Search Results (23)

Background/Objectives: Diabetes mellitus impairs skin wound healing by promoting a chronic inflammatory response and increased oxidative stress. This study aimed to investigate the healing potential of menthol in skin wounds of diabetic rats. Methods: A single dose of streptozotocin (50 mg/kg, i.p.) induced type 1 diabetes mellitus in male Wistar rats. After nine days, a skin wound was made on the rats’ back and treated with vehicle, insulin-based cream (0.5 U/g), or menthol-based cream (0.5%) for 14 days. After the euthanasia, the wound area was destined for assays of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity, protein expression levels by Western blotting, measurement of MPO activity, and quantitative mRNA expression. Nitrite levels were measured in blood plasma. Results: The group treated with menthol-based cream decreased the wound area by 94%. Also, menthol reduced the levels of TNF-α and IL-6 and increased IL-10 levels, besides stimulating the activity of antioxidant enzymes SOD, GPx, and GR, and enhancement in GSH and nitrite levels. Menthol downregulated the expression of Nfκb and upregulated the Il10 and Ki67 gene expression and the eNOS protein expression. Conclusions: Topically applied menthol accelerated the skin wound healing in diabetic rats through anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities and increased cell proliferation, supporting its potential as a therapeutic strategy for diabetic wound management. Full article

Wound healing remains a significant clinical challenge worldwide, and effective management strategies are essential for improving outcomes. This study investigates the therapeutic potential of the AcuCool™ system, a novel multifunctional device that combines high-velocity CO₂ cryotherapy with intradermal delivery of epidermal growth factor (EGF), in promoting wound healing. Using a full-thickness skin wound model in Sprague Dawley rats, we compared the effects of Device+EGF treatment to those of conventional microneedling-based EGF delivery and untreated controls. Macroscopic assessments revealed significantly accelerated wound closure in the Device+EGF group. Histological analysis showed enhanced re-epithelialization, reduced inflammatory cell infiltration, and increased collagen deposition. Molecular evaluations further demonstrated downregulation of pro-inflammatory markers (TNF-α, IL-1β, MCP-1) and upregulation of remodeling-related genes including TGF-β1, Collagen I, and Vimentin. In addition, nitrite assays confirmed reduced local nitric oxide levels, indicating suppression of oxidative stress. The AcuCool™ platform offers precise, non-invasive drug delivery with dual physical and biochemical therapeutic mechanisms, enabling superior control of inflammation and tissue regeneration. These findings suggest that AcuCool™ represents a promising therapeutic strategy for accelerating wound healing in acute models. While further studies are warranted in chronic wound settings, this approach may hold translational potential for future clinical applications. Full article

The clean-label movement has markedly increased consumer demand for meat products free from synthetic additives, such as sodium nitrite, ascorbate, and phosphate. This review summarizes strategies to replace these additives with natural alternatives while preserving the functional and quality properties of traditionally cured meats. Nitrite replacement commonly employs nitrate-rich vegetables, alongside nitrate-reducing starter cultures or pre-converted nitrite powders for adequate nitric oxide production and meat pigment stabilization. Ascorbate substitutes include vitamin C-rich materials and polyphenol-based antioxidants from green tea and rosemary, supporting nitrite reduction and contributing to meat pigment and oxidative stability. To compensate for phosphate functions, natural substitutes such as hydrocolloids, dietary fibers, protein isolates, and calcium powders from eggshells or oyster shells have shown partial success in restoring water-holding capacity, pH buffering, and textural integrity. In addition, non-thermal processing technologies, such as high-pressure processing, ultrasound, and cold plasma are explored as complementary strategies to enhance the efficacy of natural ingredients and support industrial scalability. However, challenges persist regarding ingredient variability, dose-dependent effects, and consistency in functional performance. Future research should focus on synergistic ingredient combinations, formulation standardization, and scalable application in industrial production to ensure the production of high-quality clean-label meat products. Full article

