Gangrenous appendicitis: No longer complicated.

Background: Appendicitis presents on a spectrum ranging from inflammation to gangrene to perforation. Studies suggest that gangrenous appendicitis has lower postoperative infection rates relative to perforated cases. We hypothesized that gangrenous appendicitis could be successfully treated as simple appendicitis, reducing length of stay (LOS) and antibiotic usage without increasing postoperative infections.

Total Ankle Replacement with Severe Valgus Deformity: Technique and Surgical Strategy.

Correction of severe valgus deformity of the foot and ankle with ankle replacement is challenging. We describe the controversies and specific issues of surgical management and provide a detailed surgical strategy for management of this common deformity. A reliable technique for deltoid reconstruction is also described and illustrated in detail.

Maximizing social model principles in residential recovery settings.

Peer support is integral to a variety of approaches to alcohol and drug problems. However, there is limited information about the best ways to facilitate it. The "social model" approach developed in California offers useful suggestions for facilitating peer support in residential recovery settings.

Monoolein lipid phases as incorporation and enrichment materials for membrane protein crystallization.

The crystallization of membrane proteins in amphiphile-rich materials such as lipidic cubic phases is an established methodology in many structural biology laboratories. The standard procedure employed with this methodology requires the generation of a highly viscous lipidic material by mixing lipid, for instance monoolein, with a solution of the detergent solubilized membrane protein. This preparation is often carried out with specialized mixing tools that allow handling of the highly viscous materials while minimizing dead volume to save precious membrane protein sample.

Salvage and storage of infectious disease protein targets in the SSGCID high-throughput crystallization pathway using microfluidics.

The MPCS Plug Maker is a microcapillary-based protein-crystallization system for generating diffraction-ready crystals from nanovolumes of protein. Crystallization screening using the Plug Maker was used as a salvage pathway for proteins that failed to crystallize during the initial observation period using the traditional sitting-drop vapor-diffusion method. Furthermore, the CrystalCards used to store the crystallization experiments set up by the Plug Maker are shown be a viable container for long-term storage of protein crystals without a discernable loss of diffraction quality with time.

Discovery of leukotriene A4 hydrolase inhibitors using metabolomics biased fragment crystallography.

We describe a novel fragment library termed fragments of life (FOL) for structure-based drug discovery. The FOL library includes natural small molecules of life, derivatives thereof, and biaryl protein architecture mimetics. The choice of fragments facilitates the interrogation of protein active sites, allosteric binding sites, and protein-protein interaction surfaces for fragment binding.

Augmented mobilization and collection of CD34+ hematopoietic cells from normal human volunteers stimulated with granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor by single-dose administration of AMD3100, a CXCR4 antagonist.

Background: AMD3100, a selective antagonist of CXCR4, rapidly mobilizes CD34+ hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) from marrow to peripheral blood with minimal side effects.

Study Design And Methods: To further investigate potential clinical utility of AMD3100 for CD34+ cell mobilization and collection, a Phase I study in normal volunteers was performed examining single-dose administration of AMD3100 alone and in combination with a standard 5-day granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) regimen.

Results: AMD3100 (160 microg/kg x 1 on Day 5) significantly increased both G-CSF-stimulated (10 microg/kg/day) mobilization of CD34+ cells (3.