Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty vs. high tibial osteotomy for medial knee osteoarthritis (UNIKORN): a study protocol of a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Medial knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a common health problem resulting in knee pain and limiting patients' physical activity. After failed conservative treatment, unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) and high tibial osteotomy (HTO) are possible surgical treatment options for this condition. There is a paucity of high-quality evidence in the literature comparing objective and subjective outcomes of these procedures.

Tankyrase Inhibition Attenuates Cardiac Dilatation and Dysfunction in Ischemic Heart Failure.

Hyperactive poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARP) promote ischemic heart failure (IHF) after myocardial infarction (MI). However, the role of tankyrases (TNKSs), members of the PARP family, in pathogenesis of IHF remains unknown. We investigated the expression and activation of TNKSs in myocardium of IHF patients and MI rats.

Vezf1 regulates cardiac structure and contractile function.

Background: Vascular endothelial zinc finger 1 (Vezf1) is a transcription factor previously shown to regulate vasculogenesis and angiogenesis. We aimed to investigate the role of Vezf1 in the postnatal heart.

Methods: The role of Vezf1 in regulating cardiac growth and contractile function was studied in zebrafish and in primary cardiomyocytes.

Carbon monoxide releasing molecule improves structural and functional cardiac recovery after myocardial injury.

Carbon monoxide (CO), produced by heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), is an endogenous paracrine factor involved in the regulation of cardiovascular structure and function. We studied the effects of a synthetic CO releasing molecule (CORM-3) on cardiac recovery and myocardial microRNA expression after myocardial infarction (MI). Male Wistar rats with MI (n = 75) or sham-operated controls (n = 75) were treated from day 4 to day 14 after MI either with synthetic CORM-3 or with inactive iCORM and killed 2, 4 or 8 weeks post-MI.

PLASMA HEME OXYGENASE-1 IN PATIENTS RESUSCITATED FROM OUT-OF-HOSPITAL CARDIAC ARREST.

Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is an enzyme induced by hypoxia and reperfusion injury, and is associated with organ dysfunction in critically ill patients. Patients resuscitated from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) are subjected to hypoxemia, brain injury, and organ dysfunction. Accordingly, we studied HO-1 among these patients.