The treatment of chronic refractory wounds poses significant challenges and threats to both human society and the economy. Existing research studies demonstrate that electrical stimulation fosters cell proliferation and migration and promotes the production of cytokines that expedites the wound healing process. Presently, clinical settings utilize...

Traditional hydrogel design and optimization methods usually rely on repeated experiments, which is time-consuming and expensive, resulting in a slow-moving of advanced hydrogel development. With the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology and increasing material data, AI-energized design and optimization of hydrogels for biome...

Segmental bone defects, stemming from trauma, infection, and tumors, pose formidable clinical challenges. Traditional bone repair materials, such as autologous and allogeneic bone grafts, grapple with limitations including source scarcity and immune rejection risks. The advent of nucleic acid nanotechnology, particularly the use of DNA hydrogels in...

While bone tissue is known for its inherent regenerative abilities, various pathological conditions and trauma can disrupt its meticulously regulated processes of bone formation and resorption. Bone tissue engineering aims to replicate the extracellular matrix of bone tissue as well as the sophisticated biochemical mechanisms crucial for effective...

Organoids, miniature and simplified in vitro model systems that mimic the structure and function of organs, have attracted considerable interest due to their promising applications in disease modeling, drug screening, personalized medicine, and tissue engineering. Despite the substantial success in cultivating physiologically relevant organoids, ch...

The regeneration of weight-bearing bone defects and critical-sized cartilage defects remains a significant challenge. A wide range of nano-biomaterials are available for the treatment of bone/cartilage defects. However, their poor compatibility and biodegradability pose challenges to the practical applications of these nano-based biomaterials. Natu...

Treatment of large bone defects represents a great challenge in orthopedic and craniomaxillofacial surgery. Traditional strategies in bone tissue engineering have focused primarily on mimicking the extracellular matrix (ECM) of bone in terms of structure and composition. However, the synergistic effects of other cues from the microenvironment durin...

Macrophages play a crucial role in the complete processes of tissue repair and regeneration, and the activation of M2 polarization is an effective approach to provide a pro‐regenerative immune microenvironment. Natural extracellular matrix (ECM) has the capability to modulate macrophage activities via its molecular, physical, and mechanical propert...

Cartilage defects are usually caused by acute trauma and chronic degeneration. However, it is still a great challenge to improve the repair of articular cartilage defects due to the limited self-regeneration capacity of such defects. Herein, a novel ROS-responsive in situ nanocomposite hydrogel loaded with kartogenin (KGN) and bone marrow-derived s...

The effective regeneration of weight‐bearing bone defects and critical‐sized cartilage defects remains a significant clinical challenge. Traditional treatments such as autologous and allograft bone grafting have not been successful in achieving the desired outcomes, necessitating the need for innovative therapeutic approaches. Nucleic acids have at...

The pace of bone formation slows down with aging, which leads to the development of osteoporosis. In addition to senescent bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (S-BMSCs), senescent macrophages (S-MΦs) present in the bone marrow produce numerous inflammatory cytokines that contribute to the inflammaged microenvironment and are involved in the developm...

Although various bone defect repair materials have been used clinically, the influence of the material properties on bone repair and regeneration as well as the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. We hypothesize that the material stiffness affects initial platelet activation during hemostasis phase, which in turn mediates subsequent ost...

Osseointegration of implants is a sophisticated healing process comprising of blood clot formation, immune response, angiogenesis, and osteogenesis. The features of the blood clots take a crucial role in fulfilling rapid and satisfying osseointegration. Nano-scaled implant surfaces can dominate the structure, thickness, and coagulation process of b...

Objective Currently, the prevalence of hypertension is mainly ascertained using a one-visit population survey, which may lead to overestimation. The purpose of this study was to assess the accuracy of hypertension prevalence determined by a one-visit population survey. Methods For this cross-sectional study, we continuously enrolled 1116 volunteer...

Background: Hypertension poses a major threat to human health, and inflammation is associated with hypertension. The monocyte to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (MHR) represents a new inflammatory indicator. However, the relationship between the MHR and hypertension remains unclear. The present study investigated the association of MHR...

