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Background: Osseointegration is an alternative treatment for amputees who are unable to wear or have difficulty wearing a socket prosthesis. Although the majority of limb amputations are due to vascular disease, such amputations have been perceived as a contraindication to osseointegration surgery. We report the outcomes of osseointegrated reconstruction in a series of 5 patients with limb amputation due to peripheral vascular disease.Methods: Five patients with transtibial amputation and a history of peripheral vascular disease who received an osseointegration implant from 2014 to 2015 were followed for 12 months. Clinical and functional outcomes were assessed, including pain, the amount of time the patient wore the prosthesis, mobility, walking ability, and quality of life. Adverse events, including infection, fracture, implant failure, revision surgery, additional amputation, and death, were monitored and recorded.Results: Five transtibial amputees (56 to 84 years of age) followed for 1 year after osseointegration surgery were included in this case series. The mobility of all patients was improved at the time of follow-up. Three patients were wheelchair-bound prior to the surgery but all 5 were able to walk and perform daily activities at the time of follow-up. Four of the 5 patients were pain-free at 12 months postoperatively, and all 5 were using the osseointegrated prosthesis. Two patients had a single episode of superficial soft-tissue infection.Conclusions: An osseointegrated implant may be considered a feasible alternative to the conventional socket prosthesis for patients with peripheral vascular disease.Level Of Evidence: Therapeutic Level IV. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doped calcium silicate ceramics (DCSCs) have recently gained immense interest as a new class of candidates for the treatment of bone defects. Although calcium phosphates and bioactive glasses have remained the mainstream of ceramic bone substitutes, their clinical use is limited by suboptimal mechanical properties. DCSCs are a class of calcium silicate ceramics which are developed through the ionic substitution of calcium ions, the incorporation of metal oxides into the base binary xCaO-ySiO2 system, or a combination of both. Due to their unique compositions and ability to release bioactive ions, DCSCs exhibit enhanced mechanical and biological properties. Such characteristics offer significant advantages over existing ceramic bone substitutes, and underline the future potential of adopting DCSCs for clinical use in bone reconstruction to produce improved outcomes. This review will discuss the effects of different dopant elements and oxides on the characteristics of DCSCs for applications in bone repair, including mechanical properties, degradation and ion release characteristics, radiopacity, and biological activity (in vitro and in vivo). Recent advances in the development of DCSCs for broader clinical applications will also be discussed, including DCSC composites, coated DCSC scaffolds and DCSC-coated metal implants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) is an independent risk factor of atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular diseases. Unfortunately, Hcy-lowering strategies were found to have limited effects in reducing cardiovascular events. The underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Increasing evidence reveals a role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of HHcy. Homocysteine (Hcy) is a precursor of hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which is formed via the transsulfuration pathway catalyzed by cystathionine ß-synthase and cystathionine γ-lyase (CSE) and serves as a novel modulator of inflammation. In the present study, we showed that methionine supplementation induced mild HHcy in mice, associated with the elevations of TNF-α and IL-1ß in the plasma and reductions of plasma H2S level and CSE expression in the peritoneal macrophages. H2S-releasing compound GYY4137 attenuated the increases of TNF-α and IL-1ß in the plasma of HHcy mice and Hcy-treated raw264.7 cells while CSE inhibitor PAG exacerbated it. Moreover, the in vitro study showed that Hcy inhibited CSE expression and H2S production in macrophages, accompanied by the increases of DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) expression and DNA hypermethylation in cse promoter region. DNMT inhibition or knockdown reversed the decrease of CSE transcription induced by Hcy in macrophages. In sum, our findings demonstrate that Hcy may trigger inflammation through inhibiting CSE-H2S signaling, associated with increased promoter DNA methylation and transcriptional repression of cse in macrophages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Case: A 25-year-old woman underwent osseointegration surgery as treatment for an amputation that had been performed because of congenital