Identification of the retrotalar pulley of the Flexor Hallucis Longus tendon.

Functional Hallux Limitus is the expression of the gliding restraint of the Flexor Hallucis Longus (Fhl) tendon, resulting in several painful syndromes. This impingement is located along the tract of the Fhl tendon at the level of its retrotalar tunnel sealed posteriorly by a fibrous pulley. This pulley, although poorly anatomically characterized, has been arthroscopically proven that its presence or resection plays a pivotal clinical role in the biomechanics of the lower leg, being the main restraint to the physiological movement of the Fhl tendon. The aim of our study was to identify and characterize this anatomical structure. Eleven cadaveric lower legs were initially assessed by computer tomography (CT) imaging, subsequently plastinated, dissected and histologically evaluated by use of Mayer's and Hematoxylin stain. We have shown that the retrotalar pulley of the Fhl shares the same histological characteristics with the retinaculum of the long fibularis muscle and the retinaculum of flexor digitorum muscle, thus it constitutes a different entity than the adjacent formations.

Clinically-Orientated Anatomy: Five exemplars to portray the concept

It has become almost a truism that, as for many biomedical sciences courses, gross anatomy tuition for healthcare curricula (including medicine and dentistry) should be integrated with clinical components to improve vocational relevance. Nevertheless, many fundamental questions remain to be answered relating to the content to be taught, who teaches the discipline, how the students react, and whether the students are prepared to integrate the clinical and biomedical components. We additionally need evidence of how the delivery of clinical content is influenced by technical developments such as medical imaging. This article documents some examples, or case scenarios, showing how interactions between professional anatomists and clinicians can be fostered, as well as providing illustrations of different teaching styles. From a review of the literature, as well as from our own experiences, we conclude that, for many branches of medicine, it is essential to have access to human bodies for both anatomical and clinical education and training and that postgraduate anatomical teaching remains important for a variety of specialities. We therefore support the notion that a close relationship between professional anatomists and surgeons can reinforce core anatomical knowledge by deepening the understanding of its clinical importance. Paradoxically, however, there is evidence that medical students do not believe that the teachers of anatomy should necessarily be clinically qualified. Furthermore, while students appreciate the value of using clinical examples, scenarios or case histories in anatomy teaching, they remain ambivalent about their use in assessments or examinations. This article also emphasises that anatomy is important both as a scientific and a clinical, translational discipline and argues that the discipline is crucial for appreciation of the human body, not just in disease, but also in health

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Letter to the editor - round table unites to tackle culture change in an effort to improve animal research reporting.

A round table discussion was held during the LAVA-ESLAV-ECLAM conference on Reproducibility of Animal Studies on the 25th of September 2017 in Edinburgh. The aim of the round table was to discuss how to enhance the rate at which the quality of reporting animal research can be improved. This signed statement acknowledges the efforts that participant organizations have made towards improving the reporting of animal studies and confirms an ongoing commitment to drive further improvements, calling upon both academics and laboratory animal veterinarians to help make this cultural change.

Scientific writing in the laboratory animal sciences.

Good communication is important for the dissemination of research results. Here, we summarize the advice that was given to authors at the LA seminar on scientific writing at the FELASA Congress 2016 in Brussels, Belgium on 13-16 June 2016, with the aim of improving the quality of submitted papers and of avoiding common mistakes in scientific reports. See www.felasa2016.eu .

Cysteine redox proteomics of the hemoglobin-depleted cytosolic fraction of stored red blood cells.

PURPOSE: Erythrocyte concentrates (ECs) represent the most transfused labile blood products. They are stored at 4°C in additive solutions for up to 56 days. Protein oxidation is a marker of oxidative stress and cysteine residues, whose oxidations are required for physiological cell functions, are highly prone to such modification. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Five ECs from independent donations were followed. Soluble protein extracts were prepared at days 6, 27, and 41, and cysteines were alkylated, reduced, and labeled with infrared dyes. Samples were mixed two by two (day 6 as reference) and analyzed by 2D-DIGE. Detection of labeled cysteines allows quantitative comparison of oxidative status. Spots of interest were analyzed by proteomics. RESULTS: Thirty-two spots containing 43 proteins were classified as increasing, decreasing, or exhibiting a peak of expression during storage. Proteins having catalytic and antioxidant activities were particularly affected during storage, for example, peroxiredoxin-1 and DJ-1 were reversibly oxidized and catalase was irreversibly oxidized. These proteins could be used to evaluate different storage strategies to maintain proper protein function during the overall storage period. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: This redox-DIGE approach brings new quantitative data on oxidized proteins in stored red blood cells. As previously reported on carbonylation, the oxidative damages differently affect protein functions.