The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between renal injury and inflammatory response induced by high-fat diet in rabbits and the interventional effect of allisartan. Fifteen 6-week-old healthy male rabbits were randomly divided into three groups: normal control (NC) group, high-lipid diet (HLD) group, high-lipid diet and all...

Background Dextrocardia is a congenital heart malformation with a low incidence that occurs in only 1 in 10,000–12,000 people. Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome is a congenital condition with additional accessory pathways between the atria and the ventricle, which affects up to three in 1,000 people worldwide. Experience of radiofrequency cathet...

Background The relationships between inflammatory indexes and atherosclerosis as well as those between blood lipid indexes and atherosclerosis have been widely studied, but the relationship between the neutrophil to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (NHR) and atherosclerosis had not been investigated until the present study. Methods For t...

Bone regeneration is a well-orchestrated process involving electrical, biochemical, and mechanical multiple physiological cues. Electrical signals play a vital role in the process of bone repair. The endogenous potential will spontaneously form on defect sites, guide the cell behaviors, and mediate bone healing when the bone fracture occurs. Howeve...

Despite the high success rate of biomedical implants adopted clinically, implant failures caused by aseptic loosening still raise the risk of secondary surgery and a substantial economic burden to patients. Improving the stable combination between the implant and the host bone tissue, achieving fast and high-quality osseointegration can effectively...

Implants are essential therapeutic tools for treating bone fractures and joint replacements. Despite the in-depth study of osseointegration for more than fifty years, poor osseointegration caused by aseptic loosening remains one of the leading causes of late implant failures. Osseointegration is a highly sophisticated and spatiotemporal process in...

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) have self-renewal, multi-directional differentiation potential, and immune regulation function and are widely used for de novo bone formation. However, the wide variation in individual amplification, the potential risk of cancer cell contamination, and the need for culture time significantly limit their wi...

Silane adhesion layer strategy has been widely used to covalently graft biomolecules to the titanium implant surface, thereby conferring the implant bioactivity to ameliorate osseointegration. However, few researchers pay attention to the effects of silanization parameters on biocompatibility and biofunctionality of the silane adhesion layers. Acco...

Osseointegration of implants is a complex physiological process that requires temporal and spatial regulation of immune responses, angiogenesis, and osteogenesis. To achieve efficient and long-term osseointegration, type I collagen (COL1) decorated nanoporous network was developed on titanium substrates via alkali treatment, polydopamine coating, a...

A simple renal cyst (SRC) may increase the risk for hypertension. The authors examined the relationship between a SRC and hypertension in participants receiving physical examinations at Hebei Medical University. This study enrolled 66 883 participants who received physical examinations at our center from January 2012 to December 2017. Demographic d...

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between subclinical thyroid dysfunction and the recurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF) after radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA).Methods We examined the association between subclinical thyroid dysfunction and the recurrence of AF at a large university-affiliated cardiac arrhythmia...

Osteocytes function as the master orchestrator of bone remodeling activity in the telophase of osseointegration. However, most contemporary studies focus on the manipulation of osteoblast and/or osteoclast functionality via implant surface engineering, which neglects the pivotal role of osteocytes in de novo bone formation. It is confirmative that...

Objective To investigate the efficacy and safety of the antithrombotic therapy using the oral anticoagulant rivaroxaban and clopidogrel in Chinese patients with acute coronary syndrome complicated with atrial fibrillation after percutaneous coronary intervention. Methods A total of 100 patients were selected. Patients were randomly divided into tw...

Fulfilled angiogenesis and osteogenesis are prerequisites for achieving favorable osseointegration of the bone implants. Incremental evidence has pinpointed that macrophages (MΦs) manipulated osteoimmunomodulation plays a pivotal role in the regulation of angio-/osteo-genesis. However, the underlying mechanism of osteoimmunomodulation is still uncl...

Osseointegration is a sophisticated bone and implant healing process comprising of initial hematoma formation, immediate osteoimmunomodulation, angiogenesis, and osteogenesis. To fulfill rapid and satisfying osseointegration, this study developed a biomimetic implant coating that could confer the intraosseous implants a systematical regulation of t...

