The predictive and diagnostic accuracy of vascular endothelial growth factor and pentraxin-3 in severe dengue.

This study aimed to evaluate vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and pentraxin 3 (PTX-3) as predictive and diagnostic markers in differentiating severe dengue from non-severe dengue. The study was conducted in Ampang Health Clinic, Ampang Hospital and Serdang Hospital. The plasma levels of VEGF and PTX-3 were compared between severe dengue and non-severe dengue by ELISA from the day of presentation until discharged. Multiple logistic regression was used to develop predictive and diagnostic models by incorporating other clinical parameters. The receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis was used to assess the accuracy of the biomarkers and the developed models. Eighty-two patients were recruited, 29 with severe dengue and four died. The Area Under the Curve (AUC) was statistically significant in VEGF as diagnostic marker at Day 2 and 3 of illness with sensitivity of 80.00%-100.00% and specificity of 76.47%-80.00%. The predictive model with AUC of 0.84 (p < 0.01) has a sensitivity of 100.00% and specificity of 79.25% for predicting severe dengue. The diagnostic model with AUC of 0.71 (p < 0.01) has a sensitivity of 76.19% and specificity of 73.58% for diagnosing severe dengue. The AUC for PTX-3 was not statistically significant. VEGF may be used in combination with other clinical parameters to predict the severity of the disease. As a single biomarker, it may be used as an adjunct investigation to support the diagnosis of severe dengue. PTX-3 was not able to differentiate severe dengue from non-severe dengue.

Induced pluripotent stem cells from human hair follicle keratinocytes as a potential source for in vitro hair follicle cloning.

BACKGROUND: Human hair follicles are important for the renewal of new hairs and their development. The generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from hair follicles is easy due to its accessibility and availability. The pluripotent cells derived from hair follicles not only have a higher tendency to re-differentiate into hair follicles, but are also more suited for growth in hair scalp tissue microenvironment. METHODS: In this study, human hair follicular keratinocytes were used to generate iPSCs, which were then further differentiated in vitro into keratinocytes. The derived iPSCs were characterised by using immunofluorescence staining, flow cytometry, and reverse-transcription PCR to check for its pluripotency markers expression. RESULTS: The iPSC clones expressed pluripotency markers such as TRA-1-60, TRA-1-81, SSEA4, OCT4, SOX2, NANOG, LEFTY, and GABRB. The well-formed three germ layers were observed during differentiation using iPSCs derived from hair follicles. The successful formation of keratioctyes from iPSCs was confirmed by the expression of cytokeratin 14 marker. DISCUSSION: Hair follicles represent a valuable keratinocytes source for in vitro hair cloning for use in treating hair balding or grafting in burn patients. Our significant findings in this report proved that hair follicles could be used to produce pluripotent stem cells and suggested that the genetic and micro-environmental elements of hair follicles might trigger higher and more efficient hair follicles re-differentiation.