Purpose Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has a poor outcome compared to other subtypes. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have changed the treatment paradigm in metastatic diseases as well as in neoadjuvant setting. The response to these agents is affected by programmed death ligand 1 (PDL1) receptor expression which are reported objectively as a score. PDL1 is a prognostic marker also. Here, we present clinicopathological characteristics of metastatic TNBCs, report the proportion of PDL1 expression and its association with clinicopathological factors as well as survival. Methods This is a prospective study carried out at a tertiary cancer care centre in South India. Case records of all breast cancer patients treated in two years between August 2021 and July 2023 were reviewed, patients with metastatic TNBC were selected. Patient's characteristics, histological features, molecular profile, and treatment were analyzed. PDL1 testing was carried out on pretreatment tumor tissue sections with immunohistochemistry (IHC) (Dako 22C3). PDL1 staining was interpreted as negative or positive based on combined positive score (CPS), with an expression less than 10 considered negative. Results A total of 118 patients were analyzed. With a median age of 46 years (36-65 years), 52.5% (62/118) were premenopausal. Family history of Ca Breast was seen in 22% (26/118) patients. A majority of patients had left-sided tumor 55.9% (66/118). Visceral metastasis was more common 96.6% (82/118) than skeletal. Radical intent of treatment was adopted in 10% as patients had oligometastatic disease at presentation. As front-line treatment, anthracycline-based chemotherapy was administered to the majority 54.2% (64/118). The PDL1 expression with CPS more or equal to 10 was seen in 32.2% (38/118) patients. Survival was associated with menopausal status (p value=0.000) and family history (p value=0.028) but not with PDL1 nor sidedness in our study. Estimated survival at 12 months in PDL1 negative case is 10 ± 0.29 months, while in PDL1 positive case it is slightly more at 10 ± 0.75 months, but difference was not found to be statistically significant (p value=0.15). Conclusion TNBCs are highly aggressive subtype with limited treatment options and poorer outcomes. Our study shows PDL1 expression in 31.66% of the cases similar to other literature from India. Survival is associated with menopausal status and family history. No association was found between survival and PDL1 as well sidedness in our study.
Considerable advances in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer have made a huge impact on morbidity and mortality from neoplastic diseases. However, cancer remains the leading cause of death across the world. This is a retrospective study carried out at a tertiary cancer care centre (Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, Bangalore) in South India. Case records of all cancer patients who died while receiving inpatient treatment between January 2022 and December 2022 under the Department of Medical Oncology were reviewed and studied. There was a total of 240 deaths. Out of these, the majority of deaths 147 (61.25%) were patients with haematological malignancies while the remaining 93 (38.75%) were patients with solid tumours. In patients with solid tumours, the majority 49 (52.7%) were in the age group of 40 to 60 years while only 18 (19.35%) patients were less than 40 years. The majority of patients were male sex i.e. 55(59.1%) and undergoing treatment with palliative intent 81 (87%). The most common organ was the lung in 21 patients (22.6%) followed by the breast while the most common system involved was the gastrointestinal tract in 28 (30.1%) patients. The most frequent cause of death was progressive disease in 72 (77.4%) while sepsis (11 patients; 11.8%) was the second most frequent cause of death in solid tumours. In haematological malignancies, also a significant number of 57 (38.8%) patients were in the age group of 40 to 60 years. Fifty-two (35.3%) patients were in the age group of 22 to 40 years. The majority were male sex (79 patients; 53.7%). About the phase of treatment, the majority of deaths 45 (30.6%) were during induction and under evaluation. Those with relapse/refractory disease were 38 (25.9%). A substantial number of patients had acute myeloid leukaemia 47 (32%) and five (3.4%) deaths were acute promyelocytic leukaemia patients. Twenty-three patients (15.6%) had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. The most common cause of death was sepsis in 76 patients (51.7%) while intracranial bleeding was in 34 patients (23.1%). In some patients, there were multiple causes leading to death. Mortality audits are important to evaluate the services being provided at any centre. One can appreciate the lacunae in handling a particular disease or flaws in a treatment protocol or the staff delivering the treatment. Sepsis is the leading cause of death in patients with haematological malignancy; even in solid malignancy sepsis accounts for a substantial proportion of deaths and should be handled aggressively to save lives.