We report on a reliable and cost-effective method (alkali corrosion) to construct nanosheet layers on nearly equiatomic nickel-titanium (NiTi) alloy, which only needs to immerse it in1−15 M NaOH solution at low temperature (4–80 ℃). The layers are mainly composed of TiO2, Na4TiO4, and Ni(OH)2, and Ni content increases with NaOH concentration. The l...

Background The primary aim was to observe the predictive value of P-wave ECG index and left atrial appendage volume (LLAV) for atrial fibrillation recurrence after first radiofrequency catheter ablation. Methods A total of 196 patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation were enrolled. The preoperative LLAV was measured by cardiac enhanced CT. The...

Implant surfaces with a nanoscaled pattern can dominate the blood coagulation process resulting in a defined clot structure and its degradation behavior, which in turn influence cellular response and the early phase of osseointegration. Long non-coding (Lnc) RNAs are known to regulate many biological processes in the skeletal system; however, the l...

Introduction Peri-implantitis remains a major clinical problem due to the challenges in soft tissue integration on implants surfaces. During tissue healing processes, hematoma formation is the initial response to implant surfaces, which serves as a reservoir for growth factors and provides a natural scaffold for cell infiltration. However, little i...

Stent implantation has become one of the most widely used methods for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. However, endothelial dysfunction and abnormal inflammatory response following implantation may lead to delayed re-endothelialization, resulting in vascular restenosis and stent thrombus. To address the concerns, we constructed nanospindle...

Blood coagulation and inflammation are the earliest biological responses to implant surfaces. Implant nano‐surfaces can significantly impact the osseointegration through the influence on the early phase of bone regeneration. However, the interplay between blood clot property and inflammatory reaction on nanosurfaces is rarely understood. Herein, ti...

Introduction: Silent heart failure after myocardial infarction has not been effectively treated. Atorvastatin has certain efficacy in the treatment of heart failure. Our clinical study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of atorvastatin in patients with asymptomatic heart failure after myocardial infarction. Methods: A total of 162 patients w...

The ratio of monocyte to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level (MHR) was a newly proposed inflammatory and oxidative stress marker. This study aimed to explore the association between MHR and Brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (Ba-PWV) in adult Chinese participants. A total of 2029 participants were divided into two groups according to the Ba-...

The objective was to investigate and evaluate the short-term efficacy and safety of levosimendan in patients with chronic systolic heart failure. Forty-nine patients with chronic systolic heart failure during acute decompensation were randomly divided into a levosimendan group (26 cases) and a control group (23 cases). The control group received on...

Stenting is currently the major therapeutic treatment for cardiovascular diseases. However, the nonbiogenic metal stents are inclined to trigger a cascade of cellular and molecular events including inflammatory response, thrombogenic reactions, smooth muscle cell hyperproliferation accompanied by the delayed arterial healing, and poor reendothelial...

Potassium ion batteries (PIBs), as a promising next‐generation electrochemical energy storage device, have drawn great attention in recent years due to the low price and abundant reserves of potassium resource. However, the severe electrode pulverization caused by repeatedly insertion/extraction of large radius of K⁺ hinders their application. Here...

In 2017, the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) updated the Guideline of Prevention, Detection, Evaluation and Management and Management of High Blood Pressure (HBP) in Adults. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the potential impact of the 2017ACC/AHA HBP guideline on hypertension prevalence, awareness...

Favorable osteogenic activity and antibacterial ability are highly desired for hard tissue repair and replacement materials. However, as a typical implant material, nearly equiatomic nickel‑titanium (NiTi) alloy exhibits poor osteogenic and antibacterial capacities despite its good biocompatibility and unique mechanical properties. In this work, ni...

Inflammatory reaction and the functionality of endothelial cells (ECs) on the surface of coronary stents are critical in the prevention of the in-stent restenosis and subsequent neoatherosclerosis. However, the interactions between immune cells and ECs on modified coronary stent surface have long been underestimated. In the present study, silicon (...

The present work reports on the hydrothermal synthesis of nanosheets on biomedical NiTi alloy in pure water. The results show rhombohedral NiTiO3 nanosheets with thickness of 6 nm can be grown at 200 °C. Hydrothermal treatment enhances the corrosion resistance of the NiTi alloy. 30 min of the treatment significantly reduces Ni ion release, while pr...

