Muscle fascicle and tendon behavior during human locomotion revisited

High-speed ultrasonography has revealed that, in human locomotion, the nature of fascicle and tendon length changes varies depending on the task, contraction intensity, and the muscles involved. The findings emphasize that the active fascicles of the gastrocnemius muscle are suddenly stretched, although they are shortening. This short-lasting stretch triggers the stretch reflex, timing of which is dependent on running speed.     

Biliary stones and bacteriae in bile study in 211 consecutive cases

A retrospective study have been performed to investigate the correlation between stone formation and bacteriae in the bile of 211 consecutive biliary stone patients (133 females and 78 males, age ranged 1.3 to 87.0 years old, 196 cholecystolithiasis, 54 choledocholithiasis and 9 hepatolithiasis). They had undergone surgery since January 1980 to December 1987. Bile was collected to perform bacterial culture from the gallbladder and common bile duct during operation and all stones had been classified according to morphology after surgery and confirmed with component analysis if necessary. Totally 5115 stones had been collected and 20.4% had been classified as pure cholesterol stone, 16.8% as combination stone, 17.2% as mixed stone, 23.6% as calcium bilirubinate stone, 17.6% as black stone, 0.8% as calcium fatty acid stone and 3.6% as unknown. In bile culture, 84 from the gallbladder and 31 from the common bile duct were positive. Streptococci were the most frequent and followed by Klebsiella, Escherichia coli and so on. A higher incidence of positive culture was shown in calcium bilirubinate and lower incidence was shown in cholesterol stones. These results suggest that bacteriae in the bile may play a role in the formation of pigment biliary stones.     

Changes in peripheral blood CD5 (Bla) B-cell populations and autoantibodies following blood transfusion

BACKGROUND: CD5 B cells and the natural autoantibodies they produce play a role in antigen presentation, tolerance induction, and maintenance of an idiotypic immune network. The effects of transfusion on autoantibodies and peripheral blood CD5 B cells were studied. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Eight previously transfused patients with sickle cell anemia and five patients who underwent orthopedic surgical procedures with transfusion were enrolled in the study. Patients in both groups received 1 to 2 units of allogeneic packed red cells. Ten untransfused healthy adults and five patients who underwent orthopedic surgery without transfusion were enrolled as controls. Peripheral blood CD5 B cells, serum levels of IgM, antinuclear antibodies, rheumatoid factor, and anticardiolipin IgM were quantitated either at the beginning of the study (baseline sample), before transfusion, or before surgery and either at 1-, 2-, 4-, 6-, and 8-week intervals after transfusion, after surgery, or after the baseline sample was obtained. RESULTS: IgM levels and the absolute number of B cells that coexpressed CD5 rose to twice pretransfusion levels in six of eight transfused sickle cell anemia patients and in four of five transfused orthopedic surgery patients. No comparable increases in CD5 B cells were noted in untransfused controls. Preexisting rheumatoid factor and antinuclear antibody levels increased in four of five transfused orthopedic surgery patients. One sickle cell anemia patient developed anti-Fya despite receiving Fya-negative blood. Increasing titers of anti-Fya paralleled the increases in IgM and CD5 B cells after transfusion. One patient who developed a positive direct antiglobulin test after transfusion had large increases in serum anticardiolipin IgM. Anticardiolipin IgM was subsequently eluted from direct antiglobulin test-positive red cells obtained after transfusion. Antibodies with anti-Fya-like activity and anticardiolipin IgM were produced in vitro by CD5 B cells and not by conventional CD5-negative B cells. CONCLUSION: An association was found between transfusion-induced increases in CD5 B cells and increased autoantibody production. These data may have implications for immunologic intervention to prevent the induction of red cell antibodies and other changes in the immune system caused by exposure to foreign antigens via blood transfusion.     

Congenital segmental dilatation of the colon: report of a case and review of the literature

Segmental dilatation of the colon is a rare lesion. A patient with this lesion complicated by chronic constipation from birth is described. Although the clinical picture and radiographic studies are indistinguishable from Hirschsprung's disease, anorectal manometric studies and a rectal mucosal biopsy are of paramount importance for the diagnosis of this condition. This disease can be cured by resection of the dilated segment. Offprint requests to: N. Komi     

Optic fibre as a transducer of tendomuscular forces

Direct in vivo tendon force measurements open up new possibilities for understanding of muscletendon loads during natural locomotion. The present report presents a new optic fibre method for such applications. The method is based on light intensity modulation by mechanical modification of the geometric properties of the optic fibre. A special optic fibre with a plastic covering buffer and with a total diameter of either 265 m or 500 m was carefully prepared at both ends for receiving and transmitting light. The fibre was inserted through the rabbit common calcaneal tendon with a 20 gauge needle. By removing the needle the optic fibre remained in situ. Static loading demonstrated that the voltage output of the optic fibre transducer showed a good linear fit of r =.999 with added loads. In dynamic loading conditions the optic fibre followed well the response of a strain gauge transducer, which was also attached to the tendon. The optic fibre method seems suitable for many applications for tensile and possibly ligament force measurements.     

Enabling a robust scalable manufacturing process for therapeutic exosomes through oncogenic immortalization of human ESC-derived MSCs

Background  

Exosomes or secreted bi-lipid vesicles from human ESC-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hESC-MSCs) have been shown to reduce myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury in animal models. However, as hESC-MSCs are not infinitely expansible, large scale production of these exosomes would require replenishment of hESC-MSC through derivation from hESCs and incur recurring costs for testing and validation of each new batch. Our aim was therefore to investigate if MYC immortalization of hESC-MSC would circumvent this constraint without compromising the production of therapeutically efficacious exosomes.     

Registry versus publication: discrepancy of primary outcomes and possible outcome reporting bias in child and adolescent mental health

Outcome reporting bias is one of the fundamental forms of publication bias. It implies publishing only outcomes that have positive results. The aim of this observational study was to explore primary outcome discrepancies between registry of clinical trials and their corresponding publications, since these can indicate outcome reporting bias in child mental health. Data were extracted from completed interventional clinical trials from ClinicalTrial.gov registry and its Archive site. Trials were registered under “Behaviours and Mental Disorders” category, and conducted on underage participants (0–17 years). Their primary outcomes were compared to those published in publication which had a corresponding NCT number stated in the text. Sixteen percent of trials did not have the minimum information on primary outcome stated in the registry—neither the measure used nor the measurement time points; 38.9% of trials had the minimum information stated to describe primary outcome, while only 3.3% of trials had all the necessary elements stated in the registry. Most of the publication in our sample had positive results (66.4%). Half of the trials registered before completion had non-matching primary outcomes in the registry and publication; 85.4% of trials with non-matching outcomes indicated possible outcome reporting bias for some of the primary outcome. Middle-sized trials and industry-funded trials were related with higher quality of primary outcome registration. Industry funding was related with positive findings in publication. Non-industry funding proved to be the only significant predictor of discrepancy between registered and published primary outcomes, and possible outcome reporting bias. Journal impact factor was not related with any of the outcome measures. The main limitation of the study is that it primarily offers an insight into discrepancy of registered and published outcomes. The methodology does not imply an access to results of unpublished outcomes — therefore, it was not possible to determine the presence of the bias with sufficient certainty in large number of trials. Further research should be done with improved methodology and additional data.