Complications in Olecranon Fracture Surgery: A Comparison of Tension Band Vs. Plate Osteosynthesis.

Background: The purpose of this study is to compare the incidence of complications associated with tension band wiring (TBW) versus plate osteosynthesis (POS) in the treatment of olecranon fractures.

Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of operatively treated adult olecranon fractures from an integrated healthcare system by multiple surgeons from January 2008 to December 2011. Patients were divided into two cohorts: fractures fixed using the tension band technique and fractures fixed using plate osteosynthesis.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in fine road dust from a coal-utilization city: Spatial distribution, source diagnosis and risk assessment.

Coal combustion can release large amounts of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which persist in various environment matrices (e.g., road dust) and hence cause the carcinogenic risk to human health.

Coordinated effects of air pollution control devices on PAH emissions in coal-fired power plants and industrial boilers.

Coal-fired power plants are important sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emissions in the world. The effects of various air pollution control devices (APCDs) on PAH emissions were investigated by analyzing samples from inlets and outlets of APCDs in six coal-fired power plants (A-F) and two coal-fired industrial boilers (G and H). The APCDs were electrostatic precipitators (ESPs), wet flue gas desulfurization systems (WFGDs), and wet ESPs (WESPs).

Contrasting effects of microplastics on sorption of diazepam and phenanthrene in soil.

Microplastics have attracted extensive attention regarding their role in the cycling of organic pollutants in aquatic environments. However, the influence of microplastics on the sorption of organic pollutants in soil is unclear. Herein, we investigated the sorption of polar diazepam and nonpolar phenanthrene to two soils (Inceptisol and Oxisol).

STELLATE UNILATERAL NONHEREDITARY IDIOPATHIC FOVEOMACULAR RETINOSCHISIS: A MULTIMODAL IMAGING ANALYSIS AND CASE REPORT.

Purpose: To describe a case of stellate nonhereditary idiopathic foveomacular retinoschisis in a middle-aged woman and to depict the classic retinal fluorangiography (FA) findings, structural characteristics using macular spectral-domain optical coherence tomography angiographic data of vascular and perfusion density using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A), and standardized multifocal electroretinography (mfERG) findings.

Methods: This is a case report of a 53-year-old ophthalmologist who was incidentally diagnosed with unilateral idiopathic foveomacular retinoschisis. Stellate nonhereditary idiopathic foveomacular retinoschisis is defined as a foveal elevation without alternative explanation for retinoschisis.

Ultrasound Morphologic Features of Steatocystoma Multiplex With Clinical Correlation.

The ultrasound features of 87 steatocytoma multiplex (SCM) lesions detected in 9 patients are reported. Steatocytoma multiplex is a hamartomatous condition derived from the pilosebaceous duct junction that generates multiple cutaneous cystic lesions. It appeared as clusters of well-defined hypoechoic nodules with mild posterior enhancement in 100% of cases, with both dermal and subcutaneous locations in 67%.

Natural estrogens enhance the engraftment of human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells in immunodeficient mice.

Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells are crucial in the maintenance of lifelong production of all blood cells. These Stem Cells are highly regulated to maintain homeostasis through a delicate balance between quiescence, self-renewal and differentiation. However, this balance is altered during the hematopoietic recovery after Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cell Transplantation.

Eph/ephrin Signaling and Biology of Mesenchymal Stromal/Stem Cells.

Mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs) have emerged as important therapeutic agents, owing to their easy isolation and culture, and their remarkable immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties. However, MSCs constitute a heterogeneous cell population which does not express specific cell markers and has important problems for in vivo homing, and factors regulating their survival, proliferation, and differentiation are largely unknown. Accordingly, in the present article, we review the current evidence on the relationships between Eph kinase receptors, their ephrin ligands, and MSCs.

[Use of sodium-glucose cotrasporter 2 inhibitors in type 2 diabetics. Experience in 77 patients].

Background: Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) are a new pharmacological alternative for the treatment of diabetes.

Aim: To report our experience with the use of this type of drugs in type 2 diabetics treated in an outpatient clinic.

Material And Methods: We selected 77 type 2 diabetic patients aged 59 ± 11 years (45 men) who started SGLT2i, based on the advice of their treating physician.

