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- Brammer, Karla S., et al.
(author)
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Improved bone-forming functionality on diameter-controlled TiO2 nanotube surface
- 2009
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In: Acta Biomaterialia. - : Elsevier BV. - 1878-7568 .- 1742-7061. ; 5:8, s. 3215-3223
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanotube surface enables significantly accelerated osteoblast adhesion and exhibits strong bonding with bone. We prepared various sizes (30-100 nm diameter) of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanotubes on titanium substrates by anodization and investigated the osteoblast cellular behavior in response to these different nanotube sizes. The unique and striking result of this study is that a change in osteoblast behavior is obtained in a relatively narrow range of nanotube dimensions, with small diameter (similar to 30 nm) nanotubes promoting the highest degree of osteoblast adhesion, while larger diameter (70-100 nm) nanotubes elicit a lower population of cells with extremely elongated cellular morphology and much higher alkaline phosphatase levels. Increased elongation of nuclei was also observed with larger diameter nanotubes. By controlling the nanotopography, large diameter nanotubes, in the similar to 100 min regime, induced extremely elongated cellular shapes, with an aspect ratio of 11:1, which resulted in substantially enhanced up-regulation of alkaline phosphatase activity, suggesting greater bone-forming ability than nanotubes with smaller diameters. Such nanotube structures, already being a strongly osseointegrating implant material, offer encouraging implications for the development and optimization of novel orthopedics-related treatments with precise control toward desired cell and bone growth behavior. (C) 2009 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 2. |
- Johnson Curtis, Christine, et al.
(author)
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Considerations for modelling a broad food tax in the Philippines and other low-income and middle-income countries
- 2023
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In: BMJ Global Health. - : BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. - 2059-7908. ; 8:SUPPL_8
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Fiscal policies to improve diet are a promising strategy to address the increasing burden of non-communicable disease, the leading cause of death globally. Sugar-sweetened beverage taxes are the most implemented type of fiscal policy to improve diet. Yet taxes on food, if appropriately structured and applied across the food supply, may support a larger population-level shift towards a healthier diet. Designing these policies and guiding them through the legislative process requires evidence. Equity-oriented cost-effectiveness analyses that estimate the distribution of potential health and economic gains can provide this critical evidence. Taxes on less healthy foods are rarely modelled in low-income and middle-income countries.We describe considerations for modelling the effect of a food tax, which can provide guidance for food tax policy design. This includes describing issues related to the availability, reliability and level of detail of national data on dietary habits, the nutrient content of foods and food prices; the structure of the nutrient profile model; type of tax; tax rate; pass-through rate and price elasticity. Using the Philippines as an example, we discuss considerations for using existing data to model the potential effect of a tax, while also taking into account the political and food policy context. In this way, we provide a modelling framework that can help guide policy-makers and advocates in designing a food policy to improve the health and well-being of future generations in the Philippines and elsewhere.
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