Sensitivity to Sweet and Salty Tastes in Children and Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes.

Taste function impairment is observed in people with type 1 diabetes (T1D). It is most often related to sweet taste. It is associated with such factors as diabetic neuropathy, smoking, age, duration of the disease and a rigorous diet that eliminates easily digestible carbohydrates. The aim of the study was to compare sensitivity to sweet and salty tastes between healthy children and adolescents and children and adolescents with T1D. The study group consisted of children with T1D (n = 35), with at least 5 years of disease history, while the group of healthy children included 46 individuals selected in terms of age, gender and BMI. A study concerning the perception of sweet and salty taste was carried out with the use of the specific gustometry method (examining the recognition and assessment of the intensity of taste sensations, performing a hedonic assessment). Children and adolescents from both groups had trouble recognising tastes. Children and adolescents with T1D were more likely to recognise sweet taste correctly even at its lower concentrations compared to healthy individuals (p = 0.04). Salty taste was significantly more often correctly identified by healthy children compared to T1D patients (p = 0.01). Children and adolescents with T1D reported a stronger intensity of perceived tastes than healthy ones. No significant differences in perceived pleasure were noted at lower sucrose concentrations in any group. The intensity score was higher in individuals with T1D at higher sucrose concentrations. No significant differences occurred in the assessment of salty taste intensity. The hedonic scoring of solutions with higher concentrations of sweet taste was higher in people with T1D than in healthy ones, while salty taste was assessed neutrally. Children and adolescents with T1D were demonstrated to have some taste recognition disorders. Therefore, monitoring taste function in pediatric diabetic clinical practice seems relevant, as it may be associated with important implications for the intake of a particular type of food and for the development of eating habits and preferences.

Solution Blow Spinning of Polycaprolactone-Rheological Determination of Spinnability and the Effect of Processing Conditions on Fiber Diameter and Alignment.

The growing popularity of solution blow spinning as a method for the production of fibrous tissue engineering scaffolds and the vast range of polymer-solvent systems available for the method raises the need to study the effect of processing conditions on fiber morphology and develop a method for its qualitative assessment. Rheological approaches to determine polymer solution spinnability and image analysis approaches to describe fiber diameter and alignment have been previously proposed, although in a separate manner and mostly for the widely known, well-researched electrospinning method. In this study, a series of methods is presented to determine the processing conditions for the development of submicron fibrous scaffolds. Rheological methods are completed with extensive image analysis to determine the spinnability window for a polymer-solvent system and qualitatively establish the influence of polymer solution concentration and collector rotational speed on fiber morphology, diameter, and alignment. Process parameter selection for a tissue engineering scaffold target application is discussed, considering the varying structural properties of the native extracellular matrix of the tissue of interest.

Binary bioactive glass composite scaffolds for bone tissue engineering-Structure and mechanical properties in micro and nano scale. A preliminary study.

Composite scaffolds of bioactive glass (SiO2-CaO) and bioresorbable polyesters: poly-l-lactic acid (PLLA) and polycaprolactone (PCL) were produced by polymer coating of porous foams. Their structure and mechanical properties were investigated in micro and nanoscale, by the means of scanning electron microscopy, PeakForce Quantitative Nanomechanical Property Mapping (PF-QNM) atomic force microscopy, micro-computed tomography and contact angle measurements. This is one of the first studies in which the nanomechanical properties (elastic modulus, adhesion) were measured and mapped simultaneously with topography imaging (PF-QNM AFM) for bioactive glass and bioactive glass - polymer coated scaffolds. Our findings show that polymer coated scaffolds had higher average roughness and lower stiffness in comparison to pure bioactive glass scaffolds. Such coating-dependent scaffold properties may promote different cells-scaffold interaction.