Basic Medical Study Research Articles

The functions of veterinary epidemiology in public health

This paper aims to describe the core functions of veterinary epidemiology in public health to understand the ultimate objective of preventing, mitigating, or eliminating zoonotic diseases in susceptible populations. However, the ideas came from a variety of sources. The field of veterinary medicine has significantly contributed to many aspects of public health, including human and environmental wellness, animal welfare, comparative and basic medical study, and the mitigation of zoonotic illness. Veterinary epidemiology, one of the disciplines that make up veterinary public health, is particularly concerned with disease surveillance, response, and prevention. In the veterinary study, epidemiological methods examine diseases' dynamics, prevalence, and causes in populations of interest. The ability to better comprehend hazards and how to prevent widespread sickness is now possible for veterinary epidemiologists. Veterinarians can help advance public health studies and policies by employing various methodological approaches and collaborating with networks of expert epidemiologists in the field.

Development of a high-throughput micropatterned agarose scaffold for consistent and reproducible hPSC-derived liver organoids

Liver organoids represent emerging human-relevant in vitro liver models that have a wide range of biomedical applications in basic medical studies and preclinical drug discovery. However, the generation of liver organoids currently relies on the conventional Matrigel dome method, which lacks precise microenvironmental control over organoid growth and results in significant heterogeneity of the formed liver organoids. Here, we demonstrate a novel high-throughput culture method to generate uniform liver organoids from human pluripotent stem cell-derived foregut stem cells in micropatterned agarose scaffold. By using this approach, more than 8000 uniformly-sized liver organoids containing liver parenchyma cells, non-parenchymal cells, and a unique stem cell niche could be efficiently and reproducibly generated in a 48-well plate with a size coefficient of variation significance smaller than that in the Matrigel dome. Additionally, the liver organoids highly expressed liver-specific markers, including albumin (ALB), hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 alpha (HNF4α), and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), and displayed liver functions, such as lipid accumulation, glycogen synthesis, ALB secretion, and urea synthesis. As a proof of concept, we evaluated the acute hepatotoxicity of acetaminophen (APAP) in these organoids and observed APAP-induced liver fibrosis. Overall, we expect that the liver organoids will facilitate wide biomedical applications in hepatotoxicity analysis and liver disease modeling.

Defining Essentiality Score of Protein-Coding Genes and Long Noncoding RNAs.

Measuring the essentiality of genes is critically important in biology and medicine. Here we proposed a computational method, GIC (Gene Importance Calculator), which can efficiently predict the essentiality of both protein-coding genes and long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) based on only sequence information. For identifying the essentiality of protein-coding genes, GIC outperformed well-established computational scores. In an independent mouse lncRNA dataset, GIC also achieved an exciting performance (AUC = 0.918). In contrast, the traditional computational methods are not applicable to lncRNAs. Moreover, we explored several potential applications of GIC score. Firstly, we revealed a correlation between gene GIC score and research hotspots of genes. Moreover, GIC score can be used to evaluate whether a gene in mouse is representative for its homolog in human by dissecting its cross-species difference. This is critical for basic medicine because many basic medical studies are performed in animal models. Finally, we showed that GIC score can be used to identify candidate genes from a transcriptomics study. GIC is freely available at http://www.cuilab.cn/gic/.

Hydrogen sulfide therapy in brain diseases: from bench to bedside.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has been recognized and studied for nearly 300 years, but past researches mainly focus on its toxicity effect. During the past two decades, the majority of researches have reported that H2S is a novel endogenous gaseous signal molecule in organisms, and play an important role in various systems and diseases. H2S is mainly produced by three enzymes, including cystathionine β-synthase, cystathionine γ-lyase and 3-mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase along with cysteine aminotransferase. H2S had been firstly reported as a neuromodulator in the brain, because of its essential role in the facilitating hippocampal long-term potentiation at physiological concentration. It is subsequently reported that H2S may have relevance to neurologic disorders through antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic and additional effects. Recent basic medical studies and preclinical studies on neurologic diseases have demonstrated that the administration of H2S at physiological or pharmacological levels attenuates brain injury. However, the neuroprotective effect of H2S is concentration-dependent, only a comparatively low dose of H2S can provide beneficial effect. Herein, we review the neuroprotevtive role of H2S therapy in brain diseases from its mechanism to clinical application in animal and human subjects, and therefore provide the potential strategies for further clinical treatment.

Autonomous assembly of ordered metastable DNA nanoarchitecture and in situ visualizing of intracellular microRNAs.

