Adult development and quality of life of transgender and gender nonconforming people.

Purpose Of Review: Research on the health of transgender and gender nonconforming people has been limited with most of the work focusing on transition-related care and HIV. The present review summarizes research to date on the overall development and quality of life of transgender and gender nonconforming adults, and makes recommendations for future research.

Recent Findings: Pervasive stigma and discrimination attached to gender nonconformity affect the health of transgender people across the lifespan, particularly when it comes to mental health and well-being.

Evaluation of Patient-Oriented, Internet-Based Information on Gender-Affirming Hormone Treatments.

Purpose: Transgender people have difficulty accessing gender-affirming hormone therapy (HT), a medically necessary treatment, in part due to a lack of provider knowledge. Patients often seek information on gender-affirming medical care using the Internet. Patients who are better informed about their own care may receive better care.

Priorities for transgender medical and healthcare research.

Purpose Of Review: Transgender individuals experience unique health disparities but are the subject of little focused health research. This manuscript reviews current literature on transgender medical and mental health outcomes and proposes research priorities to address knowledge gaps.

Recent Findings: Published research in transgender healthcare consists primarily of case reports, retrospective and cross-sectional studies, involving largely European settings.

Mincle suppresses Toll-like receptor 4 activation.

Regulation of Toll-like receptor responses is critical for limiting tissue injury and autoimmunity in both sepsis and sterile inflammation. We found that Mincle, a C-type lectin receptor, regulates proinflammatory Toll-like receptor 4 signaling. Specifically, Mincle ligation diminishes Toll-like receptor 4-mediated inflammation, whereas Mincle deletion or knockdown results in marked hyperresponsiveness to lipopolysaccharide in vitro, as well as overwhelming lipopolysaccharide-mediated inflammation in vivo.

How faceted liquid droplets grow tails.

Liquid droplets, widely encountered in everyday life, have no flat facets. Here we show that water-dispersed oil droplets can be reversibly temperature-tuned to icosahedral and other faceted shapes, hitherto unreported for liquid droplets. These shape changes are shown to originate in the interplay between interfacial tension and the elasticity of the droplet's 2-nm-thick interfacial monolayer, which crystallizes at some T = Ts above the oil's melting point, with the droplet's bulk remaining liquid.

Inclusion of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Stage 3 Meaningful Use Guidelines: A Huge Step Forward for LGBT Health.

Final rules issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in October 2015 require electronic health record software certified for Meaningful Use to include sexual orientation and gender identity (SO/GI) fields. This is a critical step toward making SO/GI data collection a standard practice in clinical settings. Sexual orientation identity-whether one identifies as gay, lesbian, or bisexual-correlates with behavioral health burden, and it is important to collect these data.

Dectin-1 Regulates Hepatic Fibrosis and Hepatocarcinogenesis by Suppressing TLR4 Signaling Pathways.

Dectin-1 is a C-type lectin receptor critical in anti-fungal immunity, but Dectin-1 has not been linked to regulation of sterile inflammation or oncogenesis. We found that Dectin-1 expression is upregulated in hepatic fibrosis and liver cancer. However, Dectin-1 deletion exacerbates liver fibro-inflammatory disease and accelerates hepatocarcinogenesis.

Detection of Intracellular Gene Expression in Live Cells of Murine, Human and Porcine Origin Using Fluorescence-labeled Nanoparticles.

The reprogramming of somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) has successfully been performed in different mammalian species including mouse, rat, human, pig and others. The verification of iPS clones mainly relies on the detection of the endogenous expression of different pluripotency genes. These genes mostly represent transcription factors which are located in the cell nucleus.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation using electrically driven devices: a review.

In the treatment of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) immediate resuscitation with chest compressions and ventilation is crucial for survival. As manual resuscitation is associated with several drawbacks, mechanical resuscitation devices have been developed to support resuscitation teams. These devices are able to achieve better perfusion of heart and brain in laboratory settings, but real world experience showed no significant improved survival in comparison to manual resuscitation.

HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis in transgender women: a subgroup analysis of the iPrEx trial.

Background: Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with oral emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate is used to prevent the sexual acquisition of HIV in groups at high risk such as transgender women. We used data from the iPrEx study to assess PrEP efficacy, effectiveness, and adherence in transgender women.

Methods: The iPrEx trial was a randomised controlled trial of PrEP with oral emtricitabine plus tenofovir disoproxil fumarate compared with placebo in men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women, followed by an open-label extension.

Redo aortic valve surgery versus transcatheter valve-in-valve implantation for failing surgical bioprosthetic valves: consecutive patients in a single-center setting.

Background: Due to a considerable rise in bioprosthetic as opposed to mechanical valve implantations, an increase of patients presenting with failing bioprosthetic surgical valves in need of a reoperation is to be expected. Redo surgery may pose a high-risk procedure. Transcatheter aortic valve-in-valve implantation is an innovative, less-invasive treatment alternative for these patients.

In situ label-free static cytometry by monitoring spatiotemporal fluctuations of image gray values.