Percutaneous coronary intervention with stenting is the most widely adopted surgery for the treatment of coronary disease. However, in-stent restenosis (ISR) continues to be a serious concern. Reinforcing the functionality...

The present work investigated the effects of annealing on corrosion behavior, Ni²⁺ release, cytocompatibility, and antibacterial ability of nickel-titanium-oxygen (Ni-Ti-O) nanopores (NPs) anodically grown on nearly equiatomic NiTi alloy, aiming at optimizing annealing process to yield favorable comprehensive performance. The morphology and crystal...

Statement of significance: Osteo-/angio-genesis are of importance during osteointegration of the implants. Recent advances unravel that immune response of macrophages and its manipulated osteoimmunomodulation also exerts a pivotal role to determine the fate of the implant. Surface nano-micro modification has evidenced to be efficient to influence...

The influence of electrolyte pH on anodic growth of Ni-Ti-O nanopores on NiTi alloy was investigated. Through manipulating HCl, NaCl, and NaOH concentrations in the electrolyte composed of 95 vol% ethylene glycol, 5 vol% H2O, and 0.15 M Cl⁻, the electrolyte pH was varied from 0.82 to 13.5. Although the pH has little influence on surface morphology...

In the present work, nickel-titanium-oxygen nanopores with different length (0.55–114 μm) were anodically grown on nearly equiatomic nickel-titanium (NiTi) alloy. Length-dependent corrosion behavior, nickel ion (Ni²⁺) release, cytocompatibility, and antibacterial ability were investigated by electrochemical, analytical chemistry, and biological met...

Titanium (Ti) and its alloys are the most widely used materials for biomedical applications, owing to their good corrosion resistance, mechanical properties, and biocompatibility. However, their long-term performance is compromised by the post-surgery complications such as implant-associated infection and mechanical loosening. Surface modification...

We report on the influence of stirring of electrolyte (glycerol(Formula presented.) H2O (Formula presented.) NaCl) on anodic growth of Ni-Ti-O nanopores (NPs) on nearly equiatomic NiTi alloy at different applied voltages. The results show that anodization is a diffusion-controlled process. The stirring has little influence on the NP diameter, but s...

A multifaceted coating for hard tissue implants, with favorable osteogenesis, angiogenesis, and osteoimmunomodulation abilities, would be of great value since it could improve osseointegration and alleviate prosthesis loosening. However, to date there are few coatings that fully satisfy these criteria. Herein we describe a microporous TiO2coating d...

We report on a new electrolyte system to fabricate Ni-Ti-O nanopores with small diameter and high Ni content by anodizing nearly equiatomic NiTi alloy. In the electrolyte composed of ethylene glycol, 5 vol% H2O, and 0.23–0.9 wt% Na2CO3, uniform Ni-Ti-O nanopores with diameter of about 25 nm and Ni/Ti atomic ratio exceeding 0.30 can be anodically gr...

Small-diameter vascular grafts made of biomedical polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) suffer from the poor long-term patency rate originating from thrombosis and intimal hyperplasia, which can be ascribed to the insufficient endothelialization and chronic inflammation of the materials. Hence, bio-functionalization of PTFE grafts is highly desirable to c...

To elucidate the relationship between Ni release and cytocompatibility of NiTi alloy, Ni-Ti-O nanotubes (NTs) are produced on its surface by anodization followed by annealing. The NiTi control has higher corrosion current density but releases less Ni than anodized samples, suggesting chemical dissolution of the NTs also contributes to Ni release. A...

In the present work, we report the anodic growth of Ni-Ti-O nanopores (NPs) on NiTi alloy in ethylene glycol (EG) electrolyte containing H2O and NaBr. It is shown that the NPs with diameter concentrated at 50-60 nm can be grown at 10 V in EG electrolyte containing 5 vol% H2O and 0.48 M NaBr. The NP-coated NiTi alloy show lower corrosion current den...