Benign proliferative breast diseases are well recognized in young females. Benign biphasic proliferation of epithelial and myoepithelial cells has been observed, among which adeno-myoepithelial adenosis is one of the rare morphologies published in the literature with the tendency to recur and poses a risk for low-grade malignant transformation. Here, we report a case of a young female who had a history of recurrent breast lump mimicking phyllodes tumor and eventually diagnosed as adeno-myoepithelial adenosis on histopathological examination. Benign proliferative breast diseases are well recognized in young females. Benign biphasic proliferation of epithelial and myoepithelial cells has been observed, among which adeno-myoepithelial adenosis is one of the rare morphologies published in the literature with the tendency to recur and poses a risk for low-grade malignant transformation. Here, we report a case of a young female who had a history of recurrent breast lump mimicking phyllodes tumor and eventually diagnosed as adeno-myoepithelial adenosis on histopathological examination.
Breast Neoplasms , Fibrocystic Breast Disease , Myoepithelioma , Phyllodes Tumor , Female , Humans , Phyllodes Tumor/diagnosis , Phyllodes Tumor/pathology , Neoplasm Recurrence, Local/pathology , Fibrocystic Breast Disease/diagnosis , Fibrocystic Breast Disease/pathology , Epithelial Cells/pathology , Hyperplasia/pathology , Cell Transformation, Neoplastic/pathology , Breast Neoplasms/diagnosis , Breast Neoplasms/pathology , Myoepithelioma/pathology
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of population diversity and geographic variation on tumor mutation burden (TMB) scores across cancers and its implication on stratification of patients for immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective study used whole-exome sequencing (WES) to profile 1,233 Indian patients with cancer across 30 different cancer types and to estimate their TMB scores. A WES-based pipeline was adopted, along with an indigenously developed strategy for arriving at true somatic mutations. A robust unsupervised machine learning approach was used to understand the distribution of TMB scores across different populations and within the population. RESULTS: The results of the study showed a biphasic distribution of TMB scores in most cancers, with different threshold scores across cancer types. Patients with cancer in India had higher TMB scores compared with the Caucasian patients. We also observed that the TMB score value at 90th percentile (predicting high efficacy to ICI) was high in four different cancer types (sarcoma, ovary, head and neck, and breast) in the Indian cohort as compared with The Cancer Genome Atlas or public cohort. However, in lung and colorectal cancers, the TMB score distribution was similar between the two population cohorts. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study indicate that it is crucial to benchmark both cancer-specific and population-specific TMB distributions to establish a TMB threshold for each cancer in various populations. Additional prospective studies on much larger population across different cancers are warranted to validate this observation to become the standard of care.
Exome , Sarcoma , Female , Humans , Exome/genetics , Retrospective Studies , Prospective Studies , Biomarkers, Tumor/genetics , Mutation
INTRODUCTION: Salivary gland tumors are known to have a heterogeneous profile with variable clinical presentation and a wide variety of histological subgroups of prognostic significance. Immunocytochemical markers that aid in the diagnosis and characterization of the cell type of origin are critical for this heterogeneous group of malignancies. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To study the application of The 'Milan System' for Reporting Salivary Gland Cytology and the diagnostic utility of a panel of immunocytochemical markers in the diagnosis of salivary gland neoplasms and their cytohistological correlation for their risk stratification. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a prospective study carried out in which a total of 60 patients were enrolled in the study. Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) smears and cell blocks were prepared with standard techniques and staining procedures. Immunocytochemistry (ICC) was performed on cell block sections by immunoperoxidase procedure. Immunocytochemical (ICC) stains were used for the differentiation of the lesions in cell blocks. Histopathology was also studied if the patient underwent excision of salivary gland lesions. DISCUSSION AND RESULTS: Almost 60 cases were studied under FNAC and cell block evaluation, as well as ICC, among those five (8.33%) samples were inadequate, eight (13.3%) were non-neoplastic, 27 (45%) were benign, one (1.7%) was neoplasm with uncertain malignancy potential, one (1.7%) was suspected of malignancy, and 19 (31.7%) were malignant. The histopathological diagnosis was confirmed in 47 cases. Of these, 24 (51.1%) were benign and 23 (48.9%) were malignant. The malignancy rate for Milan Categories I, II, III, IVa, IVb, V, and VI was 0%, 0%, 100%, 24%, 50%, 80%, and 84.6%, respectively. The study showed that malignancy risk stratification could be further improved by using cell block with immunocytochemistry as a complementary diagnostic modality. CONCLUSIONS: The present study was carried out to assess the usefulness of the Milan system to report salivary gland cytology results. Thus, the findings of the present study show that the Milan system is helpful in stratifying the risk of malignancy in salivary gland tumors.
