Escalated regeneration in sciatic nerve crush injury by the combined therapy of human amniotic fluid mesenchymal stem cells and fermented soybean extracts, Natto

Attenuation of inflammatory cell deposits and associated cytokines prevented the apoptosis of transplanted stem cells in a sciatic nerve crush injury model. Suppression of inflammatory cytokines by fermented soybean extracts (Natto) was also beneficial to nerve regeneration. In this study, the effect of Natto on transplanted human amniotic fluid mesenchymal stem cells (AFS) was evaluated. Peripheral nerve injury was induced in SD rats by crushing a sciatic nerve using a vessel clamp. Animals were categorized into four groups: Group I: no treatment; Group II: fed with Natto (16 mg/day for 7 consecutive days); Group III: AFS embedded in fibrin glue; Group IV: Combination of group II and III therapy. Transplanted AFS and Schwann cell apoptosis, inflammatory cell deposits and associated cytokines, motor function, and nerve regeneration were evaluated 7 or 28 days after injury. The deterioration of neurological function was attenuated by AFS, Natto, or the combined therapy. The combined therapy caused the most significantly beneficial effects. Administration of Natto suppressed the inflammatory responses and correlated with decreased AFS and Schwann cell apoptosis. The decreased AFS apoptosis was in line with neurological improvement such as expression of early regeneration marker of neurofilament and late markers of S-100 and decreased vacuole formation. Administration of either AFS, or Natto, or combined therapy augmented the nerve regeneration. In conclusion, administration of Natto may rescue the AFS and Schwann cells from apoptosis by suppressing the macrophage deposits, associated inflammatory cytokines, and fibrin deposits

Genetic determinants of telomere length from 109,122 ancestrally diverse whole-genome sequences in TOPMed

Genetic studies on telomere length are important for understanding age-related diseases. Prior GWASs for leukocyte TL have been limited to European and Asian populations. Here, we report the first sequencing-based association study for TL across ancestrally diverse individuals (European, African, Asian, and Hispanic/Latino) from the NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. We used whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of whole blood for variant genotype calling and the bioinformatic estimation of telomere length in n = 109,122 individuals. We identified 59 sentinel variants (p < 5 × 10−9) in 36 loci associated with telomere length, including 20 newly associated loci (13 were replicated in external datasets). There was little evidence of effect size heterogeneity across populations. Fine-mapping at OBFC1 indicated that the independent signals colocalized with cell-type-specific eQTLs for OBFC1 (STN1). Using a multi-variant gene-based approach, we identified two genes newly implicated in telomere length, DCLRE1B (SNM1B) and PARN. In PheWAS, we demonstrated that our TL polygenic trait scores (PTSs) were associated with an increased risk of cancer-related phenotypes

Low-Power Pulse-Triggered Flip-Flop Design With Conditional Pulse-Enhancement Scheme

In this paper, a novel low-power pulse-triggered flip-flop (FF) design is presented. First, the pulse generation control logic, an AND function, is removed from the critical path to facilitate a faster discharge operation. A simple two-transistor AND gate design is used to reduce the circuit complexity. Second, a conditional pulse-enhancement technique is devised to speed up the discharge along the critical path only when needed. As a result, transistor sizes in delay inverter and pulse-generation circuit can be reduced for power saving. Various postlayout simulation results based on UMC CMOS 90-nm technology reveal that the proposed design features the best power-delay-product performance in seven FF designs under comparison. Its maximum power saving against rival designs is up to 38.4%. Compared with the conventional transmission gate-based FF design, the average leakage power consumption is also reduced by a factor of 3.52

Low Power Pulse Generator Design Using Hybrid Logic

A low power pulse generator design using hybrid logic realization of a 3-input NAND gate is presented. The hybrid logic approach successfully shortens the critical path along the discharging transistor stack and thus reduces the short circuit power consumption during the pulse generation. The combination of pass transistor and full CMOS logic styles in one NAND gate design also helps minimize the required transistor size, which alleviates the loading capacitance of clock tree as well. Simulation results reveal that, compared with prior work, our design can achieve 20.5% and 23% savings respectively in power and circuit area

