ABSTRACT
Background@#Stenotic femoral intercondylar notch is considered as a risk factor for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury and three-dimensional notch volume is used as a marker for the injury. The primary purpose of this study was to assess the difference in notch volume between the ACL-injured and uninjured in men and women combined or stratified by sex. The secondary purpose was to assess the difference in notch volume between the ACL-intact men and women. @*Methods@#A search of PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Cochrane databases from inception to December 9, 2020, was conducted without restrictions using the following terms: ACL, notch, volume, notch volume, femoral notch volume, and intercondylar notch volume. Studies that compared the ACL-injured with uninjured controls were included. Independent extraction of articles by two authors using predefined data fields including study quality indicators was done. All pooled analyses were based on the inverse-variance weighted random effects model and mean difference was chosen as the effect measure. @*Results@#Nine studies (1,169 knees) qualified for overall analysis (both sexes combined) and significant heterogeneity was observed, which disappeared after pooling studies with age-sex matched controls and those without. Notch volume in the ACLinjured was 0.75 cm3 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.53–0.96 cm3 ), which was smaller than that in the age- and sex-matched controls. Six studies qualified for analysis in men. Notch volume in the ACL-injured men was smaller, especially when non-contact ACL injury was considered (1.40 cm3 ; 95% CI, 1.08–1.73 cm3 ). Five studies qualified for analysis in women and ACL-injured women had smaller notch volume irrespective of the mechanism of injury (0.38 cm3 ; 95% CI, 0.18–0.59 cm3 ). Notch volume of the uninjured men was larger than that of the uninjured women (1.86 cm3 ; 95% CI, 1.54–2.18 cm3 ). @*Conclusions@#ACL-injured adults have smaller notch volume than the age- and sex-matched controls. Non-contact ACL-injured males have smaller notch volume compared to ACL-intact males. ACL-injured females have smaller notch volume irrespective of the nature of injury. Men have higher notch volume than women. The quality of evidence is very low to low.
ABSTRACT
Aim of Study: The aim of this study is to correlate the prominin-1 or CD133 association with functional pathway markers of cancer stemness in Indian triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patient samples. Materials and Methods: TNBC samples were confirmed for the absence of hormone receptors (estrogen receptor–ER/progesterone receptor) and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 or proto-oncogene neu or erbB2 or CD340 by immunohistochemical analysis. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples of patients were used to collect the total RNA. Then, one-step reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect the cancer stemness-related transcript levels in the different samples. The RT-PCR products were analyzed semi-quantitatively on agarose gels. The band intensities of respective samples for different transcripts were analyzed by densitometry. Results: TNBC-confirmed samples had shown increased levels of CD133 transcript than control tissues. Further, elevated CD133 transcripts are correlated with higher transcript levels of NOTCH1/FZD7/transforming growth factor-beta receptor Type III R/patched-1 pathway mediators. Conclusions: This work has clearly indicated that there is a correlation between CD133 and functional pathways that control cancer stem cells in TNBC. These observations may indicate the possible association between cancer stemness and TNBC malignancy
ABSTRACT
Climate change is a continuous phenomenon and over hundreds of years, the atmosphere has changed considerably around the world. Karnataka has the second largest drought prone area in the country next only to Rajasthan. Assessment of vulnerability index could play a major role in designing appropriate mitigation and adaptation policies to overcome the impacts of climate change. The vulnerability assessment is an exhaustive procedure determined by a large number of indicators. This study attempted to capture a picture of composite vulnerability index of different districts of Karnataka by considering agronomic, climatic and demographic indicators. The secondary data on climatic, agronomic and demographic factors were collected from various sources for the year 2017-18. The findings of the study as shown that the average vulnerability index for 30 districts is 0.577 and 16 districts placed above the average composite vulnerability index level. Bidar (0.655) is the most vulnerable district followed by Kolar (0.658) and Yadgir (0.638) districts. Shivamogga (0.440), Davanagere (0.486) and Udupi (0.486) districts exhibit the least vulnerability to changing climate. The results suggest that agricultural and climatic indicators are the major factors which influence vulnerability. So special attention should be given to agricultural and climatic sectors to minimize the impacts of climatic change in the most vulnerable districts.
ABSTRACT
Kirganelia reticulata is a useful shrub having various medicinal properties. In vivo, in vitro and in silico antiarthritic activity of a phytoconstituent, ellagic acid (EA) isolated from the leaves of K. reticulata was screened. EA is a naturally occurring plant polyphenol found at high concentrations that act as potential protectors against variety of human diseases. Formaldehyde induced paw edema, assumed to be one of the most suitable test procedures to screen chronic anti-inflammatory agents as it closely resembles human arthritis, and was employed for this study. The course of treatment was followed for over and 4 weeks post inoculation period using health, clinical and behavioural methods of study. Estimation of change in body weight was considered as health parameters and clinical observations included paw edema volume, change in the movements was studied in behavioural observations. The effect of EA was compared with standard drug aspirin. Various in vitro models such as inhibition of protein denaturation, effect of membrane stabilization and proteinase inhibitory actions were studied. EA with two different concentrations (100 μg/ml and 250 μg/ml) was used and results were compared with acetyl salicylic acid. Hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF-2α) promotes degradative pathways that foster osteoarthritis. The inhibitory effect of EA was studied using automated docking and efficiency was compared with standard drug in terms of interaction and binding. The isolated compound EA showed anti-arthritic activity which was found to be significant to that of the standard drugs and supports the traditional use of plant for rheumatism.