Clinical Outcomes of Percutaneous Plantar Fasciotomy Using Microdebrider Coblation Wand.

Background: Plantar fasciitis is the most common cause of heel pain in adults. Multiple conservative treatment plans exist; however, some cases do not obtain significant clinical improvement with conservative treatment and require further intervention. This retrospective case study evaluated the success rate of percutaneous plantar fasciotomy and confounding comorbidities that negatively affect outcomes.

Stimulatory Toll-like receptor 2 suppresses restraint stress-induced immune suppression.

Stress can enhance or suppress immune functions depending on a variety of factors. Our previous studies observed that Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) participates in chronic restraint stress-induced immune dysfunction. However, the mechanism by which TLR2 prevents immune suppression remains elusive.

β-arrestin 2-mediated immune suppression induced by chronic stress.

Objective: Stress, either physical or psychological, can modulate immune function. However, the mechanisms associated with stress-induced immune suppression remain to be elucidated. β-Arrestin 2 serves as adaptor, scaffold, and/or signal transducer.

Selective recognition of uracil and its derivatives using a DNA repair enzyme structural mimic.

During DNA repair, uracil DNA glycosylase (UDG) pulls unwanted uracil into its active site through hydrogen bonding and pi-pi stacking interactions. The reason why UDG binds only uracil tightly--and not its derivatives, such as thymine--remains unclear. In this study, we synthesized the stable, water-soluble receptor 1a as a structural mimic of the active site in UDG.

Synthetic resveratrol aliphatic acid inhibits TLR2-mediated apoptosis and an involvement of Akt/GSK3beta pathway.

As resveratrol derivatives, resveratrol aliphatic acids were synthesized in our laboratory. Previously, we reported the improved pharmaceutical properties of the compounds compared to resveratrol, including better solubility in water and much tighter binding with human serum albumin. Here, we investigate the role of resveratrol aliphatic acids in Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2)-mediated apoptosis.