Retinal Vascular Permeability in Diabetic Subjects without Retinopathy Compared with Mild Diabetic Retinopathy and Healthy Controls.

Objective: To investigate retinal vascular permeability mapping as a potential biomarker for diabetic retinopathy in subjects with diabetes with no signs of retinopathy and with mild nonproliferative retinopathy.

Design: This is a case-control study.

Subjects: Participants included 7 healthy controls, 22 subjects with diabetes mellitus and no clinical signs of retinopathy (DMnoDR), and 7 subjects with mild nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR).

Foveal avascular zone enlargement correlates with visual acuity decline in patients with diabetic retinopathy.

Purpose: The foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area has been explored as a measure of macular ischemia in diabetic retinopathy (DR) but is limited by its wide variability even in healthy individuals. We hypothesized that FAZ enlargement, which we defined as the difference between the functional FAZ (on optical coherence tomography angiography; OCTA) and structural FAZ (en face OCT), may be a more accurate metric of macular ischemia. In this study, we test the hypothesis that FAZ enlargement is associated with decreased best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and low luminance visual acuity (LLVA) and performs better than the functional FAZ as a marker of vision loss.

RELIABILITY OF CLINICAL GRADING OF DIABETIC RETINOPATHY COMPARED WITH GRADING OF ULTRA-WIDEFIELD IMAGES.

Purpose: To evaluate the reliability of clinical grading of diabetic retinopathy (DR) severity compared with grading on ultra-widefield pseudocolor fundus (UWF-CF) and ultra-widefield fluorescein angiography (UWF-FA) images and their relative detection of sight-threatening DR and referable DR.

Methods: A total of 184 diabetic eyes were analyzed. UWF-CF and UWF-FA images were graded based on the International Clinical Diabetic Retinopathy severity scale.

Association between macrophage-like cell density and ischemia metrics in diabetic eyes.

We previously showed that macrophage-like cells (MLCs) are increased in eyes with advanced diabetic retinopathy (DR). Here, we hypothesized that MLC density was correlated with ischemia using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) and ultra-widefield fluorescein angiography (UWF-FA). Treatment-naïve diabetic eyes were prospectively imaged with repeated OCTA (average 5.

Endogenous estrogen receptor modulating oxysterols and breast cancer prognosis: Results from the MARIE patient cohort.

Background: 27-hydroxycholesterol (HC) and 25-HC were identified as endogenous selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) and estrogen receptor (ER) modulators, respectively. They are hypothesized to play a role in multiple physiologic processes and pathologies, including breast cancer development and progression.

Methods: We evaluated circulating 27-HC and 25-HC, and outcomes following a breast cancer diagnosis in 2282 women from the MARIE study over median follow-up of 11.

Macular Perfusion Deficits on OCT Angiography Correlate with Nonperfusion on Ultrawide-field Fluorescein Angiography in Diabetic Retinopathy.

Objective: To evaluate the correlation between nonperfusion parameters on OCT angiography (OCTA) and ultrawide-field fluorescein angiography (UWF-FA) in subjects with diabetes mellitus (DM).

Design: Prospective, cross-sectional study.

Subjects: Subjects with DM and a wide range of diabetic retinopathy (DR) severity seen at a tertiary referral center.

Principles of ideal diagnostic regulation and the IVDR.

This article discusses principles and concepts for ideal regulatory frameworks for diagnostics, and the expression of those principles in the EU IVDR. The authors present the benefits of regulatory frameworks and implementation approaches for diagnostics that are risk-based, globally convergent, connected, nimble and efficient, under the IVDR and with a future outlook. While many expressions of these principles can already be found in the EU IVDR text, and in its implementation approaches, their further embrace is needed in future EU diagnostic regulation.

Association of circulating free and total oxysterols in breast cancer patients.

Objectives: Oxysterols, a family of oxidized cholesterol derivates, are of increasing interest due to their role in cancer development and progression. Some oxysterols are estrogen receptor modulators and thus of particular interest in breast cancer research. In human studies, two forms of circulating oxysterols are commonly evaluated: "free" (unesterified) and "total" (esterified and unesterified).

Problem-Based Learning About Problem-Based Learning: Lessons Learned from a Student-Led Initiative to Improve Tutor Group Interaction.

This article summarizes a student-led effort to improve tutor group interactions among second-year medical students in a hybrid problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum. Dissatisfaction with PBL had led to superficial tutorial discussions that students escaped to study for board certification exams. Following the PBL principle of using intrinsically motivating problems, the student investigators created board-style questions with accompanying facilitation guides for tutors to present as 'mini-problems' to stimulate case-related discussion.

