The mechanisms of immune privilege in human nucleus pulposus (NP) remain unclear. Accumulating evidence indicates that Fas ligand (FasL) might play an important role in the immune privilege of the disc. We aimed for addressing the role of FasL expression in human intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) and immune privilege in terms of the interaction between NP cells and immunocytes via the FasL...

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is characterized by disordered extracellular matrix (ECM) metabolism, implicating subdued anabolism and enhanced catabolic activities in the nucleus pulposus (NP) of discs. Pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-1β (IL-1β) are considered to be potent mediators of ECM breakdown. Hemeoxygenase-1 (HO-1) has been reported to participate in cellular ant...

Salt iodization is the universal strategy for elimination of IDD, the quality of iodization program is crucial for achieving this goal. Iodine deficiency (ID) is the world’s leading cause of intellectual deficits and associated with increased prevalence of goiter. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) there is an acute scarcity in IDD data across the country. In this concern, the influence of io...

The Hippo pathway plays important roles in wound healing, tissue repair and regeneration, and in the treatment of degenerative diseases, by regulating cell proliferation and apoptosis in mammals. Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is one of the major causes of low back pain, a widespread issue associated with a heavy economic burden. However, the mechanism underlying how the Hippo pathway r...

Many areas in Papua New Guinea are regarded as endemic for iodine deficiency disorders (IDD). Salt iodization to combat IDD has been a policy of the government since 1973. Its effectiveness in many areas of the country has, however, not been assessed. The iodine status of pregnant women is an indicator of the iodine status of the community. This study was conducted in order to assess the effect...

Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration (IDD) is one of the major causes of back pain, a condition that represents a serious socio-economic burden. Deeper knowledge of the complex and fine relationship between IVD degeneration, tissue inflammation and pain, appears to be critical to improve the current therapies, which have so far proven themselves ineffective. Upon degeneration, IVD tissues bec...

Iodine deficiency disorder (IDD) is associated with a low IQ in children and is an important public health problem in northeastern Thailand. Despite campaigns to reduce IDD in northeastern Thailand, studies showed people in this region continue to have the lowest median urinary iodine (UI) excretion and Intelligence Quotient scores. We conducted a cross sectional study of median urinary iodine ...

BACKGROUND Persons with intellectual/developmental disabilities (IDD) are exposed to several factors, which have been determined as risks for osteoporosis. Many of these individuals are non-ambulatory, resulting in lack of weight bearing activity, which is well established as a major contributor to bone loss. The purpose of this study was to investigate risk factors for low bone mineral density...

Information dissemination has become one of the most important services of communication networks. Modeling the diffusion of information through such networks is crucial for our modern information societies. In this work, novel models, segregating between useful and malicious types of information are introduced, in order to better study Information Dissemination Dynamics (IDD) in wireless compl...

The rapid growth in the number of individuals living with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) along with their increased longevity present challenges to those concerned about health and well-being of this unique population. While much is known about health promotion and disease prevention in the general geriatric population, far less is known about those in older adults with IDD. ...