Application of optical coherence tomography and keratograph in the measurements of lower lid margin thickness.

PURPOSE: This study aims to investigate the applicability of lower lid margin thickness (LLMT) measurements in adults with and without meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) by optical coherence tomography (OCT) and keratograph. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional, observational study. A hundred and eight volunteers aged 20 to 79, including 68 MGD patients and 40 normal subjects, were recruited. Using OCT and keratograph to measure the LLMT from the posterior lash line to anterior edge or outer edge of the tear meniscus was separately performed two times by the same person. RESULTS: The mean age of normal and MGD subjects was 50.5 ± 14.2 years and 55.8 ± 15.5 years, respectively. The LLMT with OCT and keratograph in MGD patients was significantly greater than that in normal subjects (1.06 ± 0.27 and 1.03 ± 0.25 mm vs. 0.90 ± 0.20 and 0.86 ± 0.16 mm, respectively). In both normal and MGD subjects, the tear meniscus height and LLMT with OCT were both greater than that with keratograph (P < 0.05), and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) demonstrated a good agreement in the LLMT measurements between two devices (ICC = 0.83 and 0.79, respectively). Additionally, the LLMT in MGD patients was appeared to be positively correlated with meiboscore (rs = 0.37, P = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: The OCT and keratograph were two reliable tools in the LLMT measurements, which may have potential applications for diagnosis and evaluation of MGD. Furthermore, we found that the LLMT measured by OCT was greater than that measured by keratograph.

Water-dispersible, pH-stable and highly-luminescent organic dye nanoparticles with amplified emissions for in vitro and in vivo bioimaging.

A new strategy is presented for using doped small-molecule organic nanoparticles (NPs) to achieve high-performance fluorescent probes with strong brightness, large Stokes shifts and tunable emissions for in vitro and in vivo imaging. The host organic NPs are used not only as carriers to encapsulate different doped dyes, but also as fluorescence resonance energy transfer donors to couple with the doped dyes (as acceptors) to achieve multicolor luminescence with amplified emissions (AE). The resulting optimum green emitting NPs show high brightness with quantum yield (QY) of up to 45% and AE of 12 times; and the red emitting NPs show QY of 14% and AE of 10 times. These highly-luminescent doped NPs can be further surface modified with poly(maleic anhydride-alt-1-octadecene)-polyethylene glycol (C18PMH-PEG), endowing them with excellent water dispersibility and robust stability in various bio-environments covering wide pH values from 2 to 10. In this study, cytotoxicity studies and folic acid targeted cellular imaging of these multicolor probes are carried out to demonstrate their potential for in vitro imaging. On this basis, applications of the NP probes in in vivo and ex vivo imaging are also investigated. Intense fluorescent signals of the doped NPs are distinctly, selectively and spatially resolved in tumor sites with high sensitivity, due to the preferential accumulation of the NPs in tumor sites through the passive enhanced permeability and retention effect. The results clearly indicate that these doped NPs are promising fluorescent probes for biomedical applications.

Short-Term Changes in Weight, Body Composition, and Metabolic Biomarkers After Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy in Patients with Obesity: A Comparative Prospective Study.

PURPOSE: To investigate the changes in weight, body composition, and metabolic biomarkers in patients with obesity after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) and compare those changes between patients with and without metabolic syndrome (MS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective longitudinal study included 76 patients who underwent LSG, among whom 32 had complete 1-year postoperative body composition and metabolic biomarkers. Body composition was measured by quantitative CT. Weight changes were compared between the MS and non-MS groups at 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-month post-LSG in all patients; changes in body compositions and metabolic biomarkers from one day pre-LSG to 12-month post-LSG were also compared in those 32 patients. RESULTS: MS occurred in 46% (35/76) of all patients and 44% (14/32) of patients with complete follow-up data. Excess weight loss was lower in the MS group than that in the non-MS group at 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-month post-LSG; the 12-month difference was significant (MS vs. non-MS: 0.91 ± 0.22 vs. 1.07 ± 0.42, P = 0.04). The greatest rate of visceral fat area (VFA) change occurred 12-month post-LSG in both the non-MS [0.62(0.55,0.7)] and MS [0.6(0.51,0.63)] groups. The most significant reduction in ectopic fat occurred in liver fat (LF) [non-MS, 0.45(0.22,0.58); MS, 0.39(0.23,0.58)]. CONCLUSION: LGS significantly improves weight, body composition, and metabolic biomarkers in populations with obesity, regardless of whether they have MS. Among the body composition, VFA and LF were the most significantly improved body composition measurements.

