scholarly journals Boost Tendon/Ligament Repair With Biomimetic and Smart Cellular Constructs

Author(s):  
Jianping Zhao ◽  
Xiang Wang ◽  
Jinyu Han ◽  
Yin Yu ◽  
Fei Chen ◽  
...  

Tendon and ligament are soft connective tissues that play essential roles in transmitting forces from muscle to bone or bone to bone. Despite significant progress made in the field of ligament and tendon regeneration over the past decades, many strategies struggle to recapitulate basic structure-function criteria of native ligament/tendon. The goal here is to provide a fundamental understanding of the structure and composition of ligament/tendon and highlight few key challenges in functional regeneration of these connective tissues. The remainder of the review will examine several biomaterials strategies including biomimetic scaffold with non-linear mechanical behavior, hydrogel patch with anisotropic adhesion and gene-activated scaffold for interactive healing of tendon/ligament. Finally, emerging technologies and research avenues are suggested that have the potential to enhance treatment outcomes of tendon/ligament injuries.

2012 ◽  
Vol 85 (4) ◽  
pp. 661-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Zhang ◽  
Zuowei Xie

This article highlights the achievements in the chemistry of supercarboranes (carboranes with more than 12 vertices) in the past decade and the future perspectives. The chemistry of boron clusters has been dominated by 12-vertex carboranes for several decades. Only in recent years has significant progress been made in the chemistry of supercarboranes. Such a breakthrough relies on the use of CAd (carbon-atoms-adjacent) 12-vertex nido-carborane anions as starting materials. A series of 13- and 14-vertex carboranes as well as their corresponding 14- and 15-vertex metallacarboranes have been prepared and structurally characterized. Reactions of supercarboranes with reducing agents, electrophiles, and nucleophiles are studied, which reveal a more diverse and richer reaction chemistry than their icosahedral cousins.


2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-448 ◽  

Emotion and cognition have been viewed as largely separate entities in the brain. Within this framework, significant progress has been made in understanding specific aspects of behavior. Research in the past two decades, however, has started to paint a different picture of brain organization, one in which network interactions are key to understanding complex behaviors. From both basic and clinical perspectives, the characterization of cognitive-emotional interactions constitutes a fundamental issue in the investigation of the mind and brain. This review will highlight the interactive and integrative potential that exists in the brain to bring together the cognitive and emotional domains. First, anatomical evidence will be provided, focusing on structures such as hypothalamus, basal forebrain, amygdala, cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and insula. Data on functional interactions will then be discussed, followed by a discussion of a dual competition framework, which describes cognitive-emotional interactions in terms of perceptual and cognitive competition mechanisms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-32
Author(s):  
Danilo Jeremić ◽  
Boris Gluščević ◽  
Stanislav Rajković ◽  
Želimir Jovanović ◽  
Branislav Krivokapić

Osteoarthritis, osteoarthrosis, and osteoarthropathy are diseases that doctors encounter daily in their practice. The use of all three terms is customary, often without a clear justification as to why a particular term is used for a particular case. In the past several decades, doctors mainly differentiated among these diseases based on clinical presentation and radiography. In the past several years, however, significant progress has been made in the field of biochemical, immunological, and cytohistological research, which has provided explanations for the pathogenesis of these conditions, enabled defining differences amongst them and facilitated the use of appropriate terms for each one of these diseases. The term arthritis (osteoarthritis) should be used exclusively for primarily inflammatory joint diseases-rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile arthritis, reactive arthritis (Reiter's syndrome). If the etiology is infectious, this must also be emphasized-septic (purulent) arthritis, tuberculous arthritis. Arthrosis (osteoarthrosis) relates to changes in the joints occurring due to pathological processes within the joint itself, but which, in their basis, are not inflammatory. Arthropathy is a term for joint disease stemming from another diseased organ or system of organs.


2002 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. Rehr ◽  
A. L. Ankudinov

There has been dramatic progress over the past decade both in theory and inab initiocalculations of X-ray absorption fine structure. Significant progress has also been made in understanding X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES). This contribution briefly reviews the developments in this field leading up to the current state. One of the key advances has been the development of severalab initiocodes such asFEFF, which permit an interpretation of the spectra in terms of geometrical and electronic properties of a material. Despite this progress, XANES calculations have remained challenging both to compute and to interpret. However, recent advances based on parallel Lanczos multiple-scattering algorithms have led to speed increases of typically two orders of magnitude, making fast calculations practicable. Improvements in the interpretation of near-edge structure have also been made. It is suggested that these developments can be advantageous in structural biology,e.g.in post-genomics studies of metalloproteins.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annapurni Jayam Trouth ◽  
Alok Dabi ◽  
Noha Solieman ◽  
Mohankumar Kurukumbi ◽  
Janaki Kalyanam

