Preparation of gamma poly-glutamic acid/hydroxyapatite/collagen composite as the 3D-printing scaffold for bone tissue engineering.

Background: All types of movements involve the role of articular cartilage and bones. The presence of cartilage enables bones to move over one another smoothly. However, repetitive microtrauma and ischemia as well as genetic effects can cause an osteochondral lesion.

Optimization of Medication Point-Of-Prescribing Alerts at a Multi-Site, Ambulatory Care Organization to Aid Clinical Care and Reduce HealthCare Cost.

BackgroundLiterature has shown the integration of electronic alerts into patient care has the potential to improve clinicians' workflow by saving time, increasing efficiency, and improving patient safety. However, despite these possible benefits of alerts, studies have shown that alerts are often overridden by clinicians. The purpose of this study was to optimize the acceptance rates of medication point-of-prescribing alerts within the electronic medical record (EMR) of an ambulatory care organization.

3D Printing of Collagen/Oligomeric Proanthocyanidin/Oxidized Hyaluronic Acid Composite Scaffolds for Articular Cartilage Repair.

Articular cartilage defects affect millions of people worldwide, including children, adolescents, and adults. Progressive wear and tear of articular cartilage can lead to progressive tissue loss, further exposing the bony ends and leaving them unprotected, which may ultimately cause osteoarthritis (degenerative joint disease). Unlike other self-repairing tissues, cartilage has a low regenerative capacity; once injured, the cartilage is much more difficult to heal.

Study on proanthocyanidins crosslinked collagen membrane for guided bone tissue regeneration.

The goal of this study is to understand the ability of a newly developed barrier membrane to enhance bone tissue regeneration. Here in this study we present the in vitro characterization of the barrier membrane made from type I collagen and crosslinked by oligomeric proanthocyanidins (OPCs). The effects of the membrane (P-C film) on cell cycle, proliferation, alkaline phosphatase activity, and mineralization were evaluated using the human osteoblast cell line MG-63, while the barrier ability was examined using MG-63 cells, as well as the human skin fibroblast cell line WS-1.

A Case Report of Serotonin Syndrome in a Patient on Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) Monotherapy.

Introduction: Paroxetine is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) with several indications, one of which is for depression. We present a case of probable paroxetine-induced serotonin syndrome.

Case Summary: A 21-year-old female with a history of generalized anxiety disorder and major depression presented with increased depressive symptoms over several months while taking fluoxetine 20 mg daily.

Synthesis and Bioactivity Evaluation of Novel 2-Salicyloylbenzofurans as Antibacterial Agents.

In order to discover new antibacterial agents, series of 2-salicyloylbenzofuran derivatives were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their antibacterial activities against three Gram-(+) strains (methicillin-sensitive (MSSA) ATCC 29213, methicillin-resistant (MRSA) ATCC 43300, and () ATCC 29212) and one Gram-(-) strain ( ATCC 25922). The 2-salicyloylbenzofuran heterocycles were generated by Rap-Stoermer condensation of salicylaldehydes with phenacyl bromides and then converted to diverse -ether derivatives by Williamson synthesis. The targeted products were screened for in vitro qualitative (zone of inhibition) and quantitative (MIC) antibacterial activities by agar well diffusion assay and agar dilution method.

Adrenomedullin signaling pathway polymorphisms and adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Objective: Reduced maternal plasma levels of the peptide vasodilator adrenomedullin have been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. We measured the extent to which genetic polymorphisms in the adrenomedullin signaling pathway are associated with birth weight, glycemic regulation, and preeclampsia risk.

Study Design: We genotyped 1,353 women in the Pregnancy, Infection, and Nutrition Postpartum Study for 37 ancestry-informative markers and for single-nucleotide polymorphisms in adrenomedullin (ADM), complement factor H variant (CFH), and calcitonin receptor-like receptor (CALCRL).

Maternal genotype and gestational diabetes.

Objective: To determine whether genetic variants associated with glucose homeostasis are associated with gestational diabetes (GDM).

Study Design: We genotyped 899 self-identified Caucasian women and 386 self-identified African-American women in the Pregnancy, Infection and Nutrition (PIN) Studies cohorts for 38 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with type II diabetes (T2DM) and/or glucose homeostasis in European populations.

