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Vaccinations are an important pillar of public health. They have high benefits for individuals and society as a whole by specifically preventing or mitigating infectious diseases. In many cases, they offer benefits that go beyond protection against the disease in question, e.g., protective cardiovascular effects. Vaccination recommendations in Germany are drawn up by the Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO), while the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is responsible for the approval of vaccines in the EU. Vaccinations may be carried out by physicians regardless of their specialty. In dermatology, vaccinations against varicella (chickenpox), herpes zoster, and human papillomavirus are established. The development of vaccines against other dermatologically relevant diseases and cancer vaccines is the subject of intensive research. Particularly in the case of immunosuppression, the physician must also take into consideration which vaccinations are possible and useful or contraindicated. Type I or type IV allergies to components of vaccinations are very rare, but reactions at the injection site often occur as a dermatological side effect. Urticarial reactions are also possible, as does the worsening of underlying dermatological conditions such as psoriasis vulgaris., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature.)

Articular cartilage defects represent an unsolved clinical challenge. Photopolymerizable hydrogels are attractive candidates supporting repair. This study investigates the short-term safety and efficacy of two novel hyaluronic acid (HA)-triethylene glycol (TEG)-coumarin hydrogels photocrosslinked in situ in a clinically relevant large animal model. It is hypothesized that HA-hydrogel-augmented microfracture (MFX) is superior to MFX in enhancing early cartilage repair, and that the molar degree of substitution and concentration of HA affects repair. Chondral full-thickness defects in the knees of adult minipigs are treated with either 1) debridement (No MFX), 2) debridement and MFX, 3) debridement, MFX, and HA hydrogel (30% molar derivatization, 30 mg mL -1 HA; F3) (MFX+F3), and 4) debridement, MFX, and HA hydrogel (40% molar derivatization, 20 mg mL -1 HA; F4) (MFX+F4). After 8 weeks postoperatively, MFX+F3 significantly improves total macroscopic and histological scores compared with all other groups without negative effects, besides significantly enhancing the individual repair parameters "defect architecture," "repair tissue surface" (compared with No MFX, MFX), and "subchondral bone" (compared with MFX). These data indicate that photopolymerizable HA hydrogels enable a favorable metastable microenvironment promoting early chondrogenesis in vivo. This work also uncovers a mechanism for effective HA-augmented cartilage repair by combining lower molar derivatization with higher concentrations., (© 2023 The Authors. Advanced Healthcare Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Osteoarthritis (OA) affects a significant number of the world's adult population. In recent years different causal approaches to treat OA based on new translational knowledge have been developed. This review article provides, a brief overview of new findings on the pathophysiology and genetics and the interplay between biomechanics, pain and body weight. Current pharmacological and reconstructive surgical treatment options as well as studies on novel regenerative and molecular therapies of OA, such as applying NGF, FGF-18, TNF-α, Wnt signaling pathway inhibitors, and TGF-β1 gene therapy are discussed. The basis of this work is a selective literature search in PubMed, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar. Selected new findings are discussed in the clinical perspective of OA., Competing Interests: HM is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of TissueGene./HM ist Mitglied des Scientific Advisory Boards von TissueGene., (Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Competing Interests: Die Autoren geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht.

Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.