12 research outputs found

    \u3ci\u3eAnthidium Oblongatum\u3c/i\u3e (Apoidea: Megachilidae) Confirmed as a Michigan Resident, with Notes on Other Michigan \u3ci\u3eAnthidium\u3c/i\u3e Species

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    The Palearctic wool-carder bee, Anthidium oblongatum (Illiger) is newly documented in Michigan, with vouchers from Kent, Washtenaw, and Wayne Counties. Additional Michigan records are provided for Anthidium manicatum (L.) and the native Anthidium psoraleae Robertson

    Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with bone-patellar tendon-bone autograft versus allograft in young patients

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    Objectives: Traditionally, bone-patella tendon-bone (BTB) autograft has been the gold standard graft choice for younger, athletic patients requiring ACL reconstruction. However, donor site morbidity, post-operative patella fracture, and increased operative time have led many surgeons to choose BTB allograft for their reconstructions. Opponents of allografts feel that slower healing time, higher rate of graft failure, and potential for disease transmission makes them undesirable graft choices in athletic patients. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the clinical outcomes, both subjective and objective, of young patients that who have undergone either BTB autograft or allograft reconstructions with a minimum of 2-year follow-up. Methods: One hundred and twenty patients (60 autograft, 60 allograft), age 25 and below at time of surgery, were contacted after being retrospectively identified as patients having an ACL reconstruction with either a BTB allograft or autograft by one senior surgeon. Patients were administered the Lysholm Knee Scoring Scale and IKDC Subjective Knee Evaluation questionnaires. Fifty (25 BTB autograft and 25 BTB allograft) of the 120 returned for physical examination as well as completion of a single leg hop test and laxity evaluation using a KT-1000 arthrometer evaluation. Of the 120 patients contacted, there were a total of 7 failures (5.8%) requiring revision, 6 in the allograft group (86%) and 1 in the autograft group (14%). Results: The average Lysholm scores were 89.0 and 89.56 and the average IKDC scores were 90.8 and 92.1 in the autograft and allograft groups respectively. The differences in the Lysholm scores and the IKDC scores were not significant. The single leg hop and KT-1000 scores were also not significantly different. One autograft patient had a minor motion deficit. Three allograft patients had a grade 1 Lachman and pivot glide. One autograft patient and two allograft patients had mild patellafemoral crepitus. There was no significant difference in anterior knee pain between the two groups Conclusion: There is no significant difference in patient-rated outcome between ACL reconstructions using BTB autografts versus allografts. However, the overall study group did reveal an increased failure rate requiring revision in the allograft group. © The Author(s) 2015

    Inhibition of pulmonary nuclear factor kappa-b decreases the severity of acute escherichia coli pneumonia but worsens prolonged pneumonia

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    Introduction: Nuclear factor (NF)-kappa B is central to the pathogenesis of inflammation in acute lung injury, but also to inflammation resolution and repair. We wished to determine whether overexpression of the NF-kappa B inhibitor I kappa B alpha could modulate the severity of acute and prolonged pneumonia-induced lung injury in a series of prospective randomized animal studies. Methods: Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomized to undergo intratracheal instillation of (a) 5 x 10(9) adenoassociated virus (AAV) vectors encoding the I kappa B alpha transgene (5 x 10(9) AAV-I kappa B alpha); (b) 1 x 10(10) AAV-I kappa B alpha; (c) 5 x 10(10) AAV-I kappa B alpha; or (d) vehicle alone. After intratracheal inoculation with Escherichia coli, the severity of the lung injury was measured in one series over a 4-hour period (acute pneumonia), and in a second series after 72 hours (prolonged pneumonia). Additional experiments examined the effects of I kappa B alpha and null-gene overexpression on E. coli-induced and sham pneumonia. Results: In acute pneumonia, I kappa B alpha dose-dependently decreased lung injury, improving arterial oxygenation and lung static compliance, reducing alveolar protein leak and histologic injury, and decreasing alveolar IL-1 beta concentrations. Benefit was maximal at the intermediate (1 x 10(10)) I kappa B alpha vector dose; however, efficacy was diminished at the higher (5 x 10(10)) I kappa B alpha vector dose. In contrast, I kappa B alpha worsened prolonged pneumonia-induced lung injury, increased lung bacterial load, decreased lung compliance, and delayed resolution of the acute inflammatory response. Conclusions: Inhibition of pulmonary NF-kappa B activity reduces early pneumonia-induced injury, but worsens injury and bacterial load during prolonged pneumonia

    Mesenchymal stem cells enhance recovery and repair following ventilator-induced lung injury in the rat

