Quality of life and its relation with sleep habits of children with epilepsy from Eastern India.

Background: Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic disorders of the central nervous system. The quality of life of children with epilepsy is influenced by various factors including their sleep. To assess the quality of life and sleep habits among children with epilepsy and to determine the association of QOL and sleep habits, with sociodemographic and clinical variables.

Clinical validation of a quantitative HIV-1 DNA droplet digital PCR assay: Applications for detecting occult HIV-1 infection and monitoring cell-associated HIV-1 dynamics across different subtypes in HIV-1 prevention and cure trials.

Background: In HIV-1-exposed infants, nucleic acid testing (NAT) is required to diagnose infection since passively transferred maternal antibodies preclude antibody testing. The sensitivity of clinical NAT assays is lowered with infant antiretroviral prophylaxis and, with empiric very early antiretroviral treatment of high-risk infants, thereby impacting early infant diagnosis. Similarly, adult HIV-1 infections acquired under pre-exposure prophylaxis may occur at low levels, with undetectable plasma viremia and indeterminate antibody tests, for which HIV-1 DNA testing maybe a useful adjunct.

The Latent Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Reservoir Resides Primarily in CD32-CD4+ T Cells in Perinatally HIV-Infected Adolescents With Long-Term Virologic Suppression.

Background: High-level expression of the Fcγ receptor, CD32hi, on CD4+ T cells was associated with enhanced human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection of the latent reservoir in a study of adults receiving antiretroviral therapy. We tested the hypothesis that CD32 was the preferential marker of the latent HIV reservoir in virally suppressed, perinatally HIV-infected adolescents.

Methods: The frequency of CD32hiCD4+ T cells was determined by flow cytometry (N = 5) and the inducible HIV reservoir in both CD32hi and CD32-CD4+ T cells was quantified (N = 4) with a quantitative viral outgrowth assay.

Alternative Sample Types for HIV-1 Antiretroviral Drug Resistance Testing.

Monitoring human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) drug resistance is critical for assessing ART effectiveness and treatment outcomes for HIV-1-infected individuals, including children, worldwide. Traditionally, testing for HIV-1 drug resistance has primarily been performed on plasma samples, and with commercially available, clinically validated assays that are costly and difficult to access. While plasma is the preferred sample for HIV-1 drug resistance genotyping, plasma analysis requires sophisticated laboratory equipment, personnel, space, and stringent storage conditions for maintenance of sample integrity and transport.

3D Printing of Scaffold for Cells Delivery: Advances in Skin Tissue Engineering.

Injury or damage to tissue and organs is a major health problem, resulting in about half of the world's annual healthcare expenditure every year. Advances in the fields of stem cells (SCs) and biomaterials processing have provided a tremendous leap for researchers to manipulate the dynamics between these two, and obtain a skin substitute that can completely heal the wounded areas. Although wound healing needs a coordinated interplay between cells, extracellular proteins and growth factors, the most important players in this process are the endogenous SCs, which activate the repair cascade by recruiting cells from different sites.

Nano-biomimetics for nano/micro tissue regeneration.

Nanostructured biomimetics have recently shown great promise in the field of tissue engineering. They can be used as nanoscaffolds and tailored at the molecular level. The scaffold topography closely resembles the native extracellular matrix in terms of framing, porosity and bio-functionality.

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) is a generalized disorder of one element of connective tissue manifesting clinically by fragility and hyperelasticity of the skin and joint laxity. It is a hereditary disorder, the inheritance being usually autosomal dominant with low penetrance. Autosomal recessive and X-linked recessive varieties are also known.

Responses to glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor change in mice as spermatogonial stem cells form progenitor spermatogonia which replicate and give rise to more differentiated progeny.

Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) are the foundation of spermatogenesis. These cells are classically defined as a subset of morphologically defined A single (As) spermatogonia, which can produce more SSCs or they can give rise to nonstem As cells that, upon replication, generate A paired (Apr) and then A aligned (Aal) spermatogonia. These latter two cell types, along with the nonstem As cells, function as transit-amplifying progenitor cells.

Effect of Extracts of Terminalia chebula on Proliferation of Keratinocytes and Fibroblasts Cells: An Alternative Approach for Wound Healing.

Terminalia chebula is one of the traditional medicines used in the treatment of many diseases. In the present work, different concentrations of various organic and aqueous extracts (solvent-free) of T. chebula were tested on fibroblast (L929) and keratinocytes cells to evaluate its biocompatible concentration by using MTT and live-dead viability/cytotoxic assay.

Synthesis of composite gelatin-hyaluronic acid-alginate porous scaffold and evaluation for in vitro stem cell growth and in vivo tissue integration.

Engineering three-dimensional (3-D) porous scaffolds with precise bio-functional properties is one of the most important issues in tissue engineering. In the present study, a three-dimensional gelatin-hyaluronic acid-alginate (GHA) polymeric composite was synthesized by freeze-drying, which was followed by ionic crosslinking using CaCl2, and evaluated for its suitability in bone tissue engineering applications. The obtained matrix showed high porosity (85%), an interconnected pore morphology and a rapid swelling behavior.

The in vivo response of stem and other undifferentiated spermatogonia to the reversible inhibition of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor signaling in the adult.

Maintaining adequate numbers of spermatogonial stem cells is required for the production of the millions of sperm required for male fertility. To date, however, the mechanisms that regulate the size of this pool in the adult are poorly defined. Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) is required for establishing this pool in the prepubertal animal, but its in vivo function in the normal adult testis has never been examined directly.