Obesity's Influence on Operative Management of Pediatric Supracondylar Humerus Fractures.

Background: As childhood obesity remains an ongoing issue for the United States there has been an increasing number of studies detailing its effect on fracture complexity, management, and outcomes. This study utilizes a national database to examine whether obese children with supracondylar humerus fractures are more likely to require open reduction and internal fixation than nonobese children.

Methods: The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Kid's Inpatient Database of 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012 were queried for pediatric supracondylar humerus fractures [International Classification of Disease (ICD-9), 812.

ClonoCalc and ClonoPlot: immune repertoire analysis from raw files to publication figures with graphical user interface.

Background: Next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies enable studies and analyses of the diversity of both T and B cell receptors (TCR and BCR) in human and animal systems to elucidate immune functions in health and disease. Over the last few years, several algorithms and tools have been developed to support respective analyses of raw sequencing data of the immune repertoire. These tools focus on distinct aspects of the data processing and require a strong bioinformatics background.

Neurobehavioral effects of vigabatrin and its ability to induce DNA damage in brain cells after acute treatment in rats.

Rationale: Vigabatrin (VGB) is a drug indicated mostly for the treatment of spasms in childhood and West's syndrome patients. This drug inhibits irreversibly the enzyme GABA-transaminase (GABA-T), increasing GABA concentrations and enhancing GABAergic neurotransmission in the brain, which is known to induce behavioral changes.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to evaluate the effects of VGB in the short-term memory (STM), long-term memory (LTM), motivation, locomotion, and exploratory behavior tests and to detect deleterious or protective effects on DNA in target tissues of the drug.

Genotoxic and biochemical changes in Baccharis trimera induced by coal contamination.

The processing and combustion of coal in thermal power plants release anthropogenic chemicals into the environment. Baccharis trimera is a common plant used in folk medicine that grows readily in soils degraded by coal mining activities. This shrub bioaccumulates metals released into the environment, and thus its consumption may be harmful to health.

Neurotoxicological profile assessment of lobeline after acute treatment in mice.

Lobeline is a natural alkaloid with high affinity for nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, and it is a promising candidate for addiction treatment in human beings. This work evaluated the toxicological profile of lobeline with different behavioural models and investigated its effect on DNA damage (comet assay and micronucleus test) in mice. Acute administration of lobeline (5 or 10 mg/kg; i.

Assessment of the genotoxic and mutagenic properties of Himatanthus articulatus bark extracts used as phytotherapeutic drug in the Amazon.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Himatanthus articulatus (Apocynaceae) is a plant native to the Amazon, popularly used to treat external ulcers, tumors, inflammations, cancer, syphilis and malaria.

Aim Of The Study: To investigate the in vivo genotoxic and mutagenic potential of this plant, using the comet assay and the micronucleus test.

Material And Methods: Female and male adult mice were treated with 500 mg/kg, 1000 mg/kg or 2000 mg/kg of Himatanthus articulatus aqueous or ethanolic bark extracts by gavage for two consecutive days.

Nitric oxide regulates tumor cell cross-talk with stromal cells in the tumor microenvironment of the liver.

Tumor progression is regulated through paracrine interactions between tumor cells and stromal cells in the microenvironment, including endothelial cells and myofibroblasts. Nitric oxide (NO) is a key molecule in the regulation of tumor-microenvironment interactions, although its precise role is incompletely defined. By using complementary in vitro and in vivo approaches, we studied the effect of endothelial NO synthase (eNOS)-derived NO on liver tumor growth and metastasis in relation to adjacent stromal myofibroblasts and matrix because liver tumors maintain a rich, vascular stromal network enriched with phenotypically heterogeneous myofibroblasts.

Dimeric procyanidin B2 inhibits constitutively active NF-kappaB in Hodgkin's lymphoma cells independently of the presence of IkappaB mutations.

Due to long-term toxicity of current Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) treatment, the present challenge is to find new therapies that specifically target deregulated signaling cascades, including NF-kappaB, which are involved in Hodgkin (H) and Reed-Sternberg (RS) cell proliferation and resistance to apoptosis. We previously presented evidence that dimeric procyanidin B2 (B2) can interact with NF-kappaB proteins inhibiting the binding of NF-kappaB to DNA. Herein, we investigated if B2, acting at a late event in NF-kappaB signaling cascade, could be effective in inhibiting NF-kappaB in H-RS cells with different mechanisms of constitutive NF-kappaB activation.