Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant global health concern that often results in death or disability, and effective pharmacological treatments are lacking. G protein-coupled receptor 56 (GPR56), a potential drug target, is crucial for neuronal and glial cell function and therefore plays important roles in various neurological diseases. Here, we investigated the potential role and mechanism of GPR56 in TBI-related damage to gain new insights into the pharmacological treatment of TBI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVascularization is a crucial aspect of biofabrication, as the development of vascular networks is essential for tissue survival and the optimization of cellular functions. Spheroids have emerged as versatile units for vascularization, demonstrating significant potential in angiogenesis and prevascularization for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. However, a major challenge in creating customized vascularized spheroids is the construction of a biomimetic extracellular matrix (ECM) microenvironment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Early heart failure (HF) diagnosis is crucial to ensure that optimal guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) is administered to reduce morbidity and mortality. Limited access to echocardiography could lead to a later diagnosis for patients, for example, during an HF hospitalisation (hHF). This study aimed to compare the incidence and outcomes of inpatient versus outpatient diagnosis of HF.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSpheroids, as three-dimensional (3D) cell aggregates, can be prepared using various methods, including hanging drops, microwells, microfluidics, magnetic manipulation, and bioreactors. However, current spheroid manufacturing techniques face challenges such as complex workflows, the need for specialized personnel, and poor batch reproducibility. In this study, we designed a support-free, 3D-printed microwell chip and developed a compatible low-cell-adhesion process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Clinical guideline development preferentially relies on evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs). RCTs are gold-standard methods to evaluate the efficacy of treatments with the highest internal validity but limited external validity, in the sense that their findings may not always be applicable to or generalizable to clinical populations or population characteristics. The external validity of RCTs for the clinical population is constrained by the lack of tailored epidemiological data analysis designed for this purpose due to data governance, consistency of disease or condition definitions, and reduplicated effort in analysis code.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Medical laboratory data together with prescribing and hospitalisation records are three of the most used electronic health records (EHRs) for data-driven health research. In Scotland, hospitalisation, prescribing and the death register data are available nationally whereas laboratory data is captured, stored and reported from local health board systems with significant heterogeneity. For researchers or other users of this regionally curated data, working on laboratory datasets across regional cohorts requires effort and time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA highly efficient and multi-functional butterfly polarization conversion metasurface is proposed for the Ku-Ka frequency range, designed to reduce the radar cross-section. The suggested converter enables dual frequency bands linear-to-cross (LX) and linear-to-circular (LC) polarization transformations. The efficiency of cross-polarization conversion exceeds 90% over the frequency ranges of 14.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study proposes and experimentally validates a multifunctional, ultra-wideband polarization conversion metasurface. The design integrates polarization conversion and electromagnetic scattering functions into a single structure, enabling applications in polarization conversion, beam control, and effective reduction of the radar cross-section (RCS). The metasurface achieves linear-to-circular polarization conversion with an axial ratio (AR) of less than 3 dB across dual-band ranges of 14.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGrowth differentiation among farmed sea urchins () poses a significant challenge to aquaculture, with there being a limited understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms. In this study, sea urchins with varying growth rates, reared under identical conditions, were analyzed for feeding behavior, gut microbiota, and transcriptomes. Large-sized sea urchins demonstrated significantly higher feeding ability and longer duration than smaller ones.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe healing of large skin defects remains a significant challenge in clinical settings. The lack of epidermal sources, such as autologous skin grafting, limits full-thickness skin defect repair and leads to excessive scar formation. Skin organoids have the potential to generate a complete skin layer, supporting in-situ skin regeneration in the defect area.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMussel refers to a marine organism with strong adhesive properties, and it secretes mussel adhesion protein (MAP). The most vital feature of MAP is the abundance of the 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA) group and lysine, which have antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and cell adhesion-promoting properties and can accelerate wound healing. Polydopamine (PDA) is currently the most widely used mussel-inspired material characterized by good adhesion, biocompatibility, and biodegradability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCharcot-Marie-Tooth type 2A (CMT2A) is a single-gene motor sensory neuropathy caused by Mfn2 mutation. It is generally believed that CMT2A involves mitochondrial fusion disruption. However, how Mfn2 mutation mediates the mitochondrial membrane fusion loss and its further pathogenic mechanisms remain unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Electronic health records (EHR) linked to Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM), biological specimens, and deep learning (DL) algorithms could potentially improve patient care through automated case detection and surveillance. We hypothesized that by applying keyword searches to routinely stored EHR, in conjunction with AI-powered automated reading of DICOM echocardiography images and analysing biomarkers from routinely stored plasma samples, we were able to identify heart failure (HF) patients.
