Among age-related diseases, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases are major causes of death. Vascular dysfunction is a key characteristic of these diseases wherein age is an independent and essential risk factor. The present work will review morphological alterations of aging vessels in-depth, which includes the discussion of age-related microvessel loss and changes to vasculature involving the capillary basement membrane, intima, media, and adventitia as well as the accompanying vascular dysfunctions arising from these alterations.

Hydroxyapatite (HA) is an attractive bioceramic for hard tissue repair and regeneration due to its physicochemical similarities to natural apatite. However, its low fracture toughness, poor tensile strength and weak wear resistance become major obstacles for potential clinical applications. One promising method to tackle with these problems is exploiting graphene and its derivatives (graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide) as nanoscale reinforcement fillers to fabricate graphene-based hydroxyapatite composites in the form of powders, coatings and scaffolds. The last few years witnessed increasing numbers of studies on the preparation, mechanical and biological evaluations of these novel materials. Herein, various preparation techniques, mechanical behaviors and toughen mechanism, the in vitro/in vivo biocompatible analysis, antibacterial properties of the graphene-based HA composites are presented in this review.

Sublethal hypoxic or ischemic events can improve the tolerance of tissues, organs, and even organisms from subsequent lethal injury caused by hypoxia or ischemia. This phenomenon has been termed hypoxic or ischemic preconditioning (HPC or IPC) and is well established in the heart and the brain. This review aims to discuss HPC and IPC with respect to their historical development and advancements in our understanding of the neurochemical basis for their neuroprotective role. Through decades of collaborative research and studies of HPC and IPC in other organ systems, our understanding of HPC and IPC-induced neuroprotection has expanded to include: early- (phosphorylation targets, transporter regulation, interfering RNA) and late- (regulation of genes like EPO, VEGF, and iNOS) phase changes, regulators of programmed cell death, members of metabolic pathways, receptor modulators, and many other novel targets. The rapid acceleration in our understanding of HPC and IPC will help facilitate transition into the clinical setting.

A rapid and reliable diagnostic test to distinguish ischemic from hemorrhagic stroke in patients presenting with stroke-like symptoms is essential to optimize management and triage for thrombolytic therapy. The present study measured serum concentrations of ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase (UCH-L1) and glial fibrillary astrocytic protein (GFAP) in acute stroke patients and healthy controls and investigated their relation to stroke severity and patient characteristics. We also assessed the diagnostic performance of these markers for the differentiation of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) from ischemic stroke (IS). Both UCH-L1 and GFAP concentrations were significantly greater in ICH patients than in controls (p < 0.0001). However, exclusively GFAP differed in ICH compared with IS (p < 0.0001). GFAP yielded an AUC of 0.86 for differentiating between ICH and IS within 4.5hrs of symptom onset with a sensitivity of 61% and a specificity of 96% using a cut-off of 0.34ng/ml. Higher GFAP levels were associated with stroke severity and history of prior stroke. Our results demonstrate that blood UCH-L1 and GFAP are increased early after stroke and distinct biomarker-specific release profiles are associated with stroke characteristics and type. We also confirmed the potential of GFAP as a tool for early rule-in of ICH, while UCH-L1 was not clinically useful.