Publications by authors named "Haijun Cui"

Correction for 'Decoding tissue complexity: multiscale mapping of chemistry-structure-function relationships through advanced visualization technologies' by Zhiyuan Zhao , , 2025, , 7897-7918, https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TB00744E.

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Comprehensively acquiring biological tissue information is pivotal for advancing our understanding of biological systems, elucidating disease mechanisms, and developing innovative clinical strategies. Biological tissues, as nature's archetypal biomaterials, exhibit multiscale structural and functional complexity that provides critical principles for synthetic biomaterials. Tissues/organs integrate molecular, biomechanical, and hierarchical architectural features across scales, offering a blueprint for engineering functional materials capable of mimicking or interfacing with living systems.

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Mimicking anisotropic materials is challenging due to their complex structural and mechanical properties. In this study, we developed biomimetic hydrogels that replicate the anisotropic characteristics of bamboo by incorporating cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) into polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) hydrogels. The inclusion of CNCs significantly enhanced the mechanical strength, with a 0.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Organoids are innovative models that replicate human organ structures and functions, making them valuable for studying diseases, and their research has increased recently.
  • - The review highlights advancements in 3D bioprinting, a technology that can create complex cellular environments to enhance organoid development, including benefits like higher cell concentrations and precise structure formation.
  • - It also summarizes commonly used bioprinting methods and materials for organoids while discussing recent studies, current challenges, and future opportunities in this field.
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Article Synopsis
  • - The study focuses on E2F transcription factor 8 (E2F8), highlighting its increased expression in bladder cancer tissues, which correlates with more advanced stages of the disease.
  • - Silencing E2F8 in bladder cancer cell lines leads to reduced cell proliferation and invasion, enhances apoptosis in response to cisplatin treatment, and affects the cell cycle by causing G1 phase arrest.
  • - E2F8 regulates the expression of MCM7, a factor involved in bladder cancer progression, and their interaction suggests that E2F8’s oncogenic effects may be mediated through MCM7.
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Cell spheroids (esp. organoids) as 3D culture platforms are popular models for representing cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix (ECM) interactions, bridging the gap between 2D cell cultures and natural tissues. 3D cell models with spatially organized multiple cell types are preferred for gaining comprehensive insights into tissue pathophysiology and constructing in vitro tissues and disease models because of the complexities of natural tissues.

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To address the challenge of drug resistance and limited treatment options for recurrent gliomas with IDH1 mutations, a highly miniaturized screening of 2208 FDA-approved drugs is conducted using a high-throughput droplet microarray (DMA) platform. Two patient-derived temozolomide-resistant tumorspheres harboring endogenous IDH1 mutations (IDH1 ) are utilized. Screening identifies over 20 drugs, including verteporfin (VP), that significantly affected tumorsphere formation and viability.

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This study was designed to explore whether hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) inhibitor could enhance immunotherapy efficacy in prostate cancer. Western blot was used to detect the expression of HIF-1α in the tumor and peritumor tissues from prostate cancer patients. The analysis from Cancer Genome Atlas database was used to show an association between HIF-1α expression and survival rate in prostate cancer patients.

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Background: Noninvasive diagnostic technologies that can dynamically monitor changes in liver inflammation are highly important for the management of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients and thus warrant further exploration. This study assessed the diagnostic efficacy of FibroScan for liver inflammation in CHB patients.

Methods: A total of 1185 patients were selected, and ultrasound-guided liver biopsy was performed within 1 month after the FibroScan test.

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Simple and rapid imaging and analysis of 2D and 3D cell culture compatible with miniaturized arrays of nanoliter droplets are essential for high-throughput screening and personalized medicine applications. In this study, we have developed a simple one-step, cost-effective and sensitive colorimetric method for the analysis of cell viability in 2D and 3D cell cultures on a nanoliter droplet microarray. The method utilizes a flatbed document scanner that detects a color change in response to cell metabolism in nanoliter droplets with high sensitivity in a single step without the need for expensive specialized equipment.

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Polymer gels, such as hydrogels, have been widely used in biomedical applications, flexible electronics, and soft machines. Polymer network design and its contribution to the performance of gels has been extensively studied. In this study, the critical influence of the solvent nature on the mechanical properties and performance of soft polymer gels is demonstrated.

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Objective: This study set out to clarify the distribution and drug resistance of pathogens causing urinary tract infection (UTI) in patients with urinary calculi.

Methods: Pathogens were isolated from urine samples of patients with urinary calculi also complicated with UTIs, during the period from 2015 to 2019, and the samples were cultured for drug sensitivity testing to study the drug resistance of pathogens. The results were analyzed by SPSS 22.

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Conductive polymers have been intensively investigated as materials for electrodes in flexible electronics due to their favorable biocompatibility and reliable electrochemical stability. Nevertheless, patterning of conductive polymers for the fabrication of devices and in various electronics applications confronts multifarious limitations and challenges. Here, we present a simple but efficient strategy to obtain conductive polymer microelectrodes via utilization of surface-tension-confined liquid patterns.

