On the number of droplets in aerosols

The number of droplets which may be formed with a supersaturated vapor in presence of a gas cannot exceed a number proportional to (pv-pvo)4 where pv and pvo denote at the same temperature the pressure of the supersaturated vapor-gas mixture and the pressure of the saturated vapor-gas mixture. The energy necessary to the droplet formation is also bounded by a number proportional to (pv-pvo)2 .Comment: 7 page

A new approach for the limit to tree height using a liquid nanolayer model

Liquids in contact with solids are submitted to intermolecular forces inferring density gradients at the walls. The van der Waals forces make liquid heterogeneous, the stress tensor is not any more spherical as in homogeneous bulks and it is possible to obtain stable thin liquid films wetting vertical walls up to altitudes that incompressible fluid models are not forecasting. Application to micro tubes of xylem enables to understand why the ascent of sap is possible for very high trees like sequoias or giant eucalyptus.Comment: In the conclusion is a complementary comment to the Continuum Mechanics and Thermodynamics paper. 21 pages, 4 figures. Continuum Mechanics and Thermodynamics 20, 5 (2008) to appea

Biology of bone sarcomas and new therapeutic developments

Bone sarcomas are tumours belonging to the family of mesenchymal tumours and constitute a highly heterogeneous tumour group. The three main bone sarcomas are osteosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma and chondrosarcoma each subdivided in diverse histological entities. They are clinically characterised by a relatively high morbidity and mortality, especially in children and adolescents. Although these tumours are histologically, molecularly and genetically heterogeneous, they share a common involvement of the local microenvironment in their pathogenesis. This review gives a brief overview of their specificities and summarises the main therapeutic advances in the field of bone sarcoma

Osteosarcoma: Current status of immunotherapy and future trends (Review)

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary bone tumor and represents a major therapeutic challenge in medical oncology. While the use of aggressive chemotherapy has drastically improved the prognosis of the patients with non-metastatic osteosarcomas, the very poor prognosis of patients with metastasis have led to the exploration of new, more effective and less toxic treatments, such as immunotherapy for curing osteosarcoma. Compared to the numerous reports describing successful immunotherapy for other solid tumors, the number of reports concerning immunotherapy for osteosarcoma is low. However, this therapeutic strategy opens new areas for the treatment of osteosarcoma. In this review, the reasons for delay and all elements essential to develop immunotherapy concerning osteosarcoma are defined. Several pieces of evidence strongly support the potential capability of new therapies such as cellular therapy and gene therapy to eradicate osteosarcoma. Thus, clinical human trials using peptides, cytokines and dendritic cells have been performed. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and some tumor antigens have been identified in osteosarcoma and resulted in an important breakthrough in cellular immunotherapy. Also, RANKL/RANK/OPG, the key regulator of bone metabolism, is a hot spot in this field as therapeutic tools. Immunotherapy for osteosarcomas has great potential, promising improvement in the survival rate and better quality of life for the patients

The Bone Niche of Chondrosarcoma: A Sanctuary for Drug Resistance, Tumour Growth and also a Source of New Therapeutic Targets

Chondrosarcomas are malignant cartilage-forming tumours representing around 20% of malignant primary tumours of bone and affect mainly adults in the third to sixth decade of life. Unfortunately, the molecular pathways controlling the genesis and the growth of chondrosarcoma cells are still not fully defined. It is well admitted that the invasion of bone by tumour cells affects the balance between early bone resorption and formation and induces an “inflammatory-like” environment which establishes a dialogue between tumour cells and their environment. The bone tumour microenvironment is then described as a sanctuary that contributes to the drug resistance patterns and may control at least in part the tumour growth. The concept of “niche” defined as a specialized microenvironment that can promote the emergence of tumour stem cells and provide all the required factors for their development recently emerges in the literature. The present paper aims to summarize the main evidence sustaining the existence of a specific bone niche in the pathogenesis of chondrosarcomas

Biodegradation of Synthetic Biphasic Calcium Phosphate and Biological Calcified Substratum by Cells of Hemopoietic Origin

Different types of osteoclastic cells (authentic osteoclasit from human giant cell tumor and bone marrow of newborn rats; newly-formed osteoclasts from adult rat bone marrow), giant multinucleated cells and macrophages were studied for their effect on synthetic and natural mineralized substrata. Biphasic calcium phosphate ceramic consisted of hydroxyapatite and beta tricalcium phosphate was chosen for in vitro experiments, and dentine served as a positive control for cell resorbing activity . Our results show the limited capacity of authentic and newly-formed osteoclasts to resorb synthetic ceramic as compared to that of natural substrata. In vitro cell-mediated biodegradation included also modifications of the synthetic substratum surface caused presumably by phagocytosis of the material

Effects of graft pretensioning in anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction

Purpose Graft pretensioning is used in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction to prevent secondary slackening. Its effects on collagen fibrillar ultrastructure are not known. In this study, we hypothesized that graft pretensioning in ACL reconstruction creates ultrastructural changes detectable in scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Methods A prospective comparative study was carried out on 38 ACL reconstructions using a 4-strand semitendinosus graft. Samples were harvested intra-operatively before and after pretensioning for 30 s, 2 or 5 min. The images produced in SEM were analyzed using an original semi-quantitative «CIP» score taking into account collagen cohesion, integrity, and parallelism. Intra- and inter-tester reliability for the CIP score were tested. Results The CIP scores decreased by 3.5 (1.6) points after pretensioning (P < 0.05). Significant differences were found in the 5, 2 min and 30 s subgroups for the global CIP score. Relative decrease (Delta CIP) was significantly higher in the 2 and 5 min subgroups after pretensioning in comparison with the 30 s subgroups. Intra- and inter-tester reliability for the CIP score were 0.85 and 0.92 (P < 0.05). Conclusion Pretensioning ACL grafts resulted in alteration of the collagen fibrillar ultrastructure, detectable using SEM. These results confirm the existence of collagen ultrastructural changes after pretensioning that may be related to its duration. Level of evidence Prospective comparative study, Level II

Interaction of Cutibacterium (formerly Propionibacterium) acnes with bone cells: a step toward understanding bone and joint infection development

Cutibacterium acnes (formerly Propionibacterium acnes) is recognized as a pathogen in foreign-body infections (arthroplasty or spinal instrumentation). To date, the direct impact of C. acnes on bone cells has never been explored. The clade of 11 C. acnes clinical isolates was determined by MLST. Human osteoblasts and osteoclasts were infected by live C. acnes. The whole genome sequence of six isolates of this collection was analyzed. CC36 C. acnes strains were significantly less internalized by osteoblasts and osteoclasts than CC18 and CC28 C. acnes strains (p ≤ 0.05). The CC18 C. acnes ATCC6919 isolate could survive intracellularly for at least 96 hours. C. acnes significantly decreased the resorption ability of osteoclasts with a major impact by the CC36 strain (p ≤ 0.05). Genome analysis revealed 27 genes possibly linked to these phenotypic behaviors. We showed a direct impact of C. acnes on bone cells, providing new explanations about the development of C. acnes foreign-body infections

Tc-99m-NTP 15-5 assessment of the early therapeutic response of chondrosarcoma to zoledronic acid in the Swarm rat orthotopic model

Background: Since proteoglycans (PGs) appear as key partners in chondrosarcoma biology, PG-targeted imaging using the radiotracer 99mTc-N-(triethylammonium)-3-propyl-[15]ane-N5 (99mTc-NTP 15-5) developed by our group was previously demonstrated to be a good single-photon emission computed tomography tracer for cartilage neoplasms. We therefore initiated this new preclinical study to evaluate the relevance of 99mTc-NTP 15-5 imaging for the in vivo monitoring and quantitative assessment of chondrosarcoma response to zoledronic acid (ZOL) in the Swarm rat orthotopic model. Findings: Rats bearing chondrosarcoma in the orthotopic paratibial location were treated by ZOL (100 μg/kg, subcutaneously) or phosphate-buffered saline, twice a week, from day 4 to day 48 post-tumor implantation. 99mTc-NTP 15-5 imaging was performed at regular intervals with the target-to-background ratio (TBR) determined. Tumor volume was monitored using a calliper, and histology was performed at the end of the study. From day 11 to day 48, mean TBR values ranged from 1.7 ± 0.6 to 2.3 ± 0.6 in ZOL-treated rats and from 2.1 ± 1.0 to 4.9 ± 0.9 in controls. Tumor growth inhibition was evidenced using a calliper from day 24 and associated to a decrease in PG content in treated tumor tissues (confirmed by histology). Conclusions: This work demonstrated two proofs of concept: (1) biphosphonate therapy could be a promising therapeutic approach for chondrosarcoma; (2) 99mTc-NTP 15-5 is expected to offer a novel imaging modality for the in vivo evaluation of the extracellular matrix features of chondrosarcoma, which could be useful for the follow-up and quantitative assessment of proteoglycan ‘downregulation’ associated to the response to therapeutic attempts

Structural Analysis of the Western Afar Margin, East Africa: Evidence for Multiphase Rotational Rifting

The Afar region in East Africa represents a key location to study continental breakup. We present an integrated structural analysis of the Western Afar Margin (WAM) aiming to better understand rifted margin development and the role of plate rotation during rifting. New structural information from remote sensing, fieldwork, and earthquake data sets reveals that the N-S striking WAM is still actively deforming and is characterized by NNW-SSE normal faulting as well as a series of marginal grabens. Seismicity distribution analysis and the first-ever borehole-calibrated sections of this developing passive margin show recent slip concentrated along antithetic faults. Tectonic stress parameters derived from earthquake focal mechanisms reveal different extension directions along the WAM (82°N), in Afar (66°N) and in the Main Ethiopian Rift (108°N). Fault slip analysis along the WAM yields the same extension direction. Combined with GPS data, this shows that current tectonics in Afar is dominated by the local rotation of the Danakil Block, considered to have occurred since 11 Ma. Earlier stages of Afar development (since 31–25 Ma) were most likely related to the large-scale rotation of the Arabian plate. Various authors have proposed scenarios for the evolution of the WAM. Any complete model should consider, among other factors, the multiphase tectonic history and antithetic fault activity of the margin. The findings of this study are not only relevant for a better understanding of the WAM but also provide insights into the role of multiphase rotational extension during rifting and passive margin formation in general.</p