Evaluation of the influence of platelet-rich plasma (PRP), platelet lysate (PL) and mechanical loading on chondrogenesis in vitro.

The aim of this work is to investigate the capability of PRP as an adjuvant therapy to autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) in combination with multi-axial load with respect to cartilage regeneration. Articular cartilage shows poor repair capacity and therapies for cartilage defects are still lacking. Well-established operative treatments include ACI, and growing evidence shows the beneficial effects of PRP.

Changes in Gastrointestinal Microbiome Composition in PD: A Pivotal Role of Covariates.

Altered gut microbiota may trigger or accelerate alpha-synuclein aggregation in the enteric nervous system in Parkinson's disease (PD). While several previous studies observed gut microbiota alterations in PD, findings like diversity indices, and altered bacterial taxa itself show a considerable heterogeneity across studies. We recruited 179 participants, of whom 101 fulfilled stringent inclusion criteria.

The Potential for Synovium-derived Stem Cells in Cartilage Repair.

Background: Articular cartilage defects often result in pain, loss of function and finally osteoarthritis. Developing cell-based therapies for cartilage repair is a major goal of orthopaedic research. Autologous chondrocyte implantation is currently the gold standard cell-based surgical procedure for the treatment of large, isolated, full thickness cartilage defects.

Prospective Clinical Trial for Septic Arthritis: Cartilage Degradation and Inflammation Are Associated with Upregulation of Cartilage Metabolites.

. Intra-articular infections can rapidly lead to osteoarthritic degradation. The aim of this clinical biomarker analysis was to investigate the influence of inflammation on cartilage destruction and metabolism.

Microfracture for the treatment of cartilage defects in the knee joint - A golden standard?

The evidence for the effectiveness of the microfracture procedure is largely derived from case series and few randomized trials. Clinical outcomes improve with microfracture for the most part, but in some studies these effects are not sustained. The quality of cartilage repair following microfracture is variable and inconsistent due to unknown reasons.

The trans-well coculture of human synovial mesenchymal stem cells with chondrocytes leads to self-organization, chondrogenic differentiation, and secretion of TGFβ.

Background: Synovial mesenchymal stem cells (SMSC) possess a high chondrogenic differentiation potential, which possibly supports natural and surgically induced healing of cartilage lesions. We hypothesized enhanced chondrogenesis of SMSC caused by the vicinity of chondrocytes (CHDR).

Methods: Human SMSC and CHDR interactions were investigated in an in-vitro trans-well monolayer coculture over a time period of up to 21 days.

Mismatched unrelated alternative donors for hematological malignancies.

For the majority of hematologic malignancies allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is the only curative treatment option. Sibling donors have been the standard for adult patients. Since there is not a suitable family donor for all patients, the need for alternative donors for HCT is great.

Clinical trial and in-vitro study comparing the efficacy of treating bony lesions with allografts versus synthetic or highly-processed xenogeneic bone grafts.

Background: Our study aim was to compare allogeneic cancellous bone (ACB) and synthetic or highly-processed xenogeneic bone substitutes (SBS) in the treatment of skeletal defects in orthopedic surgery.

Methods: 232 patients treated for bony lesions with ACB (n = 116) or SBS (n = 116) within a 10-year time period were included in this case-control study. Furthermore, both materials were seeded with human osteoblasts (hOB, n = 10) and analyzed by histology, for viability (AlamarBlue®) and protein expression activity (Luminex®).

Clinical Trial and In Vitro Study for the Role of Cartilage and Synovia in Acute Articular Infection.

Objective: Osteoarthritis is a long-term complication of acute articular infections. However, the roles of cartilage and synovia in this process are not yet fully understood.

Methods: Patients with acute joint infections were enrolled in a prospective clinical trial and the cytokine composition of effusions compared in patients with arthroplasty (n = 8) or with intact joints (n = 67).

Women with borderline personality disorder do not show altered BOLD responses during response inhibition.

Impulsivity is central to borderline personality disorder (BPD). Response inhibition, addressing the ability to suppress or stop actions, is one aspect of behavioral impulse control which is frequently used to assess impulsivity. BPD patients display deficits in response inhibition under stress condition or negative emotions.

Features of cell death, mitochondrial activation and caspase dependence of rabbit anti-T-lymphocyte globulin signaling in lymphoblastic Jurkat cells are distinct from classical apoptosis signaling of CD95.

Rabbit anti-T-lymphocyte-globulin (ATG) is used for immunosuppression in organ and stem cell transplantation. The aim of this study was to investigate ATG-induced cell death compared to CD95-signaling of apoptosis. We measured features of cell death at the cell membrane, mitochondria, nuclei and caspase-3 cleavage.

Dissociable attentional and inhibitory networks of dorsal and ventral areas of the right inferior frontal cortex: a combined task-specific and coordinate-based meta-analytic fMRI study.

The right inferior frontal cortex (rIFC) is frequently activated during executive control tasks. Whereas the function of the dorsal portion of rIFC, more precisely the inferior frontal junction (rIFJ), is convergingly assigned to the attention system, the functional key role of the ventral portion, i.e.

Practical execution of defect preparation prior to surgical cartilage intervention: results from a representative meeting survey among experts.

