Fibroblast Activation Protein Activates Macrophages and Promotes Parenchymal Liver Inflammation and Fibrosis.

Background & Aims: Fibroblast activation protein (FAP) is expressed on activated fibroblast. Its role in fibrosis and desmoplasia is controversial, and data on pharmacological FAP inhibition are lacking. We aimed to better define the role of FAP in liver fibrosis in vivo and in vitro.

Effects of urbanization on vulnerability to heat-related mortality in urban and rural areas in South Korea: a nationwide district-level time-series study.

Background: Although urbanization is often an important topic in climate change studies, the complex effect of urbanization on heat vulnerability in urban and rural areas has rarely been studied. We investigated the disparate effects of urbanization on heat vulnerability in urban and rural areas, using nationwide data.

Methods: We collected daily weather data for all 229 administrative districts in South Korea (2011-17).

Social isolation and vulnerability to heatwave-related mortality in the urban elderly population: A time-series multi-community study in Korea.

Although several studies have reported that social isolation is one of the important health risk factors in the elderly population living in urban areas, its effects on vulnerability to heatwaves have been studied relatively less than climatic and other socio-economic factors. Thus, we investigated the association between social isolation levels and heatwave-related mortality risk in the elderly population in 119 urban administrative districts in Korea, using a time-series multi-city dataset (2008-2017). We used a two-stage analysis.

Extramarginal excision is preferable for hypertrophic scars.

Background: Recently, higher proliferative activity and collagen production in the peripheral parts of keloids have been reported. Therefore, we hypothesized that insufficient removal of active proliferating and collagen-producing fibroblasts at the scar margin might cause a high recurrence rate of hypertrophic scars and keloids. To address this hypothesis, we evaluated the influence of surgical margins on the recurrence of hypertrophic scars and compared the recurrence rates between intramarginal excision and extramarginal excision.

Cloning, expression, and characterization of a new deoxyribose 5-phosphate aldolase from Yersinia sp. EA015.

A new deoC gene encoding deoxyribose 5-phosphate aldolase (DERA) was identified in Yersinia sp. EA015 isolated from soil. The DERA gene had an open reading frame (ORF) of 672 base pairs encoding 223 amino acids to yield a protein of molecular mass 24.