This article is part of a Minifocus on invadopodia and podosomes. For further reading, please see related articles: ‘Matrix invasion by tumour cells: a focus on MT1-MMP trafficking to invadopodia’ by Renaud Poincloux et al. (J. Cell Sci. 122, 3015-3024), ‘Mechanisms for transcellular diapedesis: probing and pathfinding by ‘invadosome-like protrusions’’ by Christopher V. Carman (J. Cell Sci. 122...

This study looked at factors that would predict weight loss success for obese people with osteoarthritis (OA). Factors such as having confidence in one’ s abilit y to lose weight, changing eating habits, receiving nutrition counseling, being married, or being depressed we re exam ined as potential predictors of weight loss. Receiving nutrition counseling and no t being depressed were the strong...

The prosthetic socket remains the number one priority for persons with lower-limb amputation because a user’s comfort depends on the socket fit. This review analyzes the effect of current prosthetic socket designs, focusing on patient-reported outcomes measures, with the aim to provide a basis for socket prescription. Results from the 19 included studies show that total surface bearing sockets ...

We determined whether directed rehabilitation affected the survival, pain, depression, independence, and satisfaction with life of veterans who were nonambulatory after spinal epidural metastasis (SEM) treatment. Specialized rehabilitation is usually provided to patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) but not to patients who develop SCI due to systemic cancer. Patients who received 2 w...

Sirtuins are NAD-dependent deacetylases that are highly conserved from bacteria to human and SIR2 was originally shown to extend lifespan in budding yeast (Imai et al., 2000; Kaeberlein et al., 1999). Since then, sirtuins have been shown to also regulate longevity in other lower organisms, such as flies and worms (Tissenbaum and Guarente, 2001; Rogina and Helfand, 2004). In mammals, there are s...

We described the location of foot ulcers through a chart review of diabetic patients in a Department of Veterans Affairs podiatry clinic and looked for connections between ulcer location and specific medical features. We hypothesized that individuals with diabetes rarely have heel ulcers but that heel ulcers are directly related to peripheral neuropathy and diminished vascular function. We foun...

Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan report problems driving postdeployment that affect their everyday lives and may increase their crash risk. Potential causes include carryover of combat driving skills and symptoms of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We interviewed five combat Veterans with TBI/PTSD. Veterans were insightful about driving and identified trigg...

Hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) is a sequence-specific DNA-binding protein that can promote or repress the transcription of a broad range of genes that are involved in maintaining biological homeostasis. HIF is mostly non-functional in oxygenated cells but becomes active under specific conditions, including lowoxygen (hypoxic) stress. HIF is a heterodimeric complex that is composed of an oxygen-...

The characteristic cerebral plaques of Alzheimer disease (AD) are primarily composed of an aggregation-prone 39-43residue peptide called amyloid (A ), which is a proteolytic product derived from the amyloid precursor protein (APP), a type I integral membrane protein (Hardy and Selkoe, 2002). The discovery of the APP gene was followed by the identification of missense mutations associated with f...

Endothelium-derived nitric oxide (NO) is a critical regulator of cardiovascular homeostasis. Endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS or NOS3)-derived NO is an endogenous vasodilatory gas that continually regulates the diameter of blood vessels and maintains an anti-proliferative and anti-apoptotic environment in the vessel wall. Initially thought to be a simple, calmodulin (CaM) regulated enzym...