Gene Delivery of Calreticulin Anti-Angiogenic Domain Attenuates the Development of Choroidal Neovascularization in Rats.

Choroidal neovascularization (CNV) is a common pathological feature in neovascular age-related macular degeneration, which is the leading cause of vision loss among elderly populations in developed countries. This study evaluated the effect of a novel endogenous inhibitor of angiogenesis, calreticulin anti-angiogenic domain (CAD), subconjunctivally delivered by an adenoviral vector (Ad-CAD) in a rat model of laser-induced CNV. CAD was expressed in Ad-CAD-infected cells and inhibited the angiogenic activity in human umbilical vein endothelial cells in vitro. CAD expression was also found in various ocular tissues after in vivo subconjunctival Ad-CAD injection. Via bioluminescence imaging it is shown that a single subconjunctival injection of Ad-luciferase induced the expression of the transgene in the injected eyes within 24 h, which lasted for at least 112 days. Forty-two days after subconjunctival injection of Ad-CAD, retinal structure and function were unaffected, as measured using optical coherence tomography and electroretinography, respectively. After laser injury, subconjunctival Ad-CAD gene delivery significantly inhibited CNV lesions as measured via choroid flat-mounts (51% reduction at 21 days; p < 0.001), as well as by fundus fluorescein angiography (19.3%, 28.2%, 31%, and 27.5% reductions at days 21, 28, 35, and 42, respectively; p < 0.05) in rats. The data suggest that subconjunctival Ad-CAD gene therapy could effectively inhibit laser-induced CNV and might be an attractive therapeutic approach for the management of choroidal neovascularization.

Risk Factors for the Postoperative Transfusion of Allogeneic Blood in Orthopedics Patients With Intraoperative Blood Salvage: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

The purpose of this study is to explore the risk factors affecting the postoperative transfusion of allogeneic blood in patients undergoing orthopedics surgery with intraoperative blood salvage (IBS). A retrospective study of 279 patients undergoing orthopedic surgeries with IBS from May 2013 to May 2015 was enrolled. The binary logistic regression was used to find out the risk factors associated with postoperative transfusion of allogeneic blood in orthopedics patients with IBS, and then receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn to determine the optimal threshold of the regression model.Single factor analysis showed that age, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) grade, preoperative hemoglobin, operation time, received autologous blood, the laying time of autologous blood, bleeding volume, and postoperative drainage volume had significant effects on postoperative allogeneic blood transfusion.In binary logistic regression analysis, the independent factors predicting orthopedic patients with IBS need to transfuse allogeneic blood after surgeries were age (odds ratio [OR] = 0.415, P = 0.006), ASA grade (OR = 2.393, P = 0.035), preoperative hemoglobin (OR = 0.532, P = 0.022), and postoperative drainage volume (OR = 4.279, P = 0.000). The area under ROC curve was 0.79 and the predicted accuracy rate of the model was 81.58%.After operation, the orthopedic patients with IBS still have a high allogeneic blood transfusion rate, and IBS is not a perfect blood protection method. The logistic regression model of our study provides a reliable prediction for postoperative transfusion of allogeneic blood in orthopedic patients with IBS, which have a certain reference value.