Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) reflect the patient's perspective and are used in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) routine clinical practice. Patient global assessment (PGA) is one of the most widely used PROs in RA practice and research and is included in several composite scores such as the 28-joint Disease Activity Score (DAS28). PGA is often assessed by a single question with a 0-10 or 0-100 resp...

BACKGROUND Improving islet graft revascularization has become a crucial task for prolonging islet graft survival. Endothelial cells (ECs) are the basis of new microvessels in an isolated islet, and EC coating has been demonstrated to improve the vascularization and survival of an islet. However, the traditional method of EC coating of islets has low efficiency in vitro. This study was conducted...

This study was designed to determine the effect of interconnective pore size on chondrocyte proliferation and function within chitosan sponges, and compare the potential of chitosan and polyglycolic acid (PGA) matrices for chondrogenesis. Six million porcine chondrocytes were seeded on each of 52 prewetted scaffolds consisting of chitosan sponges with (1) pores 10 microm in diameter (n=10, wher...

The purpose of this study was to develop a novel, highly water-soluble poly(L-γ-glutamyl-glutamine)-paclitaxel nanoconjugate (PGG-PTX) that would improve the therapeutic index of paclitaxel (PTX). PGG-PTX is a modification of poly(L-glutamic acid)- paclitaxel conjugate (PGA-PTX) in which an additional glutamic acid has been added to each glutamic side chain in the polymer. PGG-PTX has higher wa...

Poly-γ-glutamic acid (γ-PGA) is an important biochemical product with a variety of applications. This work reports a novel approach to improve γ-PGA through over expression of key enzymes in cofactor NADPH generating process for NADPH pool. Six genes encoding the key enzymes in NADPH generation were over-expressed in the γ-PGA producing strain B. licheniformis WX-02. Among various recombinants,...

When soluble extracts of the extreme acidothermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus were incubated with [gamma-(32)P]ATP, several proteins were radiolabeled. One of the more prominent of these, which migrated with a mass of approximately 46 kDa on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), was purified by column chromatography and SDS-PAGE and subjected to amino a...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the tensile strength of surgical synthetic absorbable sutures over a period of 14 days under simulated oral conditions. METHODS Three suture materials (polyglycolic acid [PGA], polyglactin [PG] 910, and poly (glycolide-co-є-caprolactone) [PGC]) were used in 4-0 and 5-0 gauges. 210 suture samples (35 of each material and gauge) were used. All o...

May and coworkers (l-3) demonstrated that the production of a scorbutic state in monkeys led to the development of a megaloblastic anemia, a condition which responded promptly to treatment with pteroylglutamic acid (PGA) or to very much smaller amounts of synthetic citrovorum factor (leucovorin or folinic acid-SF) .I It has been shown that the administration of ascorbic acid to normal human sub...

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of main emulsion components namely, modified starch, propylene glycol alginate (PGA), sucrose laurate and sucrose stearate on creaming index, cloudiness, average droplet size and conductivity of soursop beverage emulsions. Generally, the use of different emulsifiers or a mixture of emulsifiers has a significant (p < 0.05) effect on the response...

A procedure for surface hydrolysis of poly(glycolic acid) (PGA) meshes was developed to increase cell seeding density and improve attachment of vascular smooth muscle cells. Hydrolysis of PGA in 1N NaOH transformed ester groups on the surface of PGA fibers to carboxylic acid and hydroxyl groups. After hydrolysis, the polymer scaffold retained its original gross appearance and dimensions while t...