Additional hepatic artery embolization after liver venous deprivation for right hepatectomy: A case report.

Post hepatectomy Liver Failure (PHLF) is a fatal complication, especially after major liver resection. Insufficient remnant liver volume is a common cause of postoperative liver failure. Many strategies have been applied to induce the remnant liver hypertrophy: Portal vein embolization (PVE), PVE combined with hepatic vein embolization (LVD), two staged liver resection, Associated liver partition with portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy (ALPPS). We present a case of a 39-year-old male patient who underwent LVD for preoperative liver hypertrophy. After LVD, the patient underwent additional artery embolization, and the patient's remaining liver volume increased by 63.2% in 7 weeks. The patient underwent a right hepatectomy and was discharged after 10 days, with no complications of postoperative liver failure. Simultaneous portal and hepatic vein embolization is a technique that has been applied recently because it can significantly promote the speed and extent of liver hypertrophy before major liver resection compared to portal vein embolization procedure alone. In this case, additional hepatic artery embolization may be an important factor lead to hypertrophy of the remnant liver, thereby shortening the waiting time for surgery and reducing the risk of tumor progression. Liver venous deprivation is safe and feasible to perform. Additional hepatic artery embolization may accelerate the hypertrophy of the remnant liver.

Metamaterial-enhanced vibrational absorption spectroscopy for the detection of protein molecules.

From visible to mid-infrared frequencies, molecular sensing has been a major successful application of plasmonics because of the enormous enhancement of the surface electromagnetic nearfield associated with the induced collective motion of surface free carriers excited by the probe light. However, in the lower-energy terahertz (THz) region, sensing by detecting molecular vibrations is still challenging because of low sensitivity, complicated spectral features, and relatively little accumulated knowledge of molecules. Here, we report the use of a micron-scale thin-slab metamaterial (MM) architecture, which functions as an amplifier for enhancing the absorption signal of the THz vibration of an ultrathin adsorbed layer of large organic molecules. We examined bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a prototype large protein molecule and Rhodamine 6G (Rh6G) and 3,3'-diethylthiatricarbocyanine iodide (DTTCI) as examples of small molecules. Among them, our MM significantly magnified only the signal strength of bulky BSA. On the other hand, DTTCI and Rh6G are inactive, as they lack low-frequency vibrational modes in this frequency region. The results obtained here clearly demonstrate the promise of MM-enhanced absorption spectroscopy in the THz region for detection and structural monitoring of large biomolecules such as proteins or pathogenic enzymes.

A phylogenetic approach to study the origin and evolution of the CRINKLY4 family.

Cell-cell communication plays a crucial role in plant growth and development and relies to a large extent on peptide ligand-receptor kinase signaling mechanisms. The CRINKLY4 (CR4) family of receptor-like kinases is involved in a wide range of developmental processes in plants, including mediating columella stem cell identity and differentiation in the Arabidopsis thaliana root tip. Members of the CR4 family contain a signal peptide, an extracellular part, a single-pass transmembrane helix and an intracellular cytoplasmic protein kinase domain. The main distinguishing features of the family are the presence of seven "crinkly" repeats and a TUMOR NECROSIS FACTOR RECEPTOR (TNFR)-like domain in the extracellular part. Here, we investigated the evolutionary origin of the CR4 family and explored to what extent members of this family are conserved throughout the green lineage. We identified members of the CR4 family in various dicots and monocots, and also in the lycophyte Selaginella moellendorffii and the bryophyte Physcomitrella patens. In addition, we attempted to gain insight in the evolutionary origin of different CR4-specific domains, and we could detect "crinkly" repeat containing proteins already in single celled algae. Finally, we related the presence of likely functional CR4 orthologs to its best described signaling module comprising CLAVATA3/EMBRYO SURROUNDING REGION-RELATED 40 (CLE40), WUSCHEL RELATED HOMEOBOX 5 (WOX5), CLAVATA 1 (CLV1), and ARABIDOPSIS CR4 (ACR4), and established that this module likely is already present in bryophytes and lycophytes.