No abstract

Acute Achilles tendon rupture is one of the most common tendon injuries in adults. We hypothesized that Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) can be used as biological augmentation for surgical treatment of acute Achilles tendon rupture. Our study is a prospective randomized controlled trial. Patients with acute Achilles tendon rupture undergoing surgical repair were randomly assigned into either control group or PRP group. End-to-end modified Krackow suture was performed in both groups. In the PRP group, PRP was injected into the paratenon sheath and around the ruptured tissue after the tendon was repaired. Postoperatively we evaluated isokinetic muscle strength at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months. In addition, ankle ROM, calf circumference, Leppilahti score, and the SF-36 score were evaluated at 6, 12, and 24 months after operation. At 3 months, the PRP group had better isokinetic muscle. The PRP group also achieved higher SF-36 and Leppilahti scores at 6 and 12 months. At 24 months, the PRP group had an improved ankle range of motion compared to the control group. Our study results suggest that PRP can serve as a biological augmentation to acute Achilles tendon rupture repair and improves both short and midterm functional outcomes.

Overexpression of HIF-1alpha is predictive of a poor outcome and might be a novel therapeutic target in human osteosarcoma.

Chemotherapy resistance of tumor cells is a big challenge. Adaption to hypoxia is an essential cellular response that is controlled by the master oxygen-sensitive transcription factor HIF1 (hypoxia-inducible factor 1). The mechanism by which tumor cells acquire resistance to chemotherapy under hypoxic conditions is not fully understood. In this study, we found that hypoxia induces miR-424 expression and that miR-424 in turn suppresses the level of PDCD4 protein, a tumor suppressor that is involved in apoptosis, by targeting its 3′ untranslated region. Functionally, miR-424 overexpression decreases the sensitivity of cancer cells (HCT116 and A375) to doxorubicin (Dox) and etoposide. In contrast, the inhibition of miR-424 enhanced apoptosis and increased the sensitivity of cancer cells to Dox. In a xenograft tumor model, miR-424 overexpression promoted tumor growth following Dox treatment, suggesting that miR-424 promotes tumor cell resistance to Dox. Furthermore, miR-424 levels are inversely correlated with PDCD4 expression in clinical breast cancer samples. These results suggest that miR-424 is a potential molecular target for tumor therapy.

Nanostructured calcium phosphate porous microspheres are of great potential in drug delivery and bone regeneration due to their large specific surface area, biocompatibility, and similarity to inorganic component of osseous tissue. In this work, strontium (Sr)-doped amorphous calcium phosphate porous microspheres (SrAPMs) were synthesized through a microwave-hydrothermal method using fructose 1,6-bisphosphate trisodium salt as the source of phosphate ions. The SrAPMs showed a mesoporous structure and a relatively high specific area. Compared with the hydroxyapatite nanorods prepared by using NaHPO·12HO as the phosphorus source, the SrAPMs with a higher specific surface area were more effective in drug loading using vancomycin as the antiobiotics of choice and consequently having a higher antibacterial efficiency both on agar plates and in broths. Furthermore, to assess the potential application of SrAPMs in bone defect repair, a novel biomimetic bone tissue-engineering scaffold consisting of collagen (Coll) and SrAPMs was constructed using a freeze-drying fabrication process. Incorporation of the SrAPMs not only improved the mechanical properties, but also enhanced the osteogenesis of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. The in vivo experiments demonstrated that the SrAPMs/Coll scaffolds remarkably enhanced new bone formation compared with the Coll and APMs/Coll scaffolds in a rat critical-sized calvarial defect model at 8 weeks postimplantation. In summary, SrAPMs developed in this work are promising as antibiotic carriers and may encourage bone formation when combined with collagen.