ABSTRACT
Background: There are limited data regarding the gender preferences of Hispanic Americans when selecting their orthopedic surgeon. This study aimed to evaluate the gender preferences of Hispanic Americans when choosing a physician as their orthopedic provider. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was administered to all consecutive Hispanic American patients treated at the outpatient orthopedic clinics of a tertiary medical center in Puerto Rico between October 4, 2019 and March 4, 2020. Sociodemographic status and opinion of gender preference in orthopedic surgery were assessed and analyzed between female and male respondents. Results: A total of 628 surveys were completed. There were 343 (54.6%) females and 285 (45.4%) males with an average age of 51.0 ± 13.0 years. A significantly higher portion of female respondents was widowed (p = 0.01), had a higher educational level (p = 0.02), were unemployed (p = 0.01), and had a lower individual annual income salary (p = 0.04); when compared with males. Most of the respondents had no gender preference (91.1% = 572/628) for an orthopedic provider. Among those with a gender preference, 5.1% (32/628) preferred a male surgeon, and 3.8% (24/628) preferred a female surgeon. No significant difference was found between male and female respondents in the opinion of an orthopedic provider. Conclusions: This study illustrates that Hispanic Americans have no gender preference when choosing an orthopedic provider. Therefore, patient preference should not be considered a factor contributing to women's under-representation in our orthopedic surgery training program. Our findings may also assist future studies in search of other indications attributed to the under-representation of females in this field.
ABSTRACT
A library of eight amphiphilic Janus glycodendrimers (Janus-GDs) presenting D-lactose (Lac) and a combination of Lac with up to eight methoxytriethoxy (3EO) units in a sequence-defined arrangement was synthesized via an iterative modular methodology. The length of the linker between Lac and the hydrophobic part of the Janus-GDs was also varied. Self-assembly by injection from THF solution into phosphate-buffered saline led to unilamellar, monodisperse glycodendrimersomes (GDSs) with dimensions predicted by Janus-GD concentration. These GDSs provided a toolbox to measure bioactivity profiles in agglutination assays with sugar-binding proteins (lectins). Three naturally occurring forms of the human adhesion/growth-regulatory lectin galectin-8, Gal-8S and Gal-8L, which differ by the length of linker connecting their two active domains, and a single amino acid mutant (F19Y), were used as probes to study activity and sensor capacity. Unpredictably, the sequence of Lac on the Janus-GDs was demonstrated to determine bioactivity, with the highest level revealed for a Janus-GD with six 3EO groups and one Lac. A further increase in Lac density was invariably accompanied by a substantial decrease in agglutination, whereas a decrease in Lac density resulted in similar or lower bioactivity and sensor capacity. Both changes in topology of Lac presentation of the GDSs and seemingly subtle alterations in protein structure resulted in different levels of bioactivity, demonstrating the presence of regulation on both GDS surface and lectin. These results illustrate the applicability of Janus-GDs to dissect structure-activity relationships between programmable cell surface models and human lectins in a highly sensitive and physiologically relevant manner.