Comparative clinical outcomes and radiological images of clavicle hook plate versus Scorpion Plate® for unstable distal clavicle fractures.

Background: Although various surgical methods are available for unstable distal clavicle fractures, consensus remains lacking on the optimal technique. Therefore, the present retrospective study aimed to compare the clavicle hook plate and Scorpion Plate® in terms of clinical outcomes and radiological findings for unstable distal clavicle fractures.

Methods: Fifty-seven patients with unstable distal clavicle fractures who underwent treatment using a clavicle hook plate (Group H; 28 patients) or Scorpion Plate® (Group S; 29 patients) were included in the present study.

Open reduction and Kirschner wire fixation method using a cylindrical block of unidirectional porous β-tricalcium phosphate for tongue-shaped calcaneal fracture: Report of three cases.

Background: The artificial bone grafts are performed on the defect after reduction of the calcaneal fracture. Generally, it is an artificial bone graft with an implant, and there are a few reports of an artificial bone graft without an implant.

Cases: We report three cases (42-year-old male, 67-year-old male, 21-year-old female) of a tongue-shaped calcaneal fracture treated using a cylindrical unidirectional porous β-tricalcium phosphate artificial bone (Affinos®, Kurare co Ltd.

Relationship Between Subacromial Bone Erosion and Hook Position of Clavicular Plate in Distal Clavicle Fractures.

Objectives: To evaluate the influence of posterior hook position on subacromial bone erosion during surgical treatment of distal clavicle fractures with locking compression plate clavicle hook plate (CHP).

Design: Single-center retrospective study.

Setting: Level V trauma center (university hospital).

Long-term outcomes of open modified inferior capsular shift for traumatic anterior shoulder instability: over 20 years of follow-up.

Background: This study aimed to assess the long-term outcomes of the open modified inferior capsular shift procedure across more than 20 years in patients with traumatic anterior shoulder instability.

Methods: Participants in this study comprised 84 patients (86 shoulders; 67 men, 17 women). Mean follow-up was 28.

Locking versus nonlocking superior plate fixations for displaced midshaft clavicle fractures: A prospective randomized trial comparing clinical and radiografic results.

Background: It is unknown whether locking or nonlocking superior plate fixation is better for managing displaced midshaft clavicle fractures. Therefore, we aimed to compare the clinical and radiographic outcomes of locking and nonlocking superior plate fixation of displaced midshaft clavicle fractures.

Methods: A total of 102 consecutive patients with displaced midshaft clavicle fractures (2B1 and 2B2 in Robinson classification) participated in this randomized controlled trial; 12 patients were excluded.

Inter-segmental foot kinematics during gait in elderly females according to the severity of hallux valgus.

The objective of this study was to find the effect of hallux valgus (HV) deformity on the inter-segmental motion of the foot using an MFM with a 15-marker set (DuPont Foot Model, DuFM) in comparison with age and sex controlled healthy adults. Fifty-eight female symptomatic HV patients and 50 female asymptomatic older female volunteers were included in this study. According to the radiographic hallux valgus angle (HVA), the study population was divided into severe HV (SHV, HVA ≥ 40°, n = 25), moderate HV (MHV, 20° ≤ HVA < 40°, n = 47), and control (CON, n = 36).

Cartilage repair and inhibition of the progression of cartilage degeneration after transplantation of allogeneic chondrocyte sheets in a nontraumatic early arthritis model.

Introduction: Using a rat model of nontraumatic early arthritis induced by intra-articular administration of low-dose monoiodoacetic acid (MIA), we transplanted allogeneic chondrocyte sheets and examined the effects on tissue repair.

Methods: MIA (0.2 mg/50 μl) was injected into the right knee of 20 male Wistar rats.

Massive Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage Due to an Arterioenteric Fistula From a Hepatic Artery Pseudoaneurysm.

Hepatic artery pseudoaneurysms are a rare cause of upper gastrointestinal bleeding with a high mortality rate. We report a case of a 37-year-old woman who presented with massive gastrointestinal hemorrhage and was found to have an arterioenteric fistula from a hepatic artery pseudoaneurysm. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy revealed a 1.

An Examination of the Factors Related to a Reduction in the Use of Low-Intensity Pulsed Ultrasound (LIPUS).

Objective: We examined the factors related to a reduction in the use of low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) for patients at both our hospital and other affiliated institutions.

Materials And Methods: Of 350 patients who used LIPUS at our and other affiliated institutions from May 2010 to April 2015, 279 (168 males, 111 females) were evaluated, after excluding mortalities and those with unexplained bone adhesion. Those patients with LIPUS compliance [calculated as: (number of days LIPUS was used/number of days LIPUS was available) × 100] below 80% were defined as the non-compliant group (170 patients), and those patients with a compliance rate of 80% or above were defined as the compliant group (109 patients).

Polarization of PI3K Activity Initiated by Ooplasmic Segregation Guides Nuclear Migration in the Mesendoderm.

Asymmetric localization of RNA is a widely observed mechanism of cell polarization. Using embryos of the ascidian, Halocynthia roretzi, we previously showed that mesoderm and endoderm fates are separated by localization of mRNA encoding a transcription factor, Not, to the future mesoderm-side cytoplasm of the mesendoderm cell through asymmetric positioning of the nucleus. Here, we investigated the mechanism that defines the direction of the nuclear migration.

ANISEED 2015: a digital framework for the comparative developmental biology of ascidians.

Ascidians belong to the tunicates, the sister group of vertebrates and are recognized model organisms in the field of embryonic development, regeneration and stem cells. ANISEED is the main information system in the field of ascidian developmental biology. This article reports the development of the system since its initial publication in 2010.

Analysis of the Transcription Regulatory Mechanism of Otx During the Development of the Sensory Vesicle in Ciona intestinalis.

