Cells and Materials for Disease Modeling and Regenerative Medicine

Materials science and engineering are strongly developing tools with increasing impact in the biotechnological and biomedical areas. Interestingly, research in molecular and cellular biology is often at the core of the design and development of materials-based approaches, providing biological rationale. Focused on research relying on biology–materials interaction, IJMS launched a Special Issue named “Cells and Materials for Disease Modeling and Regenerative Medicine”. The aim of the Special Issue was to generate a compilation of in vitro and in vivo strategies based on cell–material interactions. This book compiles the papers published in that Special Issue and includes a selection of six original scientific experimental articles and six comprehensive reviews. We are convinced that this collection of articles shows representative examples of the state of the art in the field, unveiling the relevance of materials research in generating new regenerative medicine and disease modeling approaches

Management of bone defects with Bio-oss

Introduction: The defects in the alveolar bone might appear as a result of congenital malformations, traumatic injuries, periodontal disease, surgical traumas, chronic periapical changes and tumors from benign or malignant origin. The aim of this study was to provide solid and healthy area with application of Bio-Oss in the defect. Materials and methods: Based on the clinical diagnosisestablished by previously taken history, clinical examination and radiographic images oral-surgery interventions was made. To realize the aim of this work, augmentative material was implicated in the bone defects made in the patients after removal of follicular cyst, chronic periapical lesion, and parodontopathia. During the first and seventh day of the interventions, the patients have been followed through from aspect of possible development of local and general complications after the oral-surgery intervention. After period of one, three and six mount control x-ray was made. Results: Obtained results confirmed that: volume of the socket and defect of the bone was kept, fast revascularization was achieved, bone formation and slow resorption of the augmentative material was achieved, and period of normal healing without infection was also achieved. Conclusions: The augmentative materials used for treatment of bone defects besides their basic chemical and physical characteristics referring to their solubility in the body fluids, the transformation, modulation and resorption must be completely safe or secure, i.e. not to bring any risk of infection, immunological risk, physiological intolerance or inhibition of the process of restitutio ad integrum. In our study Bio-Oss was confirmed as augmentative material who had this characteristics. Keywords: bone defect, resorption of the bone, augmentative material, Bio-Os

Novel bioinformatics tools for epitope-based peptide vaccine design

BACKGROUND T-cells are essential in the mediation of immune responses, helping clear bacteria, viruses and cancerous cells. T-cells recognise anomalies in the cellular proteome associated with infection and neoplasms through the T-cell receptor (TCR). The most common TCRs in humans, αβ TCRs, engage processed peptide epitopes presented on the major histocompatibility complex (pMHC). TCR-pMHC interaction is critical to vaccination. In this thesis I will discuss three pieces of software and outcomes derived from them that contribute to epitope-based vaccine design. RESULTS Three pieces of software were developed to help scientists study and understand T-cell responses. The first, STACEI allows users to interrogate the TCR-pMHC crystal structures. The time consuming, error-prone analysis that previously would have to be ran manually, is replaced by a single, flexible package. The second development is the introduction of general-purpose computing on the GPU (GP-GPU) in aiding the prediction of T-cell epitopes by scanning protein datasets using data derived from combinatorial peptide libraries (CPLs). Finally, I introduce RECIPIENT, a reverse vaccinology tool (RV) that combines pangenomic and population genetics methods to predict good vaccine targets across multiple pathogen samples. CONCLUSION Across this thesis, I introduce three different methods that aid the study of T-cells that will hopefully improve future vaccine design. These methods range across data types and methodologies, with methods focusing on mechanistic understanding of the TCR-pMHC binding event; the application of GP-GPU to CPLs and using microbial genomics to aid the study and understanding of antigen-specific T-cell responses. These three methods have a significant potential for further integration, especially the structural methods

Separator fluid volume requirements in multi-infusion settings

INTRODUCTION. Intravenous (IV) therapy is a widely used method for the administration of medication in hospitals worldwide. ICU and surgical patients in particular often require multiple IV catheters due to incompatibility of certain drugs and the high complexity of medical therapy. This increases discomfort by painful invasive procedures, the risk of infections and costs of medication and disposable considerably. When different drugs are administered through the same lumen, it is common ICU practice to flush with a neutral fluid between the administration of two incompatible drugs in order to optimally use infusion lumens. An important constraint for delivering multiple incompatible drugs is the volume of separator fluid that is sufficient to safely separate them. OBJECTIVES. In this pilot study we investigated whether the choice of separator fluid, solvent, or administration rate affects the separator volume required in a typical ICU infusion setting. METHODS. A standard ICU IV line (2m, 2ml, 1mm internal diameter) was filled with methylene blue (40 mg/l) solution and flushed using an infusion pump with separator fluid. Independent variables were solvent for methylene blue (NaCl 0.9% vs. glucose 5%), separator fluid (NaCl 0.9% vs. glucose 5%), and administration rate (50, 100, or 200 ml/h). Samples were collected using a fraction collector until <2% of the original drug concentration remained and were analyzed using spectrophotometry. RESULTS. We did not find a significant effect of administration rate on separator fluid volume. However, NaCl/G5% (solvent/separator fluid) required significantly less separator fluid than NaCl/NaCl (3.6 ± 0.1 ml vs. 3.9 ± 0.1 ml, p <0.05). Also, G5%/G5% required significantly less separator fluid than NaCl/NaCl (3.6 ± 0.1 ml vs. 3.9 ± 0.1 ml, p <0.05). The significant decrease in required flushing volume might be due to differences in the viscosity of the solutions. However, mean differences were small and were most likely caused by human interactions with the fluid collection setup. The average required flushing volume is 3.7 ml. CONCLUSIONS. The choice of separator fluid, solvent or administration rate had no impact on the required flushing volume in the experiment. Future research should take IV line length, diameter, volume and also drug solution volumes into account in order to provide a full account of variables affecting the required separator fluid volume