Scratch

A new technology has recently appeared in the area of extracorporeal therapies for critically ill patients with acute kidney injury. The International Renal Research Institute of Vicenza was involved from the beginning in the development of a new continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) equipment with peculiar characteristics. We report the overall experience from design of the new machine to its in vitro and in vivo testing. Kibou® (Asahi Kasei Kuraray Medical Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) is a new multifunctional machine designed for delivering RRT...

CONTEXT: Pluchea indica (L.) Less (Asteraceae) is an herb used as a traditional medicine for wound healing. The chemical compounds found in Pluchea indica leaves are phenolic acids, flavonoids, anthocyanins and carotenoids. OBJECTIVE: This study investigates the effect of Pluchea indica leaf ethanol extract and its nanoparticles (NPs) on cytotoxicity, cell survival and migration of human oral squamous carcinoma cell line. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cell viability was measured using MTT assay to assess the effect of Pluchea indica leaf extract and NPs (1-500 μg/mL) on cytotoxicity and cell survival...

BACKGROUND: Malignant melanoma (MM) is one of the high degree of malignancy and early prone to blood and lymph node metastasis. There is not cured for MM. Tan II A has been reported to reduce cancer cell proliferation. But the mechanism by which Tan II A inhibited melanoma growth are not well characterized. We sought to explore the possible mechanism by which Tan II A regulated cell proliferation through autophagy signaling pathway in A375 cells. METHODS: We tested the effects of Tan II A on melanoma A375, MV3, M14, and other human cell lines including Hacat and HUVEC cells in cell culture model...

Silver doped diamond-like carbon layers were deposited by dual pulsed laser deposition using two KrF excimer lasers. The concentration of Ag, determined by XPS and WDS, moved from zero to ~10at%. We found that the sp(2)/sp(3) ratio, film roughness and the number of droplets (SEM and AFM) increased with increasing silver concentration. The sp(3) content measurement (XPS) was influenced by ion cluster surface sputtering and varied from 71.0% (undoped DLC) to 36.2% (for 9.3at% Ag). Transmission was measured on the scale from 200nm to 1100nm, and decreased with increasing silver content...

Bacterial infection of implanted materials is a significant complication that might require additional surgical operations for implant retrieval. As an antibacterial biomaterial, Ag-containing hydroxyapatite (HA) may be a solution to reduce the incidences of implant associated infections. In this study, pure, 0.2mol% and 0.3mol% Ag incorporated HA powders were synthesized via a precipitation method. Colloidal precursor dispersions prepared from these powders were used to deposit porous coatings onto titanium and stainless steel substrates via electrostatic spraying...

Fibrous mats built from biopolymer have been extensively explored for tissue engineering due mainly to their mimic structure to the extracellular matrix. The incorporation of drug in such scaffolds represents a growing interest for control drug delivery system in order to promote the tissue repair. In the present work, we present an experimental investigation of morphological, thermal, mechanical, drug release, antibacterial and cytotoxicity properties of electrospun PVA/Chitosan and PVA/Chitosan/Tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) mats for wound dressing...

Background: Thyroid cancer is generally associated with an excellent prognosis, but there is significant long-term morbidity with standard treatment. Some sub-types however have a poor prognosis. Metformin, an oral anti-diabetic drug is shown to have anti-cancer effects in several types of cancer (breast, lung and ovarian cancer). The proposed mechanisms include activation of the Adenosine Mono-phosphate-activated Protein Kinase (AMPK) pathway and inhibition of the mTOR pathway (which promotes growth and proliferation)...

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the in vivo wear resistance of cobalt-chromium femoral components coated with titanium nitride (TiN). Our null hypothesis was that the surface damage and the thickness of the TiN coating do not correlate with the time in vivo. METHODS: Twenty-five TiN-coated bicondylar femoral retrievals with a mean implantation period of 30.7 ± 11.7 months were subjected to an objective surface damage analysis with a semi-quantitative assessment method...

A three-layer system of nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite (first layer; 1000nm thick), silver nanoparticles (second layer; 1.5μg Ag cm(-2)) and calcium phosphate (third layer, either 150 or 1000nm thick) on titanium was prepared by a combination of electrophoretic deposition of silver nanoparticles and the deposition of calcium phosphate by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the silver nanoparticles were evenly distributed over the surface. The adhesion of multilayered coating on the substrate was evaluated using the scratch test method...

The use of biocatalysis in the pharmaceutical industry continues to expand as a result of increased access to enzymes and the ability to engineer those enzymes to meet the demands of industrial processes. However, we are still just scratching the surface of potential biocatalytic applications. The time pressures present in pharmaceutical process development are incompatible with the long lead times required for engineering a suitable biocatalyst. Dramatic increases in the speed of protein engineering are needed to deliver on the ever increasing opportunities for industrial biocatalytic processes...

Transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which possess self-renewing properties and multipotency, into a periodontal defect is thought to be a useful option for periodontal tissue regeneration. However, developing more reliable and predictable implantation techniques is still needed. Recently, we generated clumps of an MSC/extracellular matrix (ECM) complex (C-MSC), which consisted of cells and self-produced ECM. C-MSCs can regulate their cellular functions in vitro and can be grafted into a defect site, without any artificial scaffold, to induce bone regeneration...

