Advanced technique of myocardial no-reflow quantification using indocyanine green.

The post-ischemic no-reflow phenomenon after primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is observed in more than half of subjects and is defined as the absence or marked slowing of distal coronary blood flow despite removal of the arterial occlusion. To visualize no-reflow in experimental studies, the fluorescent dye thioflavin S (ThS) is often used, which allows for the estimation of the size of microvascular obstruction by staining the endothelial lining of vessels. Based on the ability of indocyanine green (ICG) to be retained in tissues with increased vascular permeability, we proposed the possibility of using it to assess not only the severity of microvascular obstruction but also the degree of vascular permeability in the zone of myocardial infarction. The aim of our study was to investigate the possibility of using ICG to visualize no-reflow zones after ischemia-reperfusion injury of rat myocardium. Using dual ICG and ThS staining and the FLUM multispectral fluorescence organoscope, we recorded ICG and ThS fluorescence within the zone of myocardial necrosis, identifying ICG-negative zones whose size correlated with the size of the no-reflow zones detected by ThS. It is also shown that the contrast change between the no-reflow zone and nonischemic myocardium reflects the severity of blood stasis, indicating that ICG-negative zones are no-reflow zones. The described method can be an addition or alternative to the traditional method of measuring the size of no-reflow zones in the experiment.

Clostridium difficile toxins impact on rat colon smooth muscle reactivity.

AIM: The present study was conducted in an attempt to find possible direct mechanisms of action of Clostridium difficile toxins A and B (TCdA and TCdB) on contractility of isolated rat intestinal smooth muscles, as the contractive pathways affected by the toxins and responsible for motility disorders remain unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Adult male Wistar rats were used in our experiments. Longitudinal smooth muscle (SM) preparations of proximal colon were isolated and their contractile activity was isometrically registered. The samples were mounted in tissue baths and exogenously treated with acetylcholine (ACh), serotonin (5-HT), dopamine, norepinephrine, TCdA and TCdB. The potential of TCdA and TCdB to affect the action of these mediators on SM activity was examined. RESULTS: The experiments have shown that exciting action of ACh and 5-HT on colonic contractility is enhanced by TCdA rather than TCdB. Conversely, relaxing effect of dopamine and norepinephrine on contractile activity of colonic SM is under impact of TCdB but not TcdA. TCdA has a stronger direct effect on in vitro SM sensitivity to ACh and 5-HT than TCdB. CONCLUSIONS: TCdA and TCdB affect directly the contractile reactivity of isolated rat colon smooth muscle. TCdA has a stronger direct effect on smooth muscle sensitivity to acetylcholine and 5-HT than TCdB. Such a trend has not been established for dopamine and norepinephrine.

Storage of Information Using Periodic Precipitation.

In the present work, transparent flexible thin polymer films with silver patterns have been created. The resulting structures made by the printing method represent a new alternative approach for recording, protecting, and transmitting information as well as for nonlinear gradient material formation. An alphabet for process automatization was created, and an automated system for recording and reading information was developed. To protect the information, we suggest the usage of a classic XOR function: the idea of scrambling is to demonstrate the simple and clear example of coding the ITMO University logo, and the code is provided. Additionally, the resulting samples are functional gradient materials with peaks of surface plasmon resonance. In the following, automated peak decoding by UV-vis spectroscopy allows an additional physicochemical method for structure decoding.

Global Spread of Norovirus GII.17 Kawasaki 308, 2014-2016.

Analysis of complete capsid sequences of the emerging norovirus GII.17 Kawasaki 308 from 13 countries demonstrated that they originated from a single haplotype since the initial emergence in China in late 2014. Global spread of a sublineage SL2 was identified. A new sublineage SL3 emerged in China in 2016.

Ultrasonically Assisted Polysaccharide Microcontainers for Delivery of Lipophilic Antitumor Drugs: Preparation and in Vitro Evaluation.

High toxicity, poor selectivity, and severe side effects are major drawbacks of anticancer drugs. Various drug delivery systems could be proposed to overcome these limitations. The aim of this study was to fabricate polysaccharide microcontainers (MCs) loaded with thymoquinone (TQ) by a one-step ultrasonication technique and to study their cellular uptake and cytotoxicity in vitro. Two MC fractions with a mean size of 500 nm (MC-0.5) and 2 µM (MC-2) were prepared and characterized. Uptake of the MCs by mouse melanoma M-3 cells was evaluated in both 2D (monolayer culture) and 3D (multicellular tumor spheroids) models by confocal microscopy, flow cytometry, and fluorimetry. The higher cytotoxicity of the TQ-MC-0.5 sample than the TQ-MC-2 fraction was in good correlation with higher MC-0.5 accumulation in the cells. The MC-0.5 beads were more promising than the MC-2 particles because of a higher cellular uptake in both 2D and 3D models, an enhanced antitumor effect, and a lower nonspecific toxicity.

Detection of wrinkle frames in endoluminal videos using betweenness centrality measures for images.

Intestinal contractions are one of the most important events to diagnose motility pathologies of the small intestine. When visualized by wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE), the sequence of frames that represents a contraction is characterized by a clear wrinkle structure in the central frames that corresponds to the folding of the intestinal wall. In this paper, we present a new method to robustly detect wrinkle frames in full WCE videos by using a new mid-level image descriptor that is based on a centrality measure proposed for graphs. We present an extended validation, carried out in a very large database, that shows that the proposed method achieves state-of-the-art performance for this task.

Inter-chromosomal variation in aberration frequencies in human lymphocytes exposed to charged particles of LET between 0.5 and 55 keV/µm.

PURPOSE: To investigate the distribution of chromosomal aberrations in chromosomes 2, 8 and 14 induced by charged particles, using the fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) technique. METHODS: Irradiation of peripheral blood from six healthy volunteers (four male and two female) was performed at the accelerators of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna (Russia). Whole blood samples were irradiated with 2 and 3 Gy of protons (170 MeV/nucleon (n), linear energy transfer (LET) ≈ 0.5 keV/µm), 3.5 Gy of (12)C ions (480 MeV/n, LET = 10.6 keV/µm), 3 Gy of (12)C ions 500 MeV/n, LET = 12 keV/µm), 4 Gy of (7)Li ions (30 MeV/n, LET ≈ 20 keV/µm) and 3 Gy of (11)B ions (32 MeV/n, LET ≈ 55 keV/µm). Chromosomal aberrations were analysed in metaphase and prematurely condensed chromosomes (PCC) induced in G(2)-cells using calyculin A. Chromosomes 2, 8 and 14 were painted in different colours and aberrations scored with the help of an image-analysis system. RESULTS: Chromosome 2 was generally less sensitive than expected on the basis of its DNA content. A higher than expected frequency of exchanges was found in chromosomes 8 and 14. On average, the dicentric frequency in chromosome 2 was higher than the translocation frequency, whereas variable dicentric to translocation ratios were observed in chromosomes 8 and 14. When aberrations in all painted chromosomes were summed up the ratio was close to 1. The frequency of complex aberrations correlated with LET. CONCLUSION: In lymphocytes of donors studied in this work chromosome 2 appears to be consistently less sensitive to protons and heavy ions than chromosomes 8 and 14. Complex aberrations appear to be a potential marker of radiation quality.