This study investigated the beneficial effects of individual and co-inoculation with Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. lactis N102 and Lactobacillus sakei H1-5 on improving safety parameters, sensory characteristics, and non-volatile metabolite profiles in dry-fermented sausages. Comprehensive analyses were conducted throughout the 20-day maturation period (0, 6, 13, 16, and 20 days), including physicochemical monitoring (moisture content, malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, biogenic amine concentrations, and sodium nitrite residues); sensory evaluation (color parameters and textural properties); and ¹H NMR-based metabolomic profiling. Key findings revealed strain-specific advantages: the N102 inoculation significantly delayed lipid oxidation, achieving the lowest final MDA concentration (4.5 mg/kg) among all groups. Meanwhile, H1-5 supplementation notably improved color attributes (a*/b* ratio = 1.34). The co-inoculation strategy demonstrated synergistic effects through (1) accelerated acidification (pH 5.3 by day 6); (2) enhanced textural properties (significantly increased hardness and elasticity vs. control); (3) optimized water distribution (free water reduced to 0.56% with 64.73% immobilized water); and (4) a significant reduction in sodium nitrite residues (70% decrease) and complete elimination of phenylethylamine (total biogenic amines: 702.94 mg/kg). ¹H NMR metabolomics identified 30 non-volatile metabolites, and the co-inoculation significantly increased the amount of essential amino acids (leucine, isoleucine), flavor-related compounds (glutamic acid, succinic acid), and bioactive substances (gooseberry, creatine). These metabolites enhanced antioxidant capacity, freshness, and nutritional value. Our findings demonstrate that strategic co-cultivation of food-grade lactobacilli can synergistically enhance both the techno-functional properties and biochemical composition of fermented meat products, providing a viable approach for quality optimization in industrial applications. Full article

Anthropogenic activities significantly threaten aquatic ecosystems, accelerating water quality deterioration through pollution, overexploitation, and habitat disturbance. Roodeplaat Dam in South Africa exemplifies these challenges, experiencing nutrient overload driven by malfunctioning wastewater treatment works (WWTWs), urban runoff, and agricultural activities. This study investigates the spatio–temporal dynamics of flow patterns and nutrient loads in Roodeplaat Dam, focusing on the interplay between nutrient pollution, land use, and land cover change (LULCC). A multi-site sampling approach was employed to assess total phosphorus (TP) and nitrate–nitrite (NO₃ + NO₂) loading, complemented by geospatial analysis of LULCC impacts over two decades. The study revealed that TP and NO₃ + NO₂ concentrations surpassed permissible limits at certain monitoring sites, particularly downstream of WWTWs during low-flow periods, demonstrating their substantial role in elevating nutrient levels. The study further revealed that extensive human-driven changes in the catchment area were key contributors to nutrient dynamics. These changes included a reduction in vegetation cover from 65% to 45.17%, an increase in soil exposure from 10.25% to 22.01%, and urban expansion from 26.56% to 32.32%. These alterations disrupt natural nutrient cycles, leading to increased runoff and potential eutrophication of water bodies. Thus, to address these challenges, this study underscores the need for an integrated strategy that combines nature-based solutions, enhanced wastewater treatment, stricter regulatory compliance, and adaptive management to mitigate pollution and improve water resource sustainability. The insights gained from this case study provide valuable guidance for managing similar systems in developing regions under increasing anthropogenic and climatic pressures. Full article

Antibiotics in aquaculture pose significant environmental risks due to their widespread distribution in water, impacting ecosystem health. To address this hot issue, an ozone-assisted hydrodynamic cavitation (OAHC) system was developed for the efficient treatment of aquaculture seawater contaminated with antibiotics. The system demonstrated remarkable efficiency, achieving complete degradation of eight antibiotics within a reaction time of 20 s. At the same time, water quality parameters, such as dissolved oxygen (increased from 9.79 mg/L to 13.19 mg/L) and nitrite nitrogen (reduced from 0.14 mg/L to 0.01 mg/L), significantly improved post-treatment. The OAHC-based system minimized harmful by-products, ensuring compliance with Chinese water quality standards. As a supplementary study, a laboratory-based simulated experiment was conducted with FLO as the target antibiotic. The investigation of kinetics and mechanisms indicated that •OH plays a predominant role in the OAHC-based aquaculture seawater treatment system. As global regulations tighten on antibiotic discharge, OAHC-based technology is poised to become a cornerstone of next-generation water treatment solutions. Future research should prioritize field-scale validation and real-time monitoring to accelerate industrial adoption. Full article

The effects of different molten salts on the corrosion resistance of laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) 316L stainless steel was evaluated at 650 and 700 °C. The samples were characterized via XRD and SEM/EDX after high-temperature corrosion tests to evaluate the corrosion damage to the L-PBF 316L stainless steel caused by the molten salts. The presence of the salts accelerated the corrosion process, the chloride-based salts being the most aggressive ones, followed by the carbonate-based and the nitrate/nitrite-based salts, respectively. The L-PBF 316L did not react strongly with the nitrate/nitrite-based salts, but some corrosion products not found in the samples tested in the absence of salts, such as NaFeO₂, were formed. LiFeO₂ and LiCrO₂ were identified as the main corrosion products in the samples exposed to the carbonate-based molten salts, due to the high activity of Li ions. Their growth produced the depletion of Fe and Cr elements and the formation of vacancies that acted as diffusion paths on the surface of the steel. In the samples exposed to chloride-based molten salts, the attacked area was much deeper, and the corrosion process followed an active oxidation mechanism in which a chlorine cycle is assumed to have been involved. Full article

