Cerebral endothelial cell-derived small extracellular vesicles enhance neurovascular function and neurological recovery in rat acute ischemic stroke models of mechanical thrombectomy and embolic stroke treatment with tPA.

Treatment of patients with cerebral large vessel occlusion with thrombectomy and tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) leads to incomplete reperfusion. Using rat models of embolic and transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (eMCAO and tMCAO), we investigated the effect on stroke outcomes of small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) derived from rat cerebral endothelial cells (CEC-sEVs) in combination with tPA (CEC-sEVs/tPA) as a treatment of eMCAO and tMCAO in rat. The effect of sEVs derived from clots acquired from patients who had undergone mechanical thrombectomy on healthy human CEC permeability was also evaluated.

Histopathologic outcome of neoadjuvant image-guided therapy of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background And Aims: The best curative treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is liver transplant (LT), with the limitation to either a solitary lesion < 5 cm or up to three lesions < 3 cm each. Arresting tumor growth or downstaging to make patients eligible for LT can be obtained by neoadjuvant treatments such as transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT), chemical or radiofrequency ablation (RFA). We evaluated the histopathologic response in explant specimens to neoadjuvant image-guided therapy of HCC prior to LT.