A Summary of Planarian Signaling Pathway for Regenerative Medicine

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, India Section B: Biological Sciences - Regenerative medicine has been increased for helping crucial diseases and injuries. Planarians have appeared...     

Nutrition transition – Pattern IV: Leads Bangladeshi youth to the increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity

Fast food and soft drinks consumption leading to excess calorie intake coupled with lack of acceptable physical activity has augmented the prevalence of overweight and obesity among the world population for the past few eras. A cross-sectional study was carried out among 475 youth selected by systematic random sampling attending in 27 established public and private universities and colleges of Bangladesh. The study was aimed to evaluate habitual facts associated with the prevalence of overweight and obesity among Bangladeshi youth. The rates of fast food consumption (once/week) are 50.6%, 43.7%, and 53.3% in overweight, pre-obese and obese-1 respondents accordingly and the rates of soft drinks consumption (4–6 times/week) are 40.5%, 59.2%, and 73.3% respectively for the same subjects. Moreover, approximately 40.8% of the youth went to fast food restaurants at least once per week and 27.2% went regularly (2 times/week). Youth having fast foods 2 times/week, consuming soft drinks 3–4 times/week were more likely to be obese. Besides, obesity epidemic was observed among those who have not the habit of doing physical exercise. This study provides evidence of increasing trend and threat to overweight and obesity for the Bangladeshi youth.     

Identification of the medial femoral safe zone for drilling during dynamic hip screw side plate fixation: A CT angiogram tracing of the profunda femoris artery

Objectives

Iatrogenic injury of the Profunda Femoris Artery (PFA) at time of hip fixation surgery can increase morbidity and mortality and prolong the hospital stay. This is an injury that tends to pass unnoticed as a cause of postoperative deterioration despite being frequently reported in the literature. Our study aims to describe the anatomy of the PFA in relation to the medial femoral cortex with specific emphasis on its orientation relative to the position of a sliding hip screw side plate construct. By doing so we are able to present clear guidance to orthopaedic surgeons on how to avoid iatrogenic PFA injury at the time of hip fracture fixation.

Genome‐wide single nucleotide polymorphism‐based autozygosity mapping facilitates identification of mutations in consanguineous families with epidermolysis bullosa

Autozygosity mapping (AM) is a technique utilised for mapping homozygous autosomal recessive (AR) traits and facilitation of genetic diagnosis. We investigated the utility of AM for the molecular diagnosis of heterogeneous AR disorders, using epidermolysis bullosa (EB) as a paradigm. We applied this technique to a cohort of 46 distinct EB families using both short tandem repeat (STR) and genome‐wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array‐based AM to guide targeted Sanger sequencing of EB candidate genes. Initially, 39 of the 46 cases were diagnosed with homozygous mutations using this method. Independently, 26 cases, including the seven initially unresolved cases, were analysed with an EB‐targeted next‐generation sequencing (NGS) panel. NGS identified mutations in five additional cases, initially undiagnosed due to the presence of compound heterozygosity, deep intronic mutations or runs of homozygosity below the set threshold of 2 Mb, for a total yield of 44 of 46 cases (95.7%) diagnosed genetically.     

Tobacco consumption,opium use,alcohol drinking and the risk of esophageal cancer in North Khorasan,Iran

Background: There are some unique epidemiological characteristics of esophageal cancer in Iran. The objective of this study was finding the association between tobacco, substance and alcohol using with the risk of esophageal cancer in North Khorasan, Iran.

Methods: This Case-Control study was carried out on 96 patients with esophageal cancer and 187 controls. Controls were matched to cases by age and sex. Data were collected through structured interview. Data were analyzed by using chi-square test, T-test and logistic regression, in Stata software version 12.