Spatiotemporal fluctuation of homogeneity and randomness of gray values within an image was explored and utilized as a label-free means for cell examination. This was done by utilizing a user-friendly combination of simple bright field microscope and Cytocapture dish, wherein cells are individually held, each within a picoliter optical chamber, forming an array of cells to be repeatedly measured over time and biomanipulated in situ at single-cell resolution. First, the measured gray level information entropy (GLIE) was used and, based on the fact that living cells are not in a state of thermodynamic equilibrium but rather in a metastable state, two fluctuation-sensitive measures were proposed and examined: ASDE—the spatial average of temporal standard deviation (SD) of GLIE, and AA—the average time autocorrelation of GLIE.

TLR9 ligation in pancreatic stellate cells promotes tumorigenesis.

Modulation of Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling can have protective or protumorigenic effects on oncogenesis depending on the cancer subtype and on specific inflammatory elements within the tumor milieu. We found that TLR9 is widely expressed early during the course of pancreatic transformation and that TLR9 ligands are ubiquitous within the tumor microenvironment. TLR9 ligation markedly accelerates oncogenesis, whereas TLR9 deletion is protective.

Erectile dysfunction (ED) after ischemic stroke: association between prevalence and site of lesion.

Purpose: Stroke may cause or worsen erectile dysfunction (ED). Post-stroke ED prevalence and association with stroke location are not well established. Therefore, we assessed post-stroke ED prevalence in relation to ischemic lesion locations and stroke severity.

Heterotopic Cervical Heart Transplantation in Mice.

The heterotopic cervical heart transplantation in mice is a valuable tool in transplant and cardiovascular research. The cuff technique greatly simplifies this model by avoiding challenging suture anastomoses of small vessels thereby reducing warm ischemia time. In comparison to abdominal graft implantation the cervical model is less invasive and the implanted graft is easily accessible for further follow-up examinations.

Analysis of the Spectroscopic Aspects of Cationic Dye Basic Orange 21.

Spectroscopic properties of cationic dye basic orange 21 (BO21) in solutions, in solids, and within leukocytes were examined. Results obtained with solutions indicate that influence of variables such as pH, viscosity, salt composition, and various proteins on the absorption spectrum of BO21 is negligible. However, in the presence of heparin, a blue shift (484-465 nm) is observed, which is attributed to the aggregation of BO21 on the polyanion.

Direct Reprogramming-The Future of Cardiac Regeneration?

Today, the only available curative therapy for end stage congestive heart failure (CHF) is heart transplantation. This therapeutic option is strongly limited by declining numbers of available donor hearts and by restricted long-term performance of the transplanted graft. The disastrous prognosis for CHF with its restricted therapeutic options has led scientists to develop different concepts of alternative regenerative treatment strategies including stem cell transplantation or stimulating cell proliferation of different cardiac cell types in situ.

Circulating biomarkers of hepatocellular carcinoma response after locoregional treatments: New insights.

Hepatocellular cancer is the 5(th) most common cancer in the world and the third cause of death by malignant disease. Locoregional therapies are the most usual treatment of choice for patients with early or intermediate stage of disease. The main diagnostic tools for the detection of recurrence are the radiological techniques such as 4-phase computed tomography or dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging.

TGF-β Blockade Reduces Mortality and Metabolic Changes in a Validated Murine Model of Pancreatic Cancer Cachexia.

Cancer cachexia is a debilitating condition characterized by a combination of anorexia, muscle wasting, weight loss, and malnutrition. This condition affects an overwhelming majority of patients with pancreatic cancer and is a primary cause of cancer-related death. However, few, if any, effective therapies exist for both treatment and prevention of this syndrome.

Tetralogy of Fallot and Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome - Complex Clinical Phenotypes Meet Complex Genetic Networks.

In many cases congenital heart disease (CHD) is represented by a complex phenotype and an array of several functional and morphological cardiac disorders. These malformations will be briefly summarized in the first part focusing on two severe CHD phenotypes, hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) and tetralogy of Fallot (TOF). In most cases of CHD the genetic origin remains largely unknown, though the complexity of the clinical picture strongly argues against a dysregulation which can be attributed to a single candidate gene but rather suggests a multifaceted polygenetic origin with elaborate interactions.

Increased abdominal fat levels measured by bioelectrical impedance are associated with histological lesions of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

Background/aim: Abdominal fat is considered to play an important role in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), although it is not adequately studied because abdominal fat levels cannot be estimated easily. In this study, associations between abdominal obesity, as assessed by abdominal bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), and the characteristics of patients with NAFLD were explored.

Patients And Methods: Seventy-four consecutive NAFLD patients who underwent measurement of abdominal fat levels by BIA were included.

Divergent effects of RIP1 or RIP3 blockade in murine models of acute liver injury.

Necroptosis is a recently described Caspase 8-independent method of cell death that denotes organized cellular necrosis. The roles of RIP1 and RIP3 in mediating hepatocyte death from acute liver injury are incompletely defined. Effects of necroptosis blockade were studied by separately targeting RIP1 and RIP3 in diverse murine models of acute liver injury.

Matched Comparison of Two Different Biological Prostheses for Complete Supra-annular Aortic Valve Replacement.

Objective The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the hemodynamic performance of the St. Jude Medical Trifecta (SJM Trifecta; St. Jude Medical, St Paul, Minnesota, United States) and the Carpentier-Edwards Perimount Magna Ease (CEPM Ease; Edwards Lifesciences, Irvine, California, United States) bioprostheses early postoperative and at 1 year.