Search

Introduction: Restoring oral intake through oropharyngeal reconstruction is vital for patients undergoing total glossolaryngectomy. Despite its importance, research in this area is limited, leaving clinicians with few guidelines. The debate regarding the optimal shape of the reconstructed oropharynx highlights the need for further research. Methods: This retrospective study analysed data from 16 consecutive patients who underwent primary reconstruction with a free rectus abdominis musculocutaneous flap after total glossolaryngectomy at the University of the Ryukyus Hospital between April 2015 and March 2022. Parameters assessed included reconstructed oropharynx shape (flat or funnel-shaped), demographics, flap characteristics, post-operative course and oral intake outcomes. Results: Among the 16 patients, 10 had flat oropharynx, whereas 6 had a funnel-shaped oropharynx. At 6 months post-surgery, 13 patients resumed oral feeding, whereas 3 did not. Significant differences were observed between the groups in preoperative body mass index (21.1 kg/m² vs 17.8 kg/m², Welch's t-test, p=0.035) and days until the first oral intake (34.2 days vs 19.2 days, Welch's t-test, p=0.01). However, no significant differences were found in the form of oral intake at 6 months after surgery (Fisher's exact test, p=0.518). Conclusion: This study suggests that the shape of the reconstructed oropharynx (flat or funnel-shaped) does not significantly impact long-term post-operative oral intake. These findings provide valuable insights into oropharyngeal reconstruction outcomes after total glossolaryngectomy and offer guidance for future research in this area. Nevertheless, further studies are warranted to elucidate the clinical implications of these findings and address any limitations of this study, particularly those regarding sample size constraints.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) has limited treatment options for regaining function. Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) show promise owing to their ability to differentiate into multiple cell types, promote nerve cell survival, and modulate inflammation. This review explores ADSC therapy for SCI, focusing on its potential for improving function, preclinical and early clinical trial progress, challenges, and future directions.Preclinical studies have demonstrated ADSC transplantation's effectiveness in promoting functional recovery, reducing cavity formation, and enhancing nerve regrowth and myelin repair. To improve ADSC efficacy, strategies including genetic modification and combination with rehabilitation are being explored. Early clinical trials have shown safety and feasibility, with some suggesting motor and sensory function improvements.Challenges remain for clinical translation, including optimizing cell survival and delivery, determining dosing, addressing tumor formation risks, and establishing standardized protocols. Future research should focus on overcoming these challenges and exploring the potential for combining ADSC therapy with other treatments, including rehabilitation and medication.

Chronic wounds represent a significant global burden, afflicting millions with debilitating complications. Despite standard care, impaired healing persists due to factors like persistent inflammation and impaired tissue regeneration. Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) offer an innovative regenerative medicine approach, delivering stem cell-derived therapeutic cargo in engineered nanoscale delivery systems. This review examines pioneering bioengineering strategies to engineer MSC-EVs into precision nanotherapeutics for chronic wounds. Emerging technologies like CRISPR gene editing, microfluidic manufacturing, and biomimetic delivery systems are highlighted for their potential to enhance MSC-EV targeting, optimize therapeutic cargo enrichment, and ensure consistent clinical-grade production. However, key hurdles remain, including batch variability, rigorous safety assessment for potential tumorigenicity, immunogenicity, and biodistribution profiling. Crucially, collaborative frameworks harmonizing regulatory science with bioengineering and patient advocacy hold the key to expediting global clinical translation. By overcoming these challenges, engineered MSC-EVs could catalyze a new era of off-the-shelf regenerative therapies, restoring hope and healing for millions afflicted by non-healing wounds.

While the conservation of forest elephants is a global concern, human-elephant conflict (HEC), especially crop-raiding by elephants, is a serious threat to both human livelihoods and conservation efforts. However, only a few studies have explored elephant crop-raiding and related damage mitigation strategies in Central Africa’s forest landscapes, which are characterized by low human and high animal densities and shifting cultivation practices. This study investigates HEC in rural Gabon, where human activities are limited, and local livelihoods are severely threatened by crop-raiding elephants. Through long-term ethnographic research and an in-depth analysis of damage mitigation practices by local people, the study unveils serious crop-raiding by elephants, leading to a significant change in the local lifestyle. Most households spend the majority of days in the field protecting crops, resulting in the village becoming almost empty. In addition to the physical burden of staying in poor living conditions, there is a considerable psychological burden for local people. Establishing effective elephant conservation systems requires understanding each local situation and evaluating the various costs to local people. To sustain livelihoods and address the challenge of HEC, it is crucial for local communities and various stakeholders to act collectively.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a highly prevalent, chronic, and progressive autoimmune disorder primarily affecting joints and muscles. The associated inflammation, pain, and motor restriction negatively impact patient quality of life (QOL) and can even contribute to premature mortality. Further, conventional treatments such as antiinflammatory drugs are only symptomatic. Substantial progress has been made on elucidating the etiopathology of overt RA, in particular the contributions of innate and adaptive immune system dysfunction to chronic inflammation. Although the precise mechanisms underlying onset and progression remain elusive, the discovery of new drug targets, early diagnosis, and new targeted treatments have greatly improved the prognosis and QOL of patients with RA. However, a sizable proportion of patients develop severe adverse effects, exhibit poor responses, or cannot tolerate long-term use of these drugs, necessitating more effective and safer therapeutic alternatives. Mounting preclinical and clinical evidence suggests that the transplantation of multipotent adult stem cells such as mesenchymal stromal/stem cells is a safe and effective treatment strategy for controlling chronic inflammation and promoting tissue regeneration in patients with intractable diseases, including RA. This review describes the current status of MSC-based therapies for RA as well as the opportunities and challenges to broader clinical application.

