Enhanced cellular migration and prolonged chondrogenic differentiation in decellularized cartilage scaffolds under dynamic culture conditions

Lesions of aural, nasal and tracheal cartilage are frequently reconstructed by complex surgeries which are based on harvesting autologous cartilage from other locations such as the rib. Cartilage tissue engineering (CTE) is regarded as a promising alternative to attain vital cartilage. Nevertheless, CTE with nearly natural properties poses a significant challenge to research due to the complex reciprocal interactions between cells and extracellular matrix which have to be imitated and which are still not fully understood. Thus, we used a custom-made glass bioreactor to enhance cell migration into decellularized porcine cartilage scaffolds (DECM) and mimic physiological conditions. The DECM seeded with human nasal chondrocytes (HPCH) were cultured in the glass reactor for 6 weeks and examined by histological and immunohistochemical staining, biochemical analyses and real time-PCR at 14, 28 and 42 days. The migration depth and the number of migrated cells were quantified by computational analysis. Compared to the static cultivation, the dynamic culture (DC) fostered migration of HPCH into deeper tissue layers. Furthermore, cultivation in the bioreactor enhanced differentiation of the cells during the first 14 days, but differentiation diminished in the course of further cultivation. We consider the DC in the presented bioreactor as a promising tool to facilitate CTE and to help to better understand the complex physiological processes during cartilage regeneration. Maintaining differentiation of chondrocytes and improving cellular migration by further optimizing culture conditions is an important prerequisite for future clinical application

International collaborative project to compare and track the nutritional composition of fast foods

Background: Chronic diseases are the leading cause of premature death and disability in the world with over-nutrition a primary cause of diet-related ill health. Excess quantities of energy, saturated fat, sugar and salt derived from fast foods contribute importantly to this disease burden. Our objective is to collate and compare nutrient composition data for fast foods as a means of supporting improvements in product formulation. METHODS/DESIGN: Surveys of fast foods will be done in each participating country each year. Information on the nutrient composition for each product will be sought either through direct chemical analysis, from fast food companies, in-store materials or from company websites. Foods will be categorized into major groups for the primary analyses which will compare mean levels of saturated fat, sugar, sodium, energy and serving size at baseline and over time. Countries currently involved include Australia, New Zealand, France, UK, USA, India, Spain, China and Canada, with more anticipated to follow. DISCUSSION: This collaborative approach to the collation and sharing of data will enable low-cost tracking of fast food composition around the world. This project represents a significant step forward in the objective and transparent monitoring of industry and government commitments to improve the quality of fast foods.E Dunford is supported by a Sydney Medical School Foundation scholarship and B Neal by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship.http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/12/559am201

Collaborative Cohort of Cohorts for COVID-19 Research (C4R) Study: Study Design

The Collaborative Cohort of Cohorts for COVID-19 Research (C4R) is a national prospective study of adults comprising 14 established US prospective cohort studies. Starting as early as 1971, investigators in the C4R cohort studies have collected data on clinical and subclinical diseases and their risk factors, including behavior, cognition, biomarkers, and social determinants of health. C4R links this pre-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) phenotyping to information on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and acute and postacute COVID-related illness. C4R is largely population-based, has an age range of 18-108 years, and reflects the racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographic diversity of the United States. C4R ascertains SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 illness using standardized questionnaires, ascertainment of COVID-related hospitalizations and deaths, and a SARS-CoV-2 serosurvey conducted via dried blood spots. Master protocols leverage existing robust retention rates for telephone and in-person examinations and high-quality event surveillance. Extensive prepandemic data minimize referral, survival, and recall bias. Data are harmonized with research-quality phenotyping unmatched by clinical and survey-based studies; these data will be pooled and shared widely to expedite collaboration and scientific findings. This resource will allow evaluation of risk and resilience factors for COVID-19 severity and outcomes, including postacute sequelae, and assessment of the social and behavioral impact of the pandemic on long-term health trajectories

Vergleich der Compliance der CPAP-Therapie bei Patienten mit obstruktivem Schlafapnoesyndrom (OSAS) mit und ohne behinderter Nasenatmung

