Treatment of a patient suffering from posttraumatic painful neuromas formed at the bilateral digital nerves of the left middle finger using two neurovascular island flaps.

Hand surgeons often encounter painful posttraumatic neuromas in daily practice and the treatment of these neuromas is still challenging for them, because of the tendency of recurrence. The patient injured his left middle finger and was treated by amputation in a previous hospital. After this operation, the patient started to feel pain at the fingertip and complained of severe electric radiating pain when the radial and ulnar ends of the finger were touched.

Activation of the renin-angiotensin system in mice aggravates mechanical loading-induced knee osteoarthritis.

Epidemiological studies have shown an association between hypertension and knee osteoarthritis (OA). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether activation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) can aggravate mechanical loading-induced knee OA in mice. Eight-week-old male Tsukuba hypertensive mice (THM) and C57BL/6 mice were divided into running and non-running groups.

Cyclic compressive loading activates angiotensin II type 1 receptor in articular chondrocytes and stimulates hypertrophic differentiation through a G-protein-dependent pathway.

Angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1R) appears to have a mechanosensing function in a number of cell types. The purpose of this study was to examine whether AT1R expressed in articular chondrocytes is involved in osteoarthritis (OA) progression and whether cyclic compressive loading activates the AT1R and stimulates hypertrophic differentiation of chondrocytes . The relationships between the modified Mankin score for cartilage degeneration and the expression of AT1R and type X collagen (Col X) were studied in mouse knees with OA induced using the destabilization-of-medial-meniscus model.

Lectin-like, oxidized low-density lipoprotein receptor-1-deficient mice show resistance to age-related knee osteoarthritis.

The lectin-like, oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) receptor-1 (LOX-1)/ox-LDL system contributes to atherosclerosis and may be involved in cartilage degeneration. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the LOX-1/ox-LDL system contributes to age-related osteoarthritis (OA) in vivo, using LOX-1 knockout (LOX-1 KO) mice. Knee cartilage from 6, 12, and 18-month old (n = 10/group) C57Bl/6 wild-type (WT) and LOX-1 KO mice was evaluated by determining the Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) score of Safranin-O stained samples.