Many surgeons have demonstrated the validity of sternocleidomastoid muscle flaps for the reconstruction of head and neck tumors. We present a case in which we used an island sternocleidomastoid muscle flap to reconstruct a cheek depression after excision of a malignant parotid tumor. A 44-year-old woman presented with a right malignant parotid tumor. We performed total resection of the parotid gland and facial nerve with the sural nerve and reconstructed the facial nerve and cheek depression with an island sternocleidomastoid muscle flap. The sternal head of the right sternocleidomastoid muscle was cut at the cranial and caudal segments to elevate it as an island flap. We used the superior thyroid artery as the sole pedicle for the island muscle flap. At 1 year and 3 months after the operation, the mimic muscles had gradually recovered and progressed without complications such as Frey syndrome, cervical motor dysfunction, or concave deformation of the neck and cheeks.

Summary:. We report a case of a large mediocaudal abdominal defect in contaminated circumstances with no residual rectus abdominis muscle that was reconstructed using an internal oblique muscle flap with large-pore polypropylene mesh reinforcement. The internal oblique muscle flap can reconstruct the lower abdominal midline without leaving any additional conspicuous scar. Previous studies showed that large-pore polypropylene mesh in contaminated wounds has a minimal difference in terms of infection rate, and less frequent occurrence of hernia, compared even with biological meshes. We believe that this method could be a strong and cosmetically satisfying option for large mediocaudal abdominal wall reconstruction.

Pygmy populations occupy a vast territory extending west-to-east along the central African belt from the Congo Basin to Lake Victoria. However, their numbers and actual distribution is not known precisely. Here, we undertake this task by using locational data and population sizes for an unprecedented number of known Pygmy camps and settlements (n = 654) in five of the nine countries where currently distributed. With these data we develop spatial distribution models based on the favourability function, which distinguish areas with favourable environmental conditions from those less suitable for Pygmy presence. Highly favourable areas were significantly explained by presence of tropical forests, and by lower human pressure variables. For documented Pygmy settlements, we use the relationship between observed population sizes and predicted favourability values to estimate the total Pygmy population throughout Central Africa. We estimate that around 920,000 Pygmies (over 60% in DRC) is possible within favourable forest areas in Central Africa. We argue that fragmentation of the existing Pygmy populations, alongside pressure from extractive industries and sometimes conflict with conservation areas, endanger their future. There is an urgent need to inform policies that can mitigate against future external threats to these indigenous peoples' culture and lifestyles.

African tropical rainforests are decreasing rapidly because of the expansion of agricultural lands and commercial logging. In addition to habitat loss resulting from deforestation, an increase in the bushmeat trade threatens some wildlife species with extinction. Among these, African great apes are especially vulnerable because of their long life cycle and low reproduction rates, large range size, and high risk of being infected by diseases of human origin. Thus, conservation of biodiversity in African tropical rainforest, especially of great apes, is an urgent problem. In order to find a solution, the participation of the local population is essential. It is also important to implement development projects in order to resolve conflicts between conservation policies and local lifestyles. It is therefore necessary to pay enough attention to both people and animals and to move towards an integrated approach geared at the relation between local societies and the environment.Japanese ecological anthropology and primatology, which developed simultaneously through longterm field research in various regions of Africa, offer a suggestive idea to tackle the issue. Their interdisciplinary achievements may provide clues to establish a system of biodiversity conservation along with concerns for local welfare. As the outcome of cooperation between primatologists and an ecological anthropologist, this article discusses possibilities for synthesizing the two academic domains and realizing biodiversity conservation in African tropical forests based on a collaborative project in and around the Moukalaba-Doudou National Park in Gabon.Primatologists describe in detail their relationships with local people which allow them to conduct effective field research. They have developed scientific knowledge on great ape ecology as well as intimate relationships with local trackers. On the other hand, the ecological anthropologist illustrates relationships between local people and wildlife and deals with the local perception of animals. Local people have coexisted with great apes regarding them as similar to humans and giving them cultural value. The negative aspect of great apes for local people, such as crop-raiding, is also pointed out.Finally, the authors demonstrate how their interdisciplinary collaborative project integrates biodiversity conservation and local development, and then discuss the importance of ecotourism projects based on local initiatives. The synthesis of the scientific knowledge and close relationships that primatologists established with local people with the deep understanding of local culture acquired by ecological anthropologists, leads us to suggest implementing an ecotourism based on various narratives created through collaborative research activities.

Division of labour in eusocial insects is characterized by efficient communication systems based on pheromones. Among such insects, termites have evolved specialized sterile defenders, called soldiers. Because they are incapable of feeding themselves, it has been suggested that soldiers are sustained by workers and emit the pheromone arresting workers. However, such a soldier pheromone has not been identified in any termite species, and the details of the soldier-worker interaction remain to be explored. Here, we identified a soldier-specific volatile sesquiterpene as a worker arrestant, which also acts as a primer pheromone regulating soldier differentiation and fungistatic agent in a termite Reticulitermes speratus. Chemical analyses revealed that (2)-b-elemene is the major component of soldier extract, and its authentic standard exhibited arrestant activity to workers and inhibited the differentiation from workers to soldiers. This compound also showed fungistatic activity against entomopathogenic fungi. These suggest that (2)-b-elemene secreted by soldiers acts not only as a worker arrestant but also as one component of inhibitory primer pheromone and an anti-pathogenic agent. Our study provides novel evidence supporting the multi-functionality of termite soldier pheromone and provides new insights into the role of soldiers and the evolutionary mechanisms of pheromone compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]