Biomechanical validation of the field-expedient pelvic splint.

Introduction: Morbidity and mortality from pelvic ring injuries can be mitigated by early and effective external pelvic stabilisation. The field-expedient pelvic splint (FEPS) is a recently described technique to improvise an effective pelvic binder for an austere environment. This technique has not been biomechanically validated.

Embryonic macrophages support endocrine commitment during human pancreatic differentiation.

Organogenesis is a complex process that relies on a dynamic interplay between extrinsic factors originating from the microenvironment and tissue-specific intrinsic factors. For pancreatic endocrine cells, the local niche consists of acinar and ductal cells as well as neuronal, immune, endothelial, and stromal cells. Hematopoietic cells have been detected in human pancreas as early as 6 post-conception weeks, but whether they play a role during human endocrinogenesis remains unknown.

Optimized Ex Vivo Fluorospot Assay to Measure Multifunctional HBV-Specific T Cell Frequencies in Chronic Hepatitis B Patients.

Virus-specific T cells are critical to mediating viral control; however, Hepatitis B virus (HBV)-specific T cells among chronic Hepatitis B (CHB) patients are functionally exhausted. The inability to consistently measure the ex vivo functionality of HBV-specific T cells has prevented meaningful analysis during antiviral events such as HBeAg seroconversion, hepatic flares, and HBsAg loss. We optimized the traditional IFN-γ ELISpot assay to measure total ex vivo HBV-specific T cell frequencies using CHB PBMCs stimulated with HBV overlapping peptide (OLP) pools.