Facile assembly of intelligent DNA nanoobjects with the ability to exert in situ visualization of intracellular microRNAs (miRNAs) has long been concerned in the fields of DNA nanotechnology and basic medical study. Here, we present a driving primer (DP)-triggered polymerization-mediated metastable assembly (PMA) strategy to prepare a well-ordered metastable DNA nanoarchitecture composed of only two hairpin probes (HAPs), which has never been explored by assembly methods. Its structural features and functions are characterized by atomic force microscope (AFM) and gel electrophoresis. Even if with a metastable molecular structure, this nanoarchitecture is relatively stable at physiological temperature. The assembly strategy can be expanded to execute microRNA-21 (miRNA-21) in situ imaging inside cancer cells by labelling one of the HAPs with fluorophore and quencher. Compared with the conventional fluorescence probe-based in situ hybridization (FISH) technique, confocal images revealed that the proposed DNA nanoassembly can not only achieve greatly enhanced imaging effect within cancer cells, but also reflect the miRNA-21 expression level sensitively. We believe that the easily constructed DNA nanoarchitecture and in situ profiling strategy are significant progresses in DNA assembly and molecule imaging in cells.

Analysis of articles published in Chin J Surg since founded in 1951

To discuss the characteristics of the articles published in Chin J Surg from 1951 to 2015. The journals and articles of Acad Surg from 1951 to 1952 and Chin J Surg from 1953 to 2015 were analyzed. The subjects, foundation, basic medical study, international cooperation of the articles were recorded. In 65 years, there were 20 090 academic articles published in Chin J Surg. The proportions of general surgery, orthopedic surgery, thoracocardiac surgery, urology surgery and neurosurgery articles were 34.08%, 17.96%, 13.09%, 11.91% and 5.85%, respectively. There were 14.83% (1 728/11 653) articles receiving foundation, and 9.42% (1 817/19 290) articles reporting basic medical study. There were 14.8% articles from international authors and 119 articles with international cooperation. From 2000 to 2003, 29 articles in original English were published. The coverage of Chin J Surg contains all the fields of surgery. It tends to publish the studies focus on clinical issues.Through reinforcing the content plan and optimizing the show form, the more Chinese surgical research achievements could be shared by the surgeons worldwide.

Patients with risk factors have higher plasma levels of lysophosphatidic acid

Although basic medical studies have shown that lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) has an important relationship to activated blood platelets, we know little about this from clinical experience. This pilot study examined plasma LPA levels in patients with a risk of thrombotic events and evaluated the effects of aspirin on plasma LPA levels. In this basically cross-sectional study, we recruited 1352 patients with either hypertension or hyperlipidemia and 670 controls without any risk factors. Patients with risk factors had significantly higher plasma LPA levels than controls, the mean of LPA = 3.12 ± 2.24 vs. 2.57 ± 1.96 μmol/l, P < 0.001. The patients who had been taking aspirin had relatively lower plasma LPA levels compared with those who did not take aspirin, χ = 43.8, odds ratio (OR) [95% confidence interval (CI)] = 2.76 (2.03-3.75). For the hypertension group, χ = 23.1, OR (95% CI) = 3.44 (2.03-5.82), P < 0.001; for the hyperlipidemia group, χ = 22.9, OR (95% CI) = 2.53 (1.72-3.74), P < 0.001. Patients with a risk factor had higher plasma LPA levels compared with controls. Administration of aspirin may decrease elevated plasma LPA levels. This pilot clinical observation indicates that plasma LPA is worth to be studied further.

Study materials lead to suspicion of an unnatural death—A case report

The knowledge of human skeletal structure is a minimum requirement for all students who are practicing medicine. The skeletal makeup is used as a study material to acquire the knowledge of human anatomy. Skeletal study materials are obtained from the authorized markets by medical and paramedical students and teachers.The study materials are either kept at home or in their hostel rooms. After their basic medical study, they either keep safe these articles for their future reference or pass to their subordinate medical associates. The main problem arises if these skeletal structures are not disposed properly, after their study which may lead the Investigating officer to various medicolegal queries on recovery of these skeleton parts. Here is an interesting case, where the human bones were recovered by the municipality workers scattered in the garbage pit, which lead the investigating officer to register a case of unnatural death and begin with series of medicolegal query.

Rudi Harold Cormane (1925-1987): a fabulous researcher and clinician

Rudi Harold Cormane was born on April 7, 1925 in Bandung, Indonesia, at that time the Dutch East Indies, to a plantation manager and his wife. His school education partly took place during wartime. When the Second World War reached the Dutch East Indies in 1942, he was imprisoned in one of the Japanese camps, where he received schooling from the older prisoners. Despite this unconventional education, it was possible for him to gain a coveted place at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands after the war [PE]. In 1946, he went by ship to The Netherlands after the war, and he started his studies inmedicine, graduating inMay 1953. During his medical school days, he worked as a so-called “student assistant” for a period of 5 months at the Laboratory forMedical Chemistry (head: Prof. Dr. H.L. Booy), University of Leiden and for a period of 5 months at the Department of Internal Medicine (head: Prof. Dr. A. Fauvert), Hopital Beaujon, Paris. After completing his basic medical studies, he took specialist training in internal diseases at the Department of Internal Medicine (head: Prof. Dr. J. Mulder and Prof. Dr. A. Querido) at the University of Leiden. In 1958, Cormanewas registered as a specialist and admitted to the staff of the department. In November of that year, he defended his thesis on “Candida albicans en de therapie met antibiotica” (Candida albicans and treatment with antibiotics). The

What is cough and what should be measured?

