MOVERS&SHAKERS (news)

Versatile hydrogel made from squid tissues and polymers

Researchers at Hokkaido University have combined natural squid tissues with synthetic polymers to develop a strong and versatile hydrogel that mimics many of the properties of biological tissues. The team reported their research in the journal NPG Asia Materials

Natural biological tissues exhibit unique properties essential for their functions, which researchers are seeking to replicate in hydrogels. Muscles, for example, in addition to strength and flexibility, have physical properties that vary in different directions and are built from a hierarchy of structures working together. Bones and blood vessels also display these features, known as hierarchical anisotropy.

Hydrogels are polymer networks that are being explored for many uses, including medical prosthetics, soft robotic components and novel sensor systems. Unlike the natural tissues that researchers wish to mimic, most synthetic hydrogels have uniform properties in all directions and are structurally weak.

“By combining the properties of tissues derived from squid with synthetic polymers, we have demonstrated a hybrid strategy that serves as a general method for preparing hydrogels with useful hierarchical anisotropy and also toughness,” said polymer scientist Tasuku Nakajima from Hokkaido University.

The manufacturing process begins with commercially available frozen squid mantle — the main outer part of a squid. In live squid, the mantle expands to take water into the body, and then strongly contracts to shoot water outwards as a jet. This ability depends on the anisotropic muscles within squid connective tissue. The researchers took advantage of the molecular arrangements within this natural system to build their bio-mimicking gel.

Chemical and heat treatment of thin slices of the defrosted squid tissue mixed with polyacrylamide polymer molecules initiated formation of the cross-linked hybrid hydrogel. It has what is known as a double-network structure, with the synthetic polymer network embedded and linked within the more natural muscle fibre network derived from squid

Pregnant mum’s lifestyle shapes child’s neurodevelopment

A mother’s health and lifestyle during pregnancy are important regulators of her child’s neurodevelopment, according to research from the University of Turku and Turku University Hospital. The mother–child study examined how maternal gestational diabetes, obesity and diet during pregnancy affect the development of cognitive, language and motor skills in two-year-old children. Maternal adiposity was determined by air displacement plethysmography, and gestational diabetes with an oral glucose tolerance test. Dietary intake during pregnancy was assessed with diet quality index and fish consumption questionnaires. The results were published in the journal Pediatric Research

“On average, child neurodevelopment in our data was in the normal range,” said doctoral researcher Lotta Saros from the University of Turku. “Our research results showed that two-yearold children whose mothers had been diagnosed with gestational diabetes had poorer language skills than children whose mothers had not been diagnosed with gestational diabetes.”

In addition, the study discovered that higher maternal body fat percentage was associated with weaker cognitive, language and motor skills in children. Saros noted, “Previous studies have not examined the association between maternal body composition and children’s neurodevelopment.”

Gestational diabetes and obesity, and high body fat mass in particular, have unfavourable effects on the mother’s metabolism and increase inflammation in the body, the researchers found. These are the likely mechanisms through which the detrimental factors impact the child’s neurodevelopment.

The study also revealed that better dietary quality of the mother’s diet was associated with better language development of the child. A similar finding was also discovered between a mother’s fish consumption and her child’s neurodevelopment.

The results indicate that a good-quality diet contains unsaturated fatty acids that are found, for example, in fish. Soft, unsaturated fats, such as omega-3 fatty acids, promote the neurodevelopment of