Bioengineering最新文献

{"title":"Bioengineering of the Motor System.","authors":"Carlo Albino Frigo","doi":"10.3390/bioengineering12020199","DOIUrl":"10.3390/bioengineering12020199","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>About fifty years ago, which seems very recent, new technologies for motion analysis were being developed, promising a more detailed and precise study of the human motor system [...].</p>","PeriodicalId":8874,"journal":{"name":"Bioengineering","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11852155/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143498328","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Scaffold-Free Strategies in Dental Pulp/Dentine Tissue Engineering: Current Status and Implications for Regenerative Biological Processes.","authors":"Mohammad Samiei, Martin Conrad Harmsen, Elaheh Dalir Abdolahinia, Jaleh Barar, Xenos Petridis","doi":"10.3390/bioengineering12020198","DOIUrl":"10.3390/bioengineering12020198","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Conventionally, root canal treatment is performed when the dental pulp is severely damaged or lost due to dental trauma or bacterial endodontic infections. This treatment involves removing the compromised or infected pulp tissue, disinfecting the root canal system, and sealing it with inert, non-degradable materials. However, contemporary endodontic treatment has shifted from merely obturating the root canal system with inert materials to guiding endodontic tissue regeneration through biological approaches. The ultimate goal of regenerative endodontics is to restore dental pulp tissue with structural organization and functional characteristics akin to the native pulp, leveraging advancements in tissue engineering and biomaterial sciences. Dental pulp tissue engineering commonly employs scaffold-based strategies, utilizing biomaterials as initial platforms for cell and growth factor delivery, which subsequently act as scaffolds for cell proliferation, differentiation and maturation. However, cells possess an intrinsic capacity for self-organization into spheroids and can generate their own extracellular matrix, eliminating the need for external scaffolds. This self-assembling property presents a promising alternative for scaffold-free dental pulp engineering, addressing limitations associated with biomaterial-based approaches. This review provides a comprehensive overview of cell-based, self-assembling and scaffold-free approaches in dental pulp tissue engineering, highlighting their potential advantages and challenges in advancing regenerative endodontics.</p>","PeriodicalId":8874,"journal":{"name":"Bioengineering","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11851408/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143498451","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Role of Magnesium, Zinc, and Strontium in Osteoporotic Fracture Repair.","authors":"Zhen Wang, Penghui Xiang, Zhe Xu, Meiqi Gu, Rui Zhang, Yifei Li, Hua Chen, Li He, Chengla Yi","doi":"10.3390/bioengineering12020201","DOIUrl":"10.3390/bioengineering12020201","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Osteoporotic fractures represent a significant public health challenge in the context of an aging global population, with the rising prevalence of osteoporosis intensifying the demand for effective fracture treatment. Restoring the structure and function of bone tissue damaged by osteoporosis-induced defects remains a critical issue in clinical practice. In recent years, bioactive metallic materials such as magnesium, zinc, and strontium have gained considerable attention due to their exceptional mechanical properties, biocompatibility, and biodegradability, positioning them as promising materials for osteoporotic fracture repair. This review systematically explored the biological mechanisms, application advancements, and associated challenges of magnesium, zinc, and strontium in fracture healing. Key topics included their roles in promoting osteoblast proliferation and differentiation, inhibiting osteoclast activity, and modulating the bone microenvironment. Additionally, this review examined the optimization strategies for their clinical application, such as their integration into bone scaffolds, the functionalization of conventional materials, and the synergistic effects between different metals. Finally, this review analyzed the current progress and unresolved issues in this field, offering a forward-looking perspective on the clinical potential of bioactive metallic materials in precision treatment of osteoporotic fractures.</p>","PeriodicalId":8874,"journal":{"name":"Bioengineering","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11851939/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143498430","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Energy Saving in Permanent Cardiac Pacing: Pulse Waveform and Charge Balancing Deserve Consideration.","authors":"Franco Di Gregorio, Lina Marcantoni, Aldo Mozzi, Alberto Barbetta, Francesco Zanon","doi":"10.3390/bioengineering12020194","DOIUrl":"10.3390/bioengineering12020194","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The pacing pulse produced by implantable stimulators can be described as a truncated exponential decay from the starting peak amplitude, corresponding to the discharge of the output stage capacitance (reservoir and isolation capacitors, in series) along the application time. Pulse decay and charge balancing have relevant implications on the ideal setting of a pacing device, as demonstrated by mathematical predictions based on well-acknowledged theoretical statements. Successful stimulation is achieved with minimum energy expense at a pulse duration shorter than the chronaxie time, which represents the upper border of the advisable duration interval. With any start amplitude, the stimulation safety margin can be improved by a duration increase beyond the chronaxie only up to an absolute limit (longest useful duration), which depends on the chronaxie and the pulse time-constant. At the longest useful duration, the threshold start amplitude is at the minimum and cannot decrease any further, though it and the corresponding pulse mean amplitude largely exceed the rheobase. The overall pacing performance is affected, in addition, by the load resistance and the electrode capacitance. Pulse amplitude decay limits the effectiveness of extended duration in implantable stimulators, making short pulses preferable whenever possible. Proper pulse settings based on actual waveform properties can prevent energy waste and reduce pacing consumption, thus prolonging the service life of the stimulator.