Impact factors and publication times for plastic surgery journals.

BACKGROUND: The purposes of the authors' analysis were to assess the values that plastic surgical journals demonstrate in terms of the standardized measures created by the Institute for Scientific Information's Journal Citation Report, and to assess the relationship between these values and the turnaround time of these journals. METHODS: The overall indexes of surgical journals were compared with those of journals in other fields of medicine using the following parameters: highest impact factor, average impact factor, cited half-life, immediacy index, and number of journals. Similarly, plastic surgery journals were compared with the highest ranking journals from various fields of surgery. In addition, an evaluation of all original articles published in 2005, assessing the time intervals from submission to publication, submission to acceptance, and acceptance to publication, was conducted for all plastic surgical journals and the highest ranking journals from various surgical fields listed in the Journal Citation Report. RESULTS: Plastic surgical journals demonstrated low overall index values and a greater elongation of their turnaround time in comparison to journals in other fields of surgery and medicine. CONCLUSIONS: The fact that the field of plastic surgery targets a rather specific and limited medical audience, and that plastic surgical articles usually get quoted by this audience, partly explains these values. Furthermore, the elongated turnaround time contributes to their endurance. Since plastic surgical journals cannot attract a broader medical audience, journals should speed up their publication times to help these values rise.

Fibrin gel-immobilized VEGF and bFGF efficiently stimulate angiogenesis in the AV loop model.

The modulation of angiogenic processes in matrices is of great interest in tissue engineering. We assessed the angiogenic effects of fibrin-immobilized VEGF and bFGF in an arteriovenous loop (AVL) model in 22 AVLs created between the femoral artery and vein in rats. The loops were placed in isolation chambers and were embedded in 500 microL fibrin gel (FG) (group A) or in 500 microL FG loaded with 0.1 ng/microL VEGF and 0.1 ng/microL bFGF (group B). After two and four weeks specimens were explanted and investigated using histological, morphometrical, and ultramorphological [scanning electron microscope (SEM) of vascular corrosion replicas] techniques. In both groups, the AVL induced formation of densely vascularized connective tissue with differentiated and functional vessels inside the fibrin matrix. VEGF and bFGF induced significantly higher absolute and relative vascular density and a faster resorption of the fibrin matrix. SEM analysis in both groups revealed characteristics of an immature vascular bed, with a higher vascular density in group B. VEGF and bFGF efficiently stimulated sprouting of blood vessels in the AVL model. The implantation of vascular carriers into given growth factor-loaded matrix volumes may eventually allow efficient generation of axially vascularized, tissue-engineered composites.

Axial prevascularization of porous matrices using an arteriovenous loop promotes survival and differentiation of transplanted autologous osteoblasts.

Generation of axially vascularized bioartificial bone might be performed using matrix neovascularization in connection with osteoblast injection. We sought to evaluate whether prevascularization of porous hard matrices using an arteriovenous (AV) loop promotes survival of transplanted osteoblasts. A processed bovine cancellous bone matrix was inserted into the AV loop. Six weeks later, 5 x 10(6) carboxyfluorescein diacetate-stained osteoblasts were injected into the matrix (group A, n = 34). Osteoblast-seeded matrices without prevascularization were implanted subcutaneously as controls (group B, n = 32). Specimens were subjected to histologic, morphometric, and molecular-biological analysis after 1, 4, 8, and 16 weeks. Upon cell injection, matrices were completely vascularized. An intense foreign body reaction was observed in matrices from both groups. Group A was significantly superior to group B in terms of osteoblast survival at any time point. Expression of bone-specific genes was detected in the AV loop group but not in the subcutaneous control. Bone formation was only detectable in 1 long-term animal of group A. This study demonstrates for the first time that axial prevascularization increases the survival of implanted osteoblasts in porous matrices. Matrices with optimized biocompatibility might eventually facilitate generation of axially vascularized bone tissue after injection of osteogenic cells in the AV loop model.