During a specialised orthopedic meeting held on 'the state of the art in cartilage defect repair', all previously fully-registered participants were requested to participate in an electronic survey by the use of a moderator-presented "Power Point Presentation-based" 9-item questionnaire. The aim of this survey was to assess indication, approach, and treatment execution of cartilage defect debridement prior to planned microfracture (MFX) or autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI). All participants completed the questionnaire (n = 146) resulting in a return rate of 100 %.

Clinical guidelines for gynecologic care after hematopoietic SCT. Report from the international consensus project on clinical practice in chronic GVHD.

Despite similarities relevant age- and gender-specific issues exist in the care of patients after allogeneic hematopoietic SCT (HSCT). Female genital chronic GVHD (cGVHD) has been markedly underreported in the past but has a significant impact on the patients' health and quality of life. Data on prevention and treatment of this complication are still limited.

Frontal dysfunctions of impulse control - a systematic review in borderline personality disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Disorders such as borderline personality disorder (BPD) or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are characterized by impulsive behaviors. Impulsivity as used in clinical terms is very broadly defined and entails different categories including personality traits as well as different cognitive functions such as emotion regulation or interference resolution and impulse control. Impulse control as an executive function, however, is neither cognitively nor neurobehaviorally a unitary function.

Data-driven analysis of simultaneous EEG/fMRI using an ICA approach.

Due to its millisecond-scale temporal resolution, EEG allows to assess neural correlates with precisely defined temporal relationship relative to a given event. This knowledge is generally lacking in data from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) which has a temporal resolution on the scale of seconds so that possibilities to combine the two modalities are sought. Previous applications combining event-related potentials (ERPs) with simultaneous fMRI BOLD generally aimed at measuring known ERP components in single trials and correlate the resulting time series with the fMRI BOLD signal.

Early intra-articular complement activation in ankle fractures.

Cytokine regulation possibly influences long term outcome following ankle fractures, but little is known about synovial fracture biochemistry. Eight patients with an ankle dislocation fracture were included in a prospective case series and matched with patients suffering from grade 2 osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) of the ankle. All fractures needed external fixation during which joint effusions were collected.

Rabbit anti-T-lymphocyte globulin (ATG) persists with differential reactivity in patients' sera after full hematopoetic regeneration from allogeneic stem cell transplantation.

Background: Rabbit polyclonal anti-T-lymphocyte Globulin (ATG-F®, Fresenius) is widely used for GvHD prophylaxis in allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT). ATG has a wide epitope spectrum and has been shown to react with all compartments of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNCs). ATG induces apoptosis in all cellular compartments.

The extra-pancreatic effects of GLP-1 receptor agonists: a focus on the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and central nervous systems.

The glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) exenatide, liraglutide and lixisenatide have been shown to improve glycaemic control and beta-cell function with a low risk of hypoglycaemia in people with type 2 diabetes. GLP-1 receptors are also expressed in extra-pancreatic tissues and trial data suggest that GLP-1RAs also have effects beyond their glycaemic actions. Preclinical studies using native GLP-1 or GLP-1RAs provide substantial evidence for cardioprotective effects, while clinical trial data have shown beneficial actions on hypertension and dyslipidaemia in people with type 2 diabetes.

Suppression of granzyme B activity and caspase-3 activation in leukaemia cells constitutively expressing the protease inhibitor 9.

Immune surveillance against malignant cells is mediated by cytotoxic T-lymphocytes and NK-cells (CTL/NK) that induce apoptosis through the granzyme-B-dependent pathway. The serine protease inhibitor serpinB9/protease inhibitor-9 (PI-9) is a known inhibitor of granzyme B. Ectopic expression of PI-9 in tumour cells has been reported.

Body mass index and bioelectrical impedance phase angle as potentially modifiable nutritional markers are independent risk factors for outcome in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation.

Beside many risk factors in patients considered for alloHCT, only body mass index (BMI) as a broad marker of nutritional status has prognostic value in these patients. This is the first prospective study to investigate the validity of further nutritional markers: adjusted BMI, normalized for gender and age; Subjective Global Assessment questionnaire and standardized phase angle, normalized for gender, age and BMI in 105 patients as independent risk factors for outcomes [overall survival (OS), non-relapse mortality (NRM), relapse mortality (RM), progression-free survival (PFS)] until 2 years after alloHCT. In Cox proportional-hazards regression models, we included a variety of accepted risk factors.

Longitudinal follow-up of nutritional status and its influencing factors in adults undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation.

There are few longitudinal data on nutritional status and body composition of patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (alloHCT). We assessed nutritional status of 105 patients before alloHCT and its course during the early post-transplant period to day +30 and day +100 via weight history, body mass index (BMI) normalized for gender and age, Subjective Global Assessment, phase angle normalized for gender, age, and BMI, and fat-free and body fat masses. Furthermore, we present a multivariate regression model investigating the impact of factors on body weight.

Marrow versus blood-derived stem cell grafts for allogeneic transplantation from unrelated donors in patients with active myeloid leukemia or myelodysplasia.

Peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs) are increasingly used as the graft source in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. We compared long-term outcome after unrelated donor transplantation of 85 consecutive patients with acute myelogenous leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome regarding disease status (early disease [CR1, refractory anemia); n = 25 and advanced/active disease [>CR1, >refractory anemia]; n = 60) who were treated with conventional conditioning regimens followed by bone marrow (BM) or PBSC grafts. Graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis consisted mainly of cyclosporine A, short-course methotrexate, and anti-T-lymphocyte globulin.