Lung Transplant Success in COVID-19 Patients Requiring V-V ECMO: One-Year Follow-Up.

BACKGROUND Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) due to coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) can result in severe disease requiring mechanical ventilatory support. A subset of these patients, however, demonstrate refractory hypoxemia/hypercarbia requiring veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (V-V ECMO) as adjunctive therapy. The primary goal of V-V ECMO is a "bridge" to recovery of native lung function; however, patients may progress to irreversible pulmonary damage requiring lung transplantation.

TRPV4 stimulates colonic afferents through mucosal release of ATP and glutamate.

Background And Purpose: Abdominal pain is a leading cause of morbidity for people living with gastrointestinal disease. Whereas the transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) ion channel has been implicated in the pathogenesis of abdominal pain, the relative paucity of TRPV4 expression in colon-projecting sensory neurons suggests that non-neuronal cells may contribute to TRPV4-mediated nociceptor stimulation.

Experimental Approach: Changes in murine colonic afferent activity were examined using ex vivo electrophysiology in tissues with the gut mucosa present or removed.

Mucus-on-a-chip: investigating the barrier properties of mucus with organic bioelectronics.

Gastrointestinal (GI) mucus is a biologically complex hydrogel that acts as a partially permeable barrier between the contents of the GI tract and the mucosal epithelial lining. Its structural integrity is essential for the lubrication of the tract thereby aiding smooth transit of contents, and the protection of the epithelium from pathogens that seek to colonise and invade. Understanding its physical response to drugs and the microbiome is essential for treating many gastrointestinal infectious diseases.