Position and velocity coupling of postural sway to somatosensory drive

Light touch contact of a fingertip to a stationary surface provides orientation information that enhances control of upright stance. Slight changes in contact force at the fingertip lead to sensory cues about the direction of body sway, allowing attenuation of sway. In the present study, the coupling of postural sway to a moving contact surface was investigated in detail. Head, center of mass, and center of pressure displacement were measured as the contact surface moved rhythmically at 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 Hz. Stimulus amplitude decreased with frequency to maintain peak velocity constant across frequency. Head and body sway were highly coherent with contact surface motion at all frequencies except 0.8 Hz, where a drop-off in coherence was observed. Mean frequency of head and body sway matched the driving frequency 相似文献   

The Effect of Platelet-Rich Plasma on the Intra-Articular Microenvironment in Knee Osteoarthritis

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) represents a clinical challenge due to poor potential for spontaneous healing of cartilage lesions. Several treatment options are available for KOA, including oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, physical therapy, braces, activity modification, and finally operative treatment. Intra-articular (IA) injections are usually used when the non-operative treatment is not effective, and when the surgery is not yet indicated. More and more studies suggesting that IA injections are as or even more efficient and safe than NSAIDs. Recently, research to improve intra-articular homeostasis has focused on biologic adjuncts, such as platelet-rich plasma (PRP). The catabolic and inflammatory intra-articular processes that exists in knee osteoarthritis (KOA) may be influenced by the administration of PRP and its derivatives. PRP can induce a regenerative response and lead to the improvement of metabolic functions of damaged structures. However, the positive effect on chondrogenesis and proliferation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) is still highly controversial. Recommendations from in vitro and animal research often lead to different clinical outcomes because it is difficult to translate non-clinical study outcomes and methodology recommendations to human clinical treatment protocols. In recent years, significant progress has been made in understanding the mechanism of PRP action. In this review, we will discuss mechanisms related to inflammation and chondrogenesis in cartilage repair and regenerative processes after PRP administration in in vitro and animal studies. Furthermore, we review clinical trials of PRP efficiency in changing the OA biomarkers in knee joint.     

The structure of somatosensory information for human postural control

The goal of the present study was to determine the properties of the somatosensory stimulus that alter its temporal coupling to body sway. Six standing subjects were tested while touching a metal plate positioned either directly in front of or lateral to the subject. In each condition, the plate moved 4 mm at 0.2 Hz in either the medial-lateral (ML) or anterior-posterior direction (AP). The results showed that coupling between body sway and touch plate movement was strongest when the touch plate moved in a direction along the longitudinal axis of the arm. Coupling strength was weaker when the touch plate moved perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the arm. The results consistently show that a radial expansion stimulus was more effective than a lamellar-type stimulus at the fingertip. Moreover, somatosensory information from a surface is interpreted in terms of the orientation of the contact limb and the potential degrees of freedom available through its movement.     

Light touch contact as a balance aid

Canes and crutches are commonly used mobility aids, and most studies of their use have focused on issues equating support with the resulting decrease in force required of the affected limb. Clinicians, however, often observe patients with poor balance control using light touch of surrounding objects and surfaces to stabilize themselves while standing and walking. A series of studies have shown that sensory input to the hand and arm through contact cues at the fingertip or through a cane can reduce postural sway in individuals who have no impairments and in patients without a functioning vestibular system, even when contact force levels are inadequate to provide physical support of the body. This article summarizes these results, which have implications for design considerations of rehabilitation aids. Mobility devices or rehabilitation aids that provide feedback about applied force or enhance existing resolution of applied force changes across the skin surface may lead to new rehabilitation techniques.     

Th2 Cytokines (Interleukin-5 and -9) Polymorphism Affects the Response to Anti-TNF Treatment in Polish Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is an inflammatory disease that belongs to the spondyloarthritis family. IL-5 and IL-9 belong to the group of Th2 cytokines of anti-inflammatory nature. Polymorphisms in their coding genes have been so far associated with various inflammatory diseases, but there are no reports regarding their involvement in AS pathogenesis to date. The purpose of the study was to investigate relationships between IL5 and IL9 genetic variants with AS susceptibility, clinical parameters as well as response to therapy with TNF inhibitors. In total 170 patients receiving anti-TNF therapy and 218 healthy controls were enrolled in the study. The genotyping of IL5 rs2069812 (A > G) and IL9 rs2069885 (G > A) single nucleotide polymorphisms was performed using the Real-Time PCR method based on LightSNiP kits assays. The present study demonstrated significant relationships between IL5 rs2069812 and IL9 rs2069885 polymorphisms and response to anti-TNF therapy. Presence of the IL5 rs2069812 A allele in patients positively correlated with better response to treatment (p = 0.022). With regard to IL9 rs2069885, patients carrying the A allele displayed better outcomes in anti-TNF therapy (p = 0.046). In addition, IL5 rs2069812 A and IL9 rs2069885 A alleles were associated with lower CRP and VAS values. The obtained results may indicate a significant role for IL-5 and IL-9 in the course of AS and response to anti-TNF therapy.     

Symmetry breaking dynamics of human multilimb coordination.

The dynamics of pattern formation and change are studied in a complex multicomponent system, specifically the arms and legs of human Ss. Among the novel features observed are differential stability of coordinative modes produced by limbs moving in the same vs different directions (Exp 1); transitions between coordinative modes preceded by a slow drift in relative phase (Exps 1 and 2); bifurcations or phase transitions from one 4-limb pattern to another (Exp 2); and spontaneous emergence of non-1:1-frequency- and phase-locked patterns, in addition to periods of relative coordination (Exp 3). All observed relative phasing patterns and their dynamics (stability, loss of stability, intermittency) are shown to arise from the same underlying nonlinear dynamical structure, an important feature of which is broken symmetry. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Manipulating symmetry in the coordination dynamics of human movement.

J. A. S. Kelso and J. J. Jeka (see record 1992-41720-001) demonstrated that symmetry is a useful conceptual tool to distinguish the coordination between components with similar vs different anatomical properties. The present experiments studied human arm–leg patterns to test whether their coordinative asymmetry was changed by manipulating the inertial properties of a single limb. The results showed that (1) consistent with model predictions, adding weight to the arm or the leg minimized or enhanced coordinative asymmetry, respectively and (2) the response to a perturbation slowed as movement frequency increased but in a fashion that reflected the underlying coordinative asymmetry. The observed coordinative effects suggest the influence of neural phase relationships and emphasize that symmetry plays an important role in understanding coordination in systems in which control cannot be traced unequivocally to a single end-effector or a neurophysiological substrate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)