Methods And Results: We used EHR data between 1993 and 2021 from Tayside and Fife (~20% of the Scottish population).
The dermal-epidermal junction (DEJ), located between the dermal-epidermal layers in human skin tissue, plays a significant role in its function. However, the limitations of biomaterial properties and microstructure fabrication methods mean that most current tissue engineered skin models do not consider the existence of DEJ. In this study, a nanofiber membrane that simulates the fluctuating structure of skin DEJ was prepared by the composite molding process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTissue engineering involves implanting grafts into damaged tissue sites to guide and stimulate the formation of new tissue, which is an important strategy in the field of tissue defect treatment. Scaffolds prepared in vitro meet this requirement and are able to provide a biochemical microenvironment for cell growth, adhesion, and tissue formation. Scaffolds made of piezoelectric materials can apply electrical stimulation to the tissue without an external power source, speeding up the tissue repair process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTraumatic brain injury (TBI) persists as a substantial clinical dilemma, largely because of the absence of effective treatments. This challenge is exacerbated by the hindered clearance of intracranial metabolic byproducts and the continual accrual of deleterious proteins. The glymphatic system (GS) and meningeal lymphatic vessels (MLVs), key elements of the intracranial lymphatic network, play critical roles in the clearance of harmful substances.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: We aim to identify the specific CD4 T-cell subtype influenced by brain-to-CLN signaling and explore their role during the acute phase of traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Method: Cervical lymphadenectomy or cervical afferent lymphatic ligation was performed before TBI. Cytokine array and western blot were used to detect cytokines, while the motor function was assessed using mNss and rotarod test.
The undulating microtopography located at the junction of the dermis and epidermis of the native skin is called rete ridges (RRs), which plays an important role in enhancing keratinocyte function, improving skin structure and stability, and providing three-dimensional (3D) microenvironment for skin cells. Despite some progress in recent years, most currently designed and manufactured tissue-engineered skin models still cannot replicate the RRs, resulting in a lack of biological signals in the manufactured skin models. In this study, a composite manufacturing method including electrospinning, 3D printing, and functional coating was developed to produce the epidermal models with RRs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSubdural hematoma (SDH) drains into the extracranial lymphatic system through the meningeal lymphatic vessels (mLVs) but the formation of SDH impairs mLVs. Because vitamin D (Vit D) can protect the endothelial cells, we hypothesized that Vit D may enhance the SDH clearance. SDH was induced in Sprague-Dawley rats and treated with Vit D or vehicle.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Despite its prevalence, there is ongoing debate regarding the optimal management strategy for chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH), reflecting the variability in clinical presentation and treatment outcomes. This ambidirectional, nationwide, multicenter registry study aims to assess the efficacy and safety of multimodality treatment approaches for CSDH in the Chinese population.
Methods/design: A multicenter cohort of CSDH patients from 59 participating hospitals in mainland China was enrolled in this study.
The contrast transfer function of direct ptychography methods such as the single side band (SSB) method are single signed, yet these methods still sometimes exhibit contrast reversals, most often where the projected potentials are strong. In thicker samples central focusing often provides the best ptychographic contrast as this leads to defocus variations within the sample canceling out. However focusing away from the entrance surface is often undesirable as this degrades the annular dark field (ADF) signal.
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