Teamwork and safety climate in Polish long-term care facilities: questionnaire reliability and usability.

The Teamwork and Safety Climate Survey (TSCS) is one of the questionnaires used to measure patient safety. The questionnaire includes two scales: teamwork climate and safety climate. The objective of the study is the linguistic and cultural adaptation of the TSCS to Polish conditions and checking the reliability and usability of the tool in long-term care facilities. Firstly, the TSCS was translated into Polish. Then, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among the medical and auxiliary personnel of long-term care facilities all over Poland. The psychometric properties of the questionnaire were analysed (including Cronbach's alpha coefficient). Correlations between the areas of the questionnaire and individual variables relating to facility parameters were also calculated. Respondents (n = 558) working in 26 different long-term care facilities participated in the study. The analysis has provided four scales instead of two of the original version of the questionnaire (teamwork climate, safety climate, ability to speak up and following the rules, work organisation). Correlation analysis revealed a number of significant correlations between the scales and individual variables corresponding to the parameters of long-term care facilities and respondents themselves. In conclusion, the Polish version of the TSCS may be a useful tool to measure aspects related to patient safety culture in long-term care facilities.

Effective Cryopreservation and Recovery of Living Cells Encapsulated in Multiple Emulsions.

Background: The ability to preserve living cells or stem cells is critical for their use in cell therapy, especially for regenerative, reproductive, and transfusion medicine. This article addresses the low survival rates of cells and their loss of function during traditional freezing and banking (cells in a liquid medium with cryoprotectants). Aim: In this article, we developed multiple emulsions (water-in-oil-in-water type) for the effective encapsulation and cryopreservation of cells. In multiple emulsions, the oil drops, acting as a protective membrane, contain even smaller water droplets with encapsulated living cells, dispersed in the continuous water phase. Materials and Methods: The multiple emulsions with HEK293 cells encapsulated in the internal alginate droplets were successfully prepared in a Couette-Taylor flow biocontactor. The cryoprotectants (sucrose/dimethyl sulfoxide-DMSO) were located within the internal or external or both water phases of the emulsions. Encapsulated and non-encapsulated cells were frozen to -80°C (cooling rate: -1°C/min) and then transferred to liquid nitrogen (-196°C) for 24 hours. The standard rapid warming procedure was applied to thaw samples. Cell proliferation and viability were measured by using the AlamarBlue™ assay after recovery of cells. Results: The results showed that the viability of cells encapsulated in the internal droplets of multiple emulsions, and then cryopreserved, was significantly higher, up to 27.9%, than that observed for cells conventionally cryopreserved (non-encapsulated cells in water). Moreover, the effective cell-loaded multiple emulsions-based banking method allowed DMSO-toxic cryoprotectant-to be eliminated from the cryopreservation system. Conclusion: The proposed approach of the cryoprotection of cells encapsulated in multiple emulsions could minimize cell damage, degradation, and their loss during freezing-thawing processes.

Multiple emulsions as effective platforms for controlled anti-cancer drug delivery.

AIM: Developing pH-responsive multiple emulsion platforms for effective glioblastoma multiforme therapy with reduced toxicity, a drug release study and modeling. MATERIALS & METHODS: Cancer cell line: U87 MG, multiple emulsions with pH-responsive biopolymer and encapsulated doxorubicin (DOX); preparation of multiple emulsions in a Couette-Taylor flow biocontactor, in vitro release study of DOX (fluorescence intensity analysis), in vitro cytotoxicity study (alamarBlue cell viability assay) and numerical simulation of DOX release rates. RESULTS: The multiple emulsions offered a high DOX encapsulation efficiency (97.4 ± 1%) and pH modulated release rates of a drug. Multiple emulsions with a low concentration of DOX (0.02 µM) exhibited broadly advanced cell (U87 MG) cytotoxicity than free DOX solution used at the same concentration. CONCLUSION: Emulsion platforms could be explored for potential delivery of chemotherapeutics in glioblastoma multiforme therapy.

Cryoprotection and banking of living cells in a 3D multiple emulsion-based carrier.

The ability to preserve stem cells/cells with minimal damage for short and long periods of time is essential for advancements in biomedical therapies and biotechnology. New methods of cell banking are continuously needed to provide effective damage prevention to cells. This paper puts forward a solution to the problem of the low viability of cells during cryopreservation in a traditional suspension and storage by developing innovative multiple emulsion-based carriers for the encapsulation and cryopreservation of cells. During freezing-thawing processes, irreversible damage to cells occurs as a result of the formation of ice crystals, cell dehydration, and the toxicity of cryoprotectant. The proposed method was effective due to the "flexible" protective structure of multiple emulsions, which was proven by a high cell survival rate, above 90%. Results make new contributions in the fields of cell engineering and biotechnology and contribute to the development of methods for banking biological material.

Association between polymorphisms at the GREM1 locus and the risk of nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate in the Polish population.

BACKGROUND: The locus on chromosome 15q13.3 containing GREM1 is correlated with the risk of nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (NSCL/P). The aim of the present study was to find the GREM1 functional variants implicated in the aetiology of this common developmental anomaly in the Polish population. METHODS: Eight polymorphisms were genotyped in 334 NSCL/P patients and 955 controls. In addition, the GREM1 protein-coding region was sequenced in 96 NSCL/P patients. RESULTS: Significant association with a risk of oral clefts was found for 5 tested polymorphisms. The lowest p(trend) values were identified for rs16969681, rs16969816, and rs1258763 (p(trend) 4.09E-05, 3.35E-05, and 0.0002, respectively). The putative functional variant rs16969681, located in a region that has enhancer activity, was associated with a 2.6-fold lower risk for NSCL/P (odds ratio [OR] = 0.38; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.24-0.61, p = 2.37E-05). The previously reported association of rs1258763 with NSCL/P was replicated (OR = 0.57; 95% CI, 0.44-0.73; p = 1.10E-05). For all tested GREM1 variants, no significant sex-by-genotype interaction effects were observed. The sequencing analysis did not detect any rare variants implicated in the development of oral clefts. CONCLUSION: Our results might suggest that variants influencing GREM1 expression levels, rather than variants affecting the function of the encoded protein, are significant factors in NSCL/P etiology.