Correlation between intravesical pressure and prostatic obstruction grade using computational fluid dynamics in benign prostatic hyperplasia

An urodynamic test which measures various physiologic variables during voiding is generally used for accurate diagnosis of a bladder outlet obstruction (BOO) resulting from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BHP). However, this method is difficult to directly apply to all patients because it is an invasive test and many patients suffer from anxiety and embarrassment during the test. Thus, other diagnosis methods such as uroflowmetry and prostatic symptom score are performed to measure the degree of BOO prior to the urodynamic test, and it is necessary to construct a quantitative relationship among the obstruction level, the intravesical pressure, and the uroflow rate. The aim of this paper is to analyse the variation of intravesical pressure as a function of the extent of the obstruction and the uroflow rate from given information on the size of the bladder and the urodynamic test using a computational fluid dynamics approach. In order to analyse the intravesical pressure, a two-dimensional axisymmetric model of the bladder including a narrowed region, i.e. the prostatic obstruction, is created. Then the variation of the intravesical pressure is quantitatively obtained as a function of the magnitude of the uroflow rate and the extent of the obstruction. It is shown that the intravesical pressure significantly increases even for small obstructions and that at large obstructions it can reach values higher than 100 cm H2O, which is a dangerous value. It is shown that the intravesical pressure decreases as the uroflow rate decreases. This study can form the basis of a non-invasive test for the diagnosis of BHP.

Curcumin suppresses Streptococcus mutans adherence to human tooth surfaces and extracellular matrix proteins

Streptococcus mutans is the key causative agent of caries and infective endocarditis. The first step in biofilm development and the consequent initiation of further disease is bacterial adherence to host cell surfaces. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the inhibitory effect of curcumin on S. mutans adherence to extracellular matrices and tooth surfaces. The effect of curcumin on the ability of S. mutans to adhere to glass surfaces coated with collagen and fibronectin was tested in order to determine whether the decrease of the bacterial adhesion by curcumin is achieved by hindering the bacteria in adhering to collagen and/or fibronectin. Also, human teeth inoculated with S. mutans were treated with curcumin in vitro in order to assess the relevance of the anti-adhesive effect to oral conditions in vivo. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) at which curcumin completely inhibited bacterial growth was 128 μg/mL. The addition of curcumin below the MIC diminished bacterial adherence onto both collagen- and fibronectin-coated glass surfaces and human tooth surfaces. It appears that the anti-adhesive effect of curcumin against S. mutans is mediated through collagen and fibronectin. These results support the widespread use of curcumin as a food-based antimicrobial agent.

Dark matter results from 100 live days of XENON100 data

We present results from the direct search for dark matter with the XENON100 detector, installed underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso of INFN, Italy. XENON100 is a two-phase time-projection chamber with a 62 kg liquid xenon target. Interaction vertex reconstruction in three dimensions with millimeter precision allows the selection of only the innermost 48 kg as the ultralow background fiducial target. In 100.9 live days of data, acquired between January and June 2010, no evidence for dark matter is found. Three candidate events were observed in the signal region with an expected background of (1.8 ± 0.6) events. This leads to the most stringent limit on dark matter interactions today, excluding spin-independent elastic weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) nucleon scattering cross sections above 7.0 × 10(-45) cm(2) for a WIMP mass of 50 GeV/c(2) at 90% confidence level.

Integration of image exposure time into a modified laser speckle imaging method

Speckle-based methods have been developed to characterize tissue blood flow and perfusion. One such method, called modified laser speckle imaging (mLSI), enables computation of blood flow maps with relatively high spatial resolution. Although it is known that the sensitivity and noise in LSI measurements depend on image exposure time, a fundamental disadvantage of mLSI is that it does not take into account this parameter. In this work, we integrate the exposure time