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3D printing offers enormous flexibility in fabrication of polymer objects with complex geometries. However, it is not suitable for fabricating large polymer structures with geometrical features at the sub-micrometer scale. Porous structure at the sub-micrometer scale can render macroscopic objects with unique properties, including similarities with biological interfaces, permeability and extremely large surface area, imperative inter alia for adsorption, separation, sensing or biomedical applications.

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Artificial multicellular systems are gaining importance in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Reconstruction of complex tissue architectures in vitro is nevertheless challenging, and methods permitting controllable and high-throughput fabrication of complex multicellular architectures are needed. Here, a facile and high-throughput method is developed based on a tunable droplet-fusion technique, allowing programmed assembly of multiple cell spheroids into complex multicellular architectures.

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The Wingless/Int1 (Wnt) signaling system plays multiple, essential roles in embryonic development, tissue homeostasis, and human diseases. Although many of the underlying signaling mechanisms are becoming clearer, the binding mode, kinetics, and selectivity of 19 mammalian WNTs to their receptors of the class Frizzled (FZD) remain obscure. Attempts to investigate Wnt-FZD interactions are hampered by the difficulties in working with Wnt proteins and their recalcitrance to epitope tagging.

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Climate warming poses considerable challenges for alpine plant species, especially for competitively inferior ones with resource-conservative adaptations to cold climates. The Himalayas are warming at rates considerably faster than the global average, so it is particularly important to assess how and through which mechanisms alpine plant species are affected there. We employed a demographic approach in a climate change experiment, where vegetation turfs were transplanted reciprocally between the central parts of the study species' ( L.

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Developing low-cost and highly efficient nanobiochips are important for liquid biopsies, real-time monitoring, and precision medicine. By in situ growth of silica nanowires on a commercial frosted slide, we develop a biochip for effective circulating tumor cells (CTCs) detection after modifying epithelial cell adhesion molecule antibody (anti-EpCAM). The biochip shows the specificity and high capture efficiency of 85.

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Highly efficient cell capture and release with low background are urgently required for early diagnosis of diseases such as cancer. Herein, we report an electrochemical responsive superhydrophilic surface exhibiting specific cell capture and release with high yields and extremely low nonspecific adhesion. Through electrochemical deposition, 3-substituted thiophene derivatives are deposited onto indium tin oxide (ITO) nanowire arrays with 4-n-nonylbenzeneboronic acid (BA) as dopant, fabricating the electrochemical responsive superhydrophilic surfaces.

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To overcome the low efficiency of single-responsive smart surfaces, we have constructed a dual-responsive smart surface - poly(spiropyran-co-N-isopropylacrylamide) (poly(SP-co-NiPAAm))-grafted silicon nanowire arrays - by combining photo-responsive SP and thermo-responsive NiPAAm units for enhancing the efficiencies of cancer-cell capture and release. These enhanced efficiencies probably originate from the binary cooperative effect of two responsive building units: NiPAAm units can decrease the steric hindrance between SP units during the isomerization while SP units can facilitate phase transition of NiPAAm units. This study provides a new strategy for designing smart materials and surfaces with efficient responsiveness for biomedical applications.

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The efficient recognition and isolation of rare cancer cells holds great promise for cancer diagnosis and prognosis. In nature, pollens exploit spiky structures to realize recognition and adhesion to stigma. Herein, a bioinspired pollen-like hierarchical surface is developed by replicating the assembly of pollen grains, and efficient and specific recognition to target cancer cells is achieved.

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Cell-surface topographic interactions can direct the design of biointerfaces, which have been widely used in isolation of circulating tumor cells or fundamental cell biological research. By using three kinds of cancer cell-replicated surfaces with differentiated structures, we uncover that multiscale-cooperative topographic interactions (at both nanoscale and microscale) coupled with molecular recognition enable efficient and specific isolation of cancer cells. The cell replicas precisely inherit the structural features from the original cancer cells, providing not only preferable structures for matching with cancer cells but also a unique platform to interrogate whether certain cancer cells can optimally match with their own replicated surfaces.

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A new class of locked-flavylium fluorophores with tunable emission wavelengths based on intramolecular charge transfer were designed, synthesized, and evaluated. The optical studies indicate that sensor LF3 can display an intriguing character, fluorescence ratiometric response in three channels by tuning the ICT efficiencies.

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The development of near-infrared (NIR) functional fluorescent dyes has gained increasing attention over the last few decades. Herein, we describe the development of a unique type of xanthene-cyanine fused NIR fluorophores, XC dyes, formed by reacting chloro-substituted cyanine with resorcin or its analogues under anhydrous conditions. XC dyes are a hybrid of cyanine and xanthene.

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