Localization of southern tomato virus (STV) in tomato tissues.

Southern tomato virus (STV) is a dsRNA virus, which belongs to the newly formed Amalgavirus genus of the Amalgaviridae family. Currently there is no report regarding the presence of STV in tomato tissues. In this study, we performed in situ hybridization to examine the distribution of STV in host tissues. STV was found in the leaves, stems, seeds, shoot apexes and root tips of tomato and localized in the cortex tissue, vascular tissues, pith, seed coat, endosperm, cotyledon (including inner cotyledons and outer cotyledons), hypocotyls and radicles of infected tomato tissues. In addition, STV was detected in the apical part of the stems and roots for the first time. This indicates that STV is a systemic infectious virus.

Hepatocyte growth factor-modified hair follicle stem cells ameliorate cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats.

BACKGROUND: Hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) are considered as a promising cell type in the stem cell transplantation treatment of neurological diseases because of their rich sources, easy access, and the same ectoderm source as the nervous system. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a pleiotropic cytokine that shows neuroprotective function in ischemic stroke. Here we assessed the therapeutic effects of HFSCs on ischemic stroke injury and the synthetic effect of HGF along with HFSCs. METHODS: Rat HFSCs were intravenously transplanted into a middle cerebral artery ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) rat model. Neurological scoring and TTC staining were performed to assess the benefits of HFSC transplantation. Inflammatory cytokines, blood-brain barrier integrity and angiogenesis within penumbra were estimated by Western blot and immunohistochemistry. The differentiation of HFSCs was detected by immunofluorescence method 2 weeks after transplantation. RESULTS: HFSC transplantation could significantly inhibit the activation of microglia, improve the integrity of blood-brain barrier and reduce brain edema. Moreover, the number of surviving neurons and microvessels density in the penumbra were upregulated by HFSC transplantation, leading to better neurological score. The combination of HFSCs and HGF could significantly improve the therapeutic benefit. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate for the first time that HGF modified HFSCs can reduce I/R injury and promote the neurological recovery by inhibiting inflammatory response, protecting blood-brain barrier and promoting angiogenesis.

A Tryptophan Metabolite of the Microbiota Improves Neovascularization in Diabetic Limb Ischemia.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is accompanied by a series of macrovascular and microvascular injuries. Critical limb ischemia is the most severe manifestation of peripheral artery disease (PAD) caused by DM and is almost incurable. Therapeutic modulation of angiogenesis holds promise for the prevention of limb ischemia in diabetic patients with PAD. However, no small-molecule drugs are capable of promoting diabetic angiogenesis. An endogenous tryptophan metabolite, indole-3-aldehyde (3-IAld), has been found to have proangiogenic activity in endothelial cells. Nevertheless, the role of 3-IAld in diabetic angiogenesis remains unknown. Here, we found that 3-IAld ameliorated high glucose-induced mitochondrial dysfunction, decreasing oxidative stress and apoptosis and thus improving neovascularization.

Computed-Tomography-Based Radiomics Model for Predicting the Malignant Potential of Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors Preoperatively: A Multi-Classifier and Multicenter Study.