femoral deficiency. The undersized custom-designed implant for the congenitally hypoplastic femur subsequently loosened, causing substantial pain and loss of function. The patient underwent revision surgery with a larger standard-sized osseointegration implant, and experienced no additional complications. Conclusion: This case demonstrates the possibility of stimulating a hypertrophic response in underdeveloped bone, which allows the subsequent insertion of a larger implant with greater stability. Similar procedures can be considered for the treatment of patients who had amputations because of congenital deficiencies, in order to produce improved outcomes and reduce the risk of additional complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug-loaded hydrophilic polymeric composite (HPC) is one of the most promising biomaterials for resolving the long-standing challenge of the development of oral solid formulations for insoluble drugs. With polyvinylpyrrolidone K10 (PVP) as polymeric carrier and sodium dodecyl sulfonate (SDS) as a surface active agent, a new type of HPC was fabricated for enhancing the dissolution of quercetin using an electrospraying process. A solvent mixture consisting of acetic acid, acetone and ethanol were exploited to prepare the codissolving solution of quercetin, PVP, and SDS for creating HPC. Both the sprayed nanoparticles and casting film fabricated using a thermal solvent evaporation process were amorphous composites, as demonstrated by the XRD results. ATR-FTIR spectra verified that the drug and the pharmaceutical carriers had good compatibility. In vitro dissolution experiments showed that the sprayed HPC could provide an over ten-fold faster dissolution rate than the casting film. Electrospraying is a facile method for developing new kinds of HPCs for insoluble drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three-dimensional (3D) fingerprint spectra provide a wealth of information for the quantitative analysis of multiple target compounds in mixtures. In this paper, a Tchebichef moment method based on the 3D fingerprint spectra obtained from high performance liquid chromatography coupled with a photodiode array detector was proposed and used to determine notoginsenoside R1, ginsenoside Rg1, ginsenoside Re and ginsenoside Rb1 in samples of a traditional Chinese Medicine (Sanqi Panax Notoginseng). The correlation coefficients of the established models were more than 0.9955 within the test ranges, the recovery ranged from 98.41% to 108.00%, and the intra- and inter-day precisions were less than 3.83% and 5.04%, respectively. The obtained results indicated that the Tchebichef moment method had effective feature representation capability and provided satisfactory quantification accuracy. Furthermore, several moment methods applied in analytical chemistry were compared, which provided a valuable insight into the application of moment methods in the analytical field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new bis-Schiff bases containing a piperazine ring, N,N'-bis(4-chlorobenzylidene)- and N,N'-bis(4-cyanobenzylidene)-1,4-bis(3-aminopropyl)piperazine, were prepared by the reaction of N,N'-bis(3-aminopropyl)piperazine with 4-chloro- and 4-cyanobenzaldehyde, respectively. The dichloro compound was fully identified by X-ray crystallography and it exhibited good antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wall-associated kinase (WAK) gene family is a unique subfamily of receptor-like kinases (RLKs) in plants. WAK-RLKs play roles in cell expansion, pathogen resistance, and metal tolerance in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Rice (Oryza sativa) has far more WAK-RLK genes than Arabidopsis, but the functions of rice WAK-RLKs are poorly understood. In this study, we found that one rice WAK-RLK gene, DEFECT IN EARLY EMBRYO SAC1 (OsDEES1), is involved in the regulation of early embryo sac development. OsDEES1 silencing by RNA interference caused a high rate of female sterility. Crossing experiments showed that female reproductive organs lacking OsDEES1 carried a functional defect. A detailed investigation of the ovaries from OsDEES1 RNA interference plants indicated that the knockdown of OsDEES1 expression did not affect megasporogenesis but that it disturbed female gametophyte formation, resulting in a degenerated embryo sac and defective seed formation. OsDEES1 exhibited a tissue-specific expression pattern in flowers and seedlings. In the ovary, OsDEES1 was expressed in the megagametophyte region and surrounding nucellus cells in the ovule near the micropylar region. OsDEES1 was found to be a membrane-localized protein with a unique sequence compared with other WAK-RLKs. These data indicate that OsDEES1 plays a role in rice sexual reproduction by regulating female gametophyte development. This study offers new insight into the functions of the WAK-RLK family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]