Low complexity dual-mode pulse generator designs

Two novel low complexity dual-mode pulse generator designs suitable for FFs with triggering mode control are presented. The proposed designs successfully integrate XOR/OR (AND/XNOR) functions into a unified pass transistor logic (PTL) module to provide control on single- or double-edge operations. The designs use as few as 8 transistors each and ingeniously avoid the signal degradation problem inherent in most PTL circuits. As the only dual-mode designs so far, the proposed designs also outperform rival single-mode designs in both aspects of circuit complexity and power consumption

A Low Complexity Low Power Signal Transition Detector Design for Self-Timed Circuits

A novel signal transition detector design using as few as 8 transistors is presented The proposed design cleverly exploits the property of a specific Internal state transition to mitigate the voltage degradation problem by employing only one extra transistor It is thus capable of supporting level intact output signals and eliminating DC power consumption in the trailing buffer The proposed design. featuring. low circuit complexity and low power consumption. is considered useful for applications in self-timed circuits Simulation results show that. when compared with other pass transistor logic based counterpart designs as much as 46% savings in power and 28% in area can be achieved by the proposed desig

A Low Complexity Dual-Mode Pulse-Triggered Flip-Flop Design Based on Unified AND/XNOR Logic

A dual mode pulse triggered flip flop design supporting functional versatility is presented A low complexity unified logic module consisting of only five transistors for dual mode pulse generation is devised using pass transistor logic (PTL) Potential threshold voltage loss problem is successfully resolved to ensure the signal integrity Despite the extra logic for dual mode operations the circuit complexity of the proposed design is comparable to those of the single mode designs Simulations in different process corners and switching activities prove the competitive per tormance of proposed design against various single mode design

The Role of Serum and Urine Interleukin-8 on Acute Pyelonephritis and Subsequent Renal Scarring in Children

Background: Interleukin (IL)-8 acts as a potent neutrophils chemoattractant responsible for the migration of neutrophils into the infected renal tissue to protect against invading pathogens. The aim of this study was to assess the role of IL-8 on acute-phase pyelonephritis and later renal scarring in children. Patients and Methods: A total of 124 children with a first-time febrile urinary tract infection (UTI) were studied. The diagnosis of acute pyelonephritis was confirmed by (99m)Tc-dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) renal scan. Serum and urine samples were obtained from 124 children with UTI and 20 healthy children for IL-8 measurement. Results: The 124 children were divided into acute pyelonephritis (n = 70) and lower UTI (n = 54) groups according to the results of DMSA scans, The initial serum and urine IL-8 values of children with acute pyclonephritis were significantly higher when compared with lower UTI and healthy controls (all P = III all were independent predictors of renal scarring. Conclusions: Those children younger than 2 years of age with the highest IL-8 concentrations during the acute phase of pyelonephritis as well as children with reflux grades of III or greater are at a high-risk for developing renal scarring in the future

Effects of particle size reduction of insoluble fibres by micron technology on various caecal and faecal indices

BACKGROUND: Previous findings demonstrated that particle size reduction of insoluble fibre materials (i.e. starfruit insoluble fibre-rich fraction and cellulose) to micro-sizes effectively enhanced their physicochemical properties, which provided clues to their physiological functions. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of particle size reduction of these insoluble fibres by micron technology on indices of bowel health. RESULTS: Feeding of the micronised fibres (9.68-14.3 mu m), especially those prepared by high-pressure micronisation, effectively (P < 0.05) improved various caecal and faecal indices, such as decreasing the caecal ammonia concentration (by 20.0-30.0%), increasing the faecal output (135-150%) and moisture content (143-1571/0) and lowering the activities of undesired beta-D-glucosidase (by 39.2-43.6%) and P-D-glucuronidase (by 71.4-77.5%) in faeces of hamsters. Relationships between physicochemical properties and physiological functions of the micronised fibres were considered. The results also demonstrated that the type, processing and related particle size of insoluble fibres were important factors affecting their physicochemical properties and physiological functions. CONCLUSION: The consumption of micronised insoluble fibres at 5% level might exert a favourable effect on improving various caecal and faecal indices. The results of this study provide some hints on potential applications of micron technology in the food industry. (c) 2007 Society of Chemical Industry