Comparative Effectiveness of Focused Extracorporeal versus Radial Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy for Knee Osteoarthritis-Randomized Controlled Study.

Both focused extracorporeal shockwave (f-ESWT) and radial extracorporeal shockwave therapy (r-ESWT) can alleviate symptoms in patients with knee osteoarthritis, but no trials have directly compared f-ESWT with r-ESWT for knee osteoarthritis. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of f-ESWT and r-ESWT on knee osteoarthritis. Forty-two patients with bilateral knee osteoarthritis were randomly assigned to receive three sessions of either f-ESWT or r-ESWT at 1-week intervals.

Gene Expression Profiling of Skeletal Muscles.

Next-generation sequencing provides an opportunity for an in-depth biocomputational analysis to identify gene expression patterns between soleus and tibialis anterior, two well-characterized skeletal muscles, and analyze their gene expression profiling. RNA read counts were analyzed for differential gene expression using the R package edgeR. Differentially expressed genes were filtered using a false discovery rate of less than 0.

Fabrication and Characterization of Nylon 66/PAN Nanofibrous Film Used as Separator of Lithium-Ion Battery.

In recent years, portable electronic devices have flourished, and the safety of lithium batteries has received increasing attention. In this study, nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning using different ratios of nylon 66/polyacrylonitrile (PAN), and their properties were studied and compared with commercial PP separators. The experimental results show that the addition of PAN in nylon 66/PAN nanofibrous film used as separator of lithium-ion battery can enhance the porosity up to 85%.

Additional Vitamin and Mineral Support for Patients with Severe Burns: A Nationwide Experience from a Catastrophic Color-Dust Explosion Event in Taiwan.

Major burn injuries, which encompass ≥20% of the total body surface area (TBSA), are the most severe form of trauma because of the stress response they provoke, which includes hypermetabolism, muscle wasting, and stress-induced diabetes. In 2015, a color-dust explosion disaster occurred in the Formosa Fun Coast of Taiwan and injured 499 people, who were transferred via a nationwide emergency delivery system. Some recommendations are currently available regarding vitamin and mineral support for wound healing and recovery in severe burns, but there is a lack of evidence to confirm the benefits.

Requirement of Pitx2 for skeletal muscle homeostasis.

Skeletal muscle is generated by the successive incorporation of primary (embryonic), secondary (fetal), and tertiary (adult) fibers into muscle. Conditional excision of Pitx2 function by an MCK driver resulted in animals with histological and ultrastructural defects in P30 muscles and fibers, respectively. Mutant muscle showed severe reduction in mitochondria and FoxO3-mediated mitophagy.

Extracorporeal Shock Waves Versus Botulinum Toxin Type A in the Treatment of Poststroke Upper Limb Spasticity: A Randomized Noninferiority Trial.

Objective: To investigate whether extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) is noninferior to botulinum toxin type A (BoNT-A) for the treatment of poststroke upper limb spasticity.

Design: Randomized noninferiority trial.

Setting: Referral medical center.

Location, Location, Location: Signals in Muscle Specification.

Muscles control body movement and locomotion, posture and body position and soft tissue support. Mesoderm derived cells gives rise to 700 unique muscles in humans as a result of well-orchestrated signaling and transcriptional networks in specific time and space. Although the anatomical structure of skeletal muscles is similar, their functions and locations are specialized.

FACS-Seq analysis of Pax3-derived cells identifies non-myogenic lineages in the embryonic forelimb.

Skeletal muscle in the forelimb develops during embryonic and fetal development and perinatally. While much is known regarding the molecules involved in forelimb myogenesis, little is known about the specific mechanisms and interactions. Migrating skeletal muscle precursor cells express Pax3 as they migrate into the forelimb from the dermomyotome.

Comparison of the effect of focused and radial extracorporeal shock waves on spastic equinus in patients with stroke: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Recent studies have suggested that either focused or radial shock wave therapy is an effect method for the treatment of spasticity in patients with stroke. However, no previous study compared these two types of extracorporeal shock wave on spasticity in patients with stroke. This study aimed to compare the effect of focused and radial shock wave therapy for the treatment of spastic equinus in patients with stroke.

Phenotypic Screening of Drug Library in Actively Differentiating Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells.

Phenotypic screening enables the discovery of new drug leads with novel targets. ES cells differentiate into different lineages by successively making use of different subsets of the genome's possible macromolecular interactions. If a compound effectively targets just one of these interactions, it derails the developmental pathway to produce a phenotypical change.

TERT promoter mutation in resectable hepatocellular carcinomas: a strong association with hepatitis C infection and absence of hepatitis B infection.

Introduction: Mutation in the core promoter of the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene was determined to be a frequent event in malignant melanoma and other cancers. However, the role of TERT promoter mutation in hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) remains largely unknown.

Methods: Genomic DNA samples from the tumor tissue of 195 HCCs were analyzed for TERT promoter mutation at 2 hotspots (-124 and -146 bp from the ATG start site, g.

Morphological subclassification of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma: etiological, clinicopathological, and molecular features.

On the basis of morphological features, we subclassified 189 intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas into two subtypes: bile duct and cholangiolar. The cholangiolar type is composed of cuboidal to low columnar tumor cells that contain scanty cytoplasm. The bile duct type is composed of tall columnar tumor cells arranged in a large glandular pattern.

p15(PAF) is an Rb/E2F-regulated S-phase protein essential for DNA synthesis and cell cycle progression.

The p15(PAF)/KIAA0101 protein is a proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA)-associated protein overexpressed in multiple types of cancer. Attenuation of p15(PAF) expression leads to modifications in the DNA repair process, rendering cells more sensitive to ultraviolet-induced cell death. In this study, we identified that p15(PAF) expression peaks during the S phase of the cell cycle.

Hepatocyte growth factor activates Wnt pathway by transcriptional activation of LEF1 to facilitate tumor invasion.

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a secretory protein that plays important roles in cancer growth and metastasis. Lymphoid-enhancing factor 1 (LEF1) is a transcription factor mediating Wnt/β-catenin signaling. Using microarray analysis, we found HGF induced expression of LEF1 in liver and breast cancer cell lines.

A novel DNA selection and direct extraction process and its application in DNA recombination.

In the conventional bench-top approach, the DNA recombination process is time- and effort-consuming due to laborious procedures lasting from several hours to a day. A novel DNA selection and direct extraction process has been proposed, integrated and tested on chip. The integrative microfluidic chip can perform the whole procedure of DNA recombination, including DNA digestion, gel electrophoresis, DNA extraction and insert-vector ligation within 1 h.