Background: Recent evidence suggests that oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients who exhibit the immunohistochemical expression of immune checkpoint protein programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) are more likely to have a poor clinical outcome and may serve as an independent prognostic marker. Aims and Objectives: This study aimed to assess the immunohistochemical expression of immune checkpoint protein PD-L1 in OSCC and its clinicopathological correlation. Materials and Methods: OSCC cases were included in the study. This was a tertiary care center cross-sectional one-year duration study. Histomorphological diagnosis and immunohistochemical expression of PD-L1 were performed after taking ethical clearance. The statistical analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0 statistical analysis software. Results: A total of 106 cases of OSCC were included in the study. Histologically, the majority of cases (58.5%) were graded as well differentiated, followed by moderately differentiated (58.5%) and poorly differentiated (4.7%), respectively. In PD-L1 immunohistochemical expression, score 1+ was accorded to 37 (34.9%), 2+ was accorded to 31 (29.2%), and score 3+ was accorded to 33 (31.1%) cases. Tumor size, pattern, depth of invasion lymphovascular invasion (LVI), and perineural invasion (PNI) were found to be significantly associated with PD-L1 immunohistochemical scores. Conclusions: We concluded that the immunohistochemical expression of immune checkpoint protein PD-L1 positivity in tumor cells was seen in the majority of the cases (60.37%) in our patient. This suggests that the PD-1 or PD-L1 pathway plays a significant role in tumor immune evasion in OSCC.
Pollen grains represent the male gametes of seed plants and their viability is critical for sexual reproduction in the plant life cycle. Palynology and viability studies have traditionally been used to address a range of botanical, ecological and geological questions, but recent work has revealed the importance of pollen viability in invasion biology as well. Here, we report an efficient visual method for assessing the viability of pollen using digital holographic microscopy (DHM). Imaging data reveal that quantitative phase information provided by the technique can be correlated with viability as indicated by the outcome of the colorimetric test. We successfully test this method on pollen grains of Lantana camara, a well-known alien invasive plant in the tropical world. Our results show that pollen viability may be assessed accurately without the usual staining procedure and suggest potential applications of the DHM methodology to a number of emerging areas in plant science.
Branch retinal artery occlusion (BRAO) is a relatively rare vascular disorder characterized by the occlusion of one or more branches of the central retinal artery, with an incidence of around 5 per 100,000 persons per year. Its ability to cause permanent vision loss in a specific visual field makes it a significant clinical obstacle that requires careful management. We describe a case of a 77-year-old male patient, a known hypertensive (on medication and whose hypertension was under control), presented with sudden painless loss of vision in the superior field of his right eye. Timely and accurate diagnosis is crucial to initiate appropriate management. Patients with hypertension should be routinely screened for its various micro- and macrovascular complications, and prophylactic therapy/management should be started wherever warranted.
Background: Although epilepsy is a common neurological condition, there is paucity of nationwide data on treatment patterns and sociodemographic and clinical factors affecting treatment decisions in India. Objective: To assess clinical profiles, usage pattern of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), and seizure control among patients with epilepsy in India. Methods: This was a cross-sectional, observational, multicenter study on adult patients with epilepsy who were on AEDs for at least six months before enrollment. Data were collected from patient interviews and medical records. Results: Out of 800 enrolled patients, a majority (69.0%) had generalized onset seizure in the six months before enrollment. The median age at epilepsy onset was 20.0 (1.0-64.0) years; 40.0% of the patients were females, 48.5% were married, 99.1% were literate, and 67.0% belonged to the lower or upper-middle socioeconomic class. Overall, 459 patients (57.4%) received AEDs as combination therapy. Most patients received levetiracetam (37.0%), sodium valproate (18.5%), carbamazepine (17.3%), or phenytoin (13.8%) as monotherapy, and clobazam (59.7%), levetiracetam (52.9%), carbamazepine (26.4%), sodium valproate (24.8%), or phenytoin (24.0%) in combination therapy. Quality of life was comparable for first- and third-generation AEDs. Adverse drug reactions were mostly attributed to dose modification or switching between drugs. No serious adverse drug reactions or new safety concerns were identified. Conclusions: Findings from this large, cross-sectional, observational, multicenter study indicate that first-generation AEDs sodium valproate and phenytoin continued to be used in a substantial number of patients on monotherapy and combination therapy in India, even though an increasing trend toward use of second-generation AEDs was noted in clinical practice.
Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions , Epilepsy , Adult , Female , Humans , Young Adult , Middle Aged , Male , Phenytoin/therapeutic use , Levetiracetam/therapeutic use , Valproic Acid/therapeutic use , Cross-Sectional Studies , Quality of Life , Epilepsy/drug therapy , Epilepsy/epidemiology , Anticonvulsants/adverse effects , Carbamazepine/therapeutic use , Seizures/drug therapy , Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions/drug therapy
Using small molecules to induce readthrough of premature termination codons is a promising therapeutic approach to treating genetic diseases and cancers caused by nonsense mutations, as evidenced by the widespread use of ataluren to treat nonsense mutation Duchene muscular dystrophy. Herein we describe a series of novel guanidino quinazoline and pyrimidine scaffolds that induce readthrough in both HDQ-P1 mammary carcinoma cells and mdx myotubes. Linkage of basic, tertiary amines with aliphatic, hydrophobic substituents to the terminal guanidine nitrogen of these scaffolds led to significant potency increases. Further potency gains were achieved by flanking the pyrimidine ring with hydrophobic substituents, inducing readthrough at concentrations as low as 120 nM and demonstrating the potential of these compounds to be used either in combination with ataluren or as stand-alone therapeutics.
Codon, Nonsense , Quinazolines , Quinazolines/pharmacology , Pyrimidines/pharmacology , Guanidines , Nitrogen , Amines
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the safety, effectiveness and cost-benefit of ambulatory pleural vent compared to conventional chest drain for pneumothorax following CT-guided biopsy of lung lesions (CTGB). METHODS: We retrospectively analysed electronic hospital records of patients requiring intervention for pneumothorax following CTGB. All patients treated with pleural vent over a 2-year period (August 2017-July 2019) were included and compared to a control group of all patients treated with chest drain over a previous 2-year period (August 2014-July 2016). RESULTS: Patients managed with a pleural vent had a shorter length of hospital stay compared to the chest drain group (median 0 days vs 4.5 days, p < 0.01). The mean cost of follow-up in the pleural vent group was £530.36 per patient compared to a mean of £2699.38 per patient in the chest drain group (p-value < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Pleural vent can be a safe and effective alternative to conventional chest drain for the management of CTGB-related pneumothorax which allows patients to be managed on an outpatient basis with reduced hospital stays and lower associated healthcare costs. ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating the safety and effectiveness of pleural vent for CTGB-related pneumothorax.
Pneumothorax , Humans , Image-Guided Biopsy/adverse effects , Lung/diagnostic imaging , Lung/pathology , Pneumothorax/etiology , Retrospective Studies , Tomography, X-Ray Computed
Type 2 diabetes mellitus which is an universal public health problem is associated with the development of micro- and macrovascular complications. Complications of diabetes on eyes, kidneys and nerves are well documented but studies on lung involvement in diabetes and its correlation with nephropathy are sparse. This study was taken to assess pulmonary functions in patients with diabetic nephropathy and to find out correlation of pulmonary function with duration of diabetes and assess the prevalence pulmonary hypertension in patients with nephropathy. MATERIAL: This was a cross-sectional study which included 50 diabetic subjects, 50 diabetics with overt nephropathy, and 50 healthy subjects without diabetes as the control group. Diabetic subjects were matched to the control group in terms of age, sex, and BMI. Pulmonary function tests were performed and the results were compared between groups. Pulmonary artery pressures were assessed by 2D ECHO and results were interpreted using SPSS 21.0 version for windows. OBSERVATION: Mean FEV 1% was 98.12 (+/-10.06), 75.88 (+/-14.10) and 57.64 (+/-13.49), Mean FVC% was 86.78 (+/- 8.77), 69.82(+/-13.88) and 53.02(+/-13.41), The mean PEF% was 88.62 (+/-14.47), 59.40 (+/-18.59) and 48.96 (+/-20.94) among healthy subjects with no diabetes, diabetes mellitus group and diabetic nephropathy group respectively and the difference observed was statistically significant (p value <0.001). Restrictive pattern of lung function impairment was observed in diabetic patients which was more pronounced in Diabetic nephropathy group. Mean FEV1% was 71.03 (+/-13.19), 66.74 (+/-18.34) and 60.29 (+/-15.25),Mean FVC% was 65.66 (+/-11.06), 60.79 (+/-18.00) and 56.38 (+/-16.55) was observed among the participants having diabetes less than 10yrs, 10 to 20 years and > 20 years respectively. The difference in mean FEV1%, FVC % with duration of DM was not statistically significant. PAH was present in 3 patients (6%) in diabetes mellitus group and in 20 (40%) in diabetes nephropathy group and the difference observed was statistically significant p < 0.0001. FEV1, FVC and PEF % were significantly reduced in PAH group when compared to the No PAH group with p values <0.0001. CONCLUSION: This study showed that Pulmonary function tests are impaired in diabetics, showing a restrictive pattern and impairment was pronounced in diabetics with nephropathy. Derangement of pulmonary functions was independent of duration of diabetes. Pulmonary hypertension was more common in diabetic nephropathy group.