Ni-Ti-O nanoporous film with pore diameters of 60–75 nm are produced anodically on NiTi in ethylene glycol containing 5–10 vol% H2O and 0.15–0.3 M NaCl at 10–20 V. The film fabricated in the NaCl-containing electrolyte are much thinner than those prepared in the HCl-containing electrolyte under similar experimental conditions, implying proper amoun...

Biomedical titanium (Ti) implants with good anti-infective, osteogenic, and angiogenic properties are in great demand. SrTiO3 nanotubes (NTs) are embedded with silver oxide (Ag2O) nanoparticles (NPs) (denoted as NT-Sr-Ag) by a hydrothermal treatment of TiO2 NTs containing Ag2O NPs (denoted as NT-Ag) in a Sr(OH)2 solution. The morphology, compositio...

Bacterial infection and loosening of orthopedic implants remain two disastrously postoperative complications. Angiogenesis is critical important to facilitate implant osseointegration in vivo. TiO2 nanotubes arrays (NTAs) with proper dimensions possess good osseointegration ability. Accordingly, the present work incorporated copper (Cu) into TiO2 N...

Ni–Ti–O nanopores (NPs) free of irregular surface layers and with tunable diameters are prepared by anodizing NiTi alloy in glycerol containing H2O and NaCl. In an electrolyte composed of glycerol, 10 vol% H2O and 0.6 M NaCl, NPs with diameters between 23 and 39 nm can be produced at anodization voltages between 20 and 80 V. In this electrolyte sys...

Osteogenesis and angiogenesis that have interaction in vivo are two pivotal processes for implant osseointegration, so implant surfaces with both enhanced osteogenic and angiogenic activities are in need. Developing silicon (Si) doped TiO2 nanotube array (TNA-Si) coatings shall be a promising strategy to yield favorable implant osseointegration wit...

Although long nanotubes with a large specific surface area are desirable in many applications, it is difficult to produce long Ni-Ti-O nanotubes on nearly equiatomic NiTi alloy in fluoride (F)-containing ethylene glycol (EG) by anodization. In this work, a new electrolyte composed of EG, H2O, and HCl is designed and adopted to fabricate long nanopo...

Implant-associated infection and poor osseointegration remains a major clinical challenge in Ti-based implant materials. A versatile strategy to endow Ti-based implants with long-term antibacterial ability as well as better osteogenic activity is highly desirable for high quality implantation. Strontium (Sr) has been shown to be a significant eleme...

A one-step potential cycling technique for in situ synthesis of electroactive Ni(OH)2 and protective TiO2 composite film on NiTi alloy is described. The Ni(OH)2/TiO2 composite film can be used directly as the electrode in a non-enzymatic glucose sensor. This binder-free sensor boasts a high glucose sensitivity of 192 μA mM−1 cm−2, short response ti...

Although titanium (Ti) - based materials have been widely used in orthopedic field, their infections and instability remain serious complications. To overcome these shortcomings, we modify the surface of Ti by a high-current anodization (HCA) in AgNO3 electrolyte. Our results show that highly ordered nanopores within micropits on Ti surface can be...

Bacterial infection and loosing are serious complications for biomedical implants in the orthopedic, dental, and other biomedical fields and the ideal implants should combine good antibacterial ability and bioactivity. In this study, nanostructured titanium–silver (Ti–Ag) coatings with different Ag contents (1.2 to 21.6 at%) are prepared on Ti subs...

Anodization is used to fabricate Ni-Ti-O nanotube (NT) electrodes for non-enzymatic glucose detection. The morphology, microstructure and composition of the materials are characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Our re...

Ti–Si–N coatings are synthesized on titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V) by arc-enhanced magnetron sputtering and the microstructure and tribological properties are determined. The friction coefficient of the Ti–Si–N coatings, which is smaller in human serum than ambient air, decreases gradually with Si contents. Protein gel electrophoresis shows that the smal...

Nickel-titanium-oxide (Ni-Ti-O) nanotube arrays (NTAs) prepared on nearly equiatomic NiTi alloy shall have broad application potential such as for energy storage and biomedicine, but their precise structure control is a great challenge because of the high content of alloying element of Ni, a non-valve metal that cannot form a compact electronic ins...