Isolation of high-affinity, neutralizing anti-idiotype antibodies by phage and ribosome display for application in immunogenicity and pharmacokinetic analyses.

Anti-idiotype antibodies against a therapeutic antibody are key reagents for the development of immunogenicity and pharmacokinetic (PK) assays during pre-clinical and clinical development. Here we have used a combination of phage and ribosome display to isolate a panel of monoclonal anti-idiotype antibodies with sub-nanomolar affinity and high specificity to a human anti-IgE monoclonal antibody. Anti-idiotype antibodies were enriched from scFv libraries using phage display, and a biochemical epitope competition assay was used to identify anti-idiotypes which neutralized IgE binding, which was essential for the intended use of the anti-idiotypes as positive controls in neutralizing anti-drug antibody (Nab) assays.

A home-made animal model in comparison with a standard manikin for teaching percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy.

Objectives: As airway management specialists, thoracic surgeons should be familiar with percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy. To optimize the learning curve, we propose a home-made pig model obtained from a slaughterhouse for training residents in the technical aspects of performing percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy. The satisfaction of the residents' training experience using this model was compared with that using a standard manikin model.

Caval filters in intensive care: a retrospective study.

Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of a caval vein filter (CVF) peri-implant monitoring protocol in order to reduce pulmonary embolism (PE) mortality and CVF-related morbidity.

Background: The reduction in mortality from PE associated with the use of CVF is affected by the risk of increase in morbidity. Therefore, CVF implant is a challenging prophylactic or therapeutic option.

Inhibiting stromal cell heparan sulfate synthesis improves stem cell mobilization and enables engraftment without cytotoxic conditioning.

The glycosyltransferase gene, Ext1, is essential for heparan sulfate production. Induced deletion of Ext1 selectively in Mx1-expressing bone marrow (BM) stromal cells, a known population of skeletal stem/progenitor cells, in adult mice resulted in marked changes in hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSPC) localization. HSPC egressed from BM to spleen after Ext1 deletion.

Contralesional rTMS relieves visual extinction in chronic stroke.

Patients affected by right parietal lobe lesion can be severely impaired in sustained attention tasks, particularly in the left visual field. For example, patients with right parietal stroke are commonly limited in their ability to attentionally track multiple moving objects in their left visual field when competing stimuli are simultaneously presented in the right, ipsilesional visual field. This is a hallmark of visual extinction, a failure to respond to contralesional visual stimuli, when competing stimuli are presented in the good hemifield.

Elective tracheostomy in intensive care unit: Looking between techniques, a three cases report.

There is no optimal tracheostomy (TS) technique, proved to be the best. For this reason, operators' skills, clinical anatomical and physio-pathological features of the patient should be considered as discriminating factors in the choice of percutaneous dilation tracheostomy (PDT) technique. This article includes reports of three cases of PDT: In the first case distance between jugular notch and the first tracheal ring was too long, the second case involving a patient with mild ectasia of the ascending aorta and aortic regurgitation with De Musset's sign with great risk of perioperative bleeding and a third case, of tracheomalacia with inflammatory stenosis at the 4(th) tracheal ring.

Concise review: diabetes, the bone marrow niche, and impaired vascular regeneration.

Diabetes mellitus is a global health problem that results in multiorgan complications leading to high morbidity and mortality. Until recently, the effects of diabetes and hyperglycemia on the bone marrow microenvironment-a site where multiple organ systems converge and communicate-have been underappreciated. However, several new studies in mice, rats, and humans reveal that diabetes leads to multiple bone marrow microenvironmental defects, such as small vessel disease (microangiopathy), nerve terminal pauperization (neuropathy), and impaired stem cell mobilization (mobilopathy).

Idiopathic Seidlmayer's Purpura: A Case Report.

Acute hemorrhagic edema of infancy (AHEI) was considered a rare form of Henoch-Schönlein purpura; however, it is now regarded as an independent disease typically involving patients aged 4-24 months. The authors describe the clinical case of a toddler aged 8 months, with skin erythematous pomphoid lesions, treated at home with topical steroids without benefits. The appearance of new lesions and the worsening of the previous skin signs induced the parents to drive the child to the hospital.

Contribution to the validation of Italian version of Fear-Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire.

Background Aim: Propose further evidence for reliability and validity of Italian translation and adaptation of Fear Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire, (FABQ) originally built-up by Waddel et al. (1993) METHODS: 250 participants, inpatient and outpatient, suffering from acute or chronic back-pain have been consecutively recruited from various Italian physiotherapy and functional rehabilitation centres. All participants were administered FABQ and QUALEFFO, to evaluate if avoiding behaviors can provoke disability independently from experimented pain.

A two-tier Golgi-based control of organelle size underpins the functional plasticity of endothelial cells.

Weibel-Palade bodies (WPBs), endothelial-specific secretory granules that are central to primary hemostasis and inflammation, occur in dimensions ranging between 0.5 and 5 μm. How their size is determined and whether it has a functional relevance are at present unknown.

Direct measurement of local oxygen concentration in the bone marrow of live animals.