Einleitung: Die CPAP Therapie ist die Therapie der Wahl zur Behandlung des OSAS. Die Langzeitakzeptanz dieser Methode wird jedoch u. a. durch eine behinderte Nasenatmung eingeschränkt. Ziel dieser Studie war es, diesen Einfluss auf die Therapie zu zeigen.Methoden: Jeweils 25 CPAP versorgte OSAS Patienten mit und ohne (Kontrollgruppe) subjektiver Nasenatmungsbehinderung, objektivierbarer Nasenpathologie und pathologischer Rhinomanometrie wurden im Rahmen einer Nachuntersuchung befragt und für den aktuellen Stand folgende Daten aus den CPAP-Geräten ausgelesen: Beatmungsdruck, Tragedauer pro Nacht, Tragedauer in Nächten pro Woche. Darüber hinaus wurde der subjektive Therapieerfolg mittels visueller Analogskala (VAS; 0= sehr hohe Therapiezufriedenheit, 10= keine Therapiezufriedenheit) erfasst.Ergebnisse: Beatmungsdruck: Der durchschnittliche Beatmungsdruck lag bei 11,4 mbar (±3,1 mbar) im Gegensatz zu 6,9 (±1,2) bei der Kontrollgruppe (p<0,05).Tragedauer: 24% (6/25) hatten die Therapie bereits abgebrochen, in der Kontrollgruppe keiner. Die Maske wurde an 3,3 (±2,7) bzw. 6,1 (±1,3) Nächten pro Woche getragen (p<0,05). Die nächtliche Tragedauer betrug 3,3 (±2,8) bzw. 5,9 (±1,3) Stunden/Nacht (p<0,05).Patientenzufriedenheit: Der subjektive Therapieerfolg wurde auf der VAS mit 5,8 (±3,6) bzw. 1,8 (±1,8) angegeben (p<0,05).Schlussfolgerung: Eine behinderte Nasenatmung führt zu einem höheren Beatmungsdruck. Endonasale Schleimhautirritationen, ein höherer Geräuschpegel und Leckagen der Maske sind die Folge. Dies führt zu Therapieabbrüchen und einer verminderten Compliance

New bioreactor vessel for tissue engineering of human nasal septal chondrocytes

Cultivation of human nasal septal chondrocytes in a self-established automated bioreactor system with a new designed reactor glass vessel and the results of a computational fluid dynamics model are presented. The first results show the effect of a homogeneous fluidic condition of the continuous medium flow and the resulting stresses on the scaffolds’ surface and their influence on the migration of the cells into the scaffold matrix under these conditions. For this purpose computational models, generated with the computational fluid dynamics software STAR-CCM+, and the results of alcian blue staining for newly synthesized sulphated glycosaminoglycans have been compared during cultivation in the new and a first version of the glass reactor vessel with inhomogeneous fluidic conditions, with the same automated bioreactor system and under similar cultivation conditions

Rhinochirurgische Eingriffe erhöhen die Compliance von CPAP versorgten Patienten mit obstruktivem Schlafapnoesyndrom (OSAS) und behinderter Nasenatmung

Einleitung: Die CPAP Therapie ist die Therapie der Wahl zur Behandlung des OSAS. Die Langzeitakzeptanz dieser Methode wird jedoch durch eine behinderte Nasenatmung eingeschränkt. Aus diesem Grund führten wir funktionelle rhinochirurgische Eingriffe zur Verbesserung der Masken-Compliance durch. Ziel dieser Studie war es, den Effekt dieser Eingriffe zu belegen. Methoden: 22 CPAP versorgte Patienten mit subjektiver Maskenunverträglichkeit wurden je nach vorliegender Pathologie mittels Septumplastik, Muschelplastik oder Septorhinoplastik therapiert. Die folgenden Daten wurden sowohl retrospektiv für die Situation vor der Operation erhoben als auch im Rahmen einer Nachuntersuchung für den aktuellen Stand aus den CPAP-Geräten ausgelesen: Beatmungsdruck, Tragedauer pro Nacht, Tragedauer in Nächten pro Woche. Darüber hinaus wurde der subjektive Therapieerfolg mittels visueller Analogskala (VAS; 0= deutliche Verbesserung nach OP, 10= keine Verbesserung durch OP) erfasst. Ergebnisse: Beatmungsdruck: Der durchschnittliche Beatmungsdruck lag vor dem Eingriff bei 10,5mbar (± 4mbar), postoperativ bei 9,7mbar (±4mbar) (p < 0,05). Tragedauer: Die Maske wurde präoperativ an 3,4 (± 2,6), postoperativ an 6,2 (± 1,8) Nächten pro Woche getragen (p < 0,01). Die nächtliche Tragedauer steigerte sich von 4,7 (± 2,4) auf 6,8 (± 2,0) Stunden (p < 0,01). Patientenzufriedenheit: Der subjektive Therapieerfolg wurde auf der VAS mit 2,1 (± 2,6) angegeben. Schlussfolgerung: Rhinochirurgische Eingriffe führten zu einer signifikanten Senkung des Therapiedruckes, einer Verlängerung der nächtlichen Tragedauer und einer Verbesserung des subjektiven Therapieerfolges und somit zu einem signifikanten Anstieg der Compliance. Somit lässt sich die Therapie des OSAS erheblich verbessern

Histological Image Processing for the Assessment of Tissue Engineered Cartilage

In a recently developed perfusion bioreactor, human nasal septum chondrocytes were seeded on decellularized porcine collagen scaffolds and cultivated for 6 weeks. Afterwards, the samples were stained with alcian blue and multiple histological microscope images were taken to assess the migration of the human cells and their redifferentiation. In this paper, we propose an image processing algorithm to objectively quantify the cultivation results. This algorithm performs a white balance, detects cell nuclei and their migration depth, and detects lacunae and their orientation. To evaluate performance, sensitivity and precision are calculated using manually labeled data over 50 images. The detection of cell nuclei has a reasonable precision (73%), but the level of sensitivity (42%) should be further improved. The proposed method demonstrates acceptable level of precision (83%) and sensitivity (86%) for the detection of lacunae