Intravenous Delivery of Lung-Targeted Nanofibers for Pulmonary Hypertension in Mice.

Pulmonary hypertension is a highly morbid disease with no cure. Available treatments are limited by systemic adverse effects due to non-specific biodistribution. Self-assembled peptide amphiphile (PA) nanofibers are biocompatible nanomaterials that can be modified to recognize specific biological markers to provide targeted drug delivery and reduce off-target toxicity.

Development of novel nanofibers targeted to smoke-injured lungs.

Unlabelled: Smoke inhalation injury is associated with significant mortality and current therapies remain supportive. The purpose of our study was to identify proteins upregulated in the lung after smoke inhalation injury and develop peptide amphiphile nanofibers that target these proteins. We hypothesize that nanofibers targeted to angiotensin-converting enzyme or receptor for advanced glycation end products will localize to smoke-injured lungs.

Sex bias persists in surgical research: A 5-year follow-up study.

Background: Federal initiatives have recently addressed the sex bias that exists in biomedical and clinical research. However, improvement to the inclusion of sex as a biological variable remains unknown.

Methods: We performed a 5-year follow-up study of all clinical and biomedical research articles published in 5 surgical journals from January 1, 2017, through December 31, 2018.

A comparative study of a preclinical survival model of smoke inhalation injury in mice and rats.

Smoke inhalation injury increases morbidity and mortality. Clinically relevant animal models are necessary for the continued investigation of the pathophysiology of inhalation injury and the development of therapeutics. The goal of our research was threefold: ) to develop a reproducible survival model of smoke inhalation injury in rats that closely resembled our previous mouse model, ) to validate the rat smoke inhalation injury model using a variety of laboratory techniques, and ) to compare and contrast our rat model with both the well-established mouse model and previously published rat models to highlight our improvements on smoke delivery and lung injury.

Emerging therapies for smoke inhalation injury: a review.

Background: Smoke inhalation injury increases overall burn mortality by up to 20 times. Current therapy remains supportive with a failure to identify an optimal or targeted treatment protocol for smoke inhalation injury. The goal of this review is to describe emerging therapies that are being developed to treat the pulmonary pathology induced by smoke inhalation injury with or without concurrent burn injury.

Alternative payment models: can (should) trauma care be bundled?

Background: Recent legislation repealing the Sustainable Growth Rate mandates gradual replacement of fee for service with alternative payment models (APMs), which will include service bundling. We analyzed the 2 years' experience at our state-designated level I trauma center to determine the feasibility of such an approach for trauma care.

Methods: De-identified data from all injured patients treated by the trauma service during 2014 and 2015 were reviewed to determine individual patient injury profiles.