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Purpose Evaluate the soft tissue change of the upper airway after maxillomandibular advancement (MMA) by computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Materials and Methods Eight OSAS patients who required MMA were recruited into this study. All participants had pre- and post-operative computed tomography (CT) and underwent MMA by a single oral and maxillofacial surgeon. Upper airway CT data sets for these 8 participants were created with high-fidelity 3-D numerical models for computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The 3-D models were simulated and analyzed to study how changes in airway anatomy affects pressure effort required for normal breathing. Airway dimensions, skeletal changes, Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI), and pressure efforts of pre- and post-operative 3-D models were compared and correlations interpreted. Results After MMA, laminar and turbulent air flow was significantly decreased at every level of the airway. The cross-sectional areas at the soft palate and tongue base were significantly increased. Conclusions This study shows that MMA increases airway dimensions by the increasing the occipital base (Base) - pogonion (Pg) distance. An increase of the Base-Pg distance showed a significant correlation with an AHI improvement and a decreased pressure effort of the upper airway. Decreasing the pressure effort will decrease the breathing workload. This improves the condition of OSAS.

Breast cancer (BCa) proliferates within a complex, three-dimensional microenvironment amid heterogeneous biochemical and biophysical cues. Understanding how mechanical forces within the tumor microenvironment (TME) regulate BCa phenotype is of great interest. We demonstrate that mechanical strain enhanced the proliferation and migration of both estrogen receptor (ER) + and triple-negative (TNBC) human and mouse BCa cells. Furthermore, a critical role for exosomes derived from cells subjected to mechanical strain in these pro-tumorigenic effects was identified. Exosome production by TNBC cells increased upon exposure to oscillatory strain (OS), which correlated with elevated cell proliferation. Using a syngeneic, orthotopic mouse model of TNBC, we identified that preconditioning BCa cells with OS significantly increased tumor growth and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) and M2 macrophages at the TME. This pro-tumorigenic myeloid cell enrichment also correlated with a decrease in CD8 + T cells. An increase in PD-L1 + exosome release from BCa cells following OS supported additive T cell inhibitory functions in the TME. The role of exosomes in MDSC and M2 macrophage was confirmed in vivo by cytotracking fluorescent exosomes, derived from labeled 4T1.2 cells, preconditioned with oscillatory strain. Additionally, in vivo internalization and intratumoral localization of tumor-cell derived exosomes was observed within MDSCs, M2 macrophages, and CD45-negative cell populations following direct injection of fluorescently-labeled exosomes. Our data demonstrate that exposure to mechanical strain promotes invasive and pro-tumorigenic phenotypes in BCa cells, indicating that mechanical strains can impact the growth and proliferation of cancer cell, alters exosome production by BCa, and induces immunosuppression in the TME by dampening anti-tumor immunity.

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Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome is one of the most common sleep disorders. To treat patients with this health problem, it is important to detect the severity of this syndrome and occlusion sites in each patient. The goal of this study is to test the hypothesis that the cure of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome by maxillomandibular advancement surgery can be predicted by analyzing the effect of anatomical airway changes on the pressure effort required for normal breathing using a high-fidelity, 3-D numerical model. The employed numerical model consists of: 1) 3-D upper airway geometry construction from patient-specific computed tomographic scans using an image segmentation technique, 2) mixed-element mesh generation of the numerically constructed airway geometry for discretizing the domain of interest, and 3) computational fluid dynamics simulations for predicting the flow field within the airway and the degree of severity of breathing obstruction. In the present study, both laminar and turbulent flow simulations were performed to predict the flow field in the upper airway of the selected patients before and after maxillomandibular advancement surgery. Patients of different body mass indices were also studied to assess their effects. The numerical results were analyzed to evaluate the pressure gradient along the upper airway. The magnitude of the pressure gradient is regarded as the pressure effort required for breathing, and the extent of reduction of the pressure effort is taken to measure the success of the surgery. The description of the employed numerical model, numerical results from simulations of various patients, and suggestion for future work are detailed in this paper.