Search

An increasing number of individuals are suffering from lower back and neck pain caused by intervertebral disc degeneration each year. Although the application of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) has provided desirable results in the treatment of intervertebral disc degeneration, there are multiple risks associated with the directed application of MSCs. An increasing number of studies have suggested that stem cells, through the release of extracellular nanovesicles, have vital functions in tissue regeneration and repair with low risk. The present study investigated the effect of extracellular nanovesicles derived from adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) on nucleus pulposus (NP) cells from patients with intervertebral disc degeneration. Human NP cells were obtained from patients with intervertebral disc degeneration undergoing surgical procedures in addition to ADSCs from liposuction patients. ADSC-derived extracellular nanovesicles were isolated and characterized. The differentiation and biological activity of NP cells cultured with or without ADSC-derived extracellular nanovesicles were assessed and inflammatory factors and intervertebral disc degeneration-associated markers were also measured. The results indicated that extracellular nanovesicles derived from ADSCs increased the migration and proliferation of NP cells and inhibited inflammatory activity, suggesting their utility for the treatment of intervertebral disc degeneration.

Liquid crystal display (LCD) is a display device based on liquid crystal electro-optic effect, and LCDs have gradually appeared and have become an indispensable part of people’s lives. In the development of LCD technology, the detection of Mura defects is a key concern in the manufacturing process. The Mura defect is a kind of display defect with low contrast and an irregular shape. This study first explains the mechanism of Mura defects in the LCD manufacturing process and classifies typical Mura defects. Then, three main purposes for the defect detection of LCDs are compared, and the advantages and disadvantages are conducted. Following that, this research examines reviews the linked literature on image preprocessing, feature extraction, dimension reduction, and classifiers of Mura defects. Finally, the future development trend and research direction of Mura defect detection based on machine vision can be drawn by this study.

Previous studies have reported that T cell immunoglobulin domain and mucin domain-3 (TIM-3) 574T>G and 1516G>T are associated with the risk of asthma. However, the results are inconsistent due to the small sample size and varied age in studies. We performed this metaanalysis to systematically evaluated the effect of TIM-3 574T>G and 1516G>T genetic polymorphisms on asthma. Eligible articles that reported an association between TIM-3 574T>G and 1516G>T genetic polymorphisms and asthma were searched in PubMed, Medline, EMBASE, Google Scholar, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure up to April 2020. Random or fixed-effects models were used to calculate the summary of odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to detect any potential associations between TIM-3 genetic polymorphisms and asthma. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the potential sources of heterogeneity and the robustness of the pooled estimation. Publication bias was analyzed using the Egger test. A total of 11 case-control studies including 2077 asthma patients and 2122 control subjects were finally analyzed (published data form 2004-2018). The pooled results indicated that TIM-3 574T>G genetic polymorphisms were significantly associated with an increased risk of asthma under the dominant model (GG vs. GT +TT: ORs=2.26, 95% CI 1.09-4.69) and allele model (G vs T: ORs=2.60, 95% CI 1.20-5.64). However, no significant associations between TIM-3 1516G>T genetic polymorphisms with asthma in any model was found. No evidence of publication bias was observed. Our study indicates that TIM-3 574T>G genetic polymorphisms were associated with increased risk of asthma and the TIM-3 1516G>T genetic polymorphisms may not be correlated with asthma.

Physical modeling is critical to study the performance of certain operation in heavy oil reservoirs. A well-designed experiment should guarantee the information gathered from lab would be applied to predict the thermal process in the field. To meet this requirement, the initial and boundary condition similarity between lab and field should be satisfied. It is reasonable to follow certain scaling criteria to fabricate the physical model. In addition to these conventional guidelines, this paper makes following recommendations to ensure a successful thermal recovery experiment,•To control and mitigate the steam channeling between the sand-pack and apparatus wall, the back wall is designed as it can be pushed enough to increase contact pressure.•Heat loss should be handled carefully, which impacting steam chamber growing and causing heat accumulation around the model.•A data acquisition system, based on PXI platform and Labview software, for the thermal recovery experiments had been proved valuable in evaluating the spreading progress of steam chamber., Graphical abstarct Image, graphical abstract

