Detection and investigation of extracellular vesicles in serum and urine supernatant of prostate cancer patients

Prostate Cancer (PCa) is one of the most frequently identified urological cancers. PCa patients are often over-diagnosed due to still not highly specific diagnostic methods. The need for more accurate diagnostic tools to prevent overestimated diagnosis and unnecessary treatment of patients with non-malignant conditions is clear, and new markers and methods are strongly desirable. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) hold great promises as liquid biopsy-based markers. Despite the biological and technical issues present in their detection and study, these particles can be found highly abundantly in the biofluid and encompass a wealth of macromolecules that have been reported to be related to many physiological and pathological processes, including cancer onset, metastasis spreading, and treatment resistance. The present study aims to perform a technical feasibility study to develop a new workflow for investigating EVs from several biological sources. Serum and urinary supernatant EVs of PCa, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients, and healthy donors were isolated and investigated by a fast, easily performable, and cost-effective cytofluorimetric approach for a multiplex detection of 37 EV-antigens. We also observed significant alterations in serum and urinary supernatant EVs potentially related to BPH and PCa, suggesting a potential clinical application of this workflow

Effect of undersizing on the long-term stability of the Exeter hip stem: a comparative in vitro study

BACKGROUND: Even for clinically successful hip stems such as the Exeter-V40 occasional failures are reported. It has been reported that sub-optimal pre-operative planning, leading to implant undersizing and/or thin cement mantle, can explain such failures. The scope of this study was to investigate whether stem undersizing and a thin cement mantle are sufficient to cause implant loosening. METHODS: A comparative in vitro study was designed to compare hip implants prepared with optimal and smaller than optimal stem size. Exeter-V40, a highly polished cemented hip stem, was used in both cases. Tests were carried out simulating 24years of activity of active hip patients. A multifaceted approach was taken: inducible and permanent micromotions were recorded throughout the test; cement micro-cracks were quantified using dye penetrants and statistically analyzed. FINDINGS: The implants with an optimal stem size withstood the entire mechanical test, with low and stable inducible micromotions and permanent migrations during the test, and with moderate fatigue damage in the cement mantle after test completion. Conversely, the undersized specimens showed large and increasing micromotions, and failed after few loading cycles, because of macroscopic cracks in the proximal part of the cement mantle. While results for the optimal stem size are typical for stable hip stems, those for the undersize stem indicate a critical scenario. INTERPRETATION: These results confirm that even a clinically successful hip prosthesis such as the Exeter-V40 is prone to early loosening if a stem smaller than the optimal size is implanted