Evaluation of Antibodies for Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Characterization.

Flow cytometry, paired with fluorescent antibodies, is a popular method for characterizing cell phenotypes. Our laboratory is interested in deriving and characterizing vascular smooth muscle cells from embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells, one of the few stem cell differentiation methods that remain underdeveloped. In our studies, we found that most commercially available antibodies advertised for smooth muscle cell identification using flow-activated cell scanning (FACS) were, in fact, not able to distinguish between positive and negative controls.

Primordial Odontogenic Tumor: A Review of the Literature and Report of Three New Patients.

The primordial odontogenic tumor (POT) is a rare mixed odontogenic tumor composed of mesenchymal cells, columnar odontogenic epithelium, and fibromyxoid stroma affecting the posterior mandible of children and adolescents. Herein, we report 3 patients with POT and the clinicopathological features of POT previously reported in the literature. A 12-year-old, 19-year-old, and 4-year-old patient presented an asymptomatic swelling in the posterior maxilla and posterior mandible.

A pre-vaccination immune metabolic interplay determines the protective antibody response to a dengue virus vaccine.

Protective immunity to dengue virus (DENV) requires antibody response to all four serotypes. Systems vaccinology identifies a multi-OMICs pre-vaccination signature and mechanisms predictive of broad antibody responses after immunization with a tetravalent live attenuated DENV vaccine candidate (Butantan-DV/TV003). Anti-inflammatory pathways, including TGF-β signaling expressed by CD68 monocytes, and the metabolites phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) positively correlate with broadly neutralizing antibody responses against DENV.

Prior acupuncture experience among elderly participants enrolled in a clinical trial of acupuncture for chronic low back pain: Implications for future trials.

Background: The effectiveness of acupuncture for chronic low back pain (cLBP) has not been studied specifically in the 65-and-older population. To inform the validity and generalizability of future acupuncture studies among older adults, we characterized elderly participants' prior experience with and views toward acupuncture and tested for clinical and sociodemographic differences between acupuncture-naïve and non-naïve participants.

Methods: Data for this study were collected during the baseline telephone interview from the participants enrolled in the Kaiser Permanente Northern California site of an NIH-funded, multicenter clinical trial of acupuncture for cLBP in older adults.

Identifying locally actionable strategies to increase participant acceptability and feasibility to participate in Phase I cancer clinical trials.

Background: Recruitment of cancer clinical trial (CCT) participants, especially participants representing the diversity of the US population, is necessary to create successful medications and a continual challenge. These challenges are amplified in Phase I cancer trials that focus on evaluating the safety of new treatments and are the gateway to treatment development. In preparation for recruitment to a Phase I recurrent head and neck cancer (HNC) trial, we assessed perceived barriers to participation or referral and suggestions for recruitment among people with HNC and community physicians (oncologist, otolaryngologist or surgeon).

Vaginal Approach to Cesarean Section Scar Pregnancies: A Standardized Ten-step Surgical Procedure.

Objective: To show a 10-step standardized vaginal surgical technique to treat first-trimester cesarean section scar pregnancies.

Design: A video article with a stepwise demonstration captured in an operation room of a tertiary medical center of a low-income country (Bolivia).

Setting: Cesarean section scar pregnancies have a wide variety of management options.

Detection of spp. in Cats: Analysis of Nasal, Oral and Conjunctival Swabs by PCR and HRM.

Background And Objectives: Feline leishmaniasis (FeL) is caused by several species of parasites of the genus . The disease can occur with the presence or absence of clinical signs, similar to those observed in other common infectious diseases. In endemic regions for FeL, the infection has been associated with dermatological lesions.

Breast arterial calcification is associated with incident atrial fibrillation among older but not younger post-menopausal women.

Aims: The goal of this study was to examine the association of breast arterial calcification (BAC) presence and quantity with incident atrial fibrillation (AF) in a large cohort of post-menopausal women.

Methods And Results: We conducted a longitudinal cohort study among women free of clinically overt cardiovascular disease and AF at baseline (between October 2012 and February 2015) when they attended mammography screening. Atrial fibrillation incidence was ascertained using diagnostic codes and natural language processing.

Efficient visual learning by bumble bees in virtual-reality conditions: Size does not matter.

Recent developments allowed establishing virtual-reality (VR) setups to study multiple aspects of visual learning in honey bees under controlled experimental conditions. Here, we adopted a VR environment to investigate the visual learning in the buff-tailed bumble bee Bombus terrestris. Based on responses to appetitive and aversive reinforcements used for conditioning, we show that bumble bees had the proper appetitive motivation to engage in the VR experiments and that they learned efficiently elemental color discriminations.

High-sensitivity troponin I is associated with cardiovascular outcomes but not with breast arterial calcification among postmenopausal women.

Background: Prior studies support the utility of high sensitivity troponin I (hsTnI) for cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk stratification among asymptomatic populations; however, only two prior studies examined women separately. The association between hsTnI and breast arterial calcification is unknown.

Methods: Cohort study of 2896 women aged 60-79 years recruited after attending mammography screening between 10/2012 and 2/2015.

Modulation of innate immune responses in the flame scallop Ctenoides scaber (Born, 1778) caused by exposure to used automobile crankcase oils.

The used automobile crankcase oils are potential sources of contaminant elements for the coastal-marine ecosystems, affecting mainly the immunological system of organisms that feed by filtration, e. g. scallops.

Disseminated cryptococcosis by biological therapy: We must manage the risk.

