Traumatic Brain Injury Mortality and Correlates in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Meta-Epidemiological Study.

Background: It is estimated that up to 69 million people per year experience traumatic brain injury (TBI) with the highest prevalence found in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). A paucity of data suggests that the mortality rate after severe TBI is twice as high in LMICs than in high-income countries.

Objective: To analyze TBI mortality in LMICs and to evaluate what country-based socioeconomic and demographic parameters influence TBI outcomes.

"Footprint-free" human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived astrocytes for in vivo cell-based therapy.

The generation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) from somatic cells has enabled the possibility to provide patient-specific hiPSC for cell-based therapy, drug discovery, and other translational applications. Two major obstacles in using hiPSC for clinical application reside in the risk of genomic modification when they are derived with viral transgenes and risk of teratoma formation if undifferentiated cells are engrafted. In this study, we report the generation of "footprint-free" hiPSC-derived astrocytes.