Background: Our goal was to establish and verify a radiomics risk grading model for gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) and to identify the optimal algorithm for risk stratification. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 324 patients with GISTs, the presence of which was confirmed by surgical pathology. Patients were treated at three different hospitals. A training cohort of 180 patients was collected from the largest center, while an external validation cohort of 144 patients was collected from the other two centers. To extract radiomics features, regions of interest (ROIs) were outlined layer by layer along the edge of the tumor contour on CT images of the arterial and portal venous phases. The dimensionality of radiomic features was reduced, and the top 10 features with importance value above 5 were selected before modeling. The training cohort used three classifiers [logistic regression, support vector machine (SVM), and random forest] to establish three GIST risk stratification prediction models. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to compare model performance, which was validated by external data. Results: In the training cohort, the average area under the curve (AUC) was 0.84 ± 0.07 of the logistic regression, 0.88 ± 0.06 of the random forest, and 0.81 ± 0.08 of the SVM. In the external validation cohort, the AUC was 0.85 of the logistic regression, 0.90 of the random forest, and 0.80 of the SVM. The random forest model performed the best in both the training and the external validation cohorts and could be generalized. Conclusion: Based on CT radiomics, there are multiple machine-learning models that can predict the risk of GISTs. Among them, the random forest algorithm had the highest prediction efficiency and could be readily generalizable. Through external validation data, we assume that the random forest model may be used as an effective tool to guide preoperative clinical decision-making.

Variational schemes and geometric simulations for a hydrodynamic-electrodynamic model of surface plasmon polaritons.

A class of variational schemes for the hydrodynamic-electrodynamic model of lossless free-electron gas in a quasineutral background is developed for high-quality simulations of surface plasmon polaritons. The Lagrangian density of lossless free-electron gas with a self-consistent electromagnetic field is established, and the dynamical equations with the associated constraints are obtained via a variational principle. Based on discrete exterior calculus, the action functional of this system is discretized and minimized to obtain the discrete dynamics. Newton-Raphson iteration and the biconjugate gradient stabilized method are equipped as a hybrid nonlinear-linear algebraic solver. Instead of discretizing the partial differential equations, the variational schemes have better numerical properties in secular simulations, as they preserve the discrete Lagrangian symplectic structure, gauge symmetry, and general energy-momentum density. Two numerical experiments were performed. The numerical results reproduce characteristic dispersion relations of bulk plasmons and surface plasmon polaritons, and the numerical errors of conserved quantities in all experiments are bounded by a small value after long-term simulations.

Effect of the Meibomian Gland Squeezer for Treatment of Meibomian Gland Dysfunction.

PURPOSE: To investigate the effect of the meibomian gland squeezer for treatment of meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD). METHODS: Seventy patients (140 eyes) with MGD were randomly divided into 2 groups: 36 patients who were treated by the meibomian gland squeezer as the treatment group and 34 patients were selected as the control group. Patients were evaluated at baseline, and 2-week and 1-month visits for subjective symptoms, objective signs and pain assessments, including ocular symptom scores, Ocular Surface Disease Index, tear breakup time, corneal fluorescein staining, Schirmer scores with no anesthetic (Schirmer I test), meibum quality, meibum expressibility, and Numeric Rating Scale-11. RESULTS: Sixty-five patients were followed in the study, and mean (±SD) age was 57.0 (±12.6) years. Compared with baseline, the 2 groups had varying degrees of improvement in ocular symptom scores and Ocular Surface Disease Index at the 2-week and 1-month visits; there was a statistically significant difference between groups (P < 0.001). At the 1-month visit, the treatment group showed a greater improvement in the breakup time (3.8 ± 1.6 vs. 1.8 ± 1.0 seconds, P < 0.001), corneal fluorescein staining (-2.1 ± 2.13 vs. -0.9 ± 1.3, P = 0.03), Schirmer I test (5.3 ± 2.9 vs. 2.3 ± 2.8 mm, P < 0.001), meibum quality (-7.5 ± 2.9 vs. -5.3 ± 2.4, P = 0.004), and meibum expressibility (-1.2 ± 0.8 vs. -0.7 ± 0.4, P = 0.007). In the treatment group, the mean (±SD) of total pain scores was 2.4 ± 1.0, which indicated that mild pain was still predominant under topical anesthesia. CONCLUSIONS: The meibomian gland squeezer may be safe, effective, and helpful for treatment of MGD and may offer an attractive treatment option for some patients with MGD, although it can cause mild pain or discomfort.

