A cross-sectional study of COVID-19 vaccination patterns among patients with epilepsy in Hong Kong.

Objective: As Hong Kong faced the 5th wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the facilitators and hurdles toward effective vaccination is important for healthcare professionals to understand the vaccination gap among patients with epilepsy.

Methods: A cross-sectional, pragmatic study of COVID-19 vaccination was performed at a tertiary epilepsy center with regards to patterns of vaccination and any unusually high rate of adverse events. Patients having recent visits at the epilepsy center (4 months) had their anonymized electronic linkage records examined 12 months after the inception of vaccination program for types of vaccines, seizure demographics, and adverse events following immunization (AEFI).

Semiconductor Sequencing for Preimplantation Genetic Testing for Aneuploidy.

Chromosomal aneuploidy, one of the main causes leading to embryonic development arrest, implantation failure, or pregnancy loss, has been well documented in human embryos. Preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) is a genetic test that significantly improves reproductive outcomes by detecting chromosomal abnormalities of embryos. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) provides a high-throughput and cost-effective approach for genetic analysis and has shown clinical applicability in PGT-A.

A prospective study of non-invasive preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidies (NiPGT-A) using next-generation sequencing (NGS) on spent culture media (SCM).

Purpose: This study was to evaluate if spent culture media (SCM) of embryos could be used as a non-invasive tool to achieve aneuploidy screening. Ploidy calls, as well as concordance rates between PGT-A results from trophectoderm (TE) and SCM, were compared. Clinical outcomes of single euploid transfers were also evaluated.

Green tea epigallocatechin-3-gallate inhibits angiogenesis and suppresses vascular endothelial growth factor C/vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 expression and signaling in experimental endometriosis in vivo.

Objective: To investigate the antiangiogenesis mechanism of epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) in an endometriosis model in vivo.

Design: Animal studies.

Setting: University laboratory.

Monoamine oxidase a expression is vital for embryonic brain development by modulating developmental apoptosis.

Monoamine oxidases (MAO-A, MAO-B) metabolize biogenic amines and have been implicated in neuronal apoptosis. Although apoptosis is an important process in embryo development, the role of MAO isoenzymes has not been investigated in detail. We found that expression of MAO-A and MAO-B can be detected early on during embryo development.

Association of hemopexin in tear film and conjunctival macrophages with vernal keratoconjunctivitis.

Objective: Vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC) is a chronic allergic inflammatory disease with unclear etiology and pathogenesis. We investigated the tear film proteome of patients with VKC to understand the pathologic characteristics of VKC.

Methods: Tear samples were collected from healthy volunteers and patients with VKC.

The effect of glucocorticoids on tendon cell viability in human tendon explants.

Background And Purpose: Previous studies on the culture of human tenocytes have shown that dexamethasone and triamcinolone reduce cell viability, suppress cell proliferation, and reduce collagen synthesis. However, such cell cultures lack the extracellular matrix and three-dimensional structure of normal tendons, which affects their response to stimuli. We established a human tendon explant culture system and tested the effects of dexamethasone and triamcinolone on cell viability.

Innate immune response by ficolin binding in apoptotic placenta is associated with the clinical syndrome of preeclampsia.

Background: Unidentified circulating factors derived from placenta are thought to be responsible for the exaggerated systemic inflammation leading to preeclampsia. Our aim was to identify the circulating factors present in preeclampsia and to investigate their relationship to the underlying systemic immune response responsible for the associated clinical manifestations.

Methods: We obtained blood samples from pregnant women with and without preeclampsia and performed comparative proteomic analyses to identify the abnormal circulating factors by 2-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight for protein separation and identification.