A Scalable and Robust Personal Health Management Textile with Multiple Desired Thermal Functions and Electromagnetic Shielding

The development of functional textiles combining conventional apparel with advanced technologies for personal health management (PHM) has garnered widespread attention. However, the current PHM textiles often achieve multifunctionality by stacking functional modules, leading to poor durability and scalability. Herein, a scalable and robust PHM textile is designed by integrating electrical, radiative, and solar heating, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, and piezoresistive sensing performance onto cotton fabric. This is achieved through an uncomplicated screen-printing process using silver paste. The conductivity of the PHM textile is ≈1.6  ×  104 S m-1, ensuring an electric heating temperature of ≈134 °C with a low voltage of 1.7 V, as well as an EMI shielding effectiveness of ≈56 dB, and human motion monitoring performance. Surprisingly, the radiative/solar heating capability of the PHM textile surpasses that of traditional warm leather. Even after undergoing rigorous physical and chemical treatments, the PHM textile maintains terrific durability. Additionally, the PHM textile possesses maneuverable scalability and comfortable wearability. This innovative work opens up new avenues for the strategic design of PHM textiles and provides an advantageous guarantee of mass production.

A Janus Textile with Tunable Heating Modes toward Precise Personal Thermal Management in Cold Conditions

Passive heating textiles (PHTs) have drawn increasing attention due to the advantages of energy-conservation heating. However, the heating capabilities of current PHTs are typically static and non-tunable, presenting poor adaptation to dynamic winter. Herein, a novel Janus textile with tunable heating modes is developed by constructing a customized structure with asymmetric optical properties. This Janus textile is created by coating one side of a cotton fabric with silver nanowires (AgNWs) and then applying transition metal carbides/nitrides (MXene) to the other side. The MXene side exhibits high solar absorptivity and low mid-infrared emissivity, while the AgNWs side has moderate solar absorptivity and mid-infrared emissivity. This structure ensures that the solar and radiative heating temperatures of the MXene side are 16 °C and 1.7 °C higher than those of the AgNWs side. This distinction allows for on-demand, accurate adjustments in solar and radiative heating capabilities by flipping the textile according to ambient temperature. Furthermore, this innovative design also features desired electric heating, thermal camouflage, self-cleaning and antibacterial properties, electromagnetic interference shielding, durability, and wearability. The Janus textile enables precise thermoregulation of the human body to adapt to variable cold weather, making it essential for optimal personal thermal management and climate change mitigation.

The hepatoprotective effect of Sophora viciifolia fruit extract against acetaminophen-induced liver injury in mice

This research demonstrated the protective effect and possible mechanism of the Sophora viciifolia extract (SVE) against acetaminophen-induced liver injury in mice. The levels of ALT and AST in the serum and antioxidant enzyme activity in the liver were measured. We used immunohistochemistry to detect CYP2E1, Nrf2, and Keap1 protein expression in the liver. The mRNA expression in the liver of TNF-α, NF-κB, and IL-6, Nrf2 and its downstream genes HO-1 and GCLC were measured by qRT-PCR. We found that SVE could decrease the ALT and AST levels, promote the activities of SOD, CAT, GSH-Px, and GSH, and ameliorate pathological liver lesions. SVE could down-regulate the mRNA expression of inflammatory factors and up-regulate Nrf2, HO-1 and GCLC. SVE reduced the protein expression of the CYP2E1 and increased the Nrf2 and Keap1. SVE has been shown to have a protective effect against APAP-induced liver injury, possibly through activation of the Keap1-Nrf2 pathway.

Walnut Protein Hydrolysates Play a Protective Role on Neurotoxicity Induced by d-Galactose and Aluminum Chloride in Mice

In recent years, with an increase in the aging population, neurodegenerative diseases have attracted more and more attention. This study aimed to investigate the potential neuroprotective effect of defatted walnut meal protein hydrolysates (DWMPH) on neurotoxicity induced by d-galactose (d-gal) and aluminum chloride (AlCl₃) in mice. The animal models were established by combining treatments with d-gal (200 mg/kg/day, subcutaneously) and AlCl₃ (100 mg/kg in drinking water) for 90 days. During the 90 days, 1 g/kg of DWMPH was administrated orally every day. The results indicated that DWMPH treatment alleviated oxidative stress, reversed cholinergic dysfunction, and suppressed the release of proinflammatory cytokines in the brains of d-gal + AlCl₃-treated mice, and thus improving the learning and memory functions of these mice, which was closely correlated with the strong antioxidant activity of DWMPH. This finding suggests that DWMPH might be a promising dietary supplement in improving neuronal dysfunctions of the brain.