Eph/Ephrin-mediated stimulation of human bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells correlates with changes in cell adherence and increased cell death.

Background: Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) are components of connective tissues and, in vitro, cell entities characterized by cell adhesion and immunophenotyping, although specific markers for their identification are lacking. Currently, MSC derived from either human bone marrow (BM-MSC) or adipose tissue (Ad-MSC) are considered the main sources of MSC for cell therapy. Eph receptors and their ligands, Ephrins, are molecules involved in cell adhesion and migration in several tissues and organs.

Can a Proper T-Cell Development Occur in an Altered Thymic Epithelium? Lessons From EphB-Deficient Thymi.

For a long time, the effects of distinct Eph tyrosine kinase receptors and their ligands, ephrins on the structure, immunophenotype, and development of thymus and their main cell components, thymocytes (T) and thymic epithelial cells (TECs), have been studied. In recent years, the thymic phenotype of mutant mice deficient in several Ephs and ephrins B has been determined. Remarkably, thymic stroma in these animals exhibits important defects that appear early in ontogeny but little alterations in the proportions of distinct lymphoid cell populations.

Increased epithelial-free areas in thymuses with altered EphB-mediated thymocyte-thymic epithelial cell interactions.

Epithelial-free areas, present in both thymic cortex and medulla, have been studied in WT and EphB-deficient mice that have important alterations in the development of thymic epithelium due to the lack of proper thymocyte-thymic epithelial cell interactions. In both WT and mutant thymuses, the number and size of epithelial-free areas are significantly larger in the medulla than in the cortex. The two parameters show a reverse correlation: low numbers of these areas course with large epithelial-free areas and vice versa.

Community-Reviewed Biological Network Models for Toxicology and Drug Discovery Applications.

Biological network models offer a framework for understanding disease by describing the relationships between the mechanisms involved in the regulation of biological processes. Crowdsourcing can efficiently gather feedback from a wide audience with varying expertise. In the Network Verification Challenge, scientists verified and enhanced a set of 46 biological networks relevant to lung and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Eph/ephrin-B-mediated cell-to-cell interactions govern MTS20(+) thymic epithelial cell development.

Thymus development is a complex process in which cell-to-cell interactions between thymocytes and thymic epithelial cells (TECs) are essential to allow a proper maturation of both thymic cell components. Although signals that control thymocyte development are well known, mechanisms governing TEC maturation are poorly understood, especially those that regulate the maturation of immature TEC populations during early fetal thymus development. In this study, we show that EphB2-deficient, EphB2LacZ and EphB3-deficient fetal thymuses present a lower number of cells and delayed maturation of DN cell subsets compared to WT values.

MR spectroscopy of intracranial tuberculomas: A singlet peak at 3.8 ppm as potential marker to differentiate them from malignant tumors.

Purpose: The diagnosis of intracranial tuberculomas is often challenging. Our purpose is to describe the most common metabolic patterns of tuberculomas by MR spectroscopy (MRS) with emphasis on potential specific markers.

Methods: Single-voxel MRS short echo time was performed in 13 cases of tuberculomas proven by histology and/or response to anti-mycobacterial therapy.

Eph/Ephrins-Mediated Thymocyte-Thymic Epithelial Cell Interactions Control Numerous Processes of Thymus Biology.

Numerous studies emphasize the relevance of thymocyte-thymic epithelial cell (TECs) interactions for the functional maturation of intrathymic T lymphocytes. The tyrosine kinase receptors, Ephs (erythropoietin-producing hepatocyte kinases) and their ligands, ephrins (Eph receptor interaction proteins), are molecules known to be involved in the regulation of numerous biological systems in which cell-to-cell interactions are particularly relevant. In the last years, we and other authors have demonstrated the importance of these molecules in the thymic functions and the T-cell development.

EphB2 and EphB3 play an important role in the lymphoid seeding of murine adult thymus.

Adult thymuses lacking either ephrin type B receptor 2 (EphB2) or EphB3, or expressing a truncated form of EphB2, the forward signal-deficient EphB2LacZ, have low numbers of early thymic progenitors (ETPs) and are colonized in vivo by reduced numbers of injected bone marrow (BM) lineage-negative (Lin(-)) cells. Hematopoietic progenitors from these EphB mutants showed decreased capacities to colonize wild type (WT) thymuses compared with WT precursors, with EphB2(-/-) cells exhibiting the greatest reduction. WT BM Lin(-) cells also showed decreased colonizing capacity into mutant thymuses.

