Repair of Osteochondral Defects in Rabbit Knee Using Menstrual Blood Stem Cells Encapsulated in Fibrin Glue: A Good Stem Cell Candidate for the Treatment of Osteochondral Defects

BACKGROUND: In recent years, researchers discovered that menstrual blood-derived stem cells (MenSCs) have the potential to differentiate into a wide range of tissues including the chondrogenic lineage. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of MenSCs encapsulated in fibrin glue (FG) on healing of osteochondral defect in rabbit model. METHODS: We examined the effectiveness of MenSCs encapsulated in FG in comparison with FG alone in the repair of osteochondral defect (OCD) lesions of rabbit knees after 12 and 24 weeks. RESULTS: Macroscopical evaluation revealed that the effectiveness of MenSCs incorporation with FG is much higher than FG alone in repair of OCD defects. Indeed, histopathological evaluation of FG + MenSCs group at 12 weeks post-transplantation demonstrated that defects were filled with hyaline cartilage-like tissue with proper integration, high content of glycosaminoglycan and the existence of collagen fibers especially collagen type II, as well as by passing time (24 weeks post-transplantation), the most regenerated tissue in FG + MenSCs group was similar to hyaline cartilage with relatively good infill and integration. As the same with the result of 12 weeks post-implantation, the total point of microscopical examination in FG + MenSCs group was higher than other experimental groups, however, no significant difference was detected between groups at 24 weeks (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: In summary, MenSCs as unique stem cell population, is suitable for in vivo repair of OCD defects and promising for the future clinical application.

Prediction of severity of delusion based on jumping-to-conclusion bias in schizophrenia patients

Objectives: New cognitive theories of delusions have proposed that deficit or bias in inference stage [a stage of normal belief formation] is significant in delusion formation

The aim of this study was predicting the severity of delusions based on jumping-to-conclusion bias in patients with schizophrenia

Methods: The sample consisted of 60 deluded patients with schizophrenia who were selected from the Ebnesina and Razi hospitals in Shiraz using convenience sampling method The Similarity Task was used to measure the jumping-to-conclusion biases

Results: Its results have shown that the jumping-to-conclusion biases could predict a great part of the variance of delusions

Discussion: These results generally indicated that the jumping to conclusion biases may provide a more useful explanation for the delusion formation

use of intense pulsed light [IPL] for the treatment of vascular lesions

According to the English literature, various lasers and light sources [i,g. argon ion lasers, pulsed KTP lasers, diode lasers and Nd: YAG lasers, pulsed dye laser [PDL], intense pulsed light sources [IPLS] are applicable for the treatment of different vascular lesions. These conditions are the most important indication for laser therapy. This review summarizes the current literature on IPL with regard to the treatment of vascular lesions