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 , Diabetic Nephropathies , Hypertension, Pulmonary , Cross-Sectional Studies , Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/complications , Diabetic Nephropathies/complications , Female , Humans , Male , Respiratory Function Tests/adverse effects
Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma is a rare and a very aggressive thyroid malignancy with a dismal prognosis. It has a short history and presents with a rapidly increasing neck mass associated with compressive symptoms like pain, hoarseness of voice, dysphagia and shortness of breath. Osteoclastic variant is an extremely rare variant, which is, characterize by presence of a large number of multinucleated giant cells, which resemble osteoclasts. Here we report two cases of this unusual variant in a 68 years old and 49 years old male with a short history of thyroid swelling.
Thyroid Carcinoma, Anaplastic , Thyroid Neoplasms , Giant Cells/pathology , Humans , Male , Osteoclasts/pathology , Thyroid Carcinoma, Anaplastic/pathology , Thyroid Neoplasms/pathology
Forest fragments are characteristic features of many megacities that have survived the urbanisation process and are often represented by unique assemblages of flora and fauna. Such woodlands are representations of nature in the city-often dominated by non-native and invasive species that coexist with resilient native congeners and purposefully introduced flora. These forest fragments also provide significant ecosystem services to urban society and therefore, understanding their compositional patterns is of considerable importance for conservation and management. In this work, we use a complex network approach to investigate species assemblages across six distinct urban forest fragments in the South Delhi Ridge area of the National Capital Territory, India. We generate bipartite ecological networks using conventional vegetation sampling datasets, followed by network partitioning to identify multiple cliques across the six forest fragments. Our results show that urban woodlands primarily form invasive-native associations, and that major invasive species, such as Prosopis juliflora and Lantana camara exclude each other while forming cliques. Our findings have implications for the conservation of these urban forests and highlight the importance of using network approaches in vegetation analysis.
Lymphoma that on morphology appear blastoid or intermediate between DLBCL and BL but who lack myc and bcl-2 and/or bcl-6 rearrangements are grouped under high grade B-cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified (HGBL, NOS). Only a few studies have yet compared the outcome of HGBL, NOS treated with different chemo-immunotherapy regimens. HGBL, NOS patients were analyzed retrospectively, who were treated with CHOP or DAEPOCH regimens every 21 days for six cycles with or without rituximab. The primary clinical objective was progression free survival. One and two year PFS rates were 29.4% and 20.6% for the CHOP arm and, 65.2% and 47.8% for the DAEPOCH arm respectively. There was statistically significant difference in mean PFS between the arms (DAEPOCH vs CHOP: 19.7 months vs 12.8 months; HR = 0.44, p = 0.02, 95% CI: 0.22-0.88). One and two year OS rates were 91.1% and 20.5% for the CHOP arm and 95.6% and 60.8% for the DAEPOCH arm respectively. Mean OS was significantly better for DAEPOCH arm (28.1 months vs 20.7 months: HR = 0.43, p = 0.03, 95% CI: 0.20-0.92). Grade 3 and 4 hematological and non-hematological toxicities were more common in DAEPOCH arm. There were 2 treatment related deaths, 1 in each arm (4.3% for DAEPOCH vs 2.9% for CHOP). HGBL, NOS is a heterogeneous group of aggressive lymphoma associated with early relapse in nearly half of the cases. Intensive regimens like DAEPOCH is associated with improved outcome in terms of PFS and OS. Though toxicities are more with DAEPOCH, they are manageable and treatment related mortality is low.