Cough is usually defined as a three-phase event, although for convenience clinicians may prefer to define it as only the expiratory expulsive efforts. Cough may occur as a single event or as a cough ‘epoch’ (or ‘bout’ or ‘attack’) that includes several or many expiratory efforts in a single episode. The distinction between a single cough and a cough epoch is important, both in mechanistic and clinical implications, since the latter may include many ‘expiration reflexes’ (ERs), for which the functions and neural mechanisms are different from those of the cough reflex. We describe the various ways in which cough can be assessed. For simplicity in clinical work the main methods are patient scores or automated cough counters; these assess only one aspect of the complex changes in cough. For analytical and basic medical studies other facets of cough need to be included: expiratory EMGs, respiratory pressures, airflows and lung volume changes. Cough ‘intensity’, a much used expression, needs to be defined in terms of the facets of cough which are being measured.

放射光マイクロイメージングによる腫ように伴う微小血管の観察

A tumor stimulates the growth of small blood vessels for feeding itself. Tumor-derived small blood vessels are an intrinsic part of the tumor's development and progression. Radiographic depiction of tumor-derived small vessels is a useful tool for a basic medical study of malignant tumors. A high-resolution X-ray imaging system with a spatial resolution in the micrometer range was developed at SPring-8 for the depiction of newly formed blood vessels in animal models of cancer. The imaging system is composed of two types of detectors. One is an X-ray indirect-conversion type detector, which is a fluorescent-screen optical-lens coupling system using a high-sensitivity HARPICON pickup tube. The other type is an X-ray direct-conversion type detector, which incorporates an X-ray direct-sensing SATICON pickup tube. Small tumor blood vessels with diameters of around 15μm were observed after injecting a contrast material to the artery in experiments using small animals.

Selecting students for medical school: What predicts success during basic science studies? A cognitive approach

This study focuses on differences between multiple-choice science tests and a learning-from-text (LFT) test, and how these tests predict success in basic medical studies. The subjects (N = 503) were applicants to the Helsinki University Medical Faculty. All of them had to take an entrance examination in order to be considered for admission to a 6-year study programme combining medical school and graduate studies. The entrance examination consisted of three traditional multiple-choice science tests and one LFT test, the latter designed to measure deep-level processing of text. A follow-up study was conducted in order to see how the different tasks were related to the grades and pace of studying of those who were accepted onto the programme. As hypothesized, there were very high correlations among the three multiple-choice tests, but no correlations between the LFT subtasks and the multiple-choice tests. LISREL analyses showed that the LFT Synthesis Task, designed to measure the ability to pull together the essentials of a text, was the best predictor of academic progress during basic science studies.

The Unfolding of Therapeutic Radiology

In September 1926, I registered for basic medical studies at the University of Havana (Cuba). In exchange for serving as a scribe in the admission office, I was given room and board in the interns' quarters of the 2000-bed university hospital. Within 3 weeks, a hurricane hit Havana dead center; thousands were killed and many more injured. The flow of casualties was overwhelming and all hands were needed. I learned to place tourniquets and to give ether anesthesia. Blood transfusions required the presence of a qualified donor and were done arm to arm with large syringes. In the aftermath of the hurricane, I was assigned as a male nurse's aide to apply dressings and give injections in the dermatology pavilion. Professor Pardo-Castelló came early to do his rounds and, in the absence of his interns, I followed him with the order book. In the process, he taught me a lot.

The unfolding of therapeutic radiology.

In September 1926, I registered for basic medical studies at the University of Havana (Cuba). In exchange for serving as a scribe in the admission office, I was given room and board in the interns' quarters of the 2000-bed university hospital. Within 3 weeks, a hurricane hit Havana dead center; thousands were killed and many more injured. The flow of casualties was overwhelming and all hands were needed. I learned to place tourniquets and to give ether anesthesia. Blood transfusions required the presence of a qualified donor and were done arm to arm with large syringes. In the aftermath of the hurricane, I was assigned as a male nurse's aide to apply dressings and give injections in the dermatology pavilion. Professor Pardo-Castello came early to do his rounds and, in the absence of his interns, I followed him with the order book. In the process, he taught me a lot.