AIM To study the therapeutic effect of three tube-guides with electrical conductivity associated to mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on neuro-muscular regeneration after neurotmesis. METHODS Rats with 10-mm gap nerve injury were tested using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), PVA-carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and MSCs, and PVA-polypyrrole (PPy). The regenerated nerves and tibialis anterior muscles were processe...

Recent studies have shown that myocardial oxygen consumption does not proportionally decrease with the deterioration of contractile function in stunned myocardium. To investigate this disproportion, we studied the end-systolic pressure-volume relation and the relation between oxygen consumption per beat (Vo2) and systolic pressure-volume area (PVA, a measure of total mechanical energy) in stunn...

BACKGROUND Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is one of the well-known polymers, which has been used in numerous biomedical applications because of its good biocompatibility. OBJECTIVES Due to problems made by the therapeutics already used for leishmaniasis, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of PVA containing artemether in treating cutaneous leishmaniasis in BALB/c mice. MATERIALS AND M...

Shearing of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/single wall carbon nanotube (SWNT) dispersions result in the formation of self-assembled oriented PVA/SWNT fibers or ribbons, while PVA solution results in the formation of unoriented fibers. Diameter/width and length of these self-assembled fibers was 5–45 mm and 0.5–3 mm, respectively. High-resolution transmission electron micrographs showed well resolved...

Recent studies have shown that myocardial oxygen consumption does not proportionally decrease with the deterioration of contractile function in stunned myocardium. To investigate this disproportion, we studied the end-systolic pressure-volume relation and the relation between oxygen consumption per beat (Vo2) and systolic pressure-volume area (PVA, a measure of total mechanical energy) in stunn...

Nanotechnology provides new opportunities in human medicine, mainly for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. The autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is often diagnosed after irreversible joint structural damage has occurred. There is an urgent need for a very early diagnosis of RA, which can be achieved by more sensitive imaging methods. Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIO...

Background. Left ventricular mechanical efficiency is one of the most important measures of left ventricular pump performance. Several clinical studies, however, have shown that mechanical efficiency does not fall substantially as the heart fails. To clarify the insensitivity of mechanical efficiency to the change in pump performance, we analyzed human left ventricular mechanical efficiency, ap...

In this work, we report the fabrication and cell affinity studies of the poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/hyaluronic acid (HA) cross-linked nanofibers via electrospinning and post cross-linking. FT-IR and TGA analysis demonstrate that HA is not influenced by acid environment such as HCl vapor during cross-linking, and well incorporated into PVA nanofibers. Swelling behavior and cell adhesion of the P...

Poly(vinyl alcohol)-heparin hydrogels with varying water content were synthesized for use as sensor catheter membranes. Films were cast from aqueous mixtures of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), a photosensitive cross-linker p-diazonium diphenyl amine polymer (PA), glutaraldehyde (GA) and heparin. After drying, the films were cross-linked by successive UV irradiation and heat treatment. To get an indi...

We previously found the frequency distribution of the left ventricular (LV) effective afterload elastance (E(a)) of arrhythmic beats to be nonnormal or non-Gaussian in contrast to the normal distribution of the LV end-systolic elastance (E(max)) in canine in situ LVs during electrically induced atrial fibrillation (AF). These two mechanical variables determine the total mechanical energy [systo...