Continued Postoperative Use of Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Inhibitors for the Prevention of Crohn’s Disease Recurrence

Background/AimsMany patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) undergo intestinal resection during the disease course. Despite surgery, postoperative recurrence (POR) commonly occurs. Although postoperative use of tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) inhibitors is known to be effective in preventing POR, few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of continuing the same TNF-α inhibitors postoperatively in patients who received TNF-ɑ inhibitors before surgery.MethodsThis retrospective observational study was performed in a single tertiary medical center. We retrospectively reviewed patients who had undergone the first intestinal resection due to CD and divided them into two groups TNF-α inhibitor users in both the preoperative and postoperative periods, and TNF-α inhibitor users in only the preoperative period. We compared the clinical outcomes between these two groups.ResultsIn total, 45 patients who used TNF-α inhibitors preoperatively were recruited. Among them, TNF-α inhibitors were used postoperatively in 20 patients (44.4%). The baseline characteristics except age at diagnosis were similar in both groups. The rates of surgical and endoscopic recurrence were not different between the two groups, but the cumulative clinical recurrence rate was significantly lower in the postoperative TNF-α inhibitors group (log-rank p=0.003). In multivariate Cox regression analysis, postoperative TNF-α inhibitors use was significantly associated with a decreased risk of clinical recurrence (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.204; 95% confidence interval, 0.060 to 0.691; p=0.011).ConclusionsContinuing TNF-α inhibitors postoperatively in patients who were receiving TNF-α inhibitors before surgery significantly reduced the rate of clinical recurrence. For patients with CD who received TNF-α inhibitors preoperatively, continuing their use after surgery could be recommended.     

Transgenic alteration of Toll immune pathway in the female mosquito Aedes aegypti

Reverse genetics is a powerful tool for understanding gene functions and their interactions in the mosquito innate immunity. We took the transgenic approach, in combination with the RNA interference (RNAi) technique, to elucidate the role of mosquito REL1, a homolog of Drosophila Dorsal, in regulation of Toll immune pathway in the mosquito Aedes aegypti. By transforming the mosquitoes with DeltaREL1-A or a double-stranded RNA construct of REL1 driven by the female fat body-specific vitellogenin (Vg) promoter with the pBac[3xP3-EGFP, afm] vector, we generated two different transgenic mosquito strains, one with overexpressed AaREL1 and the second with AaREL1 knockdown. Both strains had a single copy of the respective transgene, and the expression in both transgenic mosquitoes was highly activated by blood feeding. Vg-DeltaREL1-A transgenic mosquitoes activate Toll immune pathway in the fat body by blood feeding. The overexpression of both isoforms, AaREL1-A and AaREL1-B, in Vg-DeltaREL1-A transgenic mosquitoes resulted in the concomitant activation of Aedes Sp?tzle1A and Serpin-27A, independent of septic injury. The same phenotype was observed in the mosquitoes with RNAi knockdown of an Aedes homolog to Drosophila cactus, an IkappaB inhibitor of Drosophila Toll pathway. The effect of the transgenic RNAi knockdown of AaREL1 on mosquito innate immunity was revealed by increased susceptibility to the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana and the reduced induction of Spz1A and Serpin-27A gene expression after fungal challenge. These results have proven that AaREL1 is a key downstream regulator of Toll immune pathway in the mosquito A. aegypti.     

High-performance thin H:SiON OLED encapsulation layer deposited by PECVD at low temperature

Highly moisture permeation resistive and transparent single layer thin films for the encapsulation of hydrogenated silicon oxynitrides (H:SiON) were deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) using silane (SiH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), ammonia (NH₃), and hydrogen (H₂) at 100 °C for applications to a top-emission organic light-emitting diode (TEOLED). Addition of H₂ into the PECVD process of SiON film deposition afforded the hydrogenated SiON film, which showed not only improved optical properties such as transmittance and reflectance but also better barrier property to water permeation than PECVD SiON and even SiN_x. The H:SiON film with thickness of only 80 nm exhibited water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) lower than 5 × 10⁻⁵ g per m² per day in the test conditions of 38 °C and 100% humidity, where this WVTR is the measurement limit of the MOCON equipment. An additional coating of UV curable polymer enabled the H:SiON films to be flexible and to have very stable barrier property lower than 5 × 10⁻⁵ g per m² per day even after a number of 10k times bending tests at a curvature radius of 1R. The mild H:SiON film process improved the electrical properties of top-emission OLEDs without generating any dark spots. Furthermore, single H:SiON films having high water vapor barrier could maintain the original illumination features of TEOLED longer than 720 hours. These excellent properties of the H:SiON thin films originated from the structural changes of the SiON material by the introduction of hydrogen.

High-performance H:SiON single layer thin film encapsulation (TFE) was deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) method. To control the characteristics of the SiON thin films, hydrogen gas was introduced during PECVD process.     

A study of the density of states of ZnCoO:H from resistivity measurements

Understanding the electronic band structure and density of states (DOS) of a material and their relationship to the associated electronic transport properties is the starting point for optimizing the performance of a device and its technological applications. In a hydrogenated Zn_0.8Co_0.2O (ZnCoO:H) film with an inverted thin-film transistor structure, we found ambipolar behavior, which is shown in many field-effect devices based on graphene, graphene nanoribbons, and organic semiconductors. In this study, to obtain information on the DOS of ZnCoO:H to explain the ambipolar behavior in terms of the carrier density and type, resistivity and magnetoresistance measurements of a ZnCoO:H film were performed at 5 K. Our proposed DOS representation of ZnCoO:H explains qualitatively the experimental observations of carrier density modulation and ambipolar behavior. First-principles calculations of the DOS of ZnCoO:H were in good agreement with the proposed DOS representation. Through a comparison of first-principles calculations and experimental data, evidence for the existence of Co–H–Co in ZnCoO:H is suggested.

Ambipolar behavior in a hydrogenated Zn_0.8Co_0.2O (ZnCoO:H) film is investigated via resistivity and magnetoresistance measurements and first-principles calculations of the DOS. Evidence for the existence of Co–H–Co in ZnCoO:H is suggested.