β-Alanine is a non-essential amino acid and presents as a major component of various sports supplements. It is a non-proteogenic amino acid, formed in vivo by degradation of carnosine, anserine, balenine, and dihydrouracil. The present study was aimed at investigating the anti-tumor effects of β-alanine in renal and cervical tumor cells. Sulforhodamine-B assay and flow cytometric analysis were used to measure cell viability. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) expression was analyzed using FITC-conjugated fluorescent antibody...

BACKGROUND: The distance metastases of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) were a major threaten for PTC patients, thus, to study the potential mechanism for the treatment of PTC was essential. Previous studies have shown that PTCSC3 (Thyroid Carcinoma Susceptibility Candidate 3), miR-574-5p and Wnt/β-catenin were involved in PTC, but the potential pathogenic mechanism among them was still unclear. METHOD: Real-time PCR and western blot were used to detect genes expression...

The pathogenesis of psoriatic itch is poorly understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the involvement of opioid receptors in scratching behaviour of imiquimod-induced psoriasis-like dermatitis model mice. Topical application of 5% imiquimod cream to the rostral back skin of mice induced antihistamine-resistant scratching behaviour. The expression of µ-opioid receptor (MOR) protein increased in the epidermis, dorsal root ganglia (DRG) and spinal cord of imiquimod-treated mice. In contrast, the expression of κ-opioid receptor (KOR) protein decreased in the DRG and spinal cord of imiquimod-treated mice, and was undetectable in the epidermis of both groups...

Hypnosis utilizes trance to access otherwise inaccessible repressed or unconscious memories and features of the psyche and control of physiology not attainable in the ordinary conscious waking state. Medical uses of hypnosis in dermatology include reducing discomfort from itching or skin pain, altering ingrained dysfunctional habits such as scratching, promoting healing of skin disorders, searching for psychosomatic aspects of skin disorders and alleviating them, and reframing cognitive and emotional dysfunctional patterns related to skin disorders...

Dissociation and conversion (defined as the somatic component of dissociation) can play an important mediating role in the exacerbation of the stress-reactive dermatoses (eg, psoriasis, idiopathic urticaria, atopic dermatitis), dermatoses that are exacerbated by excessive scratching (eg, lichen simplex chronicus, prurigo nodularis) and koebnerization, and the self-induced dermatoses (dermatitis artefacta, acne excoriée, skin picking disorder, trichotillomania, onychotillomania/onychophagia). Dissociative symptoms often coexist with obsessive-compulsive symptoms in the more severe cases of the self-induced dermatoses...

INTRODUCTION: Breast adenocarcinoma is the second common cancer in women the incidence of which is increasing in many countries, especially in developing companies. In this study, miRNA143 has been replaced by vector based microRNA-143 in breast adenocarcinoma cells (MDA-MB-468) and its anti-cancer effects on breast adenocarcinoma cells have been evaluated. METHODS: The pCMV-MIR-143 vector was transfected into MDA-MB-468 cells via JetPEI transfection reagent. The transfected cells were selected by IC50 concentration of Geneticin antibiotic (G418) after a 2-week treatment...

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore effects of miR-183 on epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and invasion by targeting MTA1 in human pancreatic cancer (PC) cells. METHODS: Totally, 108 PC patients admitted in Wenzhou Central Hospital, The Dingli Clinical Institute of Wenzhou Medical University from March 2010 to March 2014 were enrolled. qRT-PCR and immunohistochemistry were applied to examine expression of MTA1 mRNA and protein. Samples were divided into 6 groups: blank, NC, miR-183 mimics, miR-183 inhibitors, MTA1-siRNA and miR-183 inhibitors +MTA1-siRNA groups...

Plumbagin is a natural naphthoquinone constituent isolated from the roots of medicinal plant Plumbago zeylanica L., and has demonstrated anti-proliferative and anti-invasion activities in various cancer cells. However, its effect on the migration and invasion of glioma cells has not been elucidated. Therefore, human glioma U87 and U251 cells were treated with plumbagin at 1.0 and 2.0 μM for 24 h, and cell migration and invasion were assessed with scratch wound healing and invasion assays. The results showed that plumbagin significantly inhibited the migration and invasion of U87 and U251 cells, suppressed the activity and expression of MMP-2/-9, and inhibited the nuclear translocation of transcription factors Sp1 in the U87 and U251 cells...

STUDY DESIGN: In vitro laboratory study. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of dilute povidone-iodine (PVI) solutions on human osteoblast, fibroblast and myoblast cells in vitro. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Dilute PVI wound lavage has been used successfully in spine and joint arthroplasty procedures to prevent post-operative surgical site infection, but their biologic effect on host cells is largely unknown. METHODS: Human primary osteoblasts, fibroblasts, and myoblasts were expanded in cell culture and subjected to various concentrations of PVI (0%, 0...