Results: Our findings show Hookah smoking [OR = 6.1(CI_95%:1.2–13.1)] and opium consumption [OR = 2.1(CI_95%:1.2–3.5)] were associated with esophageal cancer. Cigarette and pipe smoking, age of onset of smoking, duration of smoking, number of smoking per day, leaving history of smoking, years of leaving smoking, drug withdrawal, number of times of drug withdrawal, a history of drug relapse, alcohol consumption and alcohol dose–response were not related to esophageal cancer.

Conclusion: According to our results, hookah smoking and opium consumption enhance the risk of esophageal cancer in North Khorasan of Iran. We suggest appropriate planning to prevent the esophageal cancer in this district.     

Improved dynamic connection detection power in estimated dynamic functional connectivity considering multivariate dependencies between brain regions

To estimate dynamic functional connectivity (dFC), the conventional method of sliding window correlation (SWC) suffers from poor performance of dynamic connection detection. This stems from the equal weighting of observations, suboptimal time scale, nonsparse output, and the fact that it is bivariate. To overcome these limitations, we exploited the kernel‐reweighted logistic regression (KELLER) algorithm, a method that is common in genetic studies, to estimate dFC in resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs‐fMRI) data. KELLER can estimate dFC through estimating both spatial and temporal patterns of functional connectivity between brain regions. This paper compares the performance of the proposed KELLER method with current methods (SWC and tapered‐SWC (T‐SWC) with different window lengths) based on both simulated and real rs‐fMRI data. Estimated dFC networks were assessed for detecting dynamically connected brain region pairs with hypothesis testing. Simulation results revealed that KELLER can detect dynamic connections with a statistical power of 87.35% compared with 70.17% and 58.54% associated with T‐SWC (p‐value = .001) and SWC (p‐value <.001), respectively. Results of these different methods applied on real rs‐fMRI data were investigated for two aspects: calculating the similarity between identified mean dynamic pattern and identifying dynamic pattern in default mode network (DMN). In 68% of subjects, the results of T‐SWC with window length of 100 s, among different window lengths, demonstrated the highest similarity to those of KELLER. With regards to DMN, KELLER estimated previously reported dynamic connection pairs between dorsal and ventral DMN while SWC‐based method was unable to detect these dynamic connections.     

Predictors of Weight Regain and Insufficient Weight Loss According to Different Definitions After Sleeve Gastrectomy: a Retrospective Analytical Study

Background

Weight regain (WR) and insufficient weight loss (IWL) after sleeve gastrectomy (SG) are challenging issues. This study aimed to evaluate the predictors of WR and IWL after SG.

Methods

In this retrospective analytical study, 568 patients who underwent SG at Hazrat-e Rasool General Hospital, Tehran, Iran, between January 2015 and April 2022 were evaluated. A total of 333 patients were included. WR and IWL were evaluated by multiple criteria such as a BMI of > 35 kg/m², an increase in BMI of > 5 kg/m² above nadir, an increase in weight of > 10 kg above nadir, percentage of excess weight loss (%EWL) < 50% at 18 months, an increase in weight of > 25% of EWL from nadir at 36 months, and percentage of total weight loss (%TWL) < 20% at 36 months. All participants were followed up for 36 months.

Result

The univariate analysis showed that preoperative BMI, obstructive sleep apnea, metformin consumption, and grades 2 and 3 fatty liver disease were associated with WR and IWL (P < 0.05). WR or IWL incidence varied (0–19.3%) based on different definitions. The multivariate analysis showed that a preoperative BMI of > 45 kg/m² [odds ratio_Adjusted (OR_Adj) 1.77, 95% CI: 1.12–4.11, P = 0.038] and metformin consumption [OR_Adj: 0.48, 95% CI: 0.19–0.78, P = 0.001] were associated with WR and IWL after SG, regardless of the definition of WR or IWL.

Conclusion

This study showed that preoperative BMI of > 45 kg/m², obstructive sleep apnea, metformin consumption, and grades 2 and 3 of fatty liver disease were associated with WR or IWL.

Graphical abstract