The ability to model physiological systems through 3D neural in-vitro systems may enable new treatments for various diseases while lowering the need for challenging animal and human testing. Creating ...such an environment, and even more impactful, one that mimics human brain tissue under mechanical stimulation, would be extremely useful to study a range of human-specific biological processes and conditions related to brain trauma. One approach is to use human cerebral organoids (hCOs) in-vitro models. hCOs recreate key cytoarchitectural features of the human brain, distinguishing themselves from more traditional 2D cultures and organ-on-a-chip models, as well as in-vivo animal models. Here, we propose a novel approach to emulate mild and moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI) using hCOs that undergo strain rates indicative of TBI. We subjected the hCOs to mild (2 sFormula: see text) and moderate (14 sFormula: see text) loading conditions, examined the mechanotransduction response, and investigated downstream genomic effects and regulatory pathways. The revealed pathways of note were cell death and metabolic and biosynthetic pathways implicating genes such as CARD9, ENO1, and FOXP3, respectively. Additionally, we show a steeper ascent in calcium signaling as we imposed higher loading conditions on the organoids. The elucidation of neural response to mechanical stimulation in reliable human cerebral organoid models gives insights into a better understanding of TBI in humans.
La leche de cabra, por sus características, su valor biológico como substituto de la leche materna, permite que se recomiende para la elaboración de subproductos, por lo que el objetivo de la ...investigación fue sustituir parcialmente leche bovina por la leche caprina para elaborar helados cremosos, para esto se trabajó por triplicado con cuatro tratamientos 0% (testigo), 10% (leche de cabra), 20% (leche de cabra) y 30% (leche de cabra), en cada tratamiento se realizó análisis de pH, acidez , oBrix, se aplicó una evaluación sensorial considerando los atributos color, aroma, sabor, textura, aceptabilidad y cuerpo, realizada por un panel conformado por 15 evaluadores aplicando la escala de Likert de 5 puntos; el análisis estadístico de la evaluación sensorial determina que el tratamiento T3 con adición del 30% de leche de cabra es el mejor calificado, para color 4,1 , aroma 4,3, sabor 4,2, cuerpo 4,42, pH 6,31, oBrix 30 , dureza 3,83 lbf, se concluye que el helado elaborado con sustitución del 30% de leche de cabra cumple con los requisitos establecidos por la Norma NTE INEN 706: 2013 Helados, por lo que se puede elaborar helados cremosos con leche de cabra obteniéndose un producto de aceptación organoléptica y buena calidad.
Background and Aims
Previous blood product exposures may result in the development of antibodies to human leukocyte antigens (HLA). Pediatric heart transplant recipients who have these antibodies ...experience increased morbidity and mortality after transplantation. In this study, our aims were to confirm the association of previous allogeneic blood product exposures with the formation of anti‐HLA antibodies, determine which blood components pose the greatest risk of developing antibodies, and assess differences in outcomes after transplantation between patients who had anti‐HLA antibodies and those who did not.
Methods
This retrospective investigation included all children who underwent cardiac transplantation at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta from January 1, 2015 through December 31, 2018. Chart reviews were performed to collect pertinent data. Anti‐HLA antibodies were detected by single antigen bead testing. Antibody burden was tabulated using the calculated panel reactive antibody (cPRA) score immediately prior to transplantation. Statistical analyses were conducted to examine differences based on HLA antibody status and identify associations with outcomes of interest.
Results
Our results show a significant association between pretransplant blood product exposures and HLA antibody status. Children with a pretransplant blood product exposure had 7.98 times the odds of developing an anti‐HLA antibody compared to those without a pretransplant blood product exposure (p = .01). We also found a significant association between a previous red blood cell (RBC) exposure and HLA antibody status (p = .01) which was not found for other blood component exposures. Patients who were HLA antibody positive were more likely to develop a donor‐specific antibody (DSA) after transplantation (p = .04).
Conclusions
Exposure to previous allogeneic blood products affects the development of anti‐HLA antibodies in children presenting for heart transplantation. Previous RBC exposures resulted in HLA antibody positivity more than other blood component exposures. Importantly, the presence of HLA antibodies was associated with the development of DSAs post‐transplantation. Developing transfusion strategies to reduce allogeneic blood product exposures in children who may need future cardiac transplantation should be a high priority.
3D printing PLA wastes were recovered from a well-known reference grade and from different sources. The recovered wastes were subjected to an energic washing step and then reprocessed into films by ...melt-extrusion, followed by compression molding to simulate the industrial processing conditions. The obtained materials were characterized and the optical, structural, thermal and crystallization behavior are reported. The mechanical recycling process leads to an increase of the crystallinity and a decrease of the intrinsic viscosity of the formulations, particularly in the sample based on blends of different 3D-PLA wastes. Moreover, the obtained films were disintegrated under composting conditions in less than one month and it was observed that recycled materials degrade somewhat faster than the starting 3D-PLA filament, as a consequence of the presence of shorter polymer chains. Finally, to increase the molecular weight of the recycled materials, the 3D-PLA wastes were submitted to a solid-state polymerization process at 110, 120, and 130 °C, observing that the recycled 3D-wastes materials based on a well-known reference grade experiences an improvement of the intrinsic viscosity, while that coming from different sources showed no significant changes. Thus, the results show that 3D printing PLA products provides an ideal environment for the implementation of distributed recycling program, in which wastes coming from well-known PLA grades can successfully be processed in films with good overall performance.
High heterogeneity in the blood pressure (BP) response to continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) exists in patients with resistant hypertension (RH). Only nondipper normotensive and hypertensive ...patients exhibited BP reductions when treated with CPAP; the baseline BP dipping pattern has been proposed as a predictor of BP response to CPAP but has never been explored in patients with RH. This study aimed to assess the effect of CPAP on BP in subjects with RH with respect to BP dipping pattern or nocturnal hypertension. This is an ancillary study of the SARAH study. RH subjects with an apnea/hypopnea index (AHI) ≥ 15/h and who received CPAP treatment for 1 year were included. Subjects underwent a sleep study and ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) at baseline and at the 1-year follow-up. Eighty-nine RH subjects were included. The subjects were mainly male (77.5%) and obese, with a mean age of 66 years (25th-75th percentile; 59.0; 70.0) and an AHI of 32.7/h (25th-75th percentile; 25.0; 54.7). A total of 68.5% of participants were nondippers, and 71.9% had nocturnal hypertension. After 1 year of CPAP, no significant differences in ABPM parameters were observed between dippers and nondippers. According to nighttime BP, subjects with nocturnal normotension did not show significant changes in ABPM parameters, while nocturnal hypertensive subjects achieved a significant reduction in mean nighttime BP of -4.38 mmHg (-7.10 to -1.66). The adjusted difference between groups was 3.04 (-2.25 to 8.34), which was not significant. This study shows that the BP response to CPAP in patients with RH does not differ according to the BP dipping pattern (dipper and nondipper) and suggests a differential response according to the presence of nocturnal hypertension (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03002558).
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