Poly-L-lactide acid-modified scaffolds for osteoinduction and osteoconduction.

Poly-L-lactide acid (PLLA) scaffold has been modified to enhance its osteoconductive and osteoinductive properties in view of a bone tissue engineering application. Two approaches have been followed: (i) coating with laminin or fibronectin and (ii) grafting with arginine-glycine-aspatic acid (RGD) or SIKVAV peptides. Moreover we have added a bioactive molecule 1,25-(OH)2 D3 into the scaffold that shows better cellular interaction to implement osteoinduction and osteogenesis. The two coatings promoted only cell adhesion in the very short term while even if grafted scaffolds had cell seeding efficiency similar to ungrafted PLLA, the grafted ones supported better the proliferation of seeded human osteoblast (hOB) and human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) over 1 week of culture. Our data showed that in view of bone integration and bone regeneration, PLLA grafting with RGD can be considered a good substrate to induce hOB adhesion and proliferation but having no significant effect on the osteogenic induction, the scaffold has to be reinforced with osteoinductive molecules. It can be concluded from reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction results, alkaline phosphatase activity and mineralization assays that 1,25(OH)2 D3 reinforced RGD-PLLA keeps increased cell proliferation supported by an upregulation of the studied osteogenic markers and induced hMSCs differentiation into osteoblasts demonstrating osteoinductivity and osteoconductivity of the new formulated scaffold. These results can lead to a future application of RGD-D3-PLLA as an osteogenic material for bone replacement..

Usefulness of dermatoscopy for the early diagnosis of sebaceous naevus and differentiation from aplasia cutis congenita.

In early infancy, a congenital area of alopecia of the scalp may be the clinical presentation of various diseases, with the two most common being sebaceous naevus and aplasia cutis congenita. Typical lesions are easily diagnosed, but soon after birth, the differential diagnosis may be difficult if the clinical features of the lesion are not distinctive. In this paper, we report the usefulness of dermatoscopy in such cases.

In vitro and in vivo phase II metabolism of combretastatin A-4: evidence for the formation of a sulphate conjugate metabolite.

1. Combretastatin A-4 (CA-4), is a natural compound with a potent tubulin polymerization and cell growth inhibitor properties. For these reasons CA-4 is one of the most potent anti-vascular agents that shows strong cytotoxicity against a variety of human cancer cells, including multi-drug-resistant cancer cell lines. In order to complete the knowledge of metabolic fate of CA-4, the in vitro and in vivo phase II metabolism was investigated. 2. Both in incubation with rat and human liver S9 preparation in the presence of 39-phosphoadenosine-5 -phosphosulfate (PAPS) as a cofactor the formation of a previously no reported sulphate metabolite was demonstrated through liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) data and comparison with a synthetic reference sample. 3. In incubation of CA-4 using rat and human liver microsomes, the formation of CA-4 glucuronide was observed and chromatographic and mass spectral properties of the metabolite were achieved and compared with those of a synthetic reference sample. 4. Incubation of CA-4 with rat and human liver S9 preparation in the presence of uridine-5 -diphosphoglucuronic acid trisodium salt (UDPGA) and an beta-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate, reduced form (NADPH)-regenerating system as cofactors resulted in the formation of glucuronides arising from phase I CA-4 metabolites. 5. When CA-4 was administered intraperitoneally to rat at a dose of 30 mg kg(-1), both glucuronide and sulphate metabolites were observed in LC-ESI-MS-MS chromatograms and their mass spectral data were identical to those obtained from synthetic standards.

[2-dimensional echocardiography in infarct of the right ventricle: correlation with clinical, hemodynamic and scintigraphic findings]. / L'ecocardiografia bidimensionale nell'infarto del ventricolo destro: correlazione con reperti clinici, emodinamici e scintigrafici.

Right ventricular wall motion was studied in 18 patients hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction by means of cross-sectional echocardiography. Diagnosis of right ventricle myocardial infarction was made on the basis of clinical, electrocardiographic, hemodynamic criteria, respectively present in 66%, 80% and 66% of our patients. Echocardiographic criteria of right ventricle infarction were: 1) right ventricle dilatation; 2) segmental or global right ventricle wall motion abnormalities; 3) paradoxical motion of interventricular septum; 4) tricuspid insufficiency; 5) inferior cava vein dilatation with paradoxical respiratory pattern. Seven patients were studied by means of radionuclide techniques, that confirmed right ventricle infarction in 6 patients. We conclude that: 1) the most accurate echocardiographic views for right ventricle wall motion study are subcostal views and, in particular, the subcostal short-axis (OAS 60 degrees); 2) those patients (12/18) with a specific echocardiographic pattern for right ventricle infarction presented a specific clinical and hemodynamic picture; 3) those patients (6/18) with only segmental right ventricular wall motion abnormalities presented an aspecific clinical and hemodynamic picture. Moreover we showed that an improvement of right ventricular wall motion was observed in some cases within a few days of the infarction. Further observations are needed to assess the frequency and late prognosis of acute right ventricle infarction.