Real-time distal margin selection using confocal laser endomicroscopy in transanal total mesorectal excision for rectal cancer.

Background: Transanal total mesorectal excision (TaTME) allows patients with ultralow rectal cancer to be treated with sphincter-saving surgery. However, accurate delineation of the distal resection margin (DRM), which is essential to achieve R0 resection for low rectal cancer in TaTME, is technically demanding.

Aim: To assess the feasibility of optical biopsy using probe-based confocal laser endomicroscopy (pCLE) to select the DRM during TaTME for low rectal cancer.

Click modification of helical amylose by poly(l-lysine) dendrons for non-viral gene delivery.

Although amylose as a naturally-occurring helical polysaccharide has been widely used for biomedical applications, few studies have dealt with its chemical modification for non-viral gene delivery. In this work, the click modification of amylose by poly(l-lysine) dendrons was carried out and then characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, wide-angle X-ray diffraction and elemental analyses. Such a modified polysaccharide exhibited excellent ability to condense plasmid pMSCV-GFP-PARK2 into compact and spherical nanoparticles.