Establishment of the anterior-posterior axis is an important event in the development of bilateral animals. A homeodomain transcription factor, Otx, is important for the formation of the anterior part of the embryo, and its mRNA is expressed in a continuous manner in a wide range of animals. This pattern of expression is thought to be important for the formation of anterior neural structures, but the mechanism that regulates Otx expression remains largely unknown.

A maternal factor unique to ascidians silences the germline via binding to P-TEFb and RNAP II regulation.

Suppression of zygotic transcription in early embryonic germline cells is tightly linked to their separation from the somatic lineage. Many invertebrate embryos utilize localized maternal factors that are successively inherited by the germline cells for silencing the germline. Germline quiescence has also been associated with the underphosphorylation of Ser2 of the C-terminal domain (CTD-Ser2) of RNA polymerase II [1-3].

Tissue-specific regulation of the number of cell division rounds by inductive cell interaction and transcription factors during ascidian embryogenesis.

Mechanisms that regulate the number of cells constituting the body have remained largely elusive. We approached this issue in the ascidian, Halocynthia roretzi, which develops into a tadpole larva with a small number of cells. The embryonic cells divide 11 times on average from fertilization to hatching.

Segregation of germ layer fates by nuclear migration-dependent localization of Not mRNA.

An important step in early embryonic development is the allocation and segregation of germ layer fates into distinct embryonic regions. However, the mechanism that segregates the mesendoderm into mesoderm and endoderm fates remains largely unknown in most animals. Here, using ascidians, a primitive chordate, we show that these fates are segregated by partitioning of asymmetrically localized Not mRNA from the mesendoderm cell to its mesodermal daughter.

Spatial and temporal expression of two transcriptional isoforms of Lhx3, a LIM class homeobox gene, during embryogenesis of two phylogenetically remote ascidians, Halocynthia roretzi and Ciona intestinalis.

Lhx3 genes are members of one of the six subfamilies of the LIM class homeobox genes. In ascidians, Lhx3 is known to play a critical role in endoderm differentiation, while in vertebrates Lhx3 is involved in the development of pituitary and subsets of motor neurons. It has been shown recently, using RT-PCR analysis, that two transcriptional isoforms a and b are differentially expressed during the larval development of Ciona intestinalis (Christiaen et al.

Wnt5 is required for notochord cell intercalation in the ascidian Halocynthia roretzi.

Background Information: In the embryos of various animals, the body elongates after gastrulation by morphogenetic movements involving convergent extension. The Wnt/PCP (planar cell polarity) pathway plays roles in this process, particularly mediolateral polarization and intercalation of the embryonic cells. In ascidians, several factors in this pathway, including Wnt5, have been identified and found to be involved in the intercalation process of notochord cells.

Evolution of CUT class homeobox genes: insights from the genome of the amphioxus, Branchiostoma floridae.

CUT class homeobox genes, including CUX/CASP, ONECUT, SATB and COMPASS family genes, are known to exhibit diverse features in the homeodomain and the domain architecture. Furthermore, the intron/exon organization of CUX/CASP is different between vertebrates and protostomes, and SATB genes are only known for vertebrates, whereas COMPASS genes have only been found in protostomes. These observations suggest a complex evolutionary history for the CUT class homeobox genes, but the evolution of CUT class homeobox genes in the lineage to vertebrates remained largely unknown.

Comprehensive survey and classification of homeobox genes in the genome of amphioxus, Branchiostoma floridae.

The homeobox genes comprise a large and diverse gene superfamily, many of which encode transcription factors with pivotal roles in the embryonic development of animals. We searched the assembled draft genome sequence of an amphioxus, Branchiostoma floridae, for genes possessing homeobox sequences. Phylogenetic analysis was used to divide these into gene families and classes.

The amphioxus genome illuminates vertebrate origins and cephalochordate biology.

Cephalochordates, urochordates, and vertebrates evolved from a common ancestor over 520 million years ago. To improve our understanding of chordate evolution and the origin of vertebrates, we intensively searched for particular genes, gene families, and conserved noncoding elements in the sequenced genome of the cephalochordate Branchiostoma floridae, commonly called amphioxus or lancelets. Special attention was given to homeobox genes, opsin genes, genes involved in neural crest development, nuclear receptor genes, genes encoding components of the endocrine and immune systems, and conserved cis-regulatory enhancers.

Development of voice navigation system for the visually impaired by using IC tags.

There are about 300,000 visually impaired persons in Japan. Most of them are old persons and, cannot become skillful in using a white cane, even if they make effort to learn how to use a white cane. Therefore, some guiding system that supports the independent activities of the visually impaired are required.

Regionalization of the tail-tip epidermis requires inductive influence from vegetal cells and FGF signaling in the development of an ascidian, Halocynthia roretzi.

The epidermis of an ascidian larva derived from animal-hemisphere cells is regionalized along the anterior-posterior (AP) axis through inductive signals emanating from vegetal-hemisphere cells in early stages of the development. Previously, we showed by blastomere isolation and ablation experiments that the contact between the animal and vegetal hemispheres until the 32-cell stage is necessary for the proper AP patterning of the epidermis in the tailbud-stage embryo. We here addressed the patterning mechanism of the posteriormost epidermis using a tail-tip epidermis marker, HrTT-1.

Ci-Tbx6b and Ci-Tbx6c are key mediators of the maternal effect gene Ci-macho1 in muscle cell differentiation in Ciona intestinalis embryos.

Maternally deposited mRNA encoding the Zic family zinc-finger protein Ci-macho1 is a determinant responsible for muscle cell differentiation in Ciona intestinalis embryos. In a previous study, we identified possible Ci-macho1 downstream genes, which include seven transcription factor genes and seven signaling molecule genes (Yagi, K., Satoh, N.