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    Background Bone-marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) reduce the severity of evolving acute lung injury (ALI), but their ability to repair the injured lung is not clear. A study was undertaken to determine the potential for MSCs to enhance repair after ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) and elucidate the mechanisms underlying these effects. Methods Anaesthetised rats underwent injurious ventilation which produced severe ALI. Following recovery, they were given an intravenous injection of MSCs (2x10(6) cells) or vehicle immediately and a second dose 24 h later. The extent of recovery following VILI was assessed after 48 h. Subsequent experiments examined the potential for non-stem cells and for the MSC secretome to enhance VILI repair. The contribution of specific MSC-secreted mediators was then examined in a wound healing model. Results MSC therapy enhanced repair following VILI. MSCs enhanced restoration of systemic oxygenation and lung compliance, reduced total lung water, decreased lung inflammation and histological lung injury and restored lung structure. They attenuated alveolar tumour necrosis factor a concentrations while increasing concentrations of interleukin 10. These effects were not seen with non-stem cells (ie, rat fibroblasts). MSC-secreted products also enhanced lung repair and attenuated the inflammatory response following VILI. The beneficial effect of the MSC secretome on repair of pulmonary epithelial wounds was attenuated by prior depletion of keratinocyte growth factor. Conclusion MSC therapy enhances lung repair following VILI via a paracrine mechanism that may be keratinocyte growth factor-dependent

    Targeted child psychiatric services: a new model of pediatric primary clinician--child psychiatry collaborative care

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    Between 15% and 25% of children and adolescents seen in pediatric primary care have a behavioral health disorder with significant psychopathology, high functional impairment, and frequent psychiatric diagnostic comorbidity. Because child psychiatry services are frequently unavailable, primary care clinicians are frequently left managing these children without access to child psychiatry consultation. We describe Targeted Child Psychiatric Services (TCPS), a new model of pediatric primary clinician-child psychiatry collaborative care, and describe program utilization and characteristics of children referred over the first 18 months of the program using a retrospective chart review. The TCPS model can serve a large number of pediatric primary care practices and provide collaborative help with the evaluation and treatment of complex attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, and pediatric psychopharmacology

    Integrated phenotypic and activity-based profiling links Ces3 to obesity and diabetes

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    Phenotypic screening is making a comeback in drug discovery as the maturation of chemical proteomics methods has facilitated target identification for bioactive small molecules. A limitation of these approaches is that time-consuming genetic methods or other means are often required to determine the biologically relevant target (or targets) from among multiple protein-compound interactions that are typically detected. Here, we have combined phenotypic screening of a directed small-molecule library with competitive activity-based protein profiling to map and functionally characterize the targets of screening hits. Using this approach, we identify carboxylesterase 3 (Ces3, also known as Ces1d) as a primary molecular target of bioactive compounds that promote lipid storage in adipocytes. We further show that Ces3 activity is markedly elevated during adipocyte differentiation. Treatment of two mouse models of obesity-diabetes with a Ces3 inhibitor ameliorates multiple features of metabolic syndrome, illustrating the power of the described strategy to accelerate the identification and pharmacologic validation of new therapeutic targets

    Tissue-specific extracellular matrix scaffolds for the regeneration of spatially complex musculoskeletal tissues

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    Biological scaffolds generated from tissue-derived extracellular matrix (ECM) are commonly used clinically for soft tissue regeneration. Such biomaterials can enhance tissue-specific differentiation of adult stem cells, suggesting that structuring different ECMs into multi-layered scaffolds can form the basis of new strategies for regenerating damaged interfacial tissues such as the osteochondral unit. In this study, mass spectrometry is used to demonstrate that growth plate (GP) and articular cartilage (AC) ECMs contain a unique array of regulatory proteins that may be particularly suited to bone and cartilage repair respectively. Applying a novel iterative freeze-drying method, porous bi-phasic scaffolds composed of GP ECM overlaid by AC ECM are fabricated, which are capable of spatially directing stem cell differentiation in vitro, promoting the development of graded tissues transitioning from calcified cartilage to hyaline-like cartilage. Evaluating repair 12-months post-implantation into critically-sized caprine osteochondral defects reveals that these scaffolds promote regeneration in a manner distinct to commercial control-scaffolds. The GP layer supports endochondral bone formation, while the AC layer stimulates the formation of an overlying layer of hyaline cartilage with a collagen fiber architecture better recapitulating the native tissue. These findings support the use of a bi-layered, tissue-specific ECM derived scaffolds for regenerating spatially complex musculoskeletal tissues

    The Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance (GIGA): Developing Community Resources to Study Diverse Invertebrate Genomes

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    Over 95% of all metazoan (animal) species comprise the invertebrates, but very few genomes from these organisms have been sequenced. We have, therefore, formed a Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance (GIGA). Our intent is to build a collaborative network of diverse scientists to tackle major challenges (e.g., species selection, sample collection and storage, sequence assembly, annotation, analytical tools) associated with genome/transcriptome sequencing across a large taxonomic spectrum. We aim to promote standards that will facilitate comparative approaches to invertebrate genomics and collaborations across the international scientific community. Candidate study taxa include species from Porifera, Ctenophora, Cnidaria, Placozoa, Mollusca, Arthropoda, Echinodermata, Annelida, Bryozoa, and Platyhelminthes, among others. GIGA will target 7000 noninsect/nonnematode species, with an emphasis on marine taxa because of the unrivaled phyletic diversity in the oceans. Priorities for selecting invertebrates for sequencing will include, but are not restricted to, their phylogenetic placement; relevance to organismal, ecological, and conservation research; and their importance to fisheries and human health. We highlight benefits of sequencing both whole genomes (DNA) and transcriptomes and also suggest policies for genomic-level data access and sharing based on transparency and inclusiveness. The GIGA Web site (http://giga.nova.edu) has been launched to facilitate this collaborative venture. © 2013 The American Genetic Association 2013. All rights reserved
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