Characterization of how the microenvironment, or niche, regulates stem cell activity is central to understanding stem cell biology and to developing strategies for the therapeutic manipulation of stem cells. Low oxygen tension (hypoxia) is commonly thought to be a shared niche characteristic in maintaining quiescence in multiple stem cell types. However, support for the existence of a hypoxic niche has largely come from indirect evidence such as proteomic analysis, expression of hypoxia inducible factor-1α (Hif-1α) and related genes, and staining with surrogate hypoxic markers (for example, pimonidazole).

Potential energy surfaces of WC6 clusters in different spin states.

Stochastic explorations of the structural possibilities of neutral WC6 clusters in several spin states lead to very rich and complex potential energy surfaces, with geometries quite different from those of pure carbon clusters at the PBE0/def2-TZVP level. The global minimum is predicted to be a triplet-state semicyclic C6 conformation having every carbon in direct coordination to the W atom. Interaction energies are comparable to those of C7 clusters, revealing very strong W-C bonding.

Neuropsychological factors related to college ice hockey concussions.

We analyzed data from 74 male collegiate hockey players. Each athlete's season began with a baseline administration of the Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT) neuropsychology test battery. Fourteen athletes sustained a sport-related head injury and were readministered the test to assess the impact of the injury.

Laparoscopic adrenal surgery: ten-year experience in a single institution.

Background: Minimal invasive adrenalectomy has become the procedure of choice to treat adrenal tumors with a benign appearance, ≤ 6 cm in diameter and weighing < 100 g. Authors evaluated medium- and long-term outcomes of laparoscopic adrenalectomy (LA), performed for ten years in a single endocrine surgery unit.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 88 consecutive patients undergone LA for lesions of adrenal glands from 2003 to 2013.

Rehabilitation for Charcot Marie tooth: a survey study of patients and familiar/caregiver perspective and perception of efficacy and needs.

Background: Charcot Marie Tooth (CMT) disease is the most common inherited polyneuropathy. At the moment there is no pharmacological therapy for this pathology and the conservative treatment is mostly based on rehabilitation program. Moreover there is no medical consensus on it and the perception of its efficacy is mostly clinician-oriented.

Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy for critically ill patients in a general intensive care unit.

Background And Aim: percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is an effective way of providing enteral feeding to patients with functionally normal gastrointestinal tract who cannot meet their nutritional needs because of inadequate oral intake. This retrospective study evaluated the clinical outcome of critically ill patients with high assistance level undergoing PEG in a general ICU over a 12 year period.

Patients And Methods: we studied a cohort of 82 patients who underwent PEG over a 12-year period between 1 January 1999 and 31 December 2010.

Role of preoperative adrenergic blockade with doxazosin on hemodynamic control during the surgical treatment of pheochromocytoma: a retrospective study of 48 cases.

Authors evaluated the effects of selective adrenergic blockade by means of doxazosin on blood pressure in 48 patients operated on for pheochromocytoma by a multicenter retrospective study. Age, tumor size, surgical approach, and operative time were analyzed as predictive factors of intraoperative hypertensive crises. Forty-eight patients underwent adrenalectomy--four open surgery and 44 laparoscopic surgery--for pheochromocytoma of adrenal glands from 1998 to 2008 after preoperative administration of doxazosin.

Appropriateness of surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis in the Latium region of Italy, 2008: a multicenter study.

Background: There is still wide variability in surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis (SAP) practice by different surgical teams and specialties, with potential impact on adverse events and the emergence of antibiotic resistance.

Methods: We assessed SAP appropriateness in a regional prospective multicenter study on the basis of the agreement of the Surgical Care Improvement Project indicators (SCIP-Inf) with Italian guidelines (GL).

Results: Prophylaxis was administered in 2,664 of 2,835 procedures (94%): In 2,346 of 2,468 (95%) as indicated and in 318 of 367 (86.

Adipokines and C-reactive protein in relation to bone mineralization in pediatric nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

Aim: To investigate bone mineral density (BMD) in obese children with and without nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD); and the association between BMD and serum adipokines, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (HSCRP).

Methods: A case-control study was performed. Cases were 44 obese children with NAFLD.

Proplatelet generation in the mouse requires PKCε-dependent RhoA inhibition.

During thrombopoiesis, megakaroycytes undergo extensive cytoskeletal remodeling to form proplatelet extensions that eventually produce mature platelets. Proplatelet formation is a tightly orchestrated process that depends on dynamic regulation of both tubulin reorganization and Rho-associated, coiled-coil containing protein kinase/RhoA activity. A disruption in tubulin dynamics or RhoA activity impairs proplatelet formation and alters platelet morphology.

Motor and parietal cortex stimulation for phantom limb pain and sensations.

Limb amputation may lead to chronic painful sensations referred to the absent limb, ie phantom limb pain (PLP), which is likely subtended by maladaptive plasticity. The present study investigated whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a noninvasive technique of brain stimulation that can modulate neuroplasticity, can reduce PLP. In 2 double-blind, sham-controlled experiments in subjects with unilateral lower or upper limb amputation, we measured the effects of a single session of tDCS (2 mA, 15 min) of the primary motor cortex (M1) and of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) on PLP, stump pain, nonpainful phantom limb sensations and telescoping.