Removal of fixed nitrogen compounds such as ammonium and nitrite from wastewater is of critical importance for balancing the nitrogen cycle and protecting aquatic environments from eutrophication. ANaerobic AMMonium OXidising (ANAMMOX) bacteria have recently been employed for fixed nitrogen removal purposes in wastewater treatment processes. These specialised bacteria convert ammonium and nitrite into nitrogen gas anaerobically, thereby reducing the amount of energy required for aeration in conventional wastewater treatment processes. However, slow growth rates of ANAMMOX remain a major obstacle towards their widespread use in industrial wastewater treatment processes. Thus, a pangenome-scale, constraint-based metabolic model, iRB399, of ANAMMOX bacteria has been developed to design strategies for accelerating their growth. The main metabolic limitation was identified in the energy metabolism of these bacteria, concerning the production of ATP. The extremely low efficiency of the electron transport chain combined with very high growth-associated maintenance energy is likely to be responsible for the slow growth of ANAMMOX. However, different ANAMMOX species were found to conserve energy using a variety of different redox couples, and the modelling simulations revealed their comparative advantages under different growth conditions. iRB399 also identified dispensable catabolic reactions that have demonstrably beneficial effects on enhancing the growth rates of ANAMMOX bacteria. Thus, the pangenome-scale model will not only help identify and overcome metabolic limitations of ANNAMOX bacteria, but also provide a valuable resource for designing efficient ANNAMOX-based wastewater treatment processes. Full article

Inhibitors for the prevention of corrosion in reinforced concrete are chemical substances able to reduce carbon steel reinforcements corrosion without altering the overall properties of concrete. Today, many commercially available substances have a negative impact on human safety during either the inhibitor synthesis, their handling or application in field. Green corrosion inhibitors are nontoxic, biodegradable and environmentally biocompatible substances. They are generally made of extracts from natural plants or waste, which are abundantly available in several countries. The majority of green inhibitor molecules usually contain multiple bonds, aromatic rings, polar functional groups and electronegative atoms as P, N, S or O; the latter are able to coordinate with metal cations to form protective layers on the metallic surface of the reinforcements, so as to inhibit the development (initiation and/or propagation) of the corrosion process. In this review, the most recent achievements on the study and investigation of green corrosion inhibitors for concrete structures are presented and discussed. Inhibitors are classified based on their nature and inhibition mechanism. The inhibition effectiveness of the substances is compared with the well-established effective nitrite-based inhibitor, distinguishing between accelerated and long-term tests. Based on the available data, a summary of corrosion inhibitors efficiency is reported. Full article

The article discusses the aspects of obtaining red-colored phosphate coatings on the surface of steel at low temperatures. The solution for color phosphating is based on a modified composition based on the chemical «Majef» with sodium nitrite as an accelerator, organic additives of glycerin and Trilon B to improve the quality of precipitated phosphate coatings, and the preparation of OS-20 for emulsifying and wetting the surface. To precipitate red phosphate coatings, it is proposed to introduce copper salt into the composition of the phosphating solution. In the phosphating solution with the addition of copper salt, contact deposition of copper occurs before the formation of a phosphate film on the surface of the steel. This copper layer stains the resulting phosphate coating but does not adhere to the steel surface. To obtain a red phosphate coating of satisfactory quality, it is recommended to first soak the steel product in a modified cold phosphating solution for 15 min, and after the formation of a thin layer of phosphate film on the surface of the steel, introduce copper salt into the solution. Red phosphate coatings are inferior in their protective abilities to unpainted phosphate films; they have greater roughness and high porosity. Although red phosphate coatings have a protective ability, their anticorrosive properties should be improved by additional varnish treatment. Full article

The hazard of nitrite caused by microorganisms is the main food safety problem in the pickle production. To seek a method to control the nitrite hazards of pickles by regulating microbial community without additional substances, we focused on cold plasma because Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria have different degrees of sensitivity to the sterilization of cold plasma. Using radish pickles as the experimental object, based on colony counting, dynamic monitoring of pH and nitrite, qPCR and high-throughput sequencing, it was found that when the raw material was treated with dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) cold plasma at 40 kV for 60 s, Gram-negative bacteria with the potential to produce nitrite were preferentially sterilized. Meanwhile, Gram-positive bacteria dominated by the lactic acid bacteria were retained to accelerate the acid production rate, initiate the self-degradation of nitrite in advance and significantly reduce the peak value and accumulation of nitrite during the fermentation process of pickled radish. This study preliminarily verified that DBD cold plasma can inhibit the nitrite generation and accelerate the self-degradation of nitrite by regulating the structure and abundance of microbial community in radish pickles, which provides an important reference for the control of nitrite hazards in the fermentation process of pickles without additives. Full article

