Standard Operating Procedures for Biospecimen Collection, Processing, and Storage: From the Consortium for the Study of Chronic Pancreatitis, Diabetes, and Pancreatic Cancer.

High-quality and well-annotated biorepositories are needed to better understand the pathophysiology and biologic mechanisms of chronic pancreatitis (CP) and its consequences. We report a methodology for the development of a robust standard operating procedure (SOP) for a biorepository based on the experience of the clinical centers within the consortium to study Chronic Pancreatitis, Diabetes and Pancreas Cancer Clinical Centers (CPDPC), supported by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases as a unique multidisciplinary model to study CP, diabetes, and pancreatic cancer in both children and adults. Standard operating procedures from the CPDPC centers were evaluated and consolidated.

Identification and description of a novel murine model for polytrauma and shock.

Objective: To develop a novel polytrauma model that better recapitulates the immunologic response of the severely injured patient by combining long-bone fracture, muscle tissue damage, and cecectomy with hemorrhagic shock, resulting in an equivalent Injury Severity Score of greater than 15. We compared this new polytrauma/shock model to historically used murine trauma-hemorrhage models.

Design: Pre-clinical controlled in vivo laboratory study.

Effect of uric acid lowering therapy on the prevention of acute kidney injury in cardiovascular surgery.

Purpose: Serum uric acid (SUA) is a novel risk factor for acute kidney injury (AKI), which adversely affects renal blood flow autoregulation, glomerular filtration rate (GFR), and promotes inflammation and angiogenesis. This pilot study investigated the effect of lowering SUA therapy on AKI, by using traditional and non-traditional markers.

Materials And Methods: In this prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized pilot trial, 26 hyperuricemic patients undergoing cardiac surgery were randomized to receive rasburicase or placebo in the preoperative period.

Microfluidics-based capture of human neutrophils for expression analysis in blood and bronchoalveolar lavage.

Gene expression analysis can be a powerful tool in predicting patient outcomes and identifying patients who may benefit from targeted therapies. However, isolating human blood polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs) for genomic analysis has been challenging. We used a novel microfluidic technique that isolates PMNs by capturing CD66b(+) cells and compared it with dextran-Ficoll gradient isolation.