BioMed research international
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The purpose of this study was to assess the pathological variation in white matter tracts in the adult severe thoracic contusion spinal cord injury (SCI) rat models combined with in vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), as well as the effect of spared white matter (WM) quantity on hindlimb motor function recovery. 7.0T MRI was conducted for all experimental animals before SCI and 1, 3, 7, and 14 days after SCI. The variation in the white matter tract in different regions of the spinal cord after SCI was examined by luxol fast blue (LFB) staining, NF200 immunochemistry, and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) parameters, including fraction anisotropy, mean diffusivity, axial diffusion, and radial diffusivity. Meanwhile, Basso-Beattie-Bresnahan (BBB) open-field scoring was performed to evaluate the behavior of the paraplegic hind limbs. ⋯ The results suggest that the first three days provides a key time window for SCI protection and treatment; spared white matter, especially in the ventral column, plays a key role in motor function recovery in rats. Additionally, DTI may be an important noninvasive technique to diagnose acute SCI degree as well as a tool to evaluate functional prognosis. During the transition from nerve protection toward clinical treatment after SCI, in vivo DTI may serve as an emerging noninvasive technique to diagnose acute SCI degree and predict the degree of spontaneous functional recovery after SCI.
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Basic fibroblast growth factor 2 (bFGF) accelerates bone formation during fracture healing. Because the efficacy of bFGF decreases rapidly following its diffusion from fracture sites, however, repeated dosing is required to ensure a sustained therapeutic effect. We previously developed a fusion protein comprising bFGF, a polycystic kidney disease domain (PKD; s2b), and collagen-binding domain (CBD; s3) sourced from the Clostridium histolyticum class II collagenase, ColH, and reported that the combination of this fusion protein with a collagen-like peptide, poly(Pro-Hyp-Gly)10, induced mesenchymal cell proliferation and callus formation at fracture sites. ⋯ We also constructed four fusion proteins consisting of bFGF and s3 (bFGF-s3), s2b-s3b (bFGF-s2b-s3), s3b (bFGF-s3b), and s3a-s3b (bFGF-s3a-s3b) and compared their biological activities to those of a previous fusion construct (bFGF-s2b-s3) using a cell proliferation assay in vitro and a mouse femoral fracture model in vivo. Among these CB-bFGFs, bFGF-s3a-s3b showed the highest capacity to induce mesenchymal cell proliferation and callus formation in the mice fracture model. The poly(Pro-Hyp-Gly)10/bFGF-s3a-s3b construct may therefore have the potential to promote bone formation in clinical settings.
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Previous studies have examined the effect of the initiation time of renal replacement therapy (RRT) in patients with cardiac surgery-associated acute kidney injury (CSA-AKI), but the findings remain controversial. The aim of this meta-analysis was to systematically and quantitatively compare the impact of early versus late initiation of RRT on the outcome of patients with CSA-AKI. ⋯ Early initiation of RRT had no beneficial impacts on outcomes in patients with CSA-AKI. Future larger and more adequately powered prospective RCTs are needed to verify the benefit of reduced mortality associated with early initiation of RRT.
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This meta-analysis systematically evaluated the efficacy and safety of anti-PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies for pretreated advanced or metastatic nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and investigated the correlation between PD-L1 expression levels and effectiveness of anti-PD-1/PD-L1 antibody. ⋯ OS, PFS, and ORR were significantly more improved for patients treated with anti-PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies than for those treated with docetaxel. Anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy resulted in longer OS than docetaxel, regardless of PD-L1 expression; however, higher PD-L1 levels were likely to correlate with better outcome. Anti-PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies also had a better safety profile than docetaxel.