OBJECTIVE: The interaction between programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) on activated T-lymphocytes and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) on tumor cells or antigen-presenting cells sends immunosuppressive signals leading to the escape of tumor cells from the host anti-tumor immune response. Inhibiting this interaction with antibodies against PD-1 or PD-L1 is emerging as a valuable therapeutic strategy. However, tissue distribution patterns for PD-L1 and PD-1 in breast cancer patients from India are not reported, yet many clinical trials are underway. In this study the expression of PD-1 and PD-L1 in breast cancer patient samples from India was characterized. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included 392 cases of operated breast cancer (2012-2017) from a tertiary cancer care center in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Paraffin blocks were retrievable and receptor status was known. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was performed using anti-PD-L1 and anti-PD-1 antibodies. RNA was isolated from 76 fresh tumors and nine adjacent normal tissues (2019). PD-L1 transcript levels were measured by RT-qPCR using Hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl transferase (HPRT) as a reference gene. RESULTS: Based on IHC, PD-1 expression within tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs) was observed in 55/385 cases (14%) across all breast cancer types. In triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), 21/132 cases (16%) showed PD-1 staining in TIICs. The overall expression of PD-L1 in breast tumor cells across all breast cancer subtypes and TIICs was 11% (41/378) and 39% (151/385), respectively. A relatively higher proportion of TNBC cases had PD-L1 expression in tumor cells (17/132 cases, 13%) and immune cells (68/132 cases, 52%). We also detected PD-L1 transcript expression by qRT-PCR in freshly isolated tumor samples. CONCLUSION: These findings show that around 52% (68/132) of the TNBC cases express PD-L1 in TIICs. Hence, anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy alone or combined with chemotherapy may be a promising treatment for TNBC in Indian patients.
Synthetic bioceramics are replacing conventional methods of treating bone defects with autografts owing to the high demand of bone substitutes, with their Surface topography and size contributing to favor cytocompatibility in tissue regeneration. This experimental study deals with the comparative evaluation of the physical characterizations of four different in-house synthesized bioceramics from 3D-bulk to nanoforms of hydroxyapatite (HA), Biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP), Strontium doped hydroxyapatite (SrHA) and Silica coated hydroxyapatite (HASi) and also simultaneously evaluates adhesion, proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of rabbit adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells (RADMSCs) on these biomimetic ceramic niches. The osteogenic induced cells grown on 3D scaffolds for a period of 7, 14, 21, and 28 days were analyzed for their viability (MTT, LDH, live-dead assays), morphology (SEM), proliferation (Cytox-Red) and osteogenic differentiation (ALP, osteocalcin expression). Cellular activities and differentiation of RADMSCs were significantly higher on SrHA indicating the role of strontium in the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells on this ceramic platform to the bone lineage. In order to reinforce the materials for hard tissue implantation and drug delivery, nano-SrHA (nSrHA) became the nanoparticle of choice based on its non-toxicity, cytocompatibility and osteogenic properties (nSrHA > nHASi > nBCP > nHA).
Mesenchymal Stem Cells , Osteogenesis , Animals , Cell Differentiation , Cell Proliferation , Cells, Cultured , Durapatite/metabolism , Durapatite/pharmacology , Mesenchymal Stem Cells/metabolism , Rabbits , Strontium/pharmacology , Tissue Scaffolds
COVID-19 pandemic presents both a challenge and an opportunity to the Indian shrimp sector. With revitalizing the institutional arrangements and redirecting the focus, the Indian shrimp industry can flourish just by adapting to the needs of the local demand, even when the export prospects are uncertain. This paper takes a historical perspective of Indian shrimp farming and exports and suggests a domestic alternative/supplementary market for Indian farmed shrimp, resulting from COVID-19.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected several economic sectors in India, dragging many to the brink of survival. In particular, the already fragile horticulture industry is now facing a double burden of a weak value chain management system as well as perishability of produce (fresh fruits and vegetables), this pandemic season. Also, the strict enforcement of lockdown has altered both demand and supply factors, which in turn have shocked various linkages in the value chain of fresh fruits and vegetables. So, this paper dissects the value chain management of grapes and its processed products, namely juice, wine, and raisins in Maharashtra, the largest producer of grapes in India. For this, a value chain analysis (VCA) is carried out by computing the degree of value addition to uncover the rupture points caused by the pandemic as well as advocate policy measures to build a resilient system. The value chain analysis shows that post-COVID-19, the degree of value addition, has shot up for the intermediary agents, i.e., pre-harvest contractors, at the expense of the farmers. Using the insights from the VCA results plus the demand and supply shocks, various policy measures are elucidated to strengthen the grape value chain.