Effects of postmortem delays on protein composition and oxidation.

Human autopsy brain tissue is widely used to study neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other diseases. However, when it comes to an evaluation of data obtained from such tissue, it is essential to consider potential postmortem effects on protein composition, posttranslational modification and proteolysis with increasing postmortem delays. In this study, we analyzed mouse brain tissues with different postmortem delays (pmd) of 0 h, 6h and 24h, for changes in protein composition, proteolysis and modifications such as S-nitrosylation, carbonylation and ubiquitination. Proteins involved in Alzheimer's disease (AD) were of special interest, including cytoskeletal and synaptic proteins or proteins involved in inflammation. Several proteins were fairly resistant to degradation during the first 6h but started to degrade thereafter. S-nitrosylation and carbonylation showed not much variation, except for those proteins that were susceptible to degradation. Brain spectrin was S-nitrosylated at death, and S-nitrosylated degradation fragments were measured at a pmd of 24h, indicating a susceptibility of brain spectrin to degradation. Furthermore, the physiological role of S-nitrosylation remains to be investigated. When studying human brain tissue, some proteins are more susceptible to degradation than others, while ubiquitination and carbonylation were little affected during the first 24h after death.

Body donations today and tomorrow: What is best practice and why?

There is considerable agreement that the use of human bodies for teaching and research remains important, yet not all universities use dissection to teach human gross anatomy. The concept of body donation has evolved over centuries and there are still considerable discrepancies among countries regarding the means by which human bodies are acquired and used for education and research. Many countries have well-established donation programs and use body dissection to teach most if not all human gross anatomy. In contrast, there are countries without donation programs that use unclaimed bodies or perhaps a few donated bodies instead. In several countries, use of cadavers for dissection is unthinkable for cultural or religious reasons. Against this background, successful donation programs are highlighted in the present review, emphasizing those aspects of the programs that make them successful. Looking to the future, we consider what best practice could look like and how the use of unclaimed bodies for anatomy teaching could be replaced. From an ethical point of view, countries that depend upon unclaimed bodies of dubious provenance are encouraged to use these reports and adopt strategies for developing successful donation programs. In many countries, the act of body donation has been guided by laws and ethical frameworks and has evolved alongside the needs for medical knowledge and for improved teaching of human anatomy. There will also be a future need for human bodies to ensure optimal pre- and post-graduate training and for use in biomedical research. Good body donation practice should be adopted wherever possible, moving away from the use of unclaimed bodies of dubious provenance and adopting strategies to favor the establishment of successful donation programs.

Microtubule Associated Protein 1b (MAP1B) Is a Marker of the Microtubular Cytoskeleton in Podocytes but Is Not Essential for the Function of the Kidney Filtration Barrier in Mice.

Podocytes are essential for the function of the kidney glomerular filter. A highly differentiated cytoskeleton is requisite for their integrity. Although much knowledge has been gained on the organization of cortical actin networks in podocyte's foot processes, less is known about the molecular organization of the microtubular cytoskeleton in primary processes and the cell body. To gain an insight into the organization of the microtubular cytoskeleton of the podocyte, we systematically analyzed the expression of microtubule associated proteins (Maps), a family of microtubules interacting proteins with known functions as regulator, scaffold and guidance proteins. We identified microtubule associated protein 1b (MAP1B) to be specifically enriched in podocytes in human and rodent kidney. Using immunogold labeling in electron microscopy, we were able to demonstrate an enrichment of MAP1B in primary processes. A similar association of MAP1B with the microtubule cytoskeleton was detected in cultured podocytes. Subcellular distribution of MAP1B HC and LC1 was analyzed using a double fluorescent reporter MAP1B fusion protein. Subsequently we analyzed mice constitutively depleted of MAP1B. Interestingly, MAP1B KO was not associated with any functional or structural alterations pointing towards a redundancy of MAP proteins in podocytes. In summary, we established MAP1B as a specific marker protein of the podocyte microtubular cytoskeleton.

