Ocena jakości życia kobiet w 2 i 4 lat po transplantacji komórek pochodzących z mięśni w leczeniu wysiłkowego nietrzymania moczu

Introduction: Regenerative medicine for the treatment of urinary incontinence has become a popular area of focus in the search for therapies for this disease. The paper focused on women’s quality of life assessment who were subjected to transplantation of MDSC (autologous muscle derived stem cells) to the urethral sphincter. Methods: The procedure was conducted in 16 female patients who completed the observation stage. Assessment of quality of life before and after the treatment (two and four years post-operation) was conducted based on the validated I-QOL questionnaire (the Polish language version). Results: The questionnaire study showed that autologous cell therapy significantly improves quality of life in female patients suffering from stress urinary incontinence (SUI). The total I-QOL score increased from 49 (SD ± 7.7) before therapy to 77 (SD ± 5.4) two years post-operation. Four years after the procedure, quality of life remained at a higher level than before therapy, although quality of life decreased by several points when compared with the results from the two-year follow-up – 63 (SD ± 7.2). Patients reported significantly less concern related to their ability to reach the toilet to avoid incontinence, improved sleep at night, a higher level of satisfaction with life, and more satisfaction with their sexual lives (p<0.05). Conclusion: The MDSC injection procedure for SUI treatment has significant improved quality of life in the majority of our patients in 2 and 4 year follow-up  Cel pracy: Medycyna regeneracyjna w leczeniu nietrzymania moczu stała się popularnym obszarem zainteresowania w poszukiwaniu metod leczenia tej choroby. Celem niniejszej pracy była ocena jakości życia u kobiet poddanych transplantacji autologicznych dojrzałych komórek pochodzących z mięśni (MDSC) do zwieracza cewki moczowej. Materiał i metody: Badanie zostało przeprowadzone w grupie 16 pacjentek, które ukończyły etap obserwacji. Do oceny jakości życia przed i po leczeniu (w dwa i cztery lata po zabiegu) wykorzystano kwestionariusz I-QOL (polska wersja językowa). Wyniki: Badania ankietowe wykazało, że terapia z wykorzystaniem autologicznych komórek mięśniowych w znacznym stopniu poprawia jakość życia pacjentek cierpiących z powodu wysiłkowego nietrzymania moczu (WNM). Całkowity wynik I-QOL wzrósł z 49 ± 7,7 (SD) przed leczeniem do 77 (SD ± 5,4) dwa lata po zabiegu. Cztery lata po zabiegu, jakość życia pozostał na poziomie wyższym niż przed leczeniem, chociaż zmniejszyła się o kilka punktów w porównaniu z wynikami z dwóch lat obserwacji - 63 (SD ± 7,2). Pacjentki zgłaszały znacznie mniej objawów związanych z ich możliwością dotarcia do toalety, wyższy poziom zadowolenia z życia i więcej satysfakcji z życia seksualnego (p <0,05). Wnioski: Zastosowana procedura MDSC do leczenia wysiłkowego nietrzymania moczu skutecznie poprawiła jakość życia u większości analizowanych pacjentek po 2 i 4 latach od zbiegu.

Global application of an unoccupied aerial vehicle photogrammetry protocol for predicting aboveground biomass in non‐forest ecosystems

P. 1-15Non-forest ecosystems, dominated by shrubs, grasses and herbaceous plants, provide ecosystem services including carbon sequestration and forage for grazing, and are highly sensitive to climatic changes. Yet these ecosystems are poorly represented in remotely sensed biomass products and are undersampled by in situ monitoring. Current global change threats emphasize the need for new tools to capture biomass change in non-forest ecosystems at appropriate scales. Here we developed and deployed a new protocol for photogrammetric height using unoccupied aerial vehicle (UAV) images to test its capability for delivering standardized measurements of biomass across a globally distributed field experiment. We assessed whether canopy height inferred from UAV photogrammetry allows the prediction of aboveground biomass (AGB) across low-stature plant species by conducting 38 photogrammetric surveys over 741 harvested plots to sample 50 species. We found mean canopy height was strongly predictive of AGB across species, with a median adjusted R2 of 0.87 (ranging from 0.46 to 0.99) and median prediction error from leave-one-out cross-validation of 3.9%. Biomass per-unit-of-height was similar within but different among, plant functional types. We found that photogrammetric reconstructions of canopy height were sensitive to wind speed but not sun elevation during surveys. We demonstrated that our photogrammetric approach produced generalizable measurements across growth forms and environmental settings and yielded accuracies as good as those obtained from in situ approaches. We demonstrate that using a standardized approach for UAV photogrammetry can deliver accurate AGB estimates across a wide range of dynamic and heterogeneous ecosystems. Many academic and land management institutions have the technical capacity to deploy these approaches over extents of 1–10 ha−1. Photogrammetric approaches could provide much-needed information required to calibrate and validate the vegetation models and satellite-derived biomass products that are essential to understand vulnerable and understudied non-forested ecosystems around the globe.S

Pulsatile and Sustained Gonadotropin-releasing Hormone (GnRH) Receptor Signaling: DOES THE Ca2+/NFAT SIGNALING PATHWAY DECODE GnRH PULSE FREQUENCY?*

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) acts via 7 transmembrane region receptors on gonadotrophs to stimulate synthesis and secretion of the luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone. It is secreted in pulses, and its effects depend on pulse frequency, but decoding mechanisms are unknown. Here we have used (nuclear factor of activated T-cells 2 (NFAT2)-emerald fluorescent protein) to monitor GnRH signaling. Increasing [Ca2+]i causes calmodulin/calcineurin-dependent nuclear NFAT translocation, a response involving proteins (calmodulins and NFATs) that decode frequency in other systems. Using live cell imaging, pulsatile GnRH caused dose- and frequency-dependent increases in nuclear NFAT2-emerald fluorescent protein, and at low frequency, translocation simply tracked GnRH exposure (albeit with slower kinetics). At high frequency (30-min intervals), failure to return to basal conditions before repeat stimulation caused integrative tracking, illustrating how the relative dynamics of up- and downstream signals can increase efficiency of GnRH action. Mathematical modeling predicted desensitization of GnRH effects on [Ca2+]i and that desensitization would increase with dose, frequency, and receptor number, but no such desensitization was seen in HeLa and/or LβT2 cells possibly because pulsatile GnRH did not reduce receptor expression (measured by immunofluorescence). GnRH also caused dose- and frequency-dependent activation of αGSU, luteinizing hormone β, and follicle-stimulating hormone β luciferase reporters, effects that were blocked by calcineurin inhibition. Pulsatile GnRH also activated an NFAT-responsive luciferase reporter, but this response was directly related to cumulative pulse duration. This together with the lack of desensitization of translocation responses suggests that NFAT may mediate GnRH action but is not a genuine decoder of GnRH pulse frequency