Assessment of the Internal Fit of Lithium Disilicate Crowns Using Micro-CT.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare the internal fit of lithium disilicate crowns fabricated using digital technology with those fabricated by conventional means.

Materials And Methods: Forty-five lithium disilicate crowns were fabricated: 15 using digital impression and computer-aided design/computer-aided machining technique (group 1), 15 from the same digital impressions, but using a conventional die and laboratory fabrication process (group 2), and 15 using a conventional poly (vinyl siloxane) (PVS) impression and laboratory fabrication process (group 3). Tooth #15 was prepared for all-ceramic restoration on an ivorine typodont, which was digitized and a replica milled in zirconia to serve as master model.

Conditioned deletion of ephrinB1 and/or ephrinB2 in either thymocytes or thymic epithelial cells alters the organization of thymic medulla and favors the appearance of thymic epithelial cysts.

Our understanding about medullary compartment, its niches composition and formation is still limited. Previous studies using EphB2 and/or EphB3 knockout mice showed an abnormal thymic development that affects mainly to the epithelial component, including the cortex/medulla distribution, thymic epithelial cell (TEC) morphology and different epithelial-specific marker expression. We have already demonstrated that the lack of ephrinB1 and/or ephrinB2, either on thymocytes or on TECs, alters the cell intermingling processes necessary for thymus organization and affect cortical TEC subpopulations.

Ephrin-B-dependent thymic epithelial cell-thymocyte interactions are necessary for correct T cell differentiation and thymus histology organization: relevance for thymic cortex development.

Previous analysis on the thymus of erythropoietin-producing hepatocyte kinases (Eph) B knockout mice and chimeras revealed that Eph-Eph receptor-interacting proteins (ephrins) are expressed both on T cells and thymic epithelial cells (TECs) and play a role in defining the thymus microenvironments. In the current study, we have used the Cre-LoxP system to selectively delete ephrin-B1 and/or ephrin-B2 in either thymocytes (EfnB1(thy/thy), EfnB2(thy/thy), and EfnB1(thy/thy)EfnB2(thy/thy) mice) or TECs (EfnB1(tec/tec), EfnB2(tec/tec), and EfnB1(tec/tec)EfnB2(tec/tec) mice) and determine the relevance of these Eph ligands in T cell differentiation and thymus histology. Our results indicate that ephrin-B1 and ephrin-B2 expressed on thymocytes play an autonomous role in T cell development and, expressed on TECs, their nonautonomous roles are partially overlapping.

Eph/ephrinB signalling is involved in the survival of thymic epithelial cells.

The signals that determine the survival/death of the thymic epithelial cells (TECs) component during embryonic development of the thymus are largely unknown. In this study, we combine different in vivo and in vitro experimental approaches to define the role played by the tyrosine kinase receptors EphB2 and EphB3 and their ligands, ephrinsB, in the survival of embryonic and newborn (NB) TECs. Our results conclude that EphB2 and EphB3 are involved in the control of TEC survival and that the absence of these molecules causes increased apoptotic TEC proportions that result in decreased numbers of thymic cells and a smaller-sized gland.

Developing T-cell migration: role of semaphorins and ephrins.

Cell migration is a crucial event for normal T-cell development, and various ligand/receptor pairs have been implicated. Most of them, including chemokines and extracellular matrix proteins, have attractant properties on thymocytes. We discuss herein two further groups of ligand/receptor pairs, semaphorins/neuropilins and ephs/ephrins, which are constitutively expressed by thymocytes and thymic microenvironmental cells.

Biology of stem cells: the role of microenvironments.

From the discovery of the first line of human embryonic stem cells, thousands of studies have been published concerning adult stem cells and their possible alleged therapeutic potential. However, very little real progress has been made in the application of cell therapy to patients. We can conclude that there remains a great deal for us to learn about the biology of stem cells, and especially, the mechanisms that regulate their differentiation and use under conditions of biosafety.