The emerging use of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells in the treatment of human chronic wounds.

Introduction: Close to 5 million people in the USA are affected by chronic wounds, and billions of dollars are spent annually for their treatment. Despite advances in chronic wound management over the past decades, many patients afflicted with chronic wounds fail to heal or their ulcers recur. There is emerging evidence that the use of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) can offset this situation of impaired healing.

Patient out-of-pocket expenses in major orthopedic procedures: total hip arthroplasty as a case study.

Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is a successful procedure for improving quality of life. There are few publications regarding out-of-pocket expenses incurred by individuals undergoing uncomplicated THA. Detailed billing and record reviews and patient phone surveys were conducted on 34 Medicare patients identifying charges and reimbursements recorded by the health care system and all out-of-pocket expenses incurred by patients undergoing uncomplicated THA (diagnostic related group [DRG] 209/current procedural terminology [CPT] 27130).

Young, adult, and old rats have similar changes in mRNA expression of many skeletal genes after fracture despite delayed healing with age.

Genes active in fracture healing are not well understood. Because age slows skeletal repair, the change in gene expression between animals of differing ages may illuminate novel pathways important to this healing response. To explore this, 6-, 26-, and 52-week-old female Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to mid-diaphyseal femoral fracture with intramedullary fixation.

Demographic factors that influence human disc cell proliferation in vitro.

Background Context: Although previous work has shown that greater age, greater disc degeneration, female gender, and surgical derivation of disc tissue had deleterious effects on cell proliferative potential, relatively little is known about the association between disc cell proliferation in vitro and clinical donor characteristics.

Purpose: To identify the relationships between donor characteristic and the in vitro proliferative potential of human disc cells from the annulus.

Study Design/setting: Studies were approved by the human subjects Institutional Review Board.

Gene expression during fracture healing in rats comparing intramedullary fixation to plate fixation by DNA microarray.

Objective: This study was designed to compare mRNA gene expression in healing diaphyseal femoral fractures between those injuries treated with intramedullary nails and those treated with internal plate fixation.

Design: RNA gene expression was measured at 1 day, 3 days, and 1, 2, 4, and 6 weeks after surgery in the fracture callus of rats randomized to femoral shaft fracture with intramedullary nail fixation, rigid plate fixation, or sham fracture.

Setting: AAALAC-accredited vivarium of an independent academic medical center.