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The synergy between biological and bioengineering advances is critical to developing novel and impactful translational therapies. However, there currently are few opportunities for regenerative scientists to be exposed to the methodologies commonly employed in the clinic by rehabilitation professionals, and most rehabilitation scientists and clinicians are not exposed to the many advances of regenerative medicine. This disconnect has impeded the pace of progress in the field. The Eighth Annual International Symposium on Regenerative Rehabilitation brought together basic scientists, engineers, and rehabilitation clinicians to present scientifically rigorous and cutting-edge research and clinical management, focusing on new and innovative approaches that combine discoveries in tissue engineering, medical devices, and cellular therapies with rehabilitative protocols.

The growing field of regenerative rehabilitation has great potential to improve clinical outcomes for individuals with disabilities. However, the science to elucidate the specific biological underpinnings of regenerative rehabilitation–based approaches is still in its infancy and critical questions regarding clinical translation and implementation still exist. In a recent roundtable discussion from International Consortium for Regenerative Rehabilitation stakeholders, key challenges to progress in the field were identified. The goal of this article is to summarize those discussions and to initiate a broader discussion among clinicians and scientists across the fields of regenerative medicine and rehabilitation science to ultimately progress regenerative rehabilitation from an emerging field to an established interdisciplinary one. Strategies and case studies from consortium institutions—including interdisciplinary research centers, formalized courses, degree programs, international symposia, and collaborative grants—are presented. We propose that these strategic directions have the potential to engage and train clinical practitioners and basic scientists, transform clinical practice, and, ultimately, optimize patient outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to minimize the impact of systemic toxicity of drugs in the treatment of local acute and chronic inflammatory reactions, the achievement of reliable and efficient delivery of therapeutics in/through the skin is highly recommended. While the use of nanoparticles is now an established practice for drug intravenous targeted delivery, their transdermal penetration is still poorly understood and this important administration route remains almost unexplored. In the present study, we have synthesized magnetic (iron oxide) nanoparticles (MNP) coated with an amphiphilic polymer, developed a water-in-oil emulsion formulation for their topical administration and compared the skin penetration routes with the same nanoparticles deposited as a colloidal suspension. Transmission and scanning electron microscopies provided ultrastructural evidence that the amphiphilic nanoparticles (PMNP) cream formulation allowed the efficient penetration through all the skin layers with a controllable kinetics compared to suspension formulation. In addition to the preferential follicular pathway, also the intracellular and intercellular routes were involved. PMNP that crossed all skin layers were quantified by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The obtained data suggests that combining PMNP amphiphilic character with cream formulation improves the intradermal penetration of nanoparticles. While PMNP administration in living mice via aqueous suspension resulted in preferential nanoparticle capture by phagocytes and migration to draining lymph nodes, cream formulation favored uptake by all the analyzed dermis cell types, including hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic. Unlike aqueous suspension, cream formulation also favored the maintenance of nanoparticles in the dermal architecture avoiding their dispersion and migration to draining lymph nodes via afferent lymphatics., Version of Record

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by considerable clinical heterogeneity. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) were proposed as new biomarkers for PD because of their role as vehicles of multiple PD related molecules, but technical limitations exist in their detection and characterization in a clinical environment. We propose herein a Raman based protocol for the label-free analysis of circulating EVs as diagnostic and predictive tool for PD. After purification from serum of PD patients and healthy subjects, EVs were analyzed by Raman spectroscopy demonstrating the feasibility and reproducibility of the proposed biophotonic approach, its moderate accuracy in distinguishing PD patients from controls by their EV profile and the correlation between Raman data and clinical scales. Once validated, the Raman spectroscopy of circulating EVs could represent a reliable, automatable and sensitive method for the stratification of PD patients and for the evaluation of the effectiveness of rehabilitation and pharmacological treatments. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) circulating in blood mirror the processes occurring throughout the body, including the brain. The Raman microspectroscopy of circulating EVs has demonstrated that vesicles from the serum of Parkinson's patients owe a biochemical profile that makes them significantly different from those of healthy control subjects of comparable age. The positive correlation with the commonly used clinical scales suggests that the proposed method can represent a reproducible, fast and label-free method for both the identification and classification of patients with Parkinson's disease and the evaluation of the disease rate of progression, before and after rehabilitation and pharmacological therapy. Unlabelled Image [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The first results of a multicentric study dealing with recurrent varicose veins after surgery are presented. The aims of the study are: identifying the type of varicose vein, specifying the most frequent complaints (esthetical or functional), locating the causes of recurrence, establishing the causes and the most frequent seat of recurrence, clarifying whether it is enough to call recurrent all the varicose veins which appear after surgery or whether it is necessary to distinguish various typologies., Methods: 194 patients (139 women and 55 men) aged 51.6 average (range 28-87), have been studied up to now with duplex and color scanner following a precise protocol which consisted of three stages: before treatment, within 2 months from treatment and after recurrence of varicose veins or venous insufficiency symptoms., Results: Recurrent varicose veins represented 65.7%, residual ones 14.3%, new ones 2.5%. It has not been possible to identify the type of varicose vein in 8.3% of cases. Stripping of the great saphenous veins was carried out in 88% of cases, short stripping in 4.1%, stripping of the short saphenous veins in 6.9%. Recurrent varicose veins were due to technical error in 78.7% of cases, to diagnostic error in 9.2%, to unidentifiable causes in 12% of cases., Conclusions: Data relating to the prospective study of the research will be published in subsequent papers.

Pancreatic necrosis is a well-known risk factor for infectious complications in the patients affected with acute pancreatitis. Dynamic CT with i.v. administration of a large bolus of contrast medium can establish the diagnosis of necrotizing pancreatitis. A series of 49 cases of severe acute pancreatitis was reviewed, and early CT investigations were seen to fail to detect pancreatic necrosis in 22 instances, versus 27 positive cases. In the group of patients with no necrosis, the clinical course was uneventful or characterized by mild complications which regressed spontaneously or by means of adjuvant medical treatment. On the contrary, 17 patients with necrotizing pancreatitis developed severe complications requiring intensive treatment. These complications occurred in 50% of the patients with < 50% of pancreatic necrosis, while the figure rose to 77% whenever more extensive involvement was observed. Our results show that the presence and extent of pancreatic necrosis must be diagnosed as early as possible for prognostic and therapeutic purposes; this can be done by the routinary use of dynamic CT with the administration of large amounts of contrast media at high flow rates.

Radical operation of a right perirenal myxoid liposarcoma is reported. Retroperitoneal sarcomas, in fact, show little response to antiblastic and radiation management. It is pointed out that angiographic diagnosis is an essential prelmiminary to correct surgical indication, particularly since the clinical picture may well be indistinct and poorly specific.