Association of the skin microbiome with the biomechanical scar properties in patients with burns.

Background And Objectives: Skin microbiome dysbiosis can cause skin barrier dysfunction and stimulate scar property change. Skin barrier disruption post-burn injury leads to an imbalance in skin microbe diversity and distribution. We aimed to examine the changes in the skin microbiome of re-epithelialized burn scars.

Slit1 Promotes Hypertrophic Scar Formation Through the TGF-β Signaling Pathway.

Slit1 is a secreted protein that is closely related to cell movement and adhesion. Few studies related to fibrosis exist, and the preponderance of current research is confined to the proliferation and differentiation of neural systems. Hypertrophic scars (HTSs) are delineated by an overproduction of the extracellular matrix (ECM) by activated fibroblasts, leading to anomalous fibrosis, which is a severe sequela of burns.

Serum markers for beef meat quality: Potential media supplement for cell-cultured meat production.

As the global population continues to grow and food demands increase, the food industry faces mounting pressure to develop innovative solutions. Cell-cultured meat involves cultivating cells from live animals through self-renewal methods or scaffolding and presents a promising alternative to traditional meat production by generating nutritionally rich biomass. However, significant research is still needed to overcome challenges such as developing serum-free media, identifying suitable additives to support cell growth, and ensuring the quality of cell-cultured meat closely resembles that of traditional meat.

Unintentional medication discrepancies at care transitions: prevalence and their impact on post-discharge emergency visits in critically ill older adults.

Background: Unintentional medication discrepancies during care transitions pose a significant risk for medication errors, particularly in critically ill older patients. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of such discrepancies during care transitions and their impact on post-discharge emergency department (ED) visits in this patient population.

Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study included patients aged 65 and older who were on chronic medications and admitted to the intensive care units of emergency departments (ED-ICUs) between 2019 and 2020.

Identification of genetic loci enriched in obese or lean T2D cases in the Korean population.

Background: Obesity causes many complex diseases including type 2 diabetes (T2D). Obesity increases the risk of T2D in Europeans, but there are many non-obese (lean) T2D patients in East Asia.

Objective: To discover genetic factors enriched in obese or lean T2D patients, we conducted a genome-wide association (GWA) analysis for T2D stratified by BMI in the Korean population.

Aging-Induced Changes in and Their Effects on Skin Elasticity and Wrinkle Formation.

Skin aging involves biomechanical changes like decreased elasticity, increased wrinkle formation, and altered barrier function. The skin microbiome significantly impacts this process. Here, we investigated the effects of decreased abundance and increase in other skin microorganisms on skin biomechanical properties in 60 healthy Koreans from Seoul, divided into younger (20-29 years) and older (60-75 years) groups.

Motion-mimicking Robotic Finger Prosthesis for Burn-induced Partial Hand Amputee: A Case Report.

Burn injuries often result in severe hand complications, including joint contractures and nerve damage, sometimes leading to amputation. Despite early treatment, hypertrophic scarring frequently hampers hand function recovery, and the thick raised scar blocks electromyography (EMG) sensing. A promising solution involves motion-mimicking robotic finger prostheses tailored to individual patient requirements.

Clinical utility of extracorporeal shock wave therapy in restoring hand function of patients with nerve injury and hypertrophic scars due to burns: a prospective, randomized, double-blinded study.

Background: Joint contractures and nerve injuries are common after hand burns. Extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) is effective not only for the regeneration of various tissues, including scar tissues, but also for reducing pain and pruritus in patients with burns. Researchers have attempted to explore the effects of ESWT on hand dysfunction caused by nerve injury following burns.

Effect of extracorporeal shock wave therapy on the microbial community in burn scars: retrospective case-control study.

Background: The effectiveness of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) has been demonstrated in various medical fields, including burn medicine. It promotes wound healing, improves blood flow, and modulates the inflammatory responses. The recovery speed and outcomes of skin diseases are influenced by the skin microbiome; however, studies examining the effects of specific treatments on the skin microbiome are lacking.

Gait Performance and Brain Activity Are Improved by Gait Automatization during Robot-Assisted Gait Training in Patients with Burns: A Prospective, Randomized, Single-Blinded Study.

Patients with lower extremity burn injuries have decreased gait function. Gait dysfunctions are compensated by activation of executive areas such as the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Although robot-assisted gait training (RAGT) can improve gait function, the training mechanisms of RAGT are unknown.

Identification of shared genetic risks underlying metabolic syndrome and its related traits in the Korean population.

Observational studies have demonstrated strong correlations between metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its related traits. To gain insight into the genetic architecture and molecular mechanism of MetS, we investigated the shared genetic basis of MetS and its related traits and further tested their causal relationships. Using summary statistics from genome-wide association analyses of about 72,000 subjects from the Korean Genome and Epidemiological Study (KoGES), we conducted genome-wide multi-trait analyses to quantify the overall genetic correlation and Mendelian randomization analyses to infer the causal relationships between traits of interest.

