The Impacts of Fast-track Surgery on Postoperative Deep Venous Thrombosis Among Patients with Lower Limb Fracture.

Purpose: This research was conducted to construct an ankle pump motion counter and system with orthopedic characteristics and analyze the impacts of fast-track surgery on postoperative deep venous thrombosis (DVT) among patients with lower limb fractures. Methods: First, an ankle pump motion counter system was set up to detect postoperative rehabilitation training (Hardware design: This involves components such as an accelerometer sensor, microcontroller, circuit design, power supply, and wireless module. The accelerometer sensor is used to monitor key points and capture motion signals, while the microcontroller handles frequency calculations and generates alerts for abnormal ankle pump motion parameters. Circuit design ensures the proper functioning of the device, and the power supply meets the requirements of the ankle pump motion counter. The wireless module is used for data transmission and communication with other devices. Software design: This includes software design for both the patient and doctor sides. The software design involves defining software requirements and module divisions, designing data acquisition and filtering programs, developing programs for data parameter reading and writing, implementing communication protocols, designing data communication programs, and creating rehabilitation training plans and training record programs). Then, a retrospective analysis was carried out for the subjects (100 patients with lower limb fractures treated in Zhejiang Hospital between June 2021 and June 2022. They were randomly enrolled into control and experimental groups (50 cases each). The ankle pump motion counter was utilized for the patients in the experimental group. Before surgery, gender, age, the incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE), and the muscle strength of both lower limbs of the two groups were recorded. After surgery, numerical rating scale (NRS) pain scores, D-dimer (D-D), and average length of hospitalization 3 d after surgery and venous thrombosis of both lower limbs 5 d after surgery of two groups were compared. Results: D-D of the control group was significantly higher than that of the experimental group 3 days after surgery (P < .05), while the NRS pain score was relatively lower (P < .05). The average hospitalization length for the experimental group was 10.2 days versus 16.2 days for the control group. The incidence of VTE 5 days after the surgery was 2% for the experimental group compared to 6% for the control group (P < .05). Conclusion: The ankle pump motion counter system has the potential to improve VTE prevention, enhance patient compliance, streamline healthcare delivery, standardize care, and enable data-driven decision-making at a wider clinical level. By accurately monitoring ankle pump exercises and providing real-time feedback, this system can contribute to better patient outcomes, save time for healthcare providers, and facilitate evidence-based practices in the prevention of postoperative DVT among patients with lower limb fractures.

Correction: Liu et al. LeGRXS14 Reduces Salt Stress Tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plants 2023, 12, 2320.

The authors wish to correct the following error in the original paper [...].

The effect of the Ankle Pump Exercise (APE) counter system assisted ankle pump motion in patients after femoral neck fracture.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of the Ankle Pump Exercise (APE) counter system on moderate to high-risk Venous thromboembolism (VTE) after femoral neck fracture surgery. METHODS: From June 2021 to June 2022, a total of 140 patients with moderate and high-risk VTE after femoral neck fracture surgery treated at the Department of Orthopedics of a tertiary hospital in Zhejiang were included and divided into observation (70 cases) and control (70 cases) groups according to whether APE counter system was used or not. The control group was given routine oral propaganda, and the observation group was given a comprehensive nursing intervention with APE counter system on the basis of the control group's treatment. The compliance rates of the two groups on the postoperative 3st, 5rd, and 7th days were compared. Moreover, the General self-efficacy scale (GSES) was used to evaluate self-efficacy before and after exercise. RESULTS: The compliance rates of the control group and the observation group on the postoperative 3st, 5rd, and 7th days were 74.3% vs. 85.7%, 67.1% vs. 85.7%, and 61.4% vs. 82.9%. On the 5rd and 7th days, the compliance of the observation group was obviously higher than that of the control group. Moreover, the mean postoperative GSES score was also significantly higher than that in the control group (23.20 ± 3.516 vs. 25.31 ± 4.583, P < 0.05, values are expressed in mean ± standard). CONCLUSION: APE counter system can significantly improve the compliance and self-efficacy of patients with moderate and high-risk VTE after lower limb fracture surgery.

LeGRXS14 Reduces Salt Stress Tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Salt stress represents a significant abiotic stressor for plants and poses a severe threat to agricultural productivity. Glutaredoxins (GRXs) are small disulfide reductases that can scavenge cellular reactive oxygen species and are crucial for plant growth and development, particularly under stressful circumstances. Although CGFS-type GRXs were found to be involved in various abiotic stresses, the intrinsic mechanism mediated by LeGRXS14, a tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) CGFS-type GRX, is not yet fully understood. We discovered that LeGRXS14 is relatively conserved at the N-terminus and exhibits an increase in expression level under salt and osmotic stress conditions in tomatoes. The expression levels of LeGRXS14 in response to osmotic stress peaked relatively rapidly at 30 min, while the response to salt stress only peaked at 6 h. We constructed LeGRXS14 overexpression Arabidopsis thaliana (OE) lines and confirmed that LeGRXS14 is located on the plasma membrane, nucleus, and chloroplasts. In comparison to the wild-type Col-0 (WT), the OE lines displayed greater sensitivity to salt stress, resulting in a profound inhibition of root growth under the same conditions. Analysis of the mRNA levels of the WT and OE lines revealed that salt stress-related factors, such as ZAT12, SOS3, and NHX6, were downregulated. Based on our research, it can be concluded that LeGRXS14 plays a significant role in plant tolerance to salt. However, our findings also suggest that LeGRXS14 may act as a negative regulator in this process by exacerbating Na+ toxicity and the resulting oxidative stress.

Nanoluciferase as a novel quantitative protein fusion tag: Application for overexpression and bioluminescent receptor-binding assays of human leukemia inhibitory factor.

Nanoluciferase (NanoLuc) is a newly developed small luciferase reporter with the brightest bioluminescence reported to date. In the present work, we developed NanoLuc as a novel quantitative protein fusion tag for efficient overexpression in Escherichia coli and ultrasensitive bioluminescent assays using human leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) as a model protein. LIF is an interleukin 6 family cytokine that elicits pleiotropic effects on a diverse range of cells by activating a heterodimeric LIFR/gp130 receptor. Recombinant preparation of the biologically active LIF protein is quite difficult due to its hydrophobic nature and three disulfide bonds. Using the novel NanoLuc-fusion approach, soluble 6×His-NanoLuc-LIF fusion protein was efficiently overexpressed in E. coli and enzymatically converted to monomeric mature LIF. Both the mature LIF and the NanoLuc-fused LIF had high biological activities in a leukemia M1 cell proliferation inhibition assay and in a STAT3 signaling activation assay. The NanoLuc-fused LIF retained high binding affinities with the overexpressed LIFR (Kd = 1.4 ± 0.4 nM, n = 3), the overexpressed LIFR/gp130 (Kd = 115 ± 8 pM, n = 3), and the endogenously expressed LIFR/gp130 (Kd = 33.1 ± 3.2 pM, n = 3), with a detection limit of less than 10 receptors per cell. Thus, the novel NanoLuc-fusion strategy not only provided an efficient approach for preparation of recombinant LIF protein but also provided a novel ultrasensitive bioluminescent tracer for ligand-receptor interaction studies. The novel NanoLuc-fusion approach could be extended to other proteins for both efficient sample preparation and various bioluminescent quantitative assays in future studies.