Increased BMI is associated with an altered decision-making process during healthy food choices in males and females.

Unhealthy diets (rich in calories, sugar, fat, and sodium) are a major cause of obesity. Why individuals struggle to make healthy food choices remains unclear. This study examined how body mass index, biological sex, and eating context influence food attribute perception, the food choice process, and the percentage of healthy food choices.

Plasmid Stability Analysis with Open-Source Droplet Microfluidics.

Plasmids play a vital role in synthetic biology by enabling the introduction and expression of foreign genes in various organisms, thereby facilitating the construction of biological circuits and pathways within and between cell populations. For many applications, maintaining functional plasmids without antibiotic selection is critical. This study introduces an open-hardware-based microfluidic workflow for analyzing plasmid retention by culturing single cells in gel microdroplets and quantifying microcolonies using fluorescence microscopy.

Unsupervised reconstruction of accelerated cardiac cine MRI using neural fields.

Background: Cardiac cine MRI is the gold standard for cardiac functional assessment, but the inherently slow acquisition process creates the necessity of reconstruction approaches for accelerated undersampled acquisitions. Several regularization approaches that exploit spatial-temporal redundancy have been proposed to reconstruct undersampled cardiac cine MRI. More recently, methods based on supervised deep learning have been also proposed to further accelerate acquisition and reconstruction.

OPA1 and disease-causing mutants perturb mitochondrial nucleoid distribution.

Optic atrophy protein 1 (OPA1) mediates inner mitochondrial membrane (IMM) fusion and cristae organization. Mutations in OPA1 cause autosomal dominant optic atrophy (ADOA), a leading cause of blindness. Cells from ADOA patients show impaired mitochondrial fusion, cristae structure, bioenergetic function, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) integrity.

Effect of chronic exogenous oxytocin administration on exercise performance and cardiovagal control in hypobaric hypoxia in rats.

Background: Outstanding exercise performance has been associated with an exacerbated vagal outflow. Nevertheless, during high-altitude hypobaric-hypoxia (HH), there is a baroreflex-dependent parasympathetic withdrawal and exercise performance deterioration. Notably, vagal control is pivotal in exercise performance, and exogenous oxytocin (OXY) administration has been shown to enhance parasympathetic drive; however, no evidence shows their role in exercise performance during HH.

Extracellular vesicle production by oral bacteria related to dental caries and periodontal disease: role in microbe-host and interspecies interactions.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are cell membrane-derived structures between 20-400 nm in size. In bacteria, EVs play a crucial role in molecule secretion, cell wall biogenesis, cell-cell communication, biofilm development, and host-pathogen interactions. Despite these increasing reports of bacterial-derived vesicles, there remains a limited number of studies that summarize oral bacterial EVs, their cargo, and their main biological functions.

Oxygenation by Intravascular Photosynthesis Reduces Kidney Damage During ex Vivo Preservation.

Several clinical issues are associated with reduced oxygen delivery to tissues due to impaired vascular perfusion; moreover, organs procured for transplantation are subjected to severe hypoxia during preservation. Consequently, alternative tissue oxygenation is an active field in biomedical research where several innovative approaches have been recently proposed. Among these, intravascular photosynthesis represents a promising approach as it relies on the intrinsic capacity of certain microorganisms to produce oxygen upon illumination.

Simulation-free prediction of atrial fibrillation inducibility with the fibrotic kernel signature.

Computational models of atrial fibrillation (AF) can help improve success rates of interventions, such as ablation. However, evaluating the efficacy of different treatments requires performing multiple costly simulations by pacing at different points and checking whether AF has been induced or not, hindering the clinical application of these models. In this work, we propose a classification method that can predict AF inducibility in patient-specific cardiac models without running additional simulations.

Towards chlorocytes for therapeutic intravascular photosynthesis.

Aerobic metabolism relies on external oxygen production through photosynthesis and its subsequent transport into each cell of the body via the cardiorespiratory system. This mechanism has successfully evolved over millions of years, enabling animals to inhabit most environments on Earth. However, the insufficient oxygen supply leads to several clinical problems, ranging from non-healing wounds to tumor resistance to therapy.

Exploring nanoparticular platform in delivery of repurposed drug for Alzheimer's disease: current approaches and future perspectives.

Introduction: Alzheimer's disease (AD) stands as significant challenge in realm of neurodegenerative disorder. It is characterized by gradual decline in cognitive function and memory loss. It has already expanded its prevalence to 55 million people worldwide and is expected to rise significantly.

The Inhibitory Effects of the Natural Stilbene Piceatannol on Lactate Transport In Vitro Mediated by Monocarboxylate Transporters.

Scope: Lactate, a signaling molecule and energy source, crosses membranes through monocarboxylate transporters (MCTs). MCT1 and MCT4 are potential cancer drug targets due to their role in metabolic reprogramming of cancer cells. Stilbenes, plant secondary metabolites found in several food sources, have anticancer effects, though their mechanisms of action are not well understood.

Evaluation of myocarditis with a free-breathing three-dimensional isotropic whole-heart joint T1 and T2 mapping sequence.

Background: The diagnosis of myocarditis by cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) requires the use of T2 and T1 weighted imaging, ideally incorporating parametric mapping. Current two-dimensional (2D) mapping sequences are acquired sequentially and involve multiple breath-holds resulting in prolonged scan times and anisotropic image resolution. We developed an isotropic free-breathing three-dimensional (3D) whole-heart sequence that allows simultaneous T1 and T2 mapping and validated it in patients with suspected myocarditis.

Differential effects of environmental exposures on clinically relevant endophenotypes between sexes.

Sex and gender differences play a crucial role in health and disease outcomes. This study used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to explore how environmental exposures affect health-related traits differently in males and females. We utilized a sex-stratified phenomic environment-wide association study (PheEWAS), which allowed the identification of associations across a wide range of phenotypes and environmental exposures.

XSIM: A structural similarity index measure optimized for MRI QSM.

Purpose: The structural similarity index measure (SSIM) has become a popular quality metric to evaluate QSM in a way that is closer to human perception than RMS error (RMSE). However, SSIM may overpenalize errors in diamagnetic tissues and underpenalize them in paramagnetic tissues, resulting in biasing. In addition, extreme artifacts may compress the dynamic range, resulting in unrealistically high SSIM scores (hacking).

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance reveals myocardial involvement in patients with active stage of inflammatory bowel disease.

Background: Active inflammatory bowel disease (A-IBD) but not remission (R-IBD) has been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular death and hospitalization for heart failure.

Objectives: Using cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR), this study aims to assess adverse myocardial remodeling in patients with IBD in correlation with disease activity.

Methods: Forty-four IBD patients without cardiovascular disease (24 female, median-age: 39.

Simultaneous 3D , , and fat-signal-fraction mapping with respiratory-motion correction for comprehensive liver tissue characterization at 0.55 T.

Purpose: To develop a framework for simultaneous three-dimensional (3D) mapping of , , and fat signal fraction in the liver at 0.55 T.

Methods: The proposed sequence acquires four interleaved 3D volumes with a two-echo Dixon readout.

Estimation of ventilatory thresholds during exercise using respiratory wearable sensors.

Ventilatory thresholds (VTs) are key physiological parameters used to evaluate physical performance and determine aerobic and anaerobic transitions during exercise. Current assessment of these parameters requires ergospirometry, limiting evaluation to laboratory or clinical settings. In this work, we introduce a wearable respiratory system that continuously tracks breathing during exercise and estimates VTs during ramp tests.