Outcome of liver transplantation with grafts from brain-dead donors treated with dual hypothermic oxygenated machine perfusion, with particular reference to elderly donors

Prompted by the utilization of extended criteria donors, dual hypothermic oxygenated machine perfusion (D‐HOPE) was introduced in liver transplantation to improve preservation. When donors after neurological determination of death (DBD) are used, D‐HOPE effect on graft outcomes is unclear. To assess D‐HOPE value in this setting and to identify ideal scenarios for its use, data on primary adult liver transplant recipients from January 2014 to April 2021 were analyzed using inverse probability of treatment weighting, comparing outcomes of D‐HOPE‐treated grafts (n = 121) with those preserved by static cold storage (n = 723). End‐ischemic D‐HOPE was systematically applied since November 2017 based on donor and recipient characteristics and transplant logistics. D‐HOPE use was associated with a significant reduction of early allograft failure (OR: 0.24; 0.83; p = .024), grade ≥3 complications (OR: 0.57; p = .046), comprehensive complication index (−7.20 points; p = .003), and improved patient and graft survival. These results were confirmed in the subset of elderly donors (>75‐year‐old). Although D‐HOPE did not reduce the incidence of biliary complications, its use was associated with a reduced severity of ischemic cholangiopathy. In conclusion, D‐HOPE improves postoperative outcomes and reduces early allograft loss in extended criteria DBD grafts

Novel NDUFA12 variants are associated with isolated complex I defect and variable clinical manifestation

Isolated biochemical deficiency of mitochondrial complex I is the most frequent signature among mitochondrial diseases and is associated with a wide variety of clinical symptoms. Leigh syndrome represents the most frequent neuroradiological finding in patients with complex I defect and more than 80 monogenic causes have been involved in the disease. In this report, we describe seven patients from four unrelated families harboring novel NDUFA12 variants, with six of them presenting with Leigh syndrome. Molecular genetic characterization was performed using next-generation sequencing combined with the Sanger method. Biochemical and protein studies were achieved by enzymatic activities, blue native gel electrophoresis, and western blot analysis. All patients displayed novel homozygous mutations in the NDUFA12 gene, leading to the virtual absence of the corresponding protein. Surprisingly, despite the fact that in none of the analyzed patients, NDUFA12 protein was detected, they present a different onset and clinical course of the disease. Our report expands the array of genetic alterations in NDUFA12 and underlines phenotype variability associated with NDUFA12 defect

The role of affective awareness in a social categorization task: behavioural and autonomic data

Affective neuroscience research posits that non-conscious stimuli evoke emotion states and physiological indexes also when individuals are not visually aware of them. In this study we tested in 34 Italian participants whether subliminal and supraliminal affective priming may influence the attribution of faces to a social group. Participants' face temperature (peri-orbital region and nasal tip) during the task was measured by means of functional infrared thermal imaging (fITI). This technique allows skin temperature recording by tracking changes in facial temperature with high thermal resolution. The emotional visual stimuli used for the affective priming were taken from the International Affective Picture System and the neutral faces employed in the social categorization task were taken from three validated face sets. To prevent visual stimuli to be consciously perceived, we employed the forward and backward masking technique: the target image was presented for 33 ms and it was preceded and followed by visual masks created by scrambling the target itself. During the supraliminal block the target image was presented for 500 ms. In the subsequent social categorization task, participants were asked to report whether the neutral face belonged to an in-group (i.e., Italian) vs out-group (i.e., Romanian) individual. We fit behavioral and thermal data in a mixed model logistic regression predicting the probability of categorizing the face as in/out-group. A significant two-way interaction between negative valence and temperature (200-600 ms time bin) was present. In the negative subliminal condition the increase in orbital temperature - indexing the engagement of the ANS sympathetic division - predicted out-group categorization, while its decrease - indexing the engagement of the ANS para-sympathetic division - predicted in-group categorization. By contrast, in the negative supraliminal condition, the increase in orbital and nose temperature predicted the categorization of faces as in-group, while its decrease predicted out-group categorization. In keeping with assimilation and contrast effects in priming research, target categorization in the subliminal block was valence-driven, whereas in the supraliminal block, target categorization was opposite respect to the valence of the prime. As an emotional regulation index, we computed the difference in orbital temperature when categorizing the face as out-group vs in-group in the negative supraliminal condition. The difference was negatively correlated with the frequency of in-group choices suggesting that higher sympathetic activity may underpin the aversion to include strangers in one's own social group. Inclusion behavior seems to be affected by differences in emotion regulation: the tendency to transfer priming-driven affective reactions to unrelated social decisions is in fact more pronounced in individuals who show stronger increases of peri-orbital temperature when facing threat-related stimuli