Introduction: Multiple adverse effects have been described for the biological therapy in autoimmune diseases including many secondary to immunosuppression producing bacterial, fungal, or viral infections. Clinical case: We present the case of a 64-year-old female patient with proven disseminated cryptococcosis secondary to the use of tofacitinib. Other possible causes of immunosuppression such as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were ruled out.

Targeted Marrow Irradiation Intensification of Reduced-Intensity Fludarabine/Busulfan Conditioning for Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.

Reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) regimens frequently provide insufficient disease control in patients with high-risk hematologic malignancies undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). We evaluated intensification of fludarabine/busulfan (Flu/Bu) RIC with targeted marrow irradiation (TMI) in a dose escalation with expansion phase I clinical trial. TMI doses were delivered at 1.

Breast Arterial Calcification: a Novel Cardiovascular Risk Enhancer Among Postmenopausal Women.

Background: Breast arterial calcification (BAC), a common incidental finding in mammography, has been shown to be associated with angiographic coronary artery disease and cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes. We aimed to (1) examine the association of BAC presence and quantity with hard atherosclerotic CVD (ASCVD) and global CVD; (2) ascertain model calibration, discrimination and reclassification of ASCVD risk; (3) assess the joint effect of BAC presence and 10-year pooled cohorts equations risk on ASCVD.

Methods: A cohort study of 5059 women aged 60-79 years recruited after attending mammography screening between October 2012 and February 2015 was conducted in a large health plan in Northern California, United States.

Polymorphisms of the TLR4 gene: Risk factor for chronicity and severity in oral vectorial Chagas disease.

Chagas disease is one of the parasitic infections with the greatest socio-economic impact in Latin America. In Venezuela, epidemiological data has shown different sources of infection, such as the vectorial route by oral transmission. Given the importance of the TLR4 gene in the innate immune response triggered by infection with Trypanosoma cruzi, this work analyses the role of TLR4 polymorphisms and its possible effect on cytokine expression.

Multiple site place-of-care manufactured anti-CD19 CAR-T cells induce high remission rates in B-cell malignancy patients.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells targeting the CD19 antigen are effective in treating adults and children with B-cell malignancies. Place-of-care manufacturing may improve performance and accessibility by obviating the need to cryopreserve and transport cells to centralized facilities. Here we develop an anti-CD19 CAR (CAR19) comprised of the 4-1BB co-stimulatory and TNFRSF19 transmembrane domains, showing anti-tumor efficacy in an in vivo xenograft lymphoma model.

Influenza Vaccination for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in the Americas: Consensus document of the Inter-American Society of Cardiology and the Word Heart Federation.

Background: Cardiovascular mortality is decreasing but remains the leading cause of death world-wide. Respiratory infections such as influenza significantly contribute to morbidity and mortality in patients with cardiovascular disease. Despite of proven benefits, influenza vaccination is not fully implemented, especially in Latin America.

Cr, Ni, and Zn removal from landfill leachate using vertical flow wetlands planted with and .

Chromium (Cr), Nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn) removal from landfill leachate using mesocosm-scale vertical flow wetlands, the effect of recirculation, and the ability of macrophytes to retain metals were evaluated. Wetlands were filled with coarse sand and light expanded clay aggregates and planted with or . Wetlands were operated using intermittent loading, with and without recirculation.

Brief report: Evaluation of working memory deficits in children with ADHD using the NIH list sorting working memory task.

Variability in working memory (WM) task selection likely contributes to heterogeneity in effect size estimates of deficiencies in youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This has resulted in the development of brief, easy to administer assessments such as the NIH List Sorting Working Memory (LSWM) task from the NIH Cognitive Toolbox in hopes of standardizing measurement of this construct. Unfortunately, substantial questions persist regarding the specific constructs being evaluated by this task (e.

Antioxidant defenses of flame scallop (Born, 1778) exposed to the water-soluble fraction of used vehicle crankcase oils.

Used vehicle crankcase oils are a source of contamination in Caribbean marine environments and may alter the oxidative balance of organism that inhabiting coastal ecosystems. This paper aims to evaluate effects of a water-soluble fraction of used vehicle crankcase oils (WSF-UVCO) on the antioxidant responses of the flame scallop . The organisms were exposed to ascending sublethal concentrations 0, 0.

Breast Arterial Calcification Is Not Associated with Mild Cognitive Impairment or Incident All-Cause Dementia Among Postmenopausal Women: The MINERVA Study.

Since vascular risk factors are implicated in cognitive decline, and breast arterial calcification (BAC) is related to vascular risk, we postulated that BAC may be associated with cognitive impairment and dementia. We used a multiethnic cohort of 3,913 asymptomatic women 60-79 years of age recruited after mammography screening at a large health plan in 2012-2015. A BAC mass score (mg) was derived from digital mammograms.

Receptor-Driven ERK Pulses Reconfigure MAPK Signaling and Enable Persistence of Drug-Adapted BRAF-Mutant Melanoma Cells.

Targeted inhibition of oncogenic pathways can be highly effective in halting the rapid growth of tumors but often leads to the emergence of slowly dividing persister cells, which constitute a reservoir for the selection of drug-resistant clones. In BRAF melanomas, RAF and MEK inhibitors efficiently block oncogenic signaling, but persister cells emerge. Here, we show that persister cells escape drug-induced cell-cycle arrest via brief, sporadic ERK pulses generated by transmembrane receptors and growth factors operating in an autocrine/paracrine manner.