Small-diameter artery grafts engineered from pluripotent stem cells maintain 100% patency in an allogeneic rhesus macaque model.

Autologous vascular grafts, the only clinically approved option for small-diameter (<6 mm) revascularizations, require invasive harvesting and have limited availability and variable quality. To address these challenges, we develop a 3-mm-diameter artery graft by using arterial endothelial cells (AECs) derived from pluripotent stem cells (PSCs). After establishing technologies for pure AEC generation and expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) graft coating, we engineer artery grafts by seeding the inner lumen of ePTFE vascular grafts with either major histocompatibility complex (MHC) mismatched unmodified-wild-type (MHC-WT) AECs or MHC class I/II double knockout (MHC-DKO) AECs.

A single-cell atlas to map sex-specific gene-expression changes in blood upon neurodegeneration.

The clinical course and treatment of neurodegenerative disease are complicated by immune-system interference and chronic inflammatory processes, which remain incompletely understood. Mapping immune signatures in larger human cohorts through single-cell gene expression profiling supports our understanding of observed peripheral changes in neurodegeneration. Here, we employ single-cell gene expression profiling of over 909k peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 121 healthy individuals, 48 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), 46 with Parkinson's disease (PD), 27 with Alzheimer's disease (AD), and 15 with both PD and MCI.

SRSF4-Associated ca-circFOXP1 Regulates Hypoxia-Induced PASMC Proliferation by the Formation of R Loop With Host Gene.

Background: Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a rare and fatal disease, the pathological changes of which include pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cell (PASMC) proliferation, which is the pathological basis of pulmonary vascular remodeling. Studies have demonstrated that chromatin-associated circRNA can regulate a variety of biological processes, including PASMC proliferation in patients with hypoxic PH. However, the role of chromatin-associated circRNA in the proliferation of PH remains largely unexplored.

Prognostic Value of Myocardial T1 Mapping for Predicting Adverse Events in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.

Background: In patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the prognostic value of myocardial T1 and extracellular volume fraction for adverse cardiovascular events has not been well defined.

Methods: A total of 663 consecutive participants with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy who underwent 3T cardiovascular magnetic resonance were recruited. The follow-up end points included heart failure (HF)-related death, HF hospitalization, and sudden cardiac death or aborted sudden cardiac death.

Breakage fusion bridge cycles drive high oncogene number with moderate intratumoural heterogeneity.

Oncogene amplification is a key driver of cancer pathogenesis. Both breakage fusion bridge (BFB) cycles and extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) can lead to high oncogene copy numbers, but the impact of BFB amplifications on intratumoral heterogeneity, treatment response, and patient survival remains poorly understood due to detection challenges with DNA sequencing. We introduce an algorithm, OM2BFB, designed to detect and reconstruct BFB amplifications using optical genome mapping (OGM).

Bone Marrow Stimulation Yielded Similar Clinical Outcomes With Improved Tendon Healing and Abduction Strength Compared With Decortication for Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair in Shoulder Active Patients.

Purpose: To compare the clinical outcomes and tendon healing between bone marrow stimulation (BMS) and decortication as footprint preparation techniques for arthroscopic rotator cuff repair (ARCR) in shoulder active patients.

Methods: This double-blinded randomized clinical trial recruited 120 patients aged older than 45 years, at active levels, and diagnosed with chronic unilateral rotator cuff tears. Participants were 1:1 randomized to undergo ARCR using the double-row suture-bridge technique with BMS (BMS group) or with decortication (DEC group) for footprint preparation.

Robustness of radiomics within photon-counting detector CT: impact of acquisition and reconstruction factors.

Objectives: To assess the impact of acquisition and reconstruction factors on the robustness of radiomics within photon-counting detector CT (PCD-CT).

Methods: A phantom with twenty-eight texture materials was scanned with different acquisition and reconstruction factors including reposition, scan mode (standard vs high-pitch), tube voltage (120 kVp vs 140 kVp), slice thickness (1.0 mm vs 0.

Long-Term Prognostic Implications of Non-Culprit Lesions in Patients Presenting With an Acute Myocardial Infarction: Is It the Angiographic Stenosis Severity or the Underlying High-Risk Morphology?

Background: Patients with acute myocardial infarction and angiographically obstructive non-culprit lesions are at high risk for recurrent major adverse cardiac events (MACEs). However, it remains largely unknown whether events are due to stenosis severity or due to the underlying high-risk lesion morphology.

Methods: Between January 2017 and December 2021, 1312 patients with acute myocardial infarction underwent optical coherence tomography of all the 3 main epicardial arteries after successful percutaneous coronary intervention.

Mesenchymal Stem Cells Carrying Viral Fusogenic Protein p14 to Treat Solid Tumors by Inducing Cell-Cell Fusion and Immune Activation.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-based immune cell therapies attack neighboring cancer cells after receptor recognition but are unable to directly affect distant tumor cells. This limitation may contribute to their inefficiency in treating solid tumors, given the restricted intratumoral infiltration and immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Therefore, cell-cell fusion as a cell-killing mechanism might develop a novel cytotherapy aimed at improving the efficacy against solid tumors.

A mitochondria-interfering nanocomplex cooperates with photodynamic therapy to boost antitumor immunity.

Immunotherapeutics against triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) hold great promise. In this work, we provide a combination therapy for simultaneous increasing tumor immunogenicity and down-regulating programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) to boost antitumor immunity in TNBC. We prepare bis (diethyldithiocarbamate)-copper/indocyanine green nanoparticles (CuET/ICG NPs) simply in aqueous with one-pot method.

