Cotton gauze is a widely used topical hemostatic material for bleeding control, but its high blood absorption capacity tends to cause extra blood loss. Therefore, development of rapid hemostatic cotton gauze with less blood loss is of great significance. Here, we develop an efficient hemostatic cotton gauze whose surface is slightly modified with a catechol compound which features a flexible long hydrophobic alkyl chain terminated with a catechol group. Its hemostatic performance in animal injuries is superior to standard cotton gauze and Combat Gauze^TM. Its biosafety is similar to cotton gauze and rebleeding hardly occurs when the gauze is removed. Here, we show its hemostatic capability is attributable to the rapid formation of big and thick primary erythrocyte clots, due to its effective controlling of blood movement through blocking effect from tissue adhesion by catechol, blood wicking in cotton, and the hydrophobic effect from long alkyl chains.

WRKY is one of the largest transcription factor families in plants and plays important roles in the regulation of developmental and physiological processes. To date, the WRKY gene family has not been identified in Saccharum species because of its complex polyploid genome. In this study, a total of 294 sequences for 154 SsWRKY genes were identified in the polyploid Saccharum spontaneum genome and then named on the basis of their chromosome locations, including 13 (8.4%) genes with four alleles, 29 (18.8%) genes with three alleles and 41 (26.6%) genes with two alleles. Among them, 73.8% and 16.0% of the SsWRKY genes originated from segmental duplications and tandem duplications, respectively. The WRKY members exhibited conserved gene structures and amino acid sequences among the allelic haplotypes, which were accompanied by variations in intron sizes. Phylogenetic and collinearity analyses revealed that 27 SsWRKYs originated after the split of sorghum and Saccharum, resulting in a significantly higher number of WRKYs in sugarcane than in the proximal diploid species sorghum. The analysis of RNA-seq data revealed that SsWRKYs’ expression profiles in 46 different samples including different developmental stages revealed distinct temporal and spatial patterns with 52 genes expressed in all tissues, four genes not expressed in any tissues and 21 SsWRKY genes likely to be involved in photosynthesis. The comprehensive analysis of SsWRKYs’ expression will provide an important and valuable foundation for further investigation of the regulatory mechanisms of WRKYs in physiological roles in sugarcane S. spontaneum.

Renal fibrosis is a common pathological process where certain primary or secondary kidney diseases can continue to progress to the end-stage of the kidney disease; however, the molecular mechanisms underlying renal fibrosis remain unclear. Recently, research focusing on examining the function of inflammasomes has attracted a great deal of attention, and data derived from these research projects have increased our understanding of the effects and regulation of inflammasomes during renal fibrosis. Based on this, the present review summarizes recent findings in regard to NLRP3 inflammasome functions during various kidney diseases, and these findings indicate that the NLRP3 inflammasome not only mediates the inflammatory response but is also associated with pyroptosis, mitochondrial regulation, and myofibroblast differentiation during renal fibrosis. These novel findings provide us with a more in-depth understanding of the pathogenesis of renal fibrosis and will aid in the identification of new targets that can be used for the prevention and treatment of this disease.