Cystotome-assisted prechop technique.

UNLABELLED: We describe a manual prechop technique to divide the nucleus using a cystotome. In the cystotome-assisted prechop technique, after the capsulorhexis, the surgeon-bent cystotome is inserted into the lens while the Nagahara chopper is set around the lens equator. The cystotome and the chopper are then brought together in the center to create a bisecting crack in the nucleus, dividing it cleanly into 2 hemispheres. FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE: No author has a financial or proprietary interest in any material or method mentioned.

Highly luminescent and photostable core-shell dye nanoparticles for high efficiency bioimaging.

We developed core-shell silica-coated dye nanoparticles as highly bright and ultrastable red-emitting fluorescent probes for long-term cellular imaging and ultrasensitive in vivo animal imaging.

Functional core/shell drug nanoparticles for highly effective synergistic cancer therapy.

Gold (Au)-nanoshelled 10-hydroxycamptothecin nanoparticles (HCPT NPs) are developed with combination of photothermal therapy and chemotherapy for highly effective cancer therapy. The strong near-infrared (NIR) absorbance from Au nanoshells endows the nanocomposites photothermal effects and on-demand drug release. Notably, the drug-loading content reaches up to 63.7 wt%, which is much higher than that in the previously reported nanovehicles systems. Both in vitro and in vivo studies indicate that the combined local specific chemotherapy with external NIR photothermal therapy demonstrates a synergistic effect, which is significantly better than either of them alone. More importantly, due to the high drug-loading content and efficient photothermal effects of the nanocomposites, 100% in vivo tumor elimination is achieved at a low laser irradiation power density of 1 W cm(-) (2) without weight loss and tumor recurrence. No obvious systematic toxicity is observed for the injected mice, indicating the good biocompatibility of this kind of multifunctional drug nanocomposites. This work highlights the great potential of drug-nanostructure-based multifunctional core/shell nanpocomposite for highly efficient cancer therapy.

Smart nanorods for highly effective cancer theranostic applications.

Combination of chemotherapy and photothermal therapy is considered to be a promising strategy for the next generation of cancer treatments. However, it has been limited by difficulties in obtaining high drug payload chemo-photothermal agents, and thus complete destruction of tumor without recurrence has never been achieved, unless they are conjugated with some targeting ligands for special targeted drug delivery. Herein, iron oxide nanoparticle (IONP)-doped 10-hydroxycamptothecin drug nanorods (HCPT NRs), with an organic conducting polymer poly(4-styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT) coating outside, are developed for cancer diagnosis and chemo-photothermal therapy. The drug-loading capacity of HCPT in the complex NRs reaches up to 72%, which is much higher than previously reported carrier-based nanocomposites. In vitro studies show that the resulting NRs demonstrate an excellent chemo-photothermal synergistic effect for tumor ablation. More importantly, 100% in vivo tumor elimination is achieved under a low laser power density of 1 W cm(-) (2) without weight loss and tumor recurrence. Moreover, IONP endow these drug nanocomposites with imaging capabilities, thus rendering the resulting HCPT-PEDOT NR an all-in-one processing system for diagnosis and treatment with low systematic toxicity.

Near-infrared fluorescence imaging using organic dye nanoparticles.

Near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence imaging in the 700-1000 nm wavelength range has been very attractive for early detection of cancers. Conventional NIR dyes often suffer from limitation of low brightness due to self-quenching, insufficient photo- and bioenvironmental stability, and small Stokes shift. Herein, we present a strategy of using small-molecule organic dye nanoparticles (ONPs) to encapsulate NIR dyes to enable efficient fluorescence resonance energy transfer to obtain NIR probes with remarkably enhanced performance for in vitro and in vivo imaging. In our design, host ONPs are used as not only carriers to trap and stabilize NIR dyes, but also light-harvesting agent to transfer energy to NIR dyes to enhance their brightness. In comparison with pure NIR dyes, our organic dye nanoparticles possess almost 50-fold increased brightness, large Stokes shifts (∼250 nm) and dramatically enhanced photostability. With surface modification, these NIR-emissive organic nanoparticles have water-dispersity and size- and fluorescence- stability over pH values from 2 to 10 for almost 60 days. With these superior advantages, these NIR-emissive organic nanoparticles can be used for highly efficient folic-acid aided specific targeting in vivo and ex vivo cellular imaging. Finally, during in vivo imaging, the nanoparticles show negligible toxicity. Overall, the results clearly display a potential application of using the NIR-emissive organic nanoparticles for in vitro and in vivo imaging.

