Bioinspired synthesis of hydroxyapatite nanocrystals in the presence of collagen and l-arginine: Candidates for bone regeneration.

This work aims at the bioinspired synthesis of hydroxyapatite (HAp) crystals in the presence of both collagen and l-arginine, in an effort to obtain a homogeneous hybrid material, having a bone-like nanostructure. Collagen (Col) is the most commonly utilized protein in most species of life, while L-arginine (Arg) encourages cell attachment, proliferation, and differentiation on HAp surfaces. Transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy were used to analyze surface morphology and structure of nanocrystals obtained under different synthesis conditions.

Red blood cell deformability in patients with sepsis: a marker for prognosis and monitoring of severity.

Sepsis in different states of severity (sepsis, severe sepsis, septic shock and adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)) is associated with microcirculatory blood flow abnormalities leading to decreased red blood cell's (RBC's) deformability, impaired oxygen delivery to tissues and organs failure. The main goal of the present study, was to first determine the values of RBC's deformability, in the course of patients treated in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for basically sepsis and then deteriorated states and secondly to establish the prognostic efficiency of the test. For this purpose a filtration method and the hemorheometer, was used to determine experimentally the RBC's deformability, by measuring the RBC's Index of Rigidity (IR).