Current Status of Angiogenic Cell Therapy and Related Strategies Applied in Critical Limb Ischemia

Critical limb ischemia (CLI) constitutes the most severe form of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), it is characterized by progressive blockade of arterial vessels, commonly correlated to atherosclerosis. Currently, revascularization strategies (bypass grafting, angioplasty) remain the first option for CLI patients, although less than 45% of them are eligible for surgical intervention mainly due to associated comorbidities. Moreover, patients usually require amputation in the short-term. Angiogenic cell therapy has arisen as a promising alternative for these “no-option” patients, with many studies demonstrating the potential of stem cells to enhance revascularization by promoting vessel formation and blood flow recovery in ischemic tissues. Herein, we provide an overview of studies focused on the use of angiogenic cell therapies in CLI in the last years, from approaches testing different cell types in animal/pre-clinical models of CLI, to the clinical trials currently under evaluation. Furthermore, recent alternatives related to stem cell therapies such as the use of secretomes, exosomes, or even microRNA, will be also described.     

Indoor heterogeneous photochemistry of furfural drives emissions of nitrous acid

People spend approximately 80% of their time indoor, making the understanding of the indoor chemistry an important task for safety. The high surface-area-to-volume ratio characteristic of indoor environments leads the semi-volatile organic compounds (sVOCs) to deposit on the surfaces. Using a long path absorption photometer (LOPAP), this work investigates the formation of nitrous acid (HONO) through the photochemistry of adsorbed nitrate anions and its enhancement by the presence of furfural. Using a high-resolution proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-TOF-MS), this work also investigates the surface emissions of VOCs from irradiated films of furfural and a mix of furfural and nitrate anions. Among the emitted VOCs, 2(5H)-furanone/2-Butenedial was observed at high concentrations, leading to maleic anhydride formation after UV irradiation. Moreover, the addition of potassium nitrate to the film formed NO_x and HONO concentrations up to 10 ppb, which scales to ca. 4 ppb for realistic indoor conditions. This work helps to understand the high levels of HONO and NO_x measured indoors.     

Frequency of molecular alterations in heterozygous beta-thalassemia in southern Spain and their relation to the hematologic phenotype

INTRODUCTION: Heterozygous beta-thalassemia manifests hematologically with microcytosis, reduced red blood cell hemoglobin concentration and high hemoglobin A2 levels. Almost all molecular alterations are due to point mutations. We attempt to determinate the frequency of that mutations in the Oriental Andalusia Area, and its relationship with the hematological phenotype. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We have studied 45 heterozygous patients. DNA samples were amplified by PCR, using the printers CD7 and HI1. A 16 Kb fragment corresponding to beta globin gene was obtained and analyzed by Dot Blot assay and hybridized with allelic specific oligonucleotide (ASO) probes to detect the 6 more frequent mutations found in the South of Spain. RESULTS: Codon 39 nonsense mutation (31.1%) was the most frequent finding followed by IVS-1 NT 110 (26.7%). The relationship between hematological parameters and molecular mutations concluded that IVS-I NT 6 mutation developed a minimal anemia. DISCUSSION: From the practical point of view, this study indicates that we were able to detect more than 90% of heterozygous beta-tal. with 5 out of 6 ASO probes used in this work. Thus, our data also provides a further implication in prenatal diagnosis.     

Processing of Yttria-Alumina Coated Silicon Nitride Slips by Slip Casting

Si₃N₄powders coated with 6 wt% Y₂O₃and 4 wt% Al₂O₃were prepared by coprecipitation. The resulting powders were dispersed in water at different pH values and with addition of various amounts of ammonium polyacrylate (NH₄PA) to produce 32 vol% slips. The influence of the amount of NH₄PA solution added and pH on the rheological properties of 32 vol% coated Si₃N₄slips were studied. In addition, the sintered density of cast samples was determined and related to the degree of slip dispersion. The adsorption of the NH₄PA on the coated particle surface was rather high and the surface became saturated near 0.86 mg/m²at pH 9.2. High NH₄PA concentrations (1.7–3 wt%) were necessary to obtain well dispersed 32 vol% coated Si₃N₄slips at pH 9.2. The best stabilization was obtained with the addition of 2.3 wt% NH₄PA; in this condition, the viscosity reached a minimum value of 35 mPa.s at 100 s^–1. The slip viscosity increased with increasing pH from 9.2 to 10.2. Slips with low viscosities gave a more dense packing of cast samples and consequently higher sintered density values.     

Assessing continuous bivariate effects among different groups through nonparametric regression models: An application to breast cancer detection

In many applications, the joint effect of two continuous covariates on the target binary response may vary across groups defined by levels of a given factor. A testing procedure that would enable this type of surface-by-factor interactions to be detected has been designed. To accomplish this goal, a logistic generalized additive model (GAM) with bivariate continuous interactions varying across groups defined by levels of a factor is considered. A local scoring algorithm based on local linear kernel smoothers was implemented to estimate the proposed logistic GAM. Bootstrap resampling techniques were used for the purpose of testing for factor-by-surface interactions. Given the high computational cost involved, binning techniques were used to speed up computation in the estimation and testing processes. The adequacy of the bootstrap-based test was assessed by means of a simulation study. If a factor-by-surface interaction is detected in the model, it is then established that the use of the odds-ratio curves is very useful in obtaining a direct interpretation of the fitted model. The benefits of using this methodology when analyzing real data are illustrated by applying the technique to the outputs produced by a computerized system dedicated to the early detection of breast cancer.     

Evidence for a synergistic interaction between isoprenaline and timolol on intraocular pressure in conscious rabbits

1. Interaction between topical isoprenaline and timolol on intraocular pressure was studied in conscious rabbits through changes of the dose-response curves. 2. Both drugs caused a dose-dependent fall of intraocular pressure mainly by reducing the aqueous humour formation. 3. When combined, timolol increased the response to submaximal concentrations of isoprenaline as well as EC50 (from 2.06 x 10(-3) M to 3.63 x 10(-3) M) and slope (from 1.21 to 1.89), but peak response to isoprenaline remained unchanged. 4. Discordance between experimental and theoretical additive curves as well as an interaction index smaller than 1 show that the interaction between both drugs is synergistic.     

Stable neurovisual servoing for robot manipulators

In this paper, we propose a stable neurovisual servoing algorithm for set-point control of planar robot manipulators in a fixed-camera configuration an show that all the closed-loop signals are uniformly ultimately bounded (UUB) and converge exponentially to a small compact set. We assume that the gravity term and Jacobian matrix are unknown. Radial basis function neural networks (RBFNNs) with online real-time learning are proposed for compensating both gravitational forces and errors in the robot Jacobian matrix. The learning rule for updating the neural network weights, similar to a back propagation algorithm, is obtained from a Lyapunov stability analysis. Experimental results on a two degrees of freedom manipulator are presented to evaluate the proposed controller.