Predicting Early Extubation After Liver Transplantation: External Validation and Improved Generalizability of a Proposed Fast-track Score.

Background: Early extubation of liver transplantation recipients is a cornerstone of fast-track (FT) pathways. Identifying suitable candidates has previously been accomplished using perioperative variables to develop a FT probability score. The objective of this study was to externally validate a proposed FT score.

Structure activity relationship of phenolic acid inhibitors of α-synuclein fibril formation and toxicity.

The aggregation of α-synuclein (α-syn) is considered the key pathogenic event in many neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies and multiple system atrophy, giving rise to a whole category of neurodegenerative diseases known as synucleinopathies. Although the molecular basis of α-syn toxicity has not been precisely elucidated, a great deal of effort has been put into identifying compounds that could inhibit or even reverse the aggregation process. Previous reports indicated that many phenolic compounds are potent inhibitors of α-syn aggregation.

Targeting a dominant negative rho kinase to neurons promotes axonal outgrowth and partial functional recovery after rat rubrospinal tract lesion.

Many axonal growth inhibitors that contribute to the usual failure of axon regeneration in the central nervous system (CNS) exert their effects via the RhoA-Rho kinase (ROCK) signal pathway. In this study, we investigated whether lentiviral vector (LV)-mediated neuron-specific expression of a dominant negative mutant of ROCK (DNROCK) could promote axon outgrowth in vitro and in vivo. Dissociated adult rat dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons were seeded on solubilized myelin proteins and transduced with either LV/DNROCK or LV/green fluorescent protein (GFP).