Dysregulated neutrophil extracellular traps and haemostatic biomarkers as diagnostic tools and therapeutic targets in periprosthetic joint infection.

Aims: Bacterial infection activates neutrophils to release neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) in bacterial biofilms of periprosthetic joint infections (PJIs). The aim of this study was to evaluate the increase in NET activation and release (NETosis) and haemostasis markers in the plasma of patients with PJI, to evaluate whether such plasma induces the activation of neutrophils, to ascertain whether increased NETosis is also mediated by reduced DNaseI activity, to explore novel therapeutic interventions for NETosis in PJI in vitro, and to evaluate the potential diagnostic use of these markers.

Methods: We prospectively recruited 107 patients in the preoperative period of prosthetic surgery, 71 with a suspicion of PJI and 36 who underwent arthroplasty for non-septic indications as controls, and obtained citrated plasma.

Biosynthesis of a new skyllamycin in : a cytochrome P450 forms an epoxide in the cinnamoyl chain.

Activation of a silent gene cluster in leads to synthesis of a cinnamoyl-containing non-ribosomal peptide (CCNP) that is related to skyllamycins. This novel CCNP was isolated and its structure was interrogated using mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The isolated compound is an oxidised skyllamycin A in which an additional oxygen atom is incorporated in the cinnamoyl side-chain in the form of an epoxide.

TEAD1 is crucial for developmental myelination, Remak bundles, and functional regeneration of peripheral nerves.

Previously we showed that the hippo pathway transcriptional effectors, YAP and TAZ, are essential for (SCs) to develop, maintain and regenerate myelin . Although TEAD1 has been implicated as a partner transcription factor, the mechanisms by which it mediates YAP/TAZ regulation of SC myelination are unclear. Here, using conditional and inducible knockout mice, we show that TEAD1 is crucial for SCs to develop and regenerate myelin.

Comparison of osteolysis around 3 different cement restrictors in total hip arthroplasty.

Background And Aim: Several studies reported osteolysis around polyethylene glycol/polybutylene terephthalate (PEG/PBT) based femoral cement restrictors. Our goal was to evaluate and compare osteolysis around 3 different plug designs: the slow biodegradable PEG/PBT cement restrictor; the fast biodegradable gelatin cement restrictor; and the non-biodegradable polyethylene plug.

Patients And Methods: In a retrospective multicentre cohort study chart data were extracted of patients who received a total hip arthroplasty between 2008 and 2012.

Restricted effects of androgens on glucocorticoid signaling in the mouse prefrontal cortex and midbrain.

Glucocorticoids are key executors of the physiological response to stress. Previous studies in mice showed that the androgen receptor (AR) influenced the transcriptional outcome of glucocorticoid treatment in white and brown adipocytes and in the liver. In the brain, we observed that chronic hypercorticism induced changes in gene expression that tended to be more pronounced in male mice.