In Vitro and In Vivo Biocompatibility Assessment of a Thermosensitive Injectable Chitosan-Based Hydrogel for Musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering.

Musculoskeletal impairments, especially cartilage and meniscus lesions, are some of the major contributors to disabilities. Thus, novel tissue engineering strategies are being developed to overcome these issues. In this study, the aim was to investigate the biocompatibility, in vitro and in vivo, of a thermosensitive, injectable chitosan-based hydrogel loaded with three different primary mesenchymal stromal cells. The cell types were human adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (hASCs), human bone marrow stem cells (hBMSCs), and neonatal porcine infrapatellar fat-derived cells (IFPCs). For the in vitro study, the cells were encapsulated in sol-phase hydrogel, and then, analyzed via live/dead assay at 1, 4, 7, and 14 days to compare their capacity to survive in the hydrogel. To assess biocompatibility in vivo, cellularized scaffolds were subcutaneously implanted in the dorsal pouches of nude mice and analyzed at 4 and 12 weeks. Our data showed that all the different cell types survived (the live cell percentages were between 60 and 80 at all time points in vitro) and proliferated in the hydrogel (from very few at 4 weeks to up to 30% at 12 weeks in vivo); moreover, the cell-laden hydrogels did not trigger an immune response in vivo. Hence, our hydrogel formulation showed a favorable profile in terms of safety and biocompatibility, and it may be applied in tissue engineering strategies for cartilage and meniscus repair.

Growth changes after gluteen free diet in pediatric celiac patients: a literature-review.

BACKGROUND: Celiac disease is an auto-immune disorder characterized by clinical manifestations that appear in genetically predisposed subjects after gluten ingestion. In the last years, there has been a progressive change in clinical manifestations. Our aim was to evaluate the nutritional status of children with celiac disease at diagnosis and how the gluten-free diet (GFD) influences their growth. METHODS: A search on PubMed/Medline was performed using "celiac disease", "body mass index" and "children" as key words.  Medline, Scopus, PubMed publisher and Google Scholar were searched as well.  We selected clinical studies describing the nutritional status of patients before and after GFD using indicators like height, weight, BMI, skeletal age.  We excluded papers referred to adult population or in which other diseases were related to celiac disease. Also literature-reviews were excluded. RESULTS: From 1999 to 2018, 10 studies were found. Overall, 1383 patients in pediatric age were evaluated for their nutritional status at diagnosis of celiac disease and after a variable period from 1 to 17 years of GFD. Indicators considered were height, weight, BMI and skeletal age. CONCLUSIONS: the nutritional status of celiac patients at diagnosis is variable including an increasing number of overweight and obese. GFD has a beneficial impact on growth changes determining a correction of BMI distribution towards a Gaussian shape.