Pressure in the Operating Room: A Potential Contributor to Hospital-Acquired Pressure Injuries.

Burn patients are at risk for hospital-acquired pressure injuries (HAPIs). An unexamined factor that may contribute to HAPI development is the effect of pressure from the operating table during surgery. The purpose of this study was to measure pressure on the buttocks and sacral area during burn surgery under general anesthesia (GA).

FAM81A protein, a novel component of the postsynaptic density in adult brain.

Analysis of affinity-purified PSD-95 complexes had previously identified a 'hypothetical protein', product of the gene FAM81A [1]. The present study examined the tissue and subcellular distribution of FAM81A protein and its expression levels during development. Comparison of different organs indicates selective expression of FAM81A protein in brain.

Distribution of densin in neurons.

Densin is a scaffold protein known to associate with key elements of neuronal signaling. The present study examines the distribution of densin at the ultrastructural level in order to reveal potential sites that can support specific interactions of densin. Immunogold electron microscopy on hippocampal cultures shows intense labeling for densin at postsynaptic densities (PSDs), but also some labeling at extrasynaptic plasma membranes of soma and dendrites and endoplasmic reticulum.

IRSp53 accumulates at the postsynaptic density under excitatory conditions.

IRSp53 (BAIAP2) is an abundant protein at the postsynaptic density (PSD) that binds to major PSD scaffolds, PSD-95 and Shanks, as well as to F-actin. The distribution of IRSp53 at the PSD in cultured hippocampal neurons was examined under basal and excitatory conditions by immuno-electron microscopy. Under basal conditions, label for IRSp53 is concentrated at the PSD.

The Transcriptional Activator Krüppel-like Factor-6 Is Required for CNS Myelination.

Growth factors of the gp130 family promote oligodendrocyte differentiation, and viability, and myelination, but their mechanisms of action are incompletely understood. Here, we show that these effects are coordinated, in part, by the transcriptional activator Krüppel-like factor-6 (Klf6). Klf6 is rapidly induced in oligodendrocyte progenitors (OLP) by gp130 factors, and promotes differentiation.

Astrocytic TYMP and VEGFA drive blood-brain barrier opening in inflammatory central nervous system lesions.

In inflammatory central nervous system conditions such as multiple sclerosis, breakdown of the blood-brain barrier is a key event in lesion pathogenesis, predisposing to oedema, excitotoxicity, and ingress of plasma proteins and inflammatory cells. Recently, we showed that reactive astrocytes drive blood-brain barrier opening, via production of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA). Here, we now identify thymidine phosphorylase (TYMP; previously known as endothelial cell growth factor 1, ECGF1) as a second key astrocyte-derived permeability factor, which interacts with VEGFA to induce blood-brain barrier disruption.