Results on the relationships between vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphisms and postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP) susceptibility and bone mineral density (BMD) are conflicting. The aim of the study is to identify more eligible studies that calculated pooled OR and WMD with 95% CI to assess their associations. Overall, there were significant correlations between VDR ApaI, VDR FokI and PMOP susceptibility. Subgroup analysis showed that VDR ApaI polymorphism significantly decreased the osteoporosis risk in Caucasian postmenopausal women. In Asian populations, VDR BsmI and VDR FokI were associated with an increased risk of PMOP. As to the associations between VDR polymorphisms and BMD, Caucasian PMOP women carrying the ApaI aa genotype were at risk of high BMD in femoral neck, and low femoral neck BMD was observed in Caucasian PMOP women with FokI Ff genotype. PMOP women with the Cdx2 GA genotype had a lower lumbar spine BMD in overall and Caucasian populations compared with PMOP women with GG genotype. Different VDR gene polymorphisms have different impacts on PMOP risk and BMD.

Osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures with intraosseous vacuum phenomena could cause persistent back pains in patients, even after receiving conservative treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of using high-viscosity bone cement via bilateral percutaneous vertebroplasty in treating patients who have osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures with intraosseous vacuum phenomena. Twenty osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture patients with intraosseous vacuum phenomena, who received at least 2 months of conservative treatment, were further treated by injecting high-viscosity bone cement via bilateral percutaneous vertebroplasty due to failure of conservative treatment. Treatment efficacy was evaluated by determining the anterior vertebral compression rates, visual analog scale (VAS) scores, and Oswestry disability index (ODI) scores at 1 day before the operation, on the first day of postoperation, at 1-month postoperation, and at 1-year postoperation. Three of 20 patients had asymptomatic bone cement leakage when treated via percutaneous vertebroplasty; however, no serious complications related to these treatments were observed during the 1-year follow-up period. A statistically significant improvement on the anterior vertebral compression rates, VAS scores, and ODI scores were achieved after percutaneous vertebroplasty. However, differences in the anterior vertebral compression rate, VAS score, and ODI score in the different time points during the 1-year follow-up period was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Within the limitations of this study, the injection of high-viscosity bone cement via bilateral percutaneous vertebroplasty for patients who have osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures with intraosseous vacuum phenomena significantly relieved their back pains and improved their daily life activities shortly after the operation, thereby improving their life quality. In this study, the use of high-viscosity bone cement reduced the leakage rate and contributed to their successful treatment, as observed in patients during the 1-year follow-up period.

Background Percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) typically involves conventional lower-viscosity cement injection via bipedicular approach. Limited evidence is available comparing the clinical outcomes and complications in treating osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (OVCFs) with PVP using high-viscosity cement through unipedicular or bipedicular approach. Methods and design Fifty patients with OVCFs were randomly allocated into two groups adopting unipedicular or bipedicular PVP. The efficacy of unipedicular and bipedicular PVP was assessed by comparing operation time, X-ray exposure time, incidence of complications, vertebral height restoration, and improvement of the visual analogue scale (VAS), Oswestry disability index (ODI) and Short Form-36 (SF-36) General Health Survey scores. Results The mean operative and exposure time to X-rays in the unipedicular PVP group was less than that of the bipedicular group (p 0.05). Conclusion Unipedicular and bipedicular PVP are safe and effective treatments for OVCF. Compared with bipedicular PVP, unipedicular PVP entails a shorter surgical time and lower X-ray irradiation.

To compare the clinical outcome and complications between Zero-P implant and cage with anterior plate in patients undergoing anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF).50 patients underwent ACDF operation of which 23 patients had Zero-P implanted and 27 had cage and plate implanted. Preoperative and Post-operative clinical evaluation included Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) score, Neck Disability Index (NDI) score and Short form 36 (SF-36). Incidences of dysphagia-related symptoms were recorded. Plain radiographs were performed 2 days postoperatively and at follow-up to evaluate cervical prevertebral soft tissue, sagittal alignment, fusion rate and implant failure.In both groups, the JOA and SF-36 scores significantly increased, cervical sagittal alignment significantly corrected and the NDI score dropped compared to the preoperative at follow-up. All patients achieved solid fusion and no implant displacement was observed. The thickness of the prevertebral soft tissue at 2 days and 3 months postoperatively was lower in the Zero-P group. The incidence of dysphagia in the Zero-P group was significantly lower and the duration was much shorter.Zero-P used in ACDF could lead to similar clinical and radiographical outcomes compared with cage and plate, but with lower incidence and shorter duration of dysphagia.