Cornea lenticule viability and structural integrity after refractive lenticule extraction (ReLEx) and cryopreservation

Molecular Vision173437-3449MVEP

A century of trends in adult human height

Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.5-22.7) and 16.5 cm (13.3-19.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8-144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries

Molecular diagnosis of neurogenetic disorders involving trinucleotide repeat expansions

10.1586/14737159.5.1.101Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics51101-109ERMD

What is the cause of the regular wide QRS complex tachycardia?

Singapore Medical Journal526394-399SIMJ

Wastewater treatment with bacterial augmentation

10.1016/0273-1223(96)00256-9Water Science and Technology33817-22WSTE

High incidence of allelic loss at 16q12.2 region spanning RBL2/p130 gene in retinoblastoma

Cancer Biology and Therapy88714-71

Effect of leukoreduction on inflammation in critically ill dogs receiving red blood cell transfusions: A randomized blinded controlled clinical trial

Background Prestorage leukoreduction of red blood cell (RBC) bags prevents accumulation of pro-inflammatory mediators and experimentally attenuates post-transfusion inflammation in healthy dogs. However, the effect of leukoreduction on post-transfusion inflammation in critically ill dogs is unclear. Hypothesis Dogs transfused with leukoreduced (LR) RBC will have lower concentrations of leukocytes, interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), and C-reactive protein (CRP) within 24 hours of post-transfusion compared to dogs transfused with nonleukoreduced (NLR) RBC. Animals Sixty-one RBC-transfused dogs (LR = 34, NLR = 27). Methods Randomized, blinded, controlled preliminary clinical trial. Blood bag processing was randomized to create identically appearing LR and NLR bags. Group allocation occurred with transfusion of the oldest compatible RBC bag. Blood samples were collected pretransfusion and at 8 and 24 hours post-transfusion for leukocyte count, IL-6, IL-8, MCP-1, and CRP. Data were analyzed on an intention-to-treat basis using linear mixed effects models. Significance was set at P < .05. Results No significant differences were found between groups in concentrations of leukocytes (P = .93), IL-6 (P = .99), IL-8 (P = .75), MCP-1 (P = .69), or CRP (P = .18) over time. Eleven LR dogs (32%) and 4 NLR dogs (15%) were euthanized in the hospital (P = .14). No natural deaths occurred. Conclusions and Clinical Importance No differences in inflammation biomarker concentrations were detected over time between dogs transfused with LR or NLR RBC, but heterogeneity likely hampered the ability to detect a difference with this sample size. The novel randomization and enrollment protocol was successfully implemented across 2 participating institutions and will be easily scaled up for a future multicenter clinical trial

Clinical characteristics and prognostic importance of mild-to-moderate noninfarct-related coronary artery disease in patients with first ST-elevation myocardial infarction

10.1097/MCA.0b013e32834236b9Coronary Artery Disease22255-5

Anti-tumor efficacy evaluation of a novel monoclonal antibody targeting neutral amino acid transporter ASCT2 using patient-derived xenograft mouse models of gastric cancer

American Journal of Translational Research973399-341

Assessing the unified airway hypothesis in children via transcriptional profiling of the airway epithelium

© 2020 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Background: Emerging evidence suggests that disease vulnerability is expressed throughout the airways, the so-called unified airway hypothesis, but the evidence to support this is predominantly indirect. Objectives: We sought to establish the transcriptomic profiles of the upper and lower airways and determine their level of similarity irrespective of airway symptoms (wheeze) and allergy. Methods: We performed RNA sequencing on upper and lower airway epithelial cells from 63 children with or without wheeze and accompanying atopy, using differential gene expression and gene coexpression analyses to determine transcriptional similarity. Results: We observed approximately 91% homology in the expressed genes between the 2 sites. When coexpressed genes were grouped into modules relating to biological functions, all were found to be conserved between the 2 regions, resulting in a consensus network containing 16 modules associated with ribosomal function, metabolism, gene expression, mitochondrial activity, and antiviral responses through IFN activity. Although symptom-associated gene expression changes were more prominent in the lower airway, they were reflected in nasal epithelium and included IL-1 receptor like 1, prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 1, CCL26, and periostin. Through network analysis we identified a cluster of coexpressed genes associated with atopic wheeze in the lower airway, which could equally distinguish atopic and nonatopic phenotypes in upper airway samples. Conclusions: We show that the upper and lower airways are significantly conserved in their transcriptional composition, and that variations associated with disease are present in both nasal and tracheal epithelium. Findings from this study supporting a unified airway imply that clinical insight regarding the lower airway in health and disease can be gained from studying the nasal epithelium