Background: Necrotizing soft tissue infections (NSTI) are rapidly progressing and life-threatening conditions that require prompt diagnosis. However, differentiating NSTI from other non-necrotizing skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) remains challenging. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value of the biochemical analysis of soft tissue infectious fluid in distinguishing NSTIs from non-necrotizing SSTIs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Bioengineered cartilage is a developing therapeutic to repair cartilage defects. The matrix must be rich in collagen type II and aggrecan and mechanically competent, withstanding compressive and shearing loads. Biomechanical properties in native articular cartilage depend on the zonal architecture consisting of 3 zones: superficial, middle, and deep.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA high-entropy oxide nanocomposite with Ag(CuZn)(AlCr)O and CuO phases is fabricated to form an abundantly hierarchical wrinkled surface. Application of a mechanical force to the nanocomposite resulted in a nonhomogeneous strain gradient at the interface between the Ag(CuZn)(AlCr)O and CuO phases, changing the local charge distribution and creating flexoelectric polarization that delayed electron/hole recombination. Transmission electron microscopy energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy mapping revealed that the Ag, Cu, Zn, Al, Cr, and O elements were highly distributed throughout the nanocomposite.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of this study is to compare the performance of six clinical physiological-based scores, including the pre-endoscopy Rockall score, shock index (SI), age shock index (age SI), Rapid Acute Physiology Score (RAPS), Rapid Emergency Medicine Score (REMS), and Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS), in predicting in-hospital mortality in elderly and very elderly patients in the emergency department (ED) with acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding (AUGIB). Patients older than 65 years who visited the ED with a clinical diagnosis of AUGIB were enrolled prospectively from July 2016 to July 2021. The six scores were calculated and compared with in-hospital mortality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis (TMJ-OA) is a degenerative joint disease in which quantitative analysis based on magnetic resonance image (MRI) or cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) remains limited. Moreover, the long-term effects of soft food on the adaptive condylar remodeling process in TMJ-OA remain unclear. This study aimed to assess the effects of food hardness on adaptive condylar remodeling in a healthy TMJ, TMJ-OA, and controlled TMJ-OA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Patients with severe mental illness (SMI) have a shorter life expectancy and have been considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a vulnerable group. As the causes for this mortality gap are complex, clarification regarding the contributing factors is crucial to improving the health care of SMI patients. Acute appendicitis is one of the most common indications for emergency surgery worldwide.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: It remains unclear whether Vibrio vulnificus necrotizing soft tissue infection (NSTI) is associated with higher mortality compared with non-Vibrio NSTI. This study's objective was to compare outcomes including in-hospital mortality and prognosis between patients with V. vulnificus NSTI and those with non-Vibrio NSTI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: We conducted this study to promote a modified Laboratory Risk Indicator for Necrotizing Fasciitis (MLRINEC) score and evaluate the utility in distinguishing necrotizing fasciitis (NF) from other soft-tissue infections.
Method: A retrospective cohort study of hospitalized patients with NF diagnosed by surgical finding was conducted in two tertiary hospital in southern Taiwan between January 2015 and January 2020. Another group was matched by controls with non-necrotizing soft tissue infections based on time, demographics, and immune status.
Background: Current American Heart Association Pediatric Life Support (PLS) guidelines do not recommend the routine use of sodium bicarbonate (SB) during cardiac arrest in pediatric patients. However, SB administration during pediatric resuscitation is still common in clinical practice. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of SB on mortality and neurological outcomes in pediatric patients with in-hospital cardiac arrest.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPoint-of-care ultrasonography (POCUS) is a prompt and simple tool for the urgent diagnosis and treatment of patients in the emergency department (ED). We developed a comprehensive residency-based POCUS training program for ED residents and determined its effect on ultrasound utilization in the ED.We conducted a retrospective cohort study in the ED of a university-affiliated medical center, to evaluate a centralized residency-based POCUS training course for ED residents, which included 12 core ultrasound applications, from July 2017 to June 2018.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Early detection and treatment of Gram-negative bacteria (GNB), major causative pathogens of sepsis (a potentially fatal condition caused by the body's response to an infection), may benefit a patient's outcome, since the mortality rate increases by 5-10% for each hour of delayed therapy. Unfortunately, GNB diagnosis is based on bacterial culture, which is time consuming. Therefore, an economic and effective GNB (defined as a positive blood, sputum, or urine culture) infection detection tool in the emergency department (ED) is warranted.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFis involved in the synthesis of embryonic stem (ES) cell marker glycan, stage-specific embryonic antigen-3 (SSEA3). This gene has three native promoters and an integrated retroviral long terminal repeat (LTR) promoter. We found that -LTR is expressed at high levels in human ES cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), a promising renal biomarker, can exists as a monomer, a dimer and/or in a NGAL/matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) complex form when associated with different urinary diseases in humans and dogs. In this study, the presence of the various different molecular forms of NGAL in cat urine (uNGAL) was examined and whether these forms are correlated with different urinary diseases was explored.
