Practical Review on the Contemporary Diagnosis and Management of Compartment Syndrome.

Acute compartment syndrome (ACS) is a limb-threatening pathology that necessitates early detection and management. The diagnosis of ACS is often made by physical examination alone; however, supplemental methods such as compartment pressure measurement, infrared spectroscopy, and ultrasound can provide additional information that support decision-making. This practical review aims to incorporate and summarize recent studies to provide evidence-based approaches to compartment syndrome for both resource-rich and -poor settings among several patient populations.

Engineering a Cysteine-Free Form of Human Fibroblast Growth Factor-1 for "Second Generation" Therapeutic Application.

Human fibroblast growth factor-1 (FGF-1) has broad therapeutic potential in regenerative medicine but has undesirable biophysical properties of low thermostability and 3 buried cysteine (Cys) residues (at positions 16, 83, and 117) that interact to promote irreversible protein unfolding under oxidizing conditions. Mutational substitution of such Cys residues eliminates reactive buried thiols but cannot be accomplished simultaneously at all 3 positions without also introducing further substantial instability. The mutational introduction of a novel Cys residue (Ala66Cys) that forms a stabilizing disulfide bond (i.

Evolution of a protein folding nucleus.

The folding nucleus (FN) is a cryptic element within protein primary structure that enables an efficient folding pathway and is the postulated heritable element in the evolution of protein architecture; however, almost nothing is known regarding how the FN structurally changes as complex protein architecture evolves from simpler peptide motifs. We report characterization of the FN of a designed purely symmetric β-trefoil protein by ϕ-value analysis. We compare the structure and folding properties of key foldable intermediates along the evolutionary trajectory of the β-trefoil.