Two-Month Individually Supervised Exercise Therapy Improves Walking Speed, Step Length, and Temporal Gait Symmetry in Chronic Stroke Patients: A before-after Trial.

Gait asymmetry is common after stroke and is a major risk factor for falls. In particular, temporal gait asymmetry often remains in the chronic stage of stroke. However, health insurance does not cover rehabilitation for patients with chronic stroke in many countries.

Coculture with hiPS-derived intestinal cells enhanced human hepatocyte functions in a pneumatic-pressure-driven two-organ microphysiological system.

Examining intestine-liver interactions is important for achieving the desired physiological drug absorption and metabolism response in in vitro drug tests. Multi-organ microphysiological systems (MPSs) constitute promising tools for evaluating inter-organ interactions in vitro. For coculture on MPSs, normal cells are challenging to use because they require complex maintenance and careful handling.

Generation of Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Functional Enterocyte-Like Cells for Pharmacokinetic Studies.

We aimed to establish an in vitro differentiation procedure to generate matured small intestinal cells mimicking human small intestine from human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). We previously reported the efficient generation of CDX2-expressing intestinal progenitor cells from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) using 6-bromoindirubin-3'-oxime (BIO) and (3,5-difluorophenylacetyl)-L-alanyl-L-2-phenylglycine tert-butyl ester (DAPT) to treat definitive endodermal cells. Here, we demonstrate the generation of enterocyte-like cells by culturing human iPSC-derived intestinal progenitor cells on a collagen vitrigel membrane (CVM) and treating cells with a simple maturation medium containing BIO, DMSO, dexamethasone, and activated vitamin D3.

Direction-specific Disruption of Paretic Arm Movement in Post-stroke Patients.

Objective: This study aimed to characterize reaching movements of the paretic arm in different directions within the reachable workspace in post-stroke patients.

Methods: A total of 12 post-stroke patients participated in this study. Each held a ball with a tracking marker and performed back-and-forth reaching movements from near the middle of the body to one of two targets in front of them located on the ipsilateral and contralateral sides of the arm performing the movement.