Adv Exp Med Biol
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Adult stem cells, especially isolated from bone marrow, have been extensively investigated in recent years. Studies focus on their multiple plasticity oftransdifferentiating into various cell lineages and on their potential in cellular therapy in regenerative medicine. In many cases, there is the need for tissue engineering manipulation. ⋯ We show that one intraperitoneal injection of microencapsulated bone marrow stem cells can prolong the survival of liver failure rat models with 90% of the liver removed surgically. In addition to transdifferentiation, bone marrow stem cells can act as feeder cells. For example, when coencapsulated with hepatocytes, stem cells can increase the viability and function of the hepatocytes in vitro and in vivo.
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Triple-A syndrome is characterized by triad of adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH)-resistant adrenal insufficiency, alacrimia and achalasia cardia. It is a rare disease and inherited by autosomal recessive pattern. Allgrove syndrome is characterized by mutation(s) in AAAS gene, located on chromosome 12q13, that codes for ALADIN protein. ⋯ Alacrimia is diagnosed by Schirmer's test while ahalasia cardia and adrenal insufficiency are best diagnosed by esophageal monometry and ACTH stimulated cortisol levels respectively. Alacrimia is treated with artificial tears while achalasia cardia with either pneumatic dilatation or Heller's myotomy. Adrenal insufficiency is treated with glucocorticoid and if necessary mineralocorticoid replacement.
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The coherence method (COH) has been widely used to study the concordance between continuously measured signals intervening in the assessment of cerebral autoregulation in neonates. Several research groups have applied this method to mean arterial blood pressure (MABP) combined with cerebral signals such as the intravascular oxygenation (HbD), cerebral tissue oxygenation (TOI), and regional oxygen saturation (rSO(2)) measured by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). ⋯ We have made a comparative study of all published results coupled with an optimization of the use of the WAP method within COH. We have also proposed a pre-processing algorithm to remove signal artefacts, and defined a new critical score value (CSV) for COH to distinguish infants with impaired autoregulation from those without.
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Indocyanine green (ICG) emits near-infrared fluorescence when it is excited by near-infrared light. The near infrared fluorescence of ICG was applied to the imaging of cerebral vessels during neurosurgical operations such as clipping of aneurysms. In this study, ICG angiography was applied to extracranial-intracranial (EC-IC) bypass surgery to evaluate the hemodynamic changes induced by bypass in moyamoya disease (MD) and non-moyamoya ischemic diseases (non-MD). ⋯ Interestingly, the anastomosed STA supplied blood flow to a larger cortical area in MD than non-MD. The bypass supplied greater extent of blood flow to the ischemic brain in MD than in non-MD. This difference might be caused by the fact that the perfusion pressure was lower in MD than in non-MD.