Comparison of biosimilar filgrastim with a reference product: pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and safety profiles in healthy volunteers.

Purpose: Filgrastim, a granulocyte-colony stimulating factor, is used to treat patients with neutropenia, including neutropenic fever. Leucostim is a recombinant filgrastim product tested for biosimilarity with its reference product, Neupogen. We conducted a comparative clinical trial of the 2 products.

Alteration in Uterine Protease-Activated Receptor 2 Expression in Preterm Birth Induced Experimentally in Null Mutant Mice.

Breast regression protein 39 (Brp-39) is a mouse homolog of human Chitinase 3-like 1, which belongs to the 18-glycosyl-hydrolase family and plays a role in inflammatory reaction and tissue remodeling. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of Brp-39 in a mouse model of preterm birth. Pregnant wild-type (WT) or (-/-) mice were injected intraperitoneally with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) at embryonic day 15.

Optogenetic Modulation of Urinary Bladder Contraction for Lower Urinary Tract Dysfunction.

As current clinical approaches for lower urinary tract (LUT) dysfunction such as pharmacological and electrical stimulation treatments lack target specificity, thus resulting in suboptimal outcomes with various side effects, a better treatment modality with spatial and temporal target-specificity is necessary. In this study, we delivered optogenetic membrane proteins, such as channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) and halorhodopsin (NpHR), to bladder smooth muscle cells (SMCs) of mice using either the Cre-loxp transgenic system or a viral transfection method. The results showed that depolarizing ChR2-SMCs with blue light induced bladder contraction, whereas hyperpolarizing NpHR-SMCs with yellow light suppressed PGE-induced overactive contraction.

Differential immunophenotype of macrophages in acute and chronic chorioamnionitis.

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the involvement and immunophenotype of macrophages in acute chorioamnionitis (ACA) and chronic chorioamnionitis (CCA), marking amniotic fluid infection and anti-fetal rejection, respectively.

Methods: Chorioamniotic membranes from (1) gestational age-matched cases without chorioamnionitis, (2) cases with ACA, and (3) cases with CCA were studied after immunohistochemical staining using antibodies against CD14, CD68, CD163, and DC-SIGN.

Results: Macrophages increased prominently in the chorionic trophoblastic layer of both ACA and CCA cases in contrast to non-inflammatory cases.