The light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with single, twin, triple, and quadruple photonic crystals (PCs) on p-GaN are fabricated by multiple-exposure nanosphere-lens lithography (MENLL) process utilizing the focusing behavior of polystyrene spheres. Such a technique is easy and economical for use in fabricating compound nano-patterns. The optimized tilted angle is decided to be 26.6° through mathematic calculation to try to avoid the overlay of patterns. The results of scanning electron microscopy and simulations reveal that the pattern produced by MENLL is a combination of multiple ovals. Compared to planar-LED, the light output power of LEDs with single, twin, triple, and quadruple PCs is increased by 14.78%, 36.03%, 53.68%, and 44.85% under a drive current 350 mA, respectively. Furthermore, all PC-structures result in no degradation of the electrical properties. The stimulated results indicate that the highest light extraction efficiency of LED with the clover-shape triple PC is due to the largest scattering effect on propagation of light from GaN into air.

Pathological cardiac hypertrophy is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease. However, drug therapies that can reverse the maladaptive process and restore heart function are limited. Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides (GLPs) are one of the main active components of G. lucidum (Ganoderma lucidum), and they have various pharmacological effects. GLPs have been used as Chinese medicine prescriptions for clinical treatment. In this study, cardiac hypertrophy was induced by transverse aortic constriction (TAC) in mice. We found that GLPs ameliorate Ang II-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy in vitro and attenuate pressure overload–induced cardiac hypertrophy in vivo. Further research indicated that GLPs attenuated the mRNA levels of hypertrophic and fibrotic markers to inhibit cardiac hypertrophy through the PPARγ/PGC-1α pathway. Overall, these results indicate that GLPs inhibit cardiac hypertrophy through downregulating key genes for hypertrophy and fibrosis and attenuate pressure overload-induced pathological cardiac hypertrophy by activating PPARγ. This study provides important theoretical support for the potential of using GLPs to treat pathological myocardial hypertrophy and heart failure.

The study of active compounds of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an important composition of the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine. However, most of the traditional Chinese medicine active ingredient detection equipment has the problems of large volume and poor flexibility. This paper proposes an all-fiber microfluidic chip based on the principle of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) for arctigenin detection, reducing the diameter of the active ingredient sensor of traditional Chinese medicine to 125 μm. We used capillary fiber as the microfluidic channel, constructed the SPR sensing zone on the inner wall of the capillary fiber, and fixed the target protein on the surface of the sensing zone. We realized the specific detection of arctigenin, with the detection sensitivity of 0.205 nm/(μg/mL) and the limit of detection (LOD) of 0.49 μg/mL. We also verified the specific detection effect of the microfluidic chip in mixed solution. In conclusion, we proposed a kind of all-fiber microfluidic chip with small size, flexibility and real-time specificity detection, which provides a new solution for miniaturization, flexibility and rapid detection of active molecules in TCM detection devices.

In order to perform microfluidic detection of cytokines with low concentration, such as growth differentiation factor 11 (GDF11), the most common method is to construct microfluidic channels and integrate them with SPR sensing units. In this paper, we proposed a novel all-fiber SPR microfluidic chip for GDF11 detection. The method was to construct the SPR sensing area on a designed D-shaped multimode fiber, which was nested inside a quartz tube to form a semi-cylindrical microfluidic channel. The surface of the SPR sensing area experienced sensitization and specifically modification to achieve the specific detection of GDF11. When the sensitivity of detection was 1.38 nm/lg(g/mL) and the limit of detection was 0.52 pg/mL, the sample consumption was only 0.4 µL for a single detection. The novel all-fiber SPR microfluidic detection chip has the advantages of flexible design, compact structure and low sample consumption, which is expected to be used in wearable biosensing devices for real-time online monitoring of trace cytokines in vivo.

Fiber SPR sensor can be used for rapid detection of active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine. To achieve micro-detection of specific active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine, its further development requires significantly improving sensitivity and achieving specific detection. In this paper, we proposed and demonstrated a new type of highly sensitive and specific detection fiber SPR sensor, which employed a graded index multimode fiber as the sensing fiber. Due to the self-focusing effect of the graded index multimode fiber, the modes number of transmission light in the sensing area is significantly reduced. By using an eccentric core fiber to inject light and controlling the depth of the flat bottom groove made on the graded index multimode fiber to control the incident angle of light, the sensitivity of the fiber SPR sensor is greatly improved. By modifying RXRα protein on the surface of sensing gold film, the specific recognition of the active ingredient Baohuoside I in traditional Chinese medicine Epimedium has been achieved. According to the experiment, the sensor has a detection sensitivity of 0.66nm/(μg/ml) and a LOD of 0.15μg/ml. At a concentration of 100μg/ml, the wavelength shift of Baohuoside I or a mixed solution containing Baohuoside I is higher than 60nm, while the wavelength shift of other components is lower than 10nm. The new sensor proposed in this paper has a stable structure, high sensitivity, and specific recognition ability, providing a new solution for the highly sensitive detection of specific active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine using fiber SPR sensor.

The fiber surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor used for the detection of active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine has the problems of low sensitivity and difficult specific recognition. This paper proposed a wave type fiber SPR sensor, which reduced the mode of transmitted light through a periodic wave structure and caused concentrated and total reflection of the transmitted beam at the interface between the bent peak cladding and the air. A 50 nm gold film was coated on the surface of the cladding in the wave structure area to form the SPR sensing area. By controlling the width and height of the wave structure to control the total reflection angle of the transmitted light, i.e., the SPR incidence angle, the sensitivity of the fiber SPR sensor was effectively improved to 4972 nm/RIU. Furthermore, HSP90AA protein was modified on the gold film of the sensor to achieve specific detection of hyperoside. The longest single detection time was only 3 minutes, and the detection sensitivity was 0.53 nm/(µg/ml), with a detection limit as low as 0.68µg/ml, which is comparable to liquid chromatography. The proposed wave type fiber SPR sensor is fast in production and has high structural mechanical strength, providing a new approach for the rapid, highly sensitive, and specific detection of active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine.