Excitatory amino acids, possible causative agents of nodding syndrome in eastern Africa.

Background: Nodding syndrome (NS) is one type of epilepsy and a progressive disease characterized by nodding symptoms with children in sub-Saharan Africa. The burden for NS children is heavy, not only mentally but financially for themselves and their families, and yet, the cause and cure of NS remain unknown. The kainic acid-induced model in experimental animals is a well-known epilepsy model that is useful for studying human diseases.

Stigma and epilepsy in onchocerciasis-endemic regions in Africa: a review and recommendations from the onchocerciasis-associated epilepsy working group.

Background: In onchocerciasis-endemic areas, particularly in those with a sub-optimal onchocerciasis control programme, a high prevalence of epilepsy is observed. Both onchocerciasis and epilepsy are stigmatizing conditions. The first international workshop on onchocerciasis-associated epilepsy (OAE) was held in Antwerp, Belgium (12-14 October 2017) and during this meeting, an OAE alliance was established.

Second-order nonlinear optical susceptibilities of nonelectrically poled DR1-PMMA guest-host polymers.

Guest-host nonlinear optical polymers have attracted considerable interest due to their applications in fast electro-optical modulators and wavelength converters. In general, the electrical poling procedures, for which high DC external fields are applied, are necessary for aligning guest chromophores in polar order and activating the second-order nonlinearity. We present the nonelectrical poling behaviors for guest-host polymers: DR1 (4-[ethyl (2-hydroxyethyl) amino]-4'-nitroazobenzene) is the guest, and PMMA (poly (methyl methacrylate)) is the host.

Comprehension of terminal differentiation and dedifferentiation of chondrocytes during passage cultures.

A high density collagen type I coated substrate (CL substrate) was used to evaluate the chondrocyte phenotypes in passaged cultures. With increasing age of cell population (population doubling (PD)=0-14.5), the frequency of non-dividing spindle shaped cells without ALP activity increased, accompanied with an increase in gene expression of collagen type I, meaning the senescence of dedifferentiated cells.

Morphological evaluation of chondrogenic potency in passaged cell populations.

The present study describes the morphological assessment of chondrogenic potency during a cell expanding process through serial subculturing of rabbit chondrocytes at different levels of population doublings (PD) in a T-flask with a conventional polystyrene surface. The passaged populations were seeded on a high-density collagen surface (CL surface) and in a collagen gel (CL gel) scaffold to evaluate the planar and spatial morphologies of the chondrocytes, respectively, as well as the gene expressions of mRNA for collagen types I and II. The planar morphological estimation was based on roundness (R(c)) of chondrocyte cells at different PD values after 1 day incubation on the CL surface.

Effect of transforming growth factor-beta1 on morphological characteristics relating to migration and differentiation of rabbit chondrocytes cultured in collagen gels.

The influence of transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGFbeta1) on the behavior of rabbit chondrocytes embedded in collagen gels was examined in terms of cell migration and consequent architecture of cell aggregation. In a low-seeding density culture (X(0)=2.0 x 10(5) cells/cm(3)) TGFbeta1 (0-10.

Characterization of spatial growth and distribution of chondrocyte cells embedded in collagen gels through a stereoscopic cell imaging system.

The stereoscopic image analysis of fluorescence-labeled chondrocyte cells for cytoplasm and nucleus was performed for the quantitative determination of spatial cell distribution as well as cell aggregate size in the collagen-embedded culture. The three-dimensional histomorphometric data indicated that the cells in the gels formed aggregates by cell division, and the size of aggregates increased with elapsed culture time. In the culture seeded at 2.