Acquired myasthenia gravis is a relatively uncommon disorder, with prevalence rates that have increased to about 20 per 100,000 in the US population. This autoimmune disease is characterized by muscle weakness that fluctuates, worsening with exertion, and improving with rest. In about two-thirds of the patients, the involvement of extrinsic ocular muscle presents as the initial symptom, usually progressing to involve other bulbar muscles and limb musculature, resulting in generalized myasthenia gravis. Although the cause of the disorder is unknown, the role of circulating antibodies directed against the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor in its pathogenesis is well established. As this disorder is highly treatable, prompt recognition is crucial. During the past decade, significant progress has been made in our understanding of the disease, leading to new treatment modalities and a significant reduction in morbidity and mortality.


Author(s):  
Haldor Byrkeflot ◽  
Karsten Vrangbaek

The debate on accountability within the public sector has been lively in the past decade. Significant progress has been made in developing conceptual frameworks and typologies for characterizing different features and functions of accountability. However, there is a lack of sector specific adjustment of such frameworks. In this chapter we present a framework for analyzing accountability within health care. The chapter makes use of the concept of “accountability regime” to signify the combination of different accountability forms, directions and functions at any given point in time. We show that reforms can introduce new forms of accountability, change existing accountability relations or change the relative importance of different accountability forms. They may also change the dominant direction and shift the balance between different functions of accountability. The chapter further suggests that developments in accountability regimes are best analyzed with a combination of top-down and bottom up perspectives and that there is a need to develop research strategies to support this aim.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raffaele Pugliese ◽  
Monica Montuori ◽  
Fabrizio Gelain

Significant progress has been made in the peptides self-assembly over the past two decades, however the in situ cross-linking of self-assembling peptides yielding to better performing nanomaterials is still in...


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongmei Fan ◽  
Shuxuan Quan ◽  
Shengdong Qi ◽  
Na Xu ◽  
Yong Wang

Nitrogen (N) is one of the most essential macronutrients for plant growth and development. Nitrate (NO3–), the major form of N that plants uptake from the soil, acts as an important signaling molecule in addition to its nutritional function. Over the past decade, significant progress has been made in identifying new components involved in NO3– regulation and starting to unravel the NO3– regulatory network. Great reviews have been made recently by scientists on the key regulators in NO3– signaling, NO3– effects on plant development, and its crosstalk with phosphorus (P), potassium (K), hormones, and calcium signaling. However, several novel aspects of NO3– regulation have not been previously reviewed in detail. Here, we mainly focused on the recent advances of post-transcriptional regulation and non-coding RNA (ncRNAs) in NO3– signaling, and NO3– regulation on leaf senescence and the circadian clock. It will help us to extend the general picture of NO3– regulation and provide a basis for further exploration of NO3– regulatory network.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fangrui Zheng ◽  
Tsz Hin Yui ◽  
Jiji Zhang ◽  
Zuowei Xie

AbstractCarboranes are a class of carbon-boron molecular clusters with three-dimensional aromaticity, and inherent robustness. These endowments enable carboranes as valuable building blocks for applications ranging from functional materials to pharmaceuticals. Thus, the chemistry of carboranes has received tremendous research interest, and significant progress has been made in the past decades. However, many attempts to the synthesis of carboranes with more than 14 vertices had been unsuccessful since the report of a 14-vertex carborane in 2005. The question arises as to whether these long sought-after molecules exist. We describe in this article the synthesis and structural characterization of 15- and 16-vertex closo-carboranes as well as 16-vertex ruthenacarborane. Such a success relies on the introduction of silyl groups to both cage carbons, stabilizing the corresponding nido-carborane dianions and promoting the capitation reaction with HBBr2·SMe2. This work would shed some light on the preparation of carboranes with 17 vertices or more, and open the door for studying supercarborane chemistry.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica L. Katz ◽  
John E. Harris

Vitiligo is a disease of the skin characterized by the appearance of white spots. Significant progress has been made in understanding vitiligo pathogenesis over the past 30 years, but only through perseverance, collaboration, and open-minded discussion. Early hypotheses considered roles for innervation, microvascular anomalies, oxidative stress, defects in melanocyte adhesion, autoimmunity, somatic mosaicism, and genetics. Because theories about pathogenesis drive experimental design, focus, and even therapeutic approach, it is important to consider their impact on our current understanding about vitiligo. Animal models allow researchers to perform mechanistic studies, and the development of improved patient sample collection methods provides a platform for translational studies in vitiligo that can also be applied to understand other autoimmune diseases that are more difficult to study in human samples. Here we discuss the history of vitiligo translational research, recent advances, and their implications for new treatment approaches.


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