Effects of phacoemulsification on intraocular pressure and anterior chamber depth.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of phacoemulsification with intraocular lens (IOL) implantation on intraocular pressure (IOP) and anterior chamber depth (ACD) in patients with cataract or cataract associated with primary angle closure (PAC). A total of 361 patients (481 affected eyes) with senile cataract (cataract group) and 44 patients (52 affected eyes) with cataract associated with PAC (cataract with PAC group) underwent phacoemulsification with IOL implantation from July 2005 to May 2007 and were followed up for 3 to 25 months. There was a significant difference between pre-operative and post-operative IOPs (t=9.270, P<0.01) in the cataract group and in the cataract with PAC group (t=3.29, P<0.01). No significant differences were identified in pre-operative IOP (t=-2.437, P>0.05) and the IOP three months after surgery (t=2.154, P>0.05) between the two groups. There was a significant difference between the pre-operative and post-operative ACDs (t=7.781, P<0.01) in the cataract group and in the cataract with PAC group (t=4.528, P<0.01). A significant difference in ACD between the two groups (t=8.325, P<0.01) existed prior to surgery but following surgery, the ACDs of the two groups were not significantly different (t=2.86, P>0.05). Phacoemulsification with IOL implantation has IOP-lowering effects on cataract and cataract with PAC patients. The International Society of Geography and Epidemiology of Ophthalmology classification method for angle closure glaucoma was adopted in our study. Furhter studies are required to prove the safety and mechanism of lowering IOP impact of phacoemulsifation towards PAC glaucoma (PACG).

Shape design of high drug payload nanoparticles for more effective cancer therapy.

We developed different-shaped drug nanocrystals with similar hydrodynamic sizes and surface charges, and found that nanorods exhibited much higher in vitro and in vivo anticancer efficacy than that of nanospheres.

Ultrabright and ultrastable near-infrared dye nanoparticles for in vitro and in vivo bioimaging.

We report a new strategy of using carrier-free pure near-infrared (NIR) dye nanoparticles (NPs) to achieve highly luminescent NIR fluorescent probes for in vitro and in vivo imaging. Bis(4-(N-(2-naphthyl)phenylamino) phenyl)-fumaronitrile (NPAPF) NPs are shown to exhibit favorable biocompatibility, wide-range pH stability (pH 4-10) and much more superior photostability than conventional dyes. Importantly, the combined merits of high dye loading content and aggregation-induced emission enhancement properties, endow the NIR probes with high brightness and a high quantum yield up to 14.9%. The NPAPF NPs can be readily conjugated with folic acid for targeted in vitro cell imaging. Applications of the NPs probes in high efficiency in vivo and ex vivo imaging were successfully demonstrated. Intense fluorescent signals of NPAPF NPs can be distinctly, selectively and spatially resolved in tumor sites with ultrahigh sensitivity, even with 5 ms exposure time, due to the preferentially accumulation of NPs in tumor sites through passive enhanced permeability and retention effect. The totality of results clearly demonstrate the exciting potential of the functionalized NPAPF NPs as a NIR fluorescent probe for in vitro and in vivo imaging and diagnostics.

Carrier-free, functionalized drug nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery.

We demonstrate a new concept of carrier-free functionalized drug nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery. It exhibits significantly enhanced drug efficacy to folate receptor-positive cells with high selectivity and a high drug loading content up to more than 78%.