This study aimed to develop a cementitious repair material that can be constructed in cold weather conditions. The addition of nitrite/nitrate-based antifreezing agents has been shown to increase the initial strength of cementitious repair materials in cold weather. However, increasing the amount of these agents may lead to an increase in deformation behavior and shrinkage cracking. In this study, the effects of different types and amounts of nitrite/nitrate-based antifreezing agents on the strength development and deformation behavior of cementitious repair materials under low-temperature conditions were evaluated. As a result, it was found that the addition of a large amount of calcium nitrite can promote hydration and improve the initial strength of the repair material, irrespective of the type of antifreezing agent. However, this also leads to an increase in shrinkage and the concern of shrinkage cracking. Therefore, a repair material that is repairable in winter was developed by balancing the initial strength and deformation behavior through the appropriate selection of antifreezing agents. The developed repair material can be used to repair structures in cold weather conditions, which is of great significance for the construction industry in Hokkaido, Japan. Full article

Many studies have been carried out on the phosphating of steel and aluminum alloys used in automotive engineering, but characterization of the properties of the phosphate layers formed by the co-phosphating of these alloys in the presence of different base metals is still lacking. In this study, the crystal structure and properties of the phosphate conversion layers formed on the surface of the aluminum alloys important in vehicle manufacturing (cast and forged AlSi1MgMn, and AA6014 panel) and the CRS SAE 1008/1010 reference steel plate by co-deposition prior to painting were investigated. On a process line set up for the phosphating of typical iron and steel alloys, the phosphate coating was formed using nitrite and nitroguanidine accelerators under identical technological parameters. The microstructure of the formed phosphate layers was examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), its phase composition using X-ray diffraction (XRD), and its elemental composition using energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX). The suggested main crystalline phase (Zn_2.3(Ni_0.1Mn_0.6)(PO₄)₂·4H₂O) in the surface phosphate layer of both aluminum alloys studied was similar to hopeite, whereas in the steel plate, a minor hopeite phase were identified in addition to the main crystalline phosphophyllite phase (~95%). It can be concluded that, during the combined phosphating treatments, the surfaces of different aluminum and steel alloys behaved similarly to the individual treatments and did not impede the coating reactions of the other metal. To obtain an adequate coating of aluminum and steel alloys, fluoride should always be present in the production line. Comparing the effects of accelerators, we found that the use of nitrite accelerator with the same amount of fluoride resulted in a higher coverage and better quality of the surface protective layer of the aluminum alloys. However, for the steel plate, there was no significant difference between the phosphate coatings prepared with the two different accelerators. Full article

Cold Atmospheric Plasma (CAP) is an emerging technology with great potential for biomedical applications such as sterilizing equipment and antitumor strategies. CAP has also been shown to improve skin wound healing in vivo, but the biological mechanisms involved are not well known. Our study assessed a possible effect of a direct helium jet CAP treatment on keratinocytes, in both the immortalized N/TERT-1 human cell line and primary keratinocytes obtained from human skin samples. The cells were covered with 200 µL of phosphate buffered saline and exposed to the helium plasma jet for 10–120 s. In our experimental conditions, micromolar concentrations of hydrogen peroxide, nitrite and nitrate were produced. We showed that long-time CAP treatments (≥60 s) were cytotoxic, reduced keratinocyte migration, upregulated the expression of heat shock protein 27 (HSP27) and induced oxidative cell stress. In contrast, short-term CAP treatments (<60 s) were not cytotoxic, did not affect keratinocyte proliferation and differentiation, and did not induce any changes in mitochondria, but they did accelerate wound closure in vitro by improving keratinocyte migration. In conclusion, these results suggest that helium-based CAP treatments improve wound healing by stimulating keratinocyte migration. The study confirms that CAP could be a novel therapeutic method to treat recalcitrant wounds. Full article

Nowadays, the incorporation of nanoparticles into thermal fluids has become one of the most suitable strategies for developing high-performance fluids. An unconventional improvement of thermo–physical properties was observed with the addition of 1% wt. of nanoparticles in different types of fluids, such as molten salts, allowing for the design of more thermally efficient systems using nanofluids. Despite this, there is a lack of knowledge about the effect that nanoparticles produce on the thermal stability and the decomposition kinetics of the base fluid. The present study performs IR- and UV-vis spectroscopy along with thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of pure nitrate and nitrate based nanofluids with the presence of SiO₂ and Al₂O₃ nanoparticles (1% wt.). The results obtained support that nanoparticles accelerate the nitrate to nitrite decomposition at temperatures below 500 °C (up to 4%), thus confirming the catalytic role of nanoparticles in nanofluids. Full article