Exosomes Derived from Hypertrophic Scar Fibroblasts Suppress Melanogenesis in Normal Human Epidermal Melanocytes.

Post-burn hypertrophic scars often exhibit abnormal pigmentation. Exosomes play important roles in maintaining normal physiological homeostasis and in the pathological development of diseases. This study investigated the effects of the exosomes derived from hypertrophic scar fibroblasts (HTSFs) on melanocytes, which are pigment-producing cells.

Utility of customized 3D compression mask with pressure sensors on facial burn scars: A single-blinded, randomized controlled trial.

Purpose: A pressure of approximately 15-25 mmHg is used for effective compression therapy to prevent and treat hypertrophic scar formation in patients with burns. However, conventional facial compression garments present challenges owing to inadequate pressure distribution in curved areas such as the cheeks, around the mouth, and the slope of the nose. This study aimed to evaluate the utility of a custom-made 3D compression mask equipped with pressure sensors to treat facial burn scars.

Fair Survival Time Prediction via Mutual Information Minimization.

Survival analysis is a general framework for predicting the time until a specific event occurs, often in the presence of censoring. Although this framework is widely used in practice, few studies to date have considered fairness for time-to-event outcomes, despite recent significant advances in the algorithmic fairness literature more broadly. In this paper, we propose a framework to achieve demographic parity in survival analysis models by minimizing the mutual information between predicted time-to-event and sensitive attributes.

Care of patients undergoing withdrawal of life-sustaining treatments: an ICU nurse perspective.

Background: Intensive care unit (ICU) nurses working in South Korea report experiencing uncertainty about how to care for patients undergoing withdrawal of life-sustaining treatments (WLT). A lack of consensus on care guidelines for patients with WLT contributes to uncertainty, ambiguity, and confusion on how to act appropriately within current law and social and ethical norms. To date, little has been discussed or described about how ICU nurses construct meaning about their roles in caring for dying patients in the context of wider social issues about end-of-life care and how this meaning interacts with the ICU system structure and national law.

Development of a model to predict vancomycin serum concentration during continuous infusion of vancomycin in critically ill pediatric patients.

Vancomycin is a frequently used antibiotic in intensive care units, and the patient's renal clearance affects the pharmacokinetic characteristics of vancomycin. Several advantages have been reported for vancomycin continuous intravenous infusion, but studies on continuous dosing regimens based on patients' renal clearance are insufficient. The aim of this study was to develop a vancomycin serum concentration prediction model by factoring in a patient's renal clearance.

Consultation-Based Deprescribing Service to Optimize Palliative Care for Terminal Cancer Patients.

(1) Background: A pharmacist-led deprescribing service previously developed within the Consultation-Based Palliative Care Team (CB-PCT) was implemented for terminal cancer patients. (2) Objective: To evaluate the clinical outcomes of the developed deprescribing service for terminal cancer patients in CB-PCT. (3) Methods: A retrospective analysis compared the active care (AC) group to the historical usual care (UC) group.

Effects of Factors Influencing Scar Formation on the Scar Microbiome in Patients with Burns.

Skin microbiome dysbiosis has deleterious effects, and the factors influencing burn scar formation, which affects the scar microbiome composition, are unknown. Therefore, we investigated the effects of various factors influencing scar formation on the scar microbiome composition in patients with burns. We collected samples from the burn scar center and margin of 40 patients with burns, subgrouped by factors influencing scar formation.

Knockdown of CPEB1 and CPEB4 Inhibits Scar Formation via Modulation of TAK1 and SMAD Signaling.

Background: Cytoplasmic polyadenylation element binding (CPEB) proteins are sequence-specific RNA-binding proteins that control translation via cytoplasmic polyadenylation. We previously reported that CPEB1 or CPEB4 knockdown suppresses TAK1 and SMAD signaling in an in vitro study.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate whether suppression of CPEB1 or CPEB4 expression inhibits scar formation in a mice model of acute dermal wound healing.

Development of a Polygenic Risk Score for BMI to Assess the Genetic Susceptibility to Obesity and Related Diseases in the Korean Population.

Hundreds of genetic variants for body mass index (BMI) have been identified from numerous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in different ethnicities. In this study, we aimed to develop a polygenic risk score (PRS) for BMI for predicting susceptibility to obesity and related traits in the Korean population. For this purpose, we obtained base data resulting from a GWAS on BMI using 57,110 HEXA study subjects from the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study (KoGES).

Genetic association study identifies genetic variants for non-alcoholic fatty liver without comorbidities in the Korean population.

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) refers to a disease in which fat builds up in the liver, similar to what occurs for those who drink a lot of alcohol, even in cases of not drinking alcohol at all or only in a small amount. Along with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), NAFL is a type of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Currently, the prevalence of NAFLD is increasing worldwide.