</p>","PeriodicalId":8874,"journal":{"name":"Bioengineering","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11851791/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143498448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Visible Exocytosis of the Non-Photic Signal Neuropeptide Y to the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus in Fasted Transgenic Mice Throughout Their Circadian Rhythms.","authors":"Kazuo Nakazawa, Minako Matsuo, Kazuki Nakao, Shigenori Nonaka, Rika Numano","doi":"10.3390/bioengineering12020192","DOIUrl":"10.3390/bioengineering12020192","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Organisms maintain circadian rhythms corresponding to approximately 24 h in the absence of external environmental cues, and they synchronize the phases of their autonomous circadian clocks to light-dark cycles, feeding timing, and other factors. The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) occupies the top position of the hierarchy in the mammalian circadian system and functions as a photic-dependent oscillator, while the food-entrainable circadian oscillator (FEO) entrains the clocks of the digestive peripheral tissues and behaviors according to feeding timing. In mammals, neuropeptide Y (NPY) from the intergeniculate leaflet (IGL) neurons projected onto the SCN plays an important role in entraining circadian rhythms to feeding conditions. However, the relationship between the FEO and SCN has been unclear under various feeding conditions. In this study, novel NPY::Venus transgenic (Tg) mice, which expressed the NPY fused to Venus fluorescent protein, were generated to investigate the secretion of NPY on the SCN from the IGL. NPY-containing secretory granules with Venus signals in the SCN slices of the Tg mice could be observed using confocal and super-resolution microscopy. We observed that the number of NPY secretory granules released on the SCNs increased during fasting, and these mice were valuable tools for further investigating the role of NPY secretion from the IGL to the SCN in mediating interactions between the FEO and the SCN.</p>","PeriodicalId":8874,"journal":{"name":"Bioengineering","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11851631/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143498516","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Bayesian Hierarchical Modeling for Variance Estimation in Biopharmaceutical Processes.","authors":"Sonja Schach, Tobias Eilert, Beate Presser, Marco Kunzelmann","doi":"10.3390/bioengineering12020193","DOIUrl":"10.3390/bioengineering12020193","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Determining process variances in biopharmaceutical manufacturing is challenging due to limited data availability. To address this, we introduce a Bayesian hierarchical model designed for meta-analysis of process variance. This approach can improve process variance estimation by integrating data from multiple products, providing more reliable estimates of critical quality attributes in cases of data scarcity. Additionally, our model aids in evaluating process models, ensuring quality in process development. The paper demonstrates the new method using a simulation study, showcasing its potential to leverage historical data for both upstream and downstream phases of future CMC drug development. The new statistical model has great potential to expedite the market introduction of therapies while ensuring patient safety, allowing new treatments to reach patients more quickly without compromising quality or efficacy.</p>","PeriodicalId":8874,"journal":{"name":"Bioengineering","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11852408/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143498372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Utilizing Integrated Bioinformatics Analysis to Explore Potential Alterations in Mitochondrial Function Within Immune Cells Associated with Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms.","authors":"Chang Guan, Si-Xu Chen, Chun-Ling Huang, Yi-Peng Du, Kai-Hao Wang, Pei-Xin Li, Shen-Rong Liu, Zhao-Yu Liu, Zheng Huang","doi":"10.3390/bioengineering12020197","DOIUrl":"10.3390/bioengineering12020197","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA) is a life-threatening peripheral vascular disease with a complex pathogenesis. Altered mitochondrial function in vascular smooth muscle cells has been implicated in TAA development. However, the link between mitochondrial functional status and immune cell behavior in TAA patients remains largely unexplored. In this study, we analyzed several bulk RNA-seq and snRNA-seq datasets of TAA from the NCBI-GEO and Genome Sequence Archive database, identifying differentially expressed mitochondrial-related genes (DE-MRGs). To assess mitochondrial function, we calculated a mitoscore to represent the overall expression level of MRGs. Our analysis revealed mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis occurring in M1 macrophages, while CD4 + T cells demonstrated the activation of quality control mechanisms, such as mitochondrial fission. Through LASSO regression and SVM-RFE, we identified key MRGs, including <i>MUCB</i>, <i>ARRB2</i>, <i>FRG</i>, and <i>ALPL</i>, which we further validated using TAA mouse models. Additionally, we found that DE-MRGs were closely linked to methionine metabolism. In conclusion, this study highlights mitochondrial dysfunction in immune cells associated with TAA, shedding light on potential mitochondrial roles in TAA pathogenesis.