Endovascular Thrombectomy for Acute Vertebrobasilar Artery Occlusion with Mild Deficits: A Multicenter Registry Study.

Background Endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) is an effective method for vertebrobasilar artery occlusion (VBAO) in patients with moderate to severe deficits but has unclear benefits in patients with low National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores at hospital admission. Purpose To compare the clinical outcomes of best medical management (BMM) alone versus BMM and early EVT (door-to-puncture time [DPT] ≤ 120 minutes) versus BMM and late EVT (DPT > 120 minutes) in patients with VBAO who have NIHSS scores of 10 or less at admission. Materials and Methods This retrospective study evaluated patients with VBAO and admission NIHSS score of 10 or less who were seen at 65 stroke centers in China from December 2015 to June 2022.

Vps4a Mediates a Unified Membrane Repair Machinery to Attenuate Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury.

Background: Cardiac ischemia/reperfusion disrupts plasma membrane integrity and induces various types of programmed cell death. The ESCRT (endosomal sorting complex required for transport) proteins, particularly AAA-ATPase Vps4a (vacuolar protein sorting 4a), play an essential role in the surveillance of membrane integrity. However, the role of ESCRT proteins in the context of cardiac injury remains unclear.

Roseburia intestinalis-derived butyrate alleviates neuropathic pain.

Approximately 20% of patients with shingles develop postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). We investigated the role of gut microbiota in shingle- and PHN-related pain. Patients with shingles or PHN exhibited significant alterations in their gut microbiota with microbial markers predicting PHN development among patients with shingles.

Identification of Circulating Proteins Associated With Blood Pressure.

Background: Circulating proteins in blood are involved in various physiological processes, but their contributions to blood pressure regulation remain partially understood. In traditional observational studies, identifying circulating proteins causally associated with blood pressure is challenging because of potentially unmeasured confounding and possible reverse causality.

Methods: Two-sample Mendelian randomization analyses were conducted to estimate the causal effects of 2270 circulating proteins (data sourced from 8 genome-wide association studies) on diastolic blood pressure, systolic blood pressure, and pulse pressure.

Photoacoustic-Based Intra- and Peritumoral Radiomics Nomogram for the Preoperative Prediction of Expression of Ki-67 in Breast Malignancy.

Rationale And Objectives: This study investigated the preoperative predictive efficiency of radiomics derived from photoacoustic (PA) imaging, integrated with the clinical features of Ki-67 expression in malignant breast cancer (BC), with a focus on both intratumoral and peritumoral regions.

Methods: This study involved 359 patients, divided into a training set (n = 251) and a testing set (n = 108). Radiomic features were extracted from intratumoral and peritumoral regions using PA imaging.

Middle Meningeal Artery Embolization for Nonacute Subdural Hematoma.

Background: The effect of embolization of the middle meningeal artery in patients with subacute or chronic subdural hematoma is uncertain.

Methods: We performed a multicenter, open-label, randomized trial in China, involving patients with symptomatic nonacute subdural hematoma with mass effect. Patients were assigned to undergo burr-hole drainage or receive nonsurgical treatment at the surgeon's discretion, and patients in each group were then randomly assigned, in a 1:1 ratio, to undergo middle meningeal artery embolization with liquid embolic material or to receive usual care.

Sodium oligomannate disrupts the adherence of Rib bacteria to gut epithelia to block SAA-triggered Th1 inflammation in 5XFAD transgenic mice.

Sodium oligomannate (GV-971), an oligosaccharide drug approved in China for treating mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD), was previously found to recondition the gut microbiota and limit altered peripheral Th1 immunity in AD transgenic mice. As a follow-up study, we here made advances by pinpointing a Lactobacillus murinus (L.m.

Feasibility of Ultra-low Radiation and Contrast Medium Dosage in Aortic CTA Using Deep Learning Reconstruction at 60 kVp: An Image Quality Assessment.

Objective: To assess the viability of using ultra-low radiation and contrast medium (CM) dosage in aortic computed tomography angiography (CTA) through the application of low tube voltage (60kVp) and a novel deep learning image reconstruction algorithm (ClearInfinity, DLIR-CI).

Methods: Iodine attenuation curves obtained from a phantom study informed the administration of CM protocols. Non-obese participants undergoing aortic CTA were prospectively allocated into two groups and then obtained three reconstruction groups.

ANK Deficiency-Mediated Cytosolic Citrate Accumulation Promotes Aortic Aneurysm.

Background: Disturbed metabolism and transport of citrate play significant roles in various pathologies. However, vascular citrate regulation and its potential role in aortic aneurysm (AA) development remain poorly understood.

Methods: Untargeted metabolomics by mass spectrometry was applied to identify upregulated metabolites of the tricarboxylic acid cycle in AA tissues of mice.

Combination of Deep Learning Grad-CAM and Radiomics for Automatic Localization and Diagnosis of Architectural Distortion on DBT.

Rationale And Objectives: Detection and diagnosis of architectural distortion (AD) on digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) is challenging. This study applied artificial intelligence (AI) using deep learning (DL) algorithms to detect AD, followed by radiomics for classification.

Materials And Methods: 500 cases with AD on DBT reports were identified; the earlier 292 cases for training, and the later 208 cases for testing.

Variation in the metagenomic analysis of fecal microbiome composition calls for a standardized operating approach.

The reproducibility in microbiome studies is limited due to the lack of one gold-standard operating procedure. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of protocol variations on microbiome composition using metagenomic data sets from a single center. We assessed the variation in a data set consisted of 2,722 subjects, including 9 subcohorts harboring healthy subjects and patients with various disorders, such as inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal cancer, and type 2 diabetes.