Bone biopsy (BB) performed by a surgeon or an interventional radiologist is recommended for suspicion of osteomyelitis underlying diabetic foot ulcer (DFU). To facilitate its practice, we developed a ...procedure allowing bedside blind bone biopsy (B4) by a diabetologist.
We conducted a three-step observational study consisting of a feasibility and safety phase (phase 1) to assess the success and side effects of B4, a validity phase (phase 2) to compare DFU outcomes between positive (B4+) and negative (B4-) bone cultures, and a performance phase (phase 3) to compare B4 with the conventional surgical or radiological procedure basic bone biopsy (B3). Primary end points were the presence of bone tissue (phase 1) and complete DFU healing with exclusive medical treatment at 12 months (phases 2 and 3).
In phase 1, 37 consecutive patients with clinical and/or radiological suspicion of DFU osteomyelitis underwent B4. Bone tissue was collected in all patients with few side effects. In phase 2, a B4+ bone culture was found in 40 of 79 (50.6%) participants. Among B4+ patients, complete wound healing after treatment was 57.5%. No statistical difference was observed with patients with B4- bone culture not treated with antibiotics (71.8%,
= 0.18). In phase 3, the proportion of patients with positive BB was lower in B4 (40 of 79, 50.6%) than in B3 (34 of 44, 77.3%,
< 0.01). However, complete healing was similar (64.6% vs. 54.6%,
= 0.28). No difference in rate of culture contamination was observed.
B4 is a simple, safe, and efficient procedure for the diagnosis of DFU osteomyelitis with a similar proportion of healing to conventional BB.
Directional cell locomotion requires symmetry breaking between the front and rear of the cell. In some cells, symmetry breaking manifests itself in a directional flow of actin from the front to the ...rear of the cell. Many cells, especially in physiological 3D matrices, do not show such coherent actin dynamics and present seemingly competing protrusion/retraction dynamics at their front and back. How symmetry breaking manifests itself for such cells is therefore elusive. We take inspiration from the scallop theorem proposed by Purcell for micro-swimmers in Newtonian fluids: self-propelled objects undergoing persistent motion at low Reynolds number must follow a cycle of shape changes that breaks temporal symmetry. We report similar observations for cells crawling in 3D. We quantified cell motion using a combination of 3D live cell imaging, visualization of the matrix displacement, and a minimal model with multipolar expansion. We show that our cells embedded in a 3D matrix form myosin-driven force dipoles at both sides of the nucleus, that locally and periodically pinch the matrix. The existence of a phase shift between the two dipoles is required for directed cell motion which manifests itself as cycles with finite area in the dipole-quadrupole diagram, a formal equivalence to the Purcell cycle. We confirm this mechanism by triggering local dipolar contractions with a laser. This leads to directed motion. Our study reveals that these cells control their motility by synchronizing dipolar forces distributed at front and back. This result opens new strategies to externally control cell motion as well as for the design of micro-crawlers.
Recombinant methionyl human leptin (metreleptin) therapy was shown to improve hyperglycaemia, dyslipidaemia and insulin sensitivity in patients with lipodystrophic syndromes, but its effects on ...insulin secretion remain controversial. We used dynamic intravenous (i.v.) clamp procedures to measure insulin secretion, adjusted to insulin sensitivity, at baseline and after 1 year of metreleptin therapy, in 16 consecutive patients with lipodystrophy, diabetes and leptin deficiency. Patients, with a mean ± standard error of the mean (s.e.m.) age of 39.2 (±4) years, presented with familial partial lipodystrophy (n = 11, 10 women) or congenital generalized lipodystrophy (n = 5, four women). Their mean (± s.e.m.) BMI (23.9 ± 0.7 kg/m2), glycated haemoglobin levels (8.5 ± 0.4%) and serum triglycerides levels (4.6 ± 0.9 mmol/l) significantly decreased within 1 month of metreleptin therapy, then remained stable. Insulin sensitivity (from hyperglycaemic or euglycaemic‐hyperinsulinaemic clamps, n = 4 and n = 12, respectively), insulin secretion during graded glucose infusion (n = 12), and acute insulin response to i.v. glucose adjusted to insulin sensitivity (disposition index, n = 12), significantly increased after 1 year of metreleptin therapy. The increase in disposition index was related to a decrease in percentage of total and trunk body fat. Metreleptin therapy improves not only insulin sensitivity, but also insulin secretion in patients with diabetes attributable to genetic lipodystrophies.