</p>","PeriodicalId":8874,"journal":{"name":"Bioengineering","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11852063/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143498487","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cross-Attention Adaptive Feature Pyramid Network with Uncertainty Boundary Modeling for Mass Detection in Digital Breast Tomosynthesis.","authors":"Xinyu Ma, Haotian Sun, Gang Yuan, Yufei Tang, Jie Liu, Shuangqing Chen, Jian Zheng","doi":"10.3390/bioengineering12020196","DOIUrl":"10.3390/bioengineering12020196","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Computer-aided detection (CADe) of masses in digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) is crucial for early breast cancer diagnosis. However, the variability in the size and morphology of breast masses and their resemblance to surrounding tissues present significant challenges. Current CNN-based CADe methods, particularly those that use Feature Pyramid Networks (FPN), often fail to integrate multi-scale information effectively and struggle to handle dense glandular tissue with high-density or iso-density mass lesions due to the unidirectional integration and progressive attenuation of features, leading to high false positive rates. Additionally, the commonly indistinct boundaries of breast masses introduce uncertainty in boundary localization, which makes traditional Dirac boundary modeling insufficient for precise boundary regression. To address these issues, we propose the CU-Net network, which efficiently fuses multi-scale features and accurately models blurred boundaries. Specifically, the CU-Net introduces the Cross-Attention Adaptive Feature Pyramid Network (CA-FPN), which enhances the effectiveness and accuracy of feature interactions through a cross-attention mechanism to capture global correlations across multi-scale feature maps. Simultaneously, the Breast Density Perceptual Module (BDPM) incorporates breast density information to weight intermediate features, thereby improving the network's focus on dense breast regions susceptible to false positives. For blurred mass boundaries, we introduce Uncertainty Boundary Modeling (UBM) to model the positional distribution function of predicted bounding boxes for masses with uncertain boundaries. In comparative experiments on an in-house clinical DBT dataset and the BCS-DBT dataset, the proposed method achieved sensitivities of 89.68% and 72.73% at 2 false positives per DBT volume (FPs/DBT), respectively, significantly outperforming existing state-of-the-art detection methods. This method offers clinicians rapid, accurate, and objective diagnostic assistance, demonstrating substantial potential for clinical application.</p>","PeriodicalId":8874,"journal":{"name":"Bioengineering","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11851675/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143498259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Nitric Oxide Distribution Correlates with Intraluminal Thrombus in Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm: A Computational Study.","authors":"Siting Li, Shiyi Yang, Xiaoning Sun, Tianxiang Ma, Yuehong Zheng, Xiao Liu","doi":"10.3390/bioengineering12020191","DOIUrl":"10.3390/bioengineering12020191","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Intraluminal thrombus (ILT) in the abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is associated with disease progression and complications. This study investigates the relationship between nitric oxide (NO) concentration and ILT in AAA patients using patient-specific computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. Four AAA patients with ILT were enrolled. Patient-specific models of the aorta and branch arteries were constructed followed by CFD simulations. NO concentration was modeled based on endothelial shear stress response and its transport within the arterial lumen and wall. Hemodynamic parameters, including wall shear stress (WSS) and its derivatives, were analyzed alongside NO distribution. ILT accumulation was primarily located in the infrarenal abdominal aorta. Regions of decreased NO concentration correlated with ILT accumulated areas, whereas regions with decreased TAWSS and increased OSI were less consistent with ILT accumulation. A negative correlation was observed between the thrombus area and NO concentration, with <i>p</i> values of less than 0.001 for four patients. The time-average area NO concentration values of lumen area with ILT were lower than those of non-ILT sections. Spatially, NO was unevenly distributed, with thicker thrombus in regions of lower NO concentration. NO distribution could serve as a better potential personalized marker for thrombosis prediction in AAA compared to WSS-derived parameters.</p>","PeriodicalId":8874,"journal":{"name":"Bioengineering","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11851545/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143498435","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Non-Invasive Approach for Facial Action Unit Extraction and Its Application in Pain Detection.","authors":"Mondher Bouazizi, Kevin Feghoul, Shengze Wang, Yue Yin, Tomoaki Ohtsuki","doi":"10.3390/bioengineering12020195","DOIUrl":"10.3390/bioengineering12020195","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A significant challenge that hinders advancements in medical research is the sensitive and confidential nature of patient data in available datasets. In particular, sharing patients' facial images poses considerable privacy risks, especially with the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), which could misuse such data if accessed by unauthorized parties. However, facial expressions are a valuable source of information for doctors and researchers, which creates a need for methods to derive them without compromising patient privacy or safety by exposing identifiable facial images. To address this, we present a quick, computationally efficient method for detecting action units (AUs) and their intensities-key indicators of health and emotion-using only 3D facial landmarks. Our proposed framework extracts 3D face landmarks from video recordings and employs a lightweight neural network (NN) to identify AUs and estimate AU intensities based on these landmarks. Our proposed method reaches a 79.25% F1-score in AU detection for the main AUs, and 0.66 in AU intensity estimation Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). This performance shows that it is possible for researchers to share 3D landmarks, which are far less intrusive, instead of facial images while maintaining high accuracy in AU detection. Moreover, to showcase the usefulness of our AU detection model, using the detected AUs and estimated intensities, we trained state-of-the-art Deep Learning (DL) models to detect pain. Our method reaches 91.16% accuracy in pain detection, which is not far behind the 93.14% accuracy obtained when employing a convolutional neural network (CNN) with residual blocks trained on actual images and the 92.11% accuracy obtained when employing all the ground-truth AUs.</p>","PeriodicalId":8874,"journal":{"name":"Bioengineering","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11851526/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143498347","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}