Development of multiple adrenal myelolipomas after trauma-induced adrenal haemorrhage.

Adrenal myelolipomas represent a benign neoplasm with known associations with many chronic diseases, 21-hydroxylase deficiency and cancer. However, the aetiology of adrenal myelolipomas remains unknown. Here, we present a case of a patient with image-proven bilateral adrenal haemorrhages caused by trauma with the subsequent development of bilateral adrenal myelolipomas several years later.

Epidemiology of Skin Diseases in a Diverse Patient Population.

Background: Epidemiologic studies of patients who present to dermatology clinics are necessary to identify the needs of patients.

Objective: To quantify and compare diagnoses according to race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES) at 6 general dermatology clinics from January 2013 to December 2016.

Methods: A retrospective cohort of new patients was established using an electronic medical record database.

Photodermatoses in skin of colour.

Photodermatoses represent a heterogeneous collection of disorders unified by the characteristic of being provoked through exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Generally, these conditions are classified into the following categories: immunologically mediated photodermatoses, chemical- and drug-induced photosensitivity, photoaggravated dermatoses and photosensitivity associated with defective DNA repair mechanisms or chromosomal instabilities. The list of photodermatoses is extensive, and each individual photodermatosis is understood to a different extent.

Microgel film dynamics modulate cell adhesion behavior.

A material's mechanical properties greatly control cell behavior at the cell–substrate interface. In this work, we demonstrate that microgel multilayers have unique elastic and viscoelastic-like properties that can be modulated to produce morphological changes in fibroblasts cultured on the film. Protein adsorption is also examined and the data are contrasted with the number of cells adhered.

Plastic deformation, wrinkling, and recovery in microgel multilayers.

Microgel multi-layer films assembled from anionic particles and linear polycation were prepared on elastomeric substrates and their self-healing properties studied. Dried films were imaged during mechanical deformation and were determined to undergo plastic deformation in response to linear strain, leading to film buckling upon strain relaxation. Hydration leads to rapid reorganization of the film building blocks, permitting recovery of the film to the undamaged state.

Dynamic materials from microgel multilayers.

Multilayer coatings made from hydrogel microparticles (microgels) are conceptually very simple materials: thin films composed of microgel building blocks held together by polyelectrolyte "glue". However, the apparent simplicity of their fabrication and structure belies extremely complex properties, including those of "dynamic" coatings that display rapid self-healing behavior in the presence of solvent. This contribution covers our work with these materials and highlights some of the key findings regarding damage mechanisms, healing processes, film structure/composition, and how the variation of fabrication parameters can impact self-healing behavior.

Host response to microgel coatings on neural electrodes implanted in the brain.

The performance of neural electrodes implanted in the brain is often limited by host response in the surrounding brain tissue, including astrocytic scar formation, neuronal cell death, and inflammation around the implant. We applied conformal microgel coatings to silicon neural electrodes and examined host responses to microgel-coated and uncoated electrodes following implantation in the rat brain. In vitro analyses demonstrated significantly reduced astrocyte and microglia adhesion to microgel-coated electrodes compared to uncoated controls.

Packed Colloidal Phases Mediate the Synthesis of Raspberry-Structured Microgel Heteroaggregates.

Hybrid nanoparticles with complex architectures combine the properties of two distinct materials and integrate them to synergistically provide new characteristics to the assembly. In this work we demonstrate the ability to decorate the surface of a variety of micrometer-sized "core" particles with responsive microgels, forming raspberry-like particles. We use a templating technique wherein the microgel coating is applied from a high-volume-fraction colloidal phase, leading to high surface coverage and enhanced colloidal stability of the resultant particles.

Reversible Inter- and Intra-Microgel Cross-Linking using Disulfides.

Thermoresponsive hydrogel nanoparticles composed of poly(N-isopropylmethacrylamide) (pNIPMAm) and the disulfide-based cross-linker N,N'-bis(acryloyl)cystamine (BAC) have been prepared using a redox-initiated, aqueous precipitation polymerization approach, leading to improved stability of the disulfide bond compared to traditional thermally-initiated methods. The resultant particles demonstrate complete erosion in response to reducing conditions or thiol competition. This stands in contrast to the behavior of thermally-initiated particles, which retain a cross-linked network following disulfide cleavage due to uncontrolled chain-branching and self-cross-linking side reactions.

Bilayer edge and curvature effects on partitioning of lipids by tail length: atomistic simulations.

The partitioning of lipids among different microenvironments in a bilayer is of considerable relevance to characterization of composition variations in biomembranes. Atomistic simulation has been ill-suited to model equilibrated lipid mixtures because the time required for diffusive exchange of lipids among microenvironments exceeds typical submicrosecond molecular dynamics trajectories. A method to facilitate local composition fluctuations, using Monte Carlo mutations to change lipid structures within the semigrand-canonical ensemble (at a fixed difference in component chemical potentials, Deltamu), was recently implemented to address this challenge.