The Journal of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery
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J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg. · May 2020
Novel mechanisms for osteogenic differentiation of human aortic valve interstitial cells.
Aortic valve calcification is common in aging populations without effective pharmacologic interventions. Our previous in vitro data revealed a critical role for long noncoding RNA metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 as a positive regulator of osteogenic differentiation in aortic valve calcification pathogenesis. The current study sought to determine the mechanism by which metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 is regulated in aortic valve calcification. ⋯ This study demonstrates the existence of a regulatory loop between metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 and human antigen R during osteogenic differentiation of valvular interstitial cells. Our findings provide novel mechanistic insights into a critical role of human antigen R in the aortic valve calcification progression and shed new light on RNA-binding protein-directed diagnostics and therapeutics in aortic valve calcification.
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J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg. · May 2020
Transvascular endosonographic-guided needle biopsy of intrathoracic lesions.
Endoscopic ultrasound-guided biopsy techniques, including endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) and endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA), are currently the standard of care for the assessment of mediastinal lymphadenopathy. Traditionally, passing the needle through and through vascular structures has been avoided owing to the risk of bleeding. In this study, we evaluated the safety and diagnostic accuracy of transvascular endosonographic-guided biopsies of mediastinal, hilar and lung lesions. Our hypothesis is that the approach is safe and adds to the endoscopic armamentarium, avoiding the need for surgical biopsy in specifically selected cases. ⋯ Transvascular endosonographic-guided biopsy is an important adjunct to conventional endoscopic techniques and allows the thoracic endoscopist to obtain biopsy specimens from intrathoracic lesions that are not accessible without vascular puncture.