EGFR Signaling Is Overactive in Pachyonychia Congenita: Effective Treatment with Oral Erlotinib.

Pachyonychia congenita (PC) is a rare keratinizing disorder characterized by painful palmoplantar keratoderma for which there is no standard current treatment. PC is caused by dominant mutations in keratin (K) K6A, K6B, K6C, K16, or K17 genes involved in stress, wound healing, and epidermal barrier formation. Mechanisms leading to pain and painful palmoplantar keratoderma in PC remain elusive.

Safety and efficacy of an injectable nerve-specific hydrogel in a rodent crush injury model.

Introduction/aims: While the peripheral nervous system has the inherent ability to recover following injury, results are often unsatisfactory, resulting in permanent functional deficits and disability. Therefore, methods that enhance regeneration are of significant interest. The present study investigates an injectable nerve-tissue-specific hydrogel as a biomaterial for nerve regeneration in a rat nerve crush model.

Analysis of representative mutants for key DNA repair pathways on healthspan in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Although the link between DNA damage and aging is well accepted, the role of different DNA repair proteins on functional/physiological aging is not well-defined. Here, using Caenorhabditis elegans, we systematically examined the effect of three DNA repair genes involved in key genome stability pathways. We assayed multiple health proxies including molecular, functional and resilience measures to define healthspan.

Esophageal extracellular matrix hydrogel mitigates metaplastic change in a dog model of Barrett's esophagus.

Chronic inflammatory gastric reflux alters the esophageal microenvironment and induces metaplastic transformation of the epithelium, a precancerous condition termed Barrett's esophagus (BE). The microenvironmental niche, which includes the extracellular matrix (ECM), substantially influences cell phenotype. ECM harvested from normal porcine esophageal mucosa (eECM) was formulated as a mucoadhesive hydrogel, and shown to largely retain basement membrane and matrix-cell adhesion proteins.