Ratings systems and awards for medical Web sites have proliferated, but the validity and utility of the systems has not been well established. This study examined the effect of awards on the perceived credibility and retention of health information on a Web page. We recruited study participants from Internet newsgroups and presented them with information on the claimed health benefits of shark ...

Use of topical tranexamic acid (TXA) in orthopedic surgery has been expanding over the past decade, with increasing evidence confirming reductions in perioperative blood loss and transfusion requirements, but there is minimal evidence regarding effects of TXA on native cartilage. We conducted a study to understand the in vitro effects of TXA on bovine cartilage and murine chondrocytes and ultim...

Systematic advancements in the field of musculoskeletal tissue engineering require clear communication about the mechanical environments that promote functional tissue growth. To support the rapid discovery of effective mechanostimulation protocols, this study developed and validated a mechanoactive transduction and evaluation bioreactor (MATE). The MATE provides independent and consistent mech...

Keratan sulphate was extracted from a shark/whale cartilage preparation and examined by 400 MHz 1H- and 100 MHz 13C-n.m.r. spectroscopy. Assignment of the majority of the resonances was facilitated by two-dimensional 13C-1H correlation by using a modified COLOC procedure and a COSY-45 experiment. The spectra are consistent with an N-acetyl-lactosamine repeating unit that is predominantly sulpha...

We and others have published on the rapid manufacture of micropellet tissues, typically formed from 100-500 cells each. The micropellet geometry enhances cellular biological properties, and in many cases the micropellets can subsequently be utilized as building blocks to assemble complex macrotissues. Generally, micropellets are formed from cells alone, however when replicating matrix-rich tiss...

Two-dimensional depth-resolved Jones-matrix images of scattering biological tissues were measured with novel double-source double-detector polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (OCT). The Jones matrix can be determined in a single scan with this OCT system. The experimental results show that this system can be effectively applied to the measurement of soft tissues, which are less ...