[Predictive factors of the risk of rehospitalization and loss of autonomy in elderly people admitted to the emergency department: a pilot study].

Introduction: The number of elderly patients admitted to emergency departments (EDs) continues to rise each year. However, due to time and structural constraints, these facilities do not allow for optimal identification of patients at risk of rehospitalization and loss of independence.

Objective: To identify the characteristics of patients over the age of 75 discharged from the ED without indications for hospitalization, and to illustrate the importance of advanced practice nurses (APN) in identifying predictive factors of loss of independence.

Implementing advanced practice nursing in France: A country-wide survey 2 years after its introduction.

Objectives: To examine the characteristics of the first Advanced Practice Nurses in France and to compare the French model to international standards.

Background: Common barriers and facilitators to their integration in healthcare provision have been identified internationally. In France, the legislative framework was introduced in 2016, and the first graduates entered the workforce in 2019.

Nurse coordinator roles in the management of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: A French national survey.

Unlabelled: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) mostly occurs in patients with chronic liver disease (CLD). HCC treatment may have a direct impact on CLD prognosis. HCC management can therefore become complex, involving multiple health care providers, such as oncologists, hepatologists, radiologists, and surgeons.

A Methodology for Concomitant Isolation of Intimal and Adventitial Endothelial Cells from the Human Thoracic Aorta.

Background: Aortic diseases are diverse and involve a multiplicity of biological systems in the vascular wall. Aortic dissection, which is usually preceded by aortic aneurysm, is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in modern societies. Although the endothelium is now known to play an important role in vascular diseases, its contribution to aneurysmal aortic lesions remains largely unknown.

ALK5 and ALK1 play antagonistic roles in transforming growth factor β-induced podosome formation in aortic endothelial cells.

Transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) and related cytokines play a central role in the vascular system. In vitro, TGF-β induces aortic endothelial cells to assemble subcellular actin-rich structures specialized for matrix degradation called podosomes. To explore further this TGF-β-specific response and determine in which context podosomes form, ALK5 and ALK1 TGF-β receptor signaling pathways were investigated in bovine aortic endothelial cells.

Importance of RhoGTPases in formation, characteristics, and functions of invadosomes.

Podosomes and invadopodia (collectively known as invadosomes) are specialized plasma-membrane actin-based microdomains that combine adhesive properties with matrix degrading and/or mechanosensor activities. These organelles have been extensively studied in vitro and current concerted efforts aim at establishing their physiological relevance and subsequent association with human diseases. Proper functioning of the bone, immune, and vascular systems is likely to depend on these structures while their occurrence in cancer cells appears to be linked to tumor metastasis.

Fibrinolytic activity is associated with presence of cystic medial degeneration in aneurysms of the ascending aorta.

Aims: Thoracic ascending aortic aneurysms (TAA) are characterized by elastic fibre breakdown and cystic medial degeneration within the aortic media, associated with progressive smooth muscle cell (SMC) rarefaction. The transforming growth factor (TGF)-β/Smad2 signalling pathway is involved in this process. Because the pericellular fibrinolytic system activation is able to degrade adhesive proteins, activate matrix metalloproteinase (MMP), induce SMC disappearance and increase the bioavailability of TGF-β, the aim was to investigate the plasminergic system in TAA.

Thrombus versus wall biological activities in experimental aortic aneurysms.

Background/aim: The intraluminal thrombus (ILT) is considered to participate in abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) evolution. To assess whether this role proceeds via ILT influence on biological activity of the AAA wall, we studied the relationships between the levels of some relevant proteases and microparticles (MP) released by ILT versus wall in rat experimental AAAs.

Methods And Results: Two weeks after elastase perfusion, ILT and AAA wall were incubated in cell culture medium and studies were performed on conditioned media.

Tissue diffusion and retention of metalloproteinases in ascending aortic aneurysms and dissections.

Histopathological alterations in human aneurysms and dissections of the thoracic ascending aorta include areas of mucoid degeneration within the medial layer, colocalized with areas of cell disappearance and disruption of extracellular matrix elastic and collagen fibers. We studied the presence of matrix metalloproteinases in relation to their capacity to diffuse through the tissue or to be retained in areas of mucoid degeneration in aneurysms and dissections of the ascending aorta. Ascending aortas from 9 controls, 33 patients with aneurysms, and 14 with acute dissections, all collected at surgery, were analyzed.

Involvement of intraplaque hemorrhage in atherothrombosis evolution via neutrophil protease enrichment.

The pathological remodeling of the arterial wall in atherosclerosis involves protease activities, which play a major role in complications via plaque rupture. Circulating leukocytes and particularly neutrophils have been shown to be an independent predictor of recurrent ischemic events. However, neutrophils are poorly documented within atherosclerotic plaques.

Low plasma levels of HSP70 in patients with carotid atherosclerosis are associated with increased levels of proteolytic markers of neutrophil activation.

Background And Objective: Low levels of circulating HSP70 have been correlated with a high risk of coronary artery disease. We have measured HSP70 concentrations in carotid atherosclerotic patients and we have investigated the biological significance of the inverse relation between HSP70 levels and atherosclerosis.

Methods And Results: More HSP70 was released by healthy endarteries than by carotid atherosclerotic plaques, which was paralleled by a decrease in HSP70 plasma levels of patients with atherosclerosis relative to healthy subjects (ELISA).

Topology of protease activities reflects atherothrombotic plaque complexity.

The pathological remodeling of the arterial wall in atherosclerosis involves protease activities, which play a major role in complications, through plaque rupture. Here, we investigated the release of active proteases by human carotid plaques in relation to (1) the degree of lesion complexity and (2) their compartmentalization between cap, core and media. Eighty human carotid endarterectomy specimens were dissected into culprit stenosing (CPs) and adjacent non-complicated/non-stenosing plaques (NPs).

Biological significance of decreased HSP27 in human atherosclerosis.

Objective: Because culprit atherosclerotic plaques contain proteases, we hypothesized that the diminished heat shock protein 27 (HSP27) released by atherosclerotic plaques could be due to proteolysis. We assessed the role of HSP27 in human vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) under proteolytic injury.

Methods And Results: Active plasmin is present in culprit atherosclerotic plaques.

Identification by a differential proteomic approach of heat shock protein 27 as a potential marker of atherosclerosis.

Background: We hypothesized that normal and pathological vessel walls display a differential pattern of secreted proteins. We have recently set up the conditions for comparing secretomes from carotid atherosclerotic plaques and control arteries using a proteomic approach to assess whether differentially secreted proteins could represent markers for atherosclerosis.

Methods And Results: Normal endartery segments and different regions of endarterectomy pieces (noncomplicated/complicated plaques) were incubated in protein-free medium, and the released proteins were analyzed by 2D electrophoresis (2-DE).