Publications by authors named "Bruce E Heck"

Introduction: Osteochondromas are the most common benign tumors of the bone and can be sessile or pedunculated. Although osteochondromas are typically seen in the long bones, they are rarely seen in the small bones of the hand or foot. Verruca vulgaris, also known as the common wart, is one of the most common skin conditions presenting to physicians and must be distinguished either clinically or histologically from other hyperkeratotic conditions, including bone conditions such as bone tumors that can place pressure on the skin and cause callus formation that can mimic a wart or create skin deformity.

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Introduction: The double squeeze technique for fracture stabilization is a technique in which the surgeon uses a second reduction clamp to hold and stabilize a smaller reduction clamp that reduces a fracture or plate yet is too small to hold by itself. This technique greatly assists anatomic fracture reduction and stabilization and allows the surgeon to complete the operation when there is limited reduction instrumentation available, or the surgeon needs more excursion on a small clamp holding a fracture and does not want to change instruments and possibly lose a reduction. We present a case of the double squeeze clamp technique, which to our knowledge has not been reported, to facilitate limited open reduction percutaneous plate stabilization in a distal tibia fracture.

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Introduction: Compartment syndrome, an exceptionally rare condition, is a surgical emergency that can quickly escalate to limb ischemia and necrosis without treatment. Most cases occur post-trauma, typically affecting the anterior compartment of the leg. Patients present with pain out of proportion to their physical examination findings and often have an early hallmark discovery of pain with passive extension.

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Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic degenerative joint disease accompanied by an inflammatory milieu that results in painful joints. The pathogenesis of OA is multifactorial, with genetic predisposition, environmental factors, and traumatic injury resulting in the direct or indirect loss of cartilage. The articular cartilage can also be damaged by direct focal traumatic injury.

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We synthesized a directed library of compounds to explore the structure-activity relationships of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor δ (PPARδ) activation relative to mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) osteogenesis. Our scaffold used para-substituted cinnamic acids as a polar headgroup, a heteroatom and heterocycle core connecting units, and substituted phenyl groups for the lipophilic tail. Compounds were screened for their ability to increase osteogenesis in MSCs, and the most promising were examined for subunit specificity using a quantitative PPAR transactivation assay.

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Introduction: Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) subfamily play an important role in chondrogenesis. Previous study has reported that mixture of GW0742 (PPAR-δ agonist), hyaluronic acid (HA) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) enhance chondrogenesis. The purpose of this study is to compare with efficacies of commercially available HA and demonstrate correlation of PPAR-γ and PPAR-δ.

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There is great interest in using natural supplements to treat various medical conditions. In this study, we evaluated the anti-oxidative and stem cell differentiation effects of a mixture of vitamin D, , ginger, curcumin, and Boswellia extract. The calcein acetoxymethyl assay after HO treatment showed that combined natural supplement had an anti-oxidative effect.

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Osteoarthritis (OA) is an inflammatory joint disease characterized by degeneration of articular cartilage within synovial joints. An estimated 27 million Americans suffer from OA, and the population is expected to reach 67 million in the United States by 2030. Thus, it is urgent to find an effective treatment for OA.

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Smoking has long been associated with osteoporosis, decreased bone mineral density, increased risk of bone fracture, and increased health costs. Nicotine, the main component of cigarette smoke, has major negative effects on bone metabolism and skeletal remodeling in vivo. Although osteoblasts and osteoblast-like cells have been used extensively to study the impact of nicotine, few studies have been performed on human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs).

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