Informing patients of relevant health information and innovations: patient recall or annual physical

Recently the NEJM published an interesting debate on the value of the annual physical (also known as "periodic health examination") (Goroll 2015). "Today, because of the rapid growth of medical knowledge and the widening application of technology to medicine, there is a particular need for a continuing authoritative review of, standards for both preventive and therapeutic strategies. Some of these strategies are subsumed under the general category of the periodic health examination." (Canadian Task Force on the Periodic Health Examination 1979). Although the current debate of the annual physical has narrowly focused on preventive strategies in healthy individuals and building patient-physicians relationship, recent breakthrough clinical innovation in many fields, especially in genomic medicine, widens the need of review to new effective therapy and diagnostics. This is the case because genomic medicine indicates new therapeutic treatments and targets, and the costs of sequencing have been decreasing over timeFil: Holzer, Felicitas Sofia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales; ArgentinaFil: Mastroleo, Ignacio Damian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Mertelsmann, Roland. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Differential regulation of interleukin-6 expression in human fibroblasts by tumor necrosis factor-α and lymphotoxin

AbstractThe treatment of human diploid fibroblasts with tumor necrosis factor (TNP)-α and with lymphotoxin (LT) is associated with induction of interleuk-in-6 (IL-6) transcripts with TNF-α being 10-fold more potent than LT. Here we report on the TNF-α/LT-induced signaling mechanisms responsible for the regulation of IL-6 gene expression in these cells. Run-on assays demonstrated that both TNF-α and LT increase IL-6 mRNA levels by transcriptional activation of this gene. Stability studies of IL-6 transcripts in fibroblasts showed that TNF-α delayed IL-6 mRNA decay but not LT. The induction of IL-6 transcripts by TNF-α and LT was not inhibited by the isoquinoline sulfonamide derivative H7. Similarly, depletion of protein kinase C (PKC) by 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol 13-acetate (TPA) did not change the ability of TNF-α and LT to induce IL-6 transcripts, demonstrating that stimulation by these agents may not be mediated by activation of PKC. Stimulation of IL-6 transcripts in fibroblasts did also not require new protein synthesis as exposure to the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide (CHX) enhanced accumulation of IL-6 mRNA in the presence or absence of TNF-α or LT

Metronomic doses and drug schematic combination response tested within chambered coverslips for the treatment of breast cancer cells (JIMT-1)

Low-dose metronomic (LDM) chemotherapy is an alternative to conventional chemotherapy and is the most frequently used approach in low dose chemotherapy regimens. The selection of patients, drug dosages, and dosing intervals in LDM is empirical. In this study, we systematically examined the schedule-dependent interaction of drugs on a breast cancer cell line (BCC) cultured in chambered coverslips. The LDM studies were combined with cell staining in order to better characterize different cell states and cell death modes, including caspase-dependent apoptosis, caspase-independent cell death and autophagy-dependent cell death. Microscope images were examined using the Fiji Trainable Weka Segmentation plugin to analyse cell area in 7500 images showing different modes of cell death. Paclitaxel combined with LDM chemotherapy demonstrated a reduction in the area covered by live cells. In contrast, there was an induction of high levels of cell death due to caspase-dependent apoptosis.Fil: Rosero, Gustavo. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; Argentina. Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg; AlemaniaFil: Pattarone, Gisela. Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg; AlemaniaFil: Peñaherrera Pazmiño, Ana Belén. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; Argentina. Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg; AlemaniaFil: Pilz, Julia. Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg; AlemaniaFil: Bödecker, Joschka. Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg; AlemaniaFil: Perez, Maximiliano Sebastian. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Mertelsmann, Roland. Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg; AlemaniaFil: Lerner, Betiana. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Follo, Marie. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentin

GEMA—An Automatic Segmentation Method for Real-Time Analysis of Mammalian Cell Growth in Microfluidic Devices

Nowadays, image analysis has a relevant role in most scientific and research areas. This process is used to extract and understand information from images to obtain a model, knowledge, and rules in the decision process. In the case of biological areas, images are acquired to describe the behavior of a biological agent in time such as cells using a mathematical and computational approach to generate a system with automatic control. In this paper, MCF7 cells are used to model their growth and death when they have been injected with a drug. These mammalian cells allow understanding of behavior, gene expression, and drug resistance to breast cancer. For this, an automatic segmentation method called GEMA is presented to analyze the apoptosis and confluence stages of culture by measuring the increase or decrease of the image area occupied by cells in microfluidic devices. In vitro, the biological experiments can be analyzed through a sequence of images taken at specific intervals of time. To automate the image segmentation, the proposed algorithm is based on a Gabor filter, a coefficient of variation (CV), and linear regression. This allows the processing of images in real time during the evolution of biological experiments. Moreover, GEMA has been compared with another three representative methods such as gold standard (manual segmentation), morphological gradient, and a semi-automatic algorithm using FIJI. The experiments show promising results, due to the proposed algorithm achieving an accuracy above 90% and a lower computation time because it requires on average 1 s to process each image. This makes it suitable for image-based real-time automatization of biological lab-on-a-chip experiments.Fil: Isa Jara, Ramiro Fernando. Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo; Ecuador. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Pérez Sosa, Camilo José. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; ArgentinaFil: Macote Yparraguirre, Erick Leonel. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Revollo Sarmiento, Natalia Veronica. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Eléctrica "Alfredo Desages". Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica y de Computadoras. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Eléctrica "Alfredo Desages"; ArgentinaFil: Lerner, Betiana. Florida International University; Estados Unidos. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Miriuka, Santiago Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Delrieux, Claudio Augusto. Universidad Nacional del Sur; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Pérez, Maximiliano. Florida International University; Estados Unidos. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Mertelsmann, Roland. Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg; Alemani

Cost-effective fabrication of photopolymer molds with multi-level microstructures for pdms microfluidic device manufacture

This paper describes a methodology of photopolymer mold fabrication with multi-level microstructures for polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic device manufacture. Multi-level microstructures can be performed by varying UVA exposure time and channel width. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and profilometry techniques have been employed to characterize the molds. Multiple molds with multi-level microstructures can be formed in a unique piece. Overall height/depth of the structures reaches up to 677 μm and a minimum of 21 μm. The method provides several advantages such as reduction of fabrication time, multiple structures with diverse topologies, a great variety of depth and height in a single mold and low cost of fabrication. The effectiveness of multi-level microstructure fabrication was evaluated by constructing PDMS microfluidic devices for cell culture and proliferation.Fil: Olmos Carreno, Carol Maritza. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Haedo; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Penãherrera, Ana. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Haedo; Argentina. Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg; AlemaniaFil: Rosero Yánez, Gustavo Ivan. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Haedo; Argentina. Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg; Alemania. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Vizuete, Karla. Universidad de Las Fuerzas Armadas; EcuadorFil: Ruarte, Darío. Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg; AlemaniaFil: Follo, Marie. Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg; AlemaniaFil: Vaca Mora, Andrea Vanessa. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Haedo; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Arroyo, Carlos R.. Universidad de Las Fuerzas Armadas; EcuadorFil: Debut, Alexis. Universidad de Las Fuerzas Armadas; EcuadorFil: Cumbal Flores, Luis. Universidad de Las Fuerzas Armadas; EcuadorFil: Perez, Maximiliano Sebastian. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Haedo; Argentina. Florida International University; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Lerner, Betiana. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Haedo; Argentina. Florida International University; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Mertelsmann, Roland. Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg; Alemani