• Zimmermann Stern posted an update 6 hours, 15 minutes ago

    Functional assays performed in the mouse-to-mouse cohort revealed enhanced specific force in transplanted muscles compared to PBS-injected controls. CONCLUSIONS Altogether, our data demonstrate for the first time the suitability of a cell-based therapeutic approach to improve the muscle phenotype of dystrophic FKRP-mutant mice.BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of radiomics signature and nomogram based on contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) in patients after surgical resection of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC). METHODS All patients (n = 136) were divided into the training cohort (n = 96) and validation cohort (n = 40). The LASSO regression method was performed to construct radiomics signature from CT texture features. Then a radiomics nomogram incorporating the radiomics signature and clinicopathologic factors was established to predict overall survival (OS). The validation of nomogram was evaluated by calibration curve, concordance index (C-index) and decision curve. RESULTS Based on three selected texture features, the radiomics signature showed high C-indexes of 0.782 (95%CI 0.656-0.909) and 0.752 (95%CI, 0.614-0.891) in the two cohorts. The radiomics nomogram had significantly better discrimination capability than cancer staging in the training cohort (C-index, 0.817 vs. 0.682; P = 0.009) and validation cohort (C-index, 0.913 vs. 0.699; P = 0.019), as well as a good agreement between predicted and actual survival in calibration curves. Decision curve analysis also suggested improved clinical utility of radiomics nomogram. CONCLUSIONS Radiomics signature and nomogram showed favorable prediction accuracy for OS, which might facilitate the individualized risk stratification and clinical decision-making in LSCC patients.OBJECTIVE Previous work has demonstrated that metastases are not uniformly distributed across the brain. This study aims to determine there are low-risk brain metastasis (BM) areas that may be avoided during whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) to reduce neurocognitive toxicity. METHODS Clinical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data of 991 metastases in 192 patients with advanced cancer were analyzed retrospectively. Eleven anatomically defined regions of interest (ROIs) were contoured, and the locations of the BMs were recorded. Using the same definition, ROIs were contoured in 20 healthy volunteers.The proportions of patients with BMs in different ROIs, proportion of BMs, and proportion of different ROI volumes relative to the total volume were calculated. RESULTS The proportion of observed BMs was lower than expected in the brainstem, insula, diencephalon and internal structures, corpus callosum, and pituitary gland. The proportion of BMs was significantly higher than expected in the parietal lobe, occipital lobe, and cerebellum. For those patients with single BM, there was very low rate of low-risk ROIs involvement (0%), with 2-4 BMs, 6-13% of the patients had low-risk ROIs involvement, with ≥5 BMs, significant (> 30%) of the patients had low-risk ROIs involvement. CONCLUSION The brainstem, insula, diencephalon and internal structures, corpus callosum, and pituitary gland demonstrate low risk for metastatic involvement. Involvement of low risk areas occurs in patients with more than 1 BM.BACKGROUND Left-handedness prevalence has been consistently reported at around 10% with heritability estimates at around 25%. Higher left-handedness prevalence has been reported in males and in twins. Lower prevalence has been reported in Asia, but it remains unclear whether this is due to biological or cultural factors. Most studies are based on samples with European ethnicities and using the preferred hand for writing as key assessment. Here, we investigated handedness in a sample of Chinese school children in Hong Kong, including 426 singletons and 205 pairs of twins, using both the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory and Pegboard Task. RESULTS Based on a binary definition of writing hand, we found a higher prevalence of left-handedness (8%) than what was previously reported in Asian datasets. We found no evidence of increased left-handedness in twins, but our results were in line with previous findings showing that males have a higher tendency to be left-handed than females. Heritability was similar for both hand preference (21%) and laterality indexes (22%). However, these two handedness measures present only a moderate correlation (.42) and appear to be underpinned by different genetic factors. CONCLUSION In summary, we report new reference data for an ethnic group usually underrepresented in the literature. Our heritability analysis supports the idea that different measures will capture different components of handedness and, as a consequence, datasets assessed with heterogeneous criteria are not easily combined or compared.BACKGROUND The skin micro-environment varies across the body, but all sites are host to microorganisms that can impact skin health. Some of these organisms are true commensals which colonize a unique niche on the skin, while open exposure of the skin to the environment also results in the transient presence of diverse microbes with unknown influences on skin health. Navitoclax in vitro Culture-based studies of skin microbiota suggest that skin microbes can affect skin properties, immune responses, pathogen growth, and wound healing. RESULTS In this work, we greatly expanded the diversity of available commensal organisms by collecting > 800 organisms from 3 body sites of 17 individuals. Our collection includes > 30 bacterial genera and 14 fungal genera, with Staphylococcus and Micrococcus as the most prevalent isolates. We characterized a subset of skin isolates for the utilization of carbon compounds found on the skin surface. We observed that members of the skin microbiota have the capacity to metabolize amino acids, steroids, lipids, and sugars, as well as compounds originating from personal care products. CONCLUSIONS This collection is a resource that will support skin microbiome research with the potential for discovery of novel small molecules, development of novel therapeutics, and insight into the metabolic activities of the skin microbiota. We believe this unique resource will inform skin microbiome management to benefit skin health. Video abstract.