The safety of resternotomy in the intensive care unit for postcardiotomy bleeding control.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the efficiency and safety of resternotomy performed in the intensive care unit (ICU) for emergent bleeding control after cardiac surgery when transport of the patient to the operating room (OR) was unsafe or delayed.

Methods: Medical records were retrospectively reviewed for 101 patients who underwent resternotomy for bleeding control after cardiac surgery between July 2003 and July 2013. A reoperation was performed in the OR for 61 patients (the OR group) and in the ICU for 40 patients (the ICU group).

Amelioration of neurodegenerative diseases by cell death-induced cytoplasmic delivery of humanin.

Inhibition of the early intracellular event that triggers neurodegenerative cascades and reversal of neuronal cell death are essential for effective treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, a novel therapeutic for AD, a transducible humanin with an extended caspase-3 cleavage sequence (tHN-C3), was developed and showed multiple mechanisms of therapeutic action. These included targeted delivery of anti-apoptotic protein humanin through the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to neuronal cells, specific inhibition of caspase-3 activation to inhibit the early triggering of AD progression, and delivery of humanin into the cytoplasm of neuronal cells undergoing apoptosis where it exerts its anti-apoptotic functions effectively.