Clinical Efficacy and Safety of Percutaneous Spinal Endoscopy versus Traditional Open Surgery for Lumbar Disc Herniation: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objective: Systematic analysis of the incidence of percutaneous spinal endoscopic technique and traditional open surgery for lumbar disc herniation. Methods: A randomized controlled trial (RCT) and cohort study on complications related to traditional open surgery was searched on the MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science, Chinese journal full-text database (CNKI), Wanfang, and Embase database. Language is not limited. The quality of each study was evaluated, various complications were compiled into electronic baseline tables, and the data from these studies were available. Meta-analysis and synthesis were performed with the RevMan 5.3 software to evaluate the statistical significance of both surgical techniques in terms of various complications. Results: 12 studies were eventually included, and a total of 2,797 patients were included in the analysis. Meta-analysis results showed that there was no statistical difference in postoperative paresthesia between percutaneous spinal endoscopy and traditional open surgery (OR = 1.17, 95% CI (0.82, 1.66), P = 0.38, I 2 = 0%, Z = 0.88), direct nerve root damage (OR = 0.79, 95% CI (0.58, 1.07), P = 0.13, I 2 = 73%, Z = 1.52), and intraoperative hemorrhage and hematoma formation (OR = 1.00, 95% CI (0.67, 1.48), P = 0.99, I 2 = 0%, Z = 0.02), but there was a statistical difference in disc recurrence (OR = 2.24, 95% CI (1.56, 3.21), P < 0.0001, I 2 = 81%, Z = 4.39). Conclusion: Compared with the traditional open surgical treatment of lumbar disc herniation, percutaneous spinal endoscopic technology has obvious advantages in reducing nerve root injury, dural injury, and surgical area wound complications, but it is limited to preventing the technical characteristics of the surgical site, which is worse than that of open surgery.

Reactive oxygen species-scavenging system is involved in l-amino acid oxidase accumulation in Pseudoalteromonas sp. B3.

To date, the mechanisms underlying the flavoprotein l-amino acid oxidase (LAAO) accumulation in cells remain unclear. In this study, using LAAO-producer Pseudoalteromonas spp. as model organisms, we found that the cell biomass is negatively associated with LAAO accumulation, whereas the LAAO accumulation is positively associated with the reactive oxygen species (ROS)-scavenging capability. The expression levels of ROS-scavenging-associated genes were up-regulated with LAAO accumulation in Pseudoalteromonas cells, which is presumably due to the requirement for the removal of LAAO-induced ROS. Exogenous H2O2 exposure experiment supported that the ROS-scavenging system is associated with LAAO accumulation in Pseudoalteromonas. All these observations indicate that ROS-scavenging capacity determines LAAO accumulation in bacterial cells. Our results shed a light on understanding the mechanism underlying controlling and adapting to LAAO accumulation in Pseudoalteromonas. Besides, our findings are critical to the improvement of heterologous expression of active LAAO in the future.

Dose estimate of inhaled hafnium tritide using the ICRP 66 lung model.

Metal tritide is widely used for research, purification, compression, and storage of tritium. The current understanding of metal tritide and its radiation dosimetry for internal exposure is limited, and ICRP publications do not provide the tritium dosimetry for hafnium tritide. The current radiation protection guidelines for metal tritide particles (including hafnium tritide) are based on the assumption that their biological behavior is similar to tritiated water, which is completely absorbed by the body. However, the solubility of metal tritide particles depends on the chemical form of the material. The biological half-live of hafnium tritide particles and the dosimetry of an inhalation exposure to those particles could be quite different from tritiated water. This paper describes experiments on the dissolution rate of hafnium tritide particles in a simulated lung fluid. The results showed that less than 1% of the tritium was dissolved in the simulated lung fluid for hafnium tritide particles after 215 d. The short-term and long-term dissolution half times were 46 and 4.28 x 10(5) d, respectively. This indicates that hafnium tritide is an extremely insoluble material. Self-absorption of beta rays in the hafnium tritide particles was estimated by a numerical method. The dose coefficients were calculated as a function of particle size using in vitro solubility data and a calculated self-absorption factor. The dose coefficient decreased with aerodynamic diameters in the range of 0.25 to 10 microm, mainly because the self-absorption factor decreased with increasing particle size. For a particle 1 microm in aerodynamic diameter, the dose coefficient of a hafnium tritide particle was about 10 times higher than that of tritiated water but was about 1.4 times lower than that calculated by ICRP Publication 71 for Type S tritiated particles. The ICRP estimate did not include a self-absorption factor and thus might have overestimated the dose. This finding has significant implications for current health protection guidelines.

Advances in detection methods of L-amino acid oxidase activity.

L-amino acid oxidase (LAAO) is widely distributed in many different organisms and found to play important biological roles, thus attracting a great deal of attention for characterization of its activity. Diverse detection methods with their own properties have been established. This review advanced different LAAO activity assays based on substrate consumption, cofactor amount, and product accumulation. The description of benefits and drawbacks of each method is expected to help researchers find appropriate detection method of LAAO activity for their own purpose.

Prophylaxis against carcinogenesis in three kinds of unestablished tumor models via IL12-gene-engineered MSCs.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were adenovirally engineered to secrete interleukin-12 (AdIL-12-MSCs) and evaluated for their anticarcinogenesis efficacy against three kinds of unestablished tumor models including B16 melanoma, LLC Lewis lung cancer and HCC hepatoma. Injection of AdIL-12-MSCs into protected mice before tumor inoculation prevented all of 12 mice in B16 preventive groups, 10 out of 12 in LLC lung cancer model and 11 out of 12 mice in HCC hepatoma model from developing tumors, whereas the control groups pre-receiving PBS were validated for 100% carcinogenesis; the tumor formation rates in free-AdIL-12 and vacant MSC groups were unveiled between approximately 83 and 100% even with plentiful angiogenesis and newborn lymphatic vessels, as well as distant metastases. As a novel approach, AdIL-12-MSC has revealed expected preventive effects on carcinogenesis (P<0.01) with low-toxic, broad-spectrum and long-range superiorities. In conclusion, our data indicate that AdIL-12-MSC possess the potential for tropism to preclinical tumor lesions and deprives surviving or hibernating tumor cells, which have escaped from conventional treatments, of revival and recurrence.