Abstract To explore the potential effect of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (BMSCs) transplantation combined with milrinone on the myocardial cell survival and cardiac function in heart failure. After isolation and culture of rat BMSCs and establishment of rat model of heart failure through intraperitoneal injection of adriamycin, the animals were administered with BMSCs through tail vein injection and/or with milrinone through the jugular vein injection. After that, echocardiography and Doppler images were used to evaluate cardiac function, and ELISA determined the milrinone concentration before and after intervention. The expression of myocardial specific proteins GATA-4, Cx43 and cTnI was determined. Compared with other treatments, administration BMSCs combined with milrinone more significantly improved cardiac function (p < 0.05). The BMSCs treatment had similar effect on the heart as milrinone (p > 0.05). The combined treatment obtained significantly increased expression of BNP levels and the highest expression levels of GATA-4, Cx43 and cTnI, compared to the BMSCs group. Combined treatment with BMSCs and milrinone effectively increase the expressions of GATA-4, Cx43, cTnI, and enhances healing of damaged myocardial cells, reducing lung resistance and plasma volume, and heart afterload. This treatment restores systolic and diastolic functions of the heart.

Abstract Conventional strong alkali spray peeling method for peeling yellow peach resulted in process hazard and negative environmental impacts. The efficacy of using infrared (IR) heating as an alternative method for peach peel removal was investigated to improve the operation safety and peeling quality. Herein, we introduce the Box-Behnken central combination method for conducting IR radiation tests. A multivariate regression model combining radiation distance, heating time and IR power as variable factors and surface temperature, full peeling time and firmness loss of yellow peach as the objective functions was developed to establish the optimal IR radiation parameters for peeling the skin of yellow peach. We found radiation distance of 76.18mm, heating time of 256.36 s, and IR power was 1000 w were the optimal conditions for this process. These conditions achieved surface temperature of 211.7 °C, firmness loss of 3.8 × 105 Pa, and full peeling time of 149.6 s. Thus, IR radiation is a feasible mechanism for peeling yellow peach, providing a new, safer and quality method for industrial processing of the fruit.