Results: GDM was diagnosed in 56 of 899 (6.

Association between variants in or near PNPLA3, GCKR, and PPP1R3B with ultrasound-defined steatosis based on data from the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Background & Aims: A genome-wide association study associated 5 genetic variants with hepatic steatosis (identified by computerized tomography) in individuals of European ancestry. We investigated whether these variants were associated with measures of hepatic steatosis (HS) in non-Hispanic white (NHW), non-Hispanic black, and Mexican American (MA) participants in the US population-based National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III, phase 2.

Methods: We analyzed data from 4804 adults (1825 NHW, 1442 non-Hispanic black, and 1537 MA; 51.

Absence of functional LIN28B mutations in a large cohort of patients with idiopathic central precocious puberty.

Aim: To investigate LIN28B gene variants in children with idiopathic central precocious puberty (CPP).

Patients And Methods: We studied 178 Brazilian children with CPP (171 girls, 16.8% familial cases).

Common variants show predicted polygenic effects on height in the tails of the distribution, except in extremely short individuals.

Common genetic variants have been shown to explain a fraction of the inherited variation for many common diseases and quantitative traits, including height, a classic polygenic trait. The extent to which common variation determines the phenotype of highly heritable traits such as height is uncertain, as is the extent to which common variation is relevant to individuals with more extreme phenotypes. To address these questions, we studied 1,214 individuals from the top and bottom extremes of the height distribution (tallest and shortest ∼1.

Genetic defect in CYP24A1, the vitamin D 24-hydroxylase gene, in a patient with severe infantile hypercalcemia.

Context: Idiopathic infantile hypercalcemia (IIH) is a disorder the genetic etiology and physiological basis of which are not well understood.

Objective: The objective of the study was to describe the underlying physiology and genetic cause of hypercalcemia in an infant with severe IIH and to extend these genetic findings into an additional cohort of children with IIH.

Design: This was an inpatient study of a single patient with consanguineous parents at an academic medical center with follow-up in a specialty clinic cohort.

The efficacy of detecting variants with small effects on the Affymetrix 6.0 platform using pooled DNA.

Genome-wide genotyping of a cohort using pools rather than individual samples has long been proposed as a cost-saving alternative for performing genome-wide association (GWA) studies. However, successful disease gene mapping using pooled genotyping has thus far been limited to detecting common variants with large effect sizes, which tend not to exist for many complex common diseases or traits. Therefore, for DNA pooling to be a viable strategy for conducting GWA studies, it is important to determine whether commonly used genome-wide SNP array platforms such as the Affymetrix 6.

Fine mapping of the association with obesity at the FTO locus in African-derived populations.

Genome-wide association studies have identified many common genetic variants that are associated with polygenic traits, and have typically been performed with individuals of recent European ancestry. In these populations, many common variants are tightly correlated, with the perfect or near-perfect proxies for the functional or true variant showing equivalent evidence of association, considerably limiting the resolution of fine mapping. Populations with recent African ancestry often have less extensive and/or different patterns of linkage disequilibrium (LD), and have been proposed to be useful in fine-mapping studies.

Genome-wide association of anthropometric traits in African- and African-derived populations.

Genome-wide association (GWA) studies have identified common variants that are associated with a variety of traits and diseases, but most studies have been performed in European-derived populations. Here, we describe the first genome-wide analyses of imputed genotype and copy number variants (CNVs) for anthropometric measures in African-derived populations: 1188 Nigerians from Igbo-Ora and Ibadan, Nigeria, and 743 African-Americans from Maywood, IL. To improve the reach of our study, we used imputation to estimate genotypes at approximately 2.

Rapid assessment of genetic ancestry in populations of unknown origin by genome-wide genotyping of pooled samples.

As we move forward from the current generation of genome-wide association (GWA) studies, additional cohorts of different ancestries will be studied to increase power, fine map association signals, and generalize association results to additional populations. Knowledge of genetic ancestry as well as population substructure will become increasingly important for GWA studies in populations of unknown ancestry. Here we propose genotyping pooled DNA samples using genome-wide SNP arrays as a viable option to efficiently and inexpensively estimate admixture proportion and identify ancestry informative markers (AIMs) in populations of unknown origin.