J Formos Med Assoc
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Observational Study
A functional recovery profile for patients with stroke following post-acute rehabilitation care in Taiwan.
Functional impairment is frequently seen in patients with stroke. Although the progression of functional recovery after stroke has been proposed, the recovery profile after acute stroke is not well described. The objective of this study is to investigate functional recovery in stroke patients entering post-acute rehabilitation care. ⋯ This study showed that the PAC rehabilitation unit was beneficial for patients with acute stroke who had functional impairments. The study results may call for further investigation to identify and develop better models for the delivery of rehabilitation in the stroke PAC unit.
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Corneal avascularity is critical for corneal transparency; therefore, a tailored process has been presumed to minimize corneal neovascularization (NV). In most cell types, the transcription of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is up-regulated, and the stability of VEGF mRNA is sustained by human antigen R (HuR) during hypoxia; however, whether such response applies to corneal epithelial cells is unclear. ⋯ Our study revealed a distinct regulation of VEGF via HuR in HCECs following hypoxia, which likely contributes to minimizing corneal NV and/or maintenance of corneal avascularity.
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Alveolar bone loss following peri-implantitis remains a clinical challenge. We aimed to design a novel bioactive dental implant to accommodate the large bone defect caused by removal of previously failed implant. ⋯ The novel porous structured Bio-ActiveITRI dental implants may have a great potential for the prosthetic reconstruction where bone support is compromised after removal of a previously failed implant.
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In vitro neural cell-based models have been widely used to mimic the in vivo neural tissue environments and quantitatively understand the effects of pharmaceutical molecules on neural diseases. Recently, several biomimetic neural tissue models have been widely developed by using biomaterials or surface modification. However, the complex protocols of material synthesis or surface modification lack an easy execution to fabricate the neuron favorite environment. ⋯ This study shows that the PEMs provided an easily alternative approach to modify the surface properties; and might be a method to obtain a neuron-rich model for the biological/pharmaceutical applications.