Partial Component-Retained 2-Stage Reconstruction in the Treatment of Infected Hip Arthroplasty.

BACKGROUND: It is considered the gold standard treatment for infected hip arthroplasty to remove and reimplant the corresponding whole set of implant components before and after infection control, but it usually causes substantial bone loss to remove the well-fixed cup or stem, which may increase the difficulty in reconstruction. We would like to determine whether infected hip arthroplasty can be treated without removal of a well-fixed cup or stem. METHODS: Patients with infected hip arthroplasty and a radiographically well-fixed, cementless cup or stem were selected. During the first surgical stage, we retained the stem or cup if these cannot be removed using a stem or cup extractor. We performed the reimplantation surgery after control of infection. RESULTS: From January 2008 to December 2016, 26 patients underwent partial component-retained 2-stage reconstruction. All the patients were free of infection with a mean follow-up time of 43.85 months. CONCLUSION: Partial component-retained 2-stage reconstruction may be a treatment option for infected total hip arthroplasty with a well-fixed component in patients.

Bioinformatics analysis of differentially expressed genes involved in human developmental chondrogenesis.

Osteoarthritis (OA), also known as degenerative arthritis, affects millions of people all over the world. OA occurs when the cartilage wears down over time, which is a worldwide complaint. The aim of this study was to screen and verify hub genes involved in developmental chondrogenesis as well as to explore potential molecular mechanisms.The expression profiles of GSE51812 were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, which contained 9 samples, including 6-week pre-chondrocytes (PC, 6 independent specimens) and 17-week fetal periarticular resting chondrocytes (RC, 3 independent specimens). The raw data were integrated to obtain differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and were further analyzed with bioinformatics analysis. The Gene Ontology (GO) and pathway enrichment of DEGs were conducted via Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery (DAVID). The protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks of the DEGs were constructed based on data from the search tool for the retrieval of interacting genes (STRING) database. An intersection figure was provided to show the relationship between the DEGs identified in this study and genes from any existed related studies.A total of 9486 DEGs, including 4821 upregulated genes and 4665 downregulated genes were observed. The top 30 developmental chondrogenesis associated genes were identified, including matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)1, MMP3, MMP13, prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 (PTGS2), and so on. The majority of DEGs, including PTGS2, CCL20, CHI3L1, LIF, CXCL8, and CXCL12 were intensively enriched in immune-associated biological process terms, including inflammatory, and immune responses. Additionally, the majority of DEGs were mainly enriched in NF-kappa ß (NF-kß) signaling pathway and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) signaling pathway. The hub genes identified in STRING and Cytoscape databases included MMP1, MMP3, MMP13, PTGS2 and so on. Among the top 30 upregulated and downregulated DEGs, there were 15 genes have been reported to be associated with OA or developmental chondrogenesis.This large scale gene expression study observed genes associated with human developmental chondrogenesis and their relative GO function, which may offer opportunities for the research for cartilage tissue engineering and novel insights into the prevention of OA in the near future.

Effect of lentiviral vector-mediated KSR1 gene silencing on the proliferation of renal tubular epithelial cells and expression of inflammatory factors in a rat model of ischemia/reperfusion injury.

Renal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) is a common cause of acute renal failure in many clinical settings. Our study aimed to elucidate the role of lentiviral vector-mediated KSR1 gene silencing in inflammatory factor expression and proliferation of renal tubular epithelial cells (RTECs) in a rat model of I/R injury. Male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were used for I/R model establishment and subject to different treatments, followed by the measurement of neurological severity score (NSS), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1ß, 47-kDa heat-shock protein (HSP47), KSR1, and factors related to the Ras/MAPK pathway, as well as cell apoptosis. As compared with the blank group, the neurologic impairment induced by I/R in the siKSR1, U0126, and siKSR1 + U0126 groups was alleviated. Compared with the control group, the other five groups showed increased levels of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1ß, HSP47, N-ras, Raf-1, c-fos, TNF-α, IL-6, p38 MAPK, and cell apoptosis, accompanied by a declined mRNA and protein level of Bcl-2. As compared with the blank and NC groups, the siKSR1, U0126, and siKSR1 + U0126 groups showed decreased levels of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1ß, HSP47, N-ras, Raf-1, c-fos, TNF-α, IL-6, p38 MAPK, cleaved caspase-3, cleaved caspase-9, p53, and cell apoptosis, accompanied by an increased mRNA and protein level of Bcl-2. Our findings demonstrated that KSR1 gene silencing might inhibit the expression of inflammatory factors in RTECs and promote their proliferation by inactivating the Ras/MAPK pathway in the rat model of I/R injury.

Structural predication and antigenic analysis of Toxoplasma gondii ROP20.

Toxoplasma gondii infects almost all the warm-blooded animals. ROP20 protein is expressed in the rhoptry of Toxoplasma gondii. In this study, the secondary structure of ROP20 was analyzed using SMART software. We constructed and analyzed the 3D model of ROP20 protein using SWISS-MODEL online procedure and Visual Molecular Dynamics (VMD) software. The structure analysis fully indicated that ROP20 protein is an important member of the ROP family. Furthermore, We used DNASTAR software and Epitope Database online service to analyze liner-B cell epitopes and T-cell epitopes of ROP20 protein. All the analysis results of ROP20 protein can provide positive information on treatment and vaccine for toxoplasmosis. Moreover, ROP20 gene was obtained from PCR, and a recombinant eukaryotic expression vector (pEGFP-C1-ROP20) was constructed in the following study. After restriction enzyme digestion, the constructed plasmid was transfected into HEK 293-T cells. The RT-PCR result indicated that the recombinant plasmid could transcribe successfully in HEK 293-T cell. The results of western blotting indicated the expressed proteins can be recognized by anti-STAg mouse sera.