Practical teaching of preclinical anatomy

We illustrate here why today practical teaching in preclinical anatomy is important and why the use of human cadavers is still essential for learning human anatomy by taking two examples. We explain why it is important for a student to be able to dissect and learn anatomy by exploratory anatomy. Several alternatives are discussed and modern teaching tools are illustrated with on-line and computer-based resources, anatomical models, reconstructions and radiographic images that could supplement the traditional dissection courses. Newer techniques such as anatomical body painting, projections, ultrasound or living anatomy may help in the understanding of topographical anatomy. We underline the authenticity that comes from using human tissue and consider the strengths and limitations of different teaching tools. Here we discuss also how far one should go in teaching anatomical variations in preclinical teaching. In Europe there is no consensus regarding anatomical teaching, and each institution has its own curriculum. It would be helpful to set up an anatomical data bank with images and PowerPoint slides that could be used in teaching programs. Here the Trans-European Pedagogic Anatomical Research Group (TEPARG) for Europe and the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists (IFAA) at an international level could play an essential role

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Anatomy, respect for the body and body donation - a guide for good practice

As pointed out by many anatomists worldwide, an international debate on body donation and the use of the dissection of human cadavers in health-care studies is needed. Numerous countries have no donation programs in place, or difficulties in obtaining bodies for anatomy teaching. Consequently, the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists (IFAA), in their 2014 Beijing Meeting, has proposed the creation of an international body donation network and the provision of international help to countries with difficulties setting up donation programs. In two previous publications by the Trans-European Pedagogic Anatomical Research Group (TEPARG), a number of legal, ethical, cultural and religious aspects of current practice in body donation in European countries were reviewed. Now, we bring here to international attention some other aspects of body donation in Switzerland and Spain. In doing so, we wish to address specific questions, e.g., who can donate, where to enroll in the donation program, best practice in interacting with relatives of the deceased donors, issues raised by commercialization in the use of some human bodies, use of long-term preserved body parts and body parts nearly permanently preserved by means of plastination, ethical use of human bodies for medical research and public display. We also propose some principles of good practice for body donation

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Plastination and its importance in teaching anatomy. Critical points for long-term preservation of human tissue.

Most medical curricula rely on human bodies for teaching macroscopic anatomy. Over the past 20 years, plastination has become an important means of preservation of organs, for well dissected specimens or for body slices. Here, several critical points regarding body donation with legal and ethical considerations for long-term preservation, the use of cadavers in teaching and the preparation of plastinates as an additional teaching tool will be discussed. Silicone S10 is the gold standard in the preparation of plastinates. An important point to respect is the preparation of specimens, since only very well dissected body parts or excellent tissue sections should be plastinated to show the extraordinary aspects of the human anatomy. The preparation of thin and transparent sections and preservation with P40 polyester provides an additional technique to prepare resistant body slices. A selection of samples prepared by S10 and P40 are shown and compared. In addition, Prussian or Berlin blue staining of brain slices is shown to discriminate better between gray and white matter and demonstrate neuroanatomical structures. These plastinates have been used for many years in teaching first- and second-year medical students and have not lost their appeal. Students and staff appreciate the use of such plastinates. One of the advantages is that their use is not restricted to the dissection hall; slices and body parts can be used in any lecture room or in small group teaching. Therefore, ethical and legal questions need to be addressed regarding their specific use. Plastinates do not replace the traditional dissection courses, since students learn best the anatomical features of a given region by hands-on dissection and by exploratory anatomy. Furthermore, plastinates are more rigid and do not allow demonstration of hidden structures; they also become more cumbersome for endoscopy or are too rigid for demonstrating mechanical features of joints. However, although not a replacement for traditional dissections, plastination provides an additional tool for long-term preservation and for teaching human anatomy.