In this article we discuss the following: (1) acellular vaccines are immunogenic, but responses vary by vaccine; (2) pertussis antibody levels rapidly wane but promptly increase after vaccination; (3) whole-cell vaccines vary in immunogenicity and efficacy; (4) whole-cell vaccines and naturally occurring pertussis generate predominantly T-helper 1 (Th1) responses, whereas acellular vaccines gen...

When not enough conventional autologous nerve grafts are available, alternatives are needed to bridge nerve defects. Our aim was to study regeneration of nerves in chemically-extracted acellular nerve grafts from frogs, mice, humans (fresh and stored sural nerve), pigs and rats when defects in rat sciatic nerves were bridged. Secondly, we compared two different extraction procedures (techniques...

BACKGROUND Acellular pertussis vaccines replaced whole-cell vaccines for the 5-dose childhood vaccination series in 1997. A sixth dose of pertussis-containing vaccine, tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria toxoid, and acellular pertussis, adsorbed (Tdap), was recommended in 2005 for adolescents and adults. Studies examining Tdap vaccine effectiveness (VE) among adolescents who have received all ac...

Several lineages of teleost fishes have independently derived skeletons composed solely of acellular bone, a tissue without obvious advantages over bone that has osteocytes in the matrix. There is no consensus for the functional role of acellular bone, as factors such as salinity, activity level and gross morphology have been shown to be poor predictors of acellularity. We used a three-point be...

Acellular extrinsic fiber cementum is a mineralized tissue that covers the cervical half of the tooth root surface. It contains mainly extrinsic or Sharpey's fibers that run perpendicular to the root surface to anchor the tooth via the periodontal ligament. Acellular cementum is continuously and slowly produced throughout life and exhibits an alternating bright and dark pattern under light micr...

Introduction: Reconstructive options for peripheral nerve gaps are currently limited. Autogenous nerve grafts continue to be the gold standard, but are limited by the availability of graft material. All other methods of nerve grafting are either experimental or have limited clinical applicability. We propose developing a tissue engineered peripheral nerve allograft that is non-immunogenic but c...

Dermis is the major source of the fluorescence and light scattering of skin. Tumor-induced degradation of the dermis is expected to change the fluorescence and light scattering properties of skin. To investigate how these fluorescence and light scattering properties are changed, human skin dermis was degraded with enzymes to mimic tumor invasion. The enzymatic erosion process was investigated w...

OBJECTIVES To present the indications for a dermis-fat graft in anophthalmic socket reconstruction and evaluate the results of this procedure. DESIGN Retrospective review, interventional case series. METHODS In our study, there were 41 patients who received either primary or secondary dermis-fat graft between August 1, 2007 and July 31, 2012 at Songklanagarind Hospital. RESULTS The type o...

Keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) is a paracrine mediator of epithelial cell growth. To examine the direct effects of KGF on the morphogenesis of the epidermis, we generated skin equivalents in vitro by seeding human keratinocytes on the papillary surface of acellular dermis and raising them up to the air-liquid interface. KGF was either added exogenously or expressed by keratinocytes via a reco...

Implant-based breast reconstruction after mastectomy offers excellent cosmetic results in select individuals. However, this technique may result in a step-off between the implant and the soft tissue of the chest wall, which can be problematic in the extremely thin patient. Also, the removal of soft tissue can result in prominent ribs and visible intercostal spaces. A number of surgical options ...