Results: One hundred and fifty-nine urine samples from cats with various different diseases, including acute kidney injury (AKI, 22 cats), chronic kidney disease (CKD, 55 cats), pyuria (44 cats) and other non-renal and non-pyuria diseases (non-RP, 26 cats), as well as healthy animals (12 cats), were collected.
Biochim Biophys Acta Gene Regul Mech
February 2019
Normal colonic epithelial cells express sialyl 6-sulfo Lewis and disialyl Lewis on their cell surface, which are ligands for the immunosuppressive molecule Siglec-7. Expression of these normal glycans is frequently lost upon malignant transformation by silencing DTDST and ST6GalNAc6 at the early stage of colorectal carcinogenesis, and leads to production of inflammatory mediators that facilitate carcinogenesis. Indeed, by querying The Cancer Genome Atlas datasets, we confirmed that the level of DTDST or ST6GalNAc6 mRNA is substantially decreased at the early stage of colorectal carcinogenesis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMore than 50% of colon cancers bear mutations in p53, one of the most important tumor suppressors, and its family members p63 or p73 are expected to contribute to inhibiting the progression of colon cancers. The AP2 family also acts as a tumor suppressor. Here we found that p73 and AP2 are able to activate NEU4, a neuraminidase gene, which removes the terminal sialic acid residues from cancer-associated glycans.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOsteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease that initially manifests as loss of the superficial zone (SZ) of articular cartilage. SZ chondrocytes (SZC) differ in morphology from other chondrocytes as they are elongated and oriented parallel to the tissue surface. Proteoglycan 4 (PRG4) and tenascin C (TNC) are molecules expressed by SZC, which have been shown to be chondroprotective.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFβ-1,6-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase 2 (GCNT2), which encodes a key glycosyltransferase for blood group I antigen synthesis, is induced upon epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Our results indicate that GCNT2 is upregulated upon EMT induced with epidermal growth factor and basic FGF in cultured human colon cancer cells. GCNT2 knockdown or overexpression decreases or increases, respectively, malignancy-related characteristics of colon cancer cells and I antigen levels.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTubulin and actin exist as monomeric units that polymerize to form either microtubules or filamentous actin. As the polymerization status (monomeric/polymeric ratio) of tubulin and/or actin have been shown to be important in regulating gene expression and phenotype in non-chondrocyte cells, the objective of this study was to examine the role of cytoskeletal polymerization on the chondrocyte phenotype. We hypothesized that actin and/or tubulin polymerization status modulates the chondrocyte phenotype during monolayer culture as well as in 3D culture during redifferentiation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChondrocyte culture as a monolayer for cell number expansion results in dedifferentiation whereby expanded cells acquire contractile features and increased actin polymerization status. This study determined whether the actin polymerization based signaling pathway, myocardin-related transcription factor-a (MRTF-A) is involved in regulating this contractile phenotype. Serial passaging of chondrocytes in monolayer culture to passage 2 resulted in increased gene and protein expression of the contractile molecules alpha-smooth muscle actin, transgelin and vinculin compared to non-passaged, primary cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNucleofection of chondrocytes has been shown to be an adequate method of transfection. Using Amaxa's nucleofection system, transfection efficiencies up to 89% were achievable for vector (pmaxGFP) and 98% for siRNA (siGLO) into passaged chondrocytes. However, such methods rely on costly commercial kits with proprietary reagents limiting its use in basic science labs and in clinical translation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn clinical nursing courses, students are trained to identify the status of the target patients. The mastery of such ability and skills is very important since patients frequently need to be cared for immediately. In this pilot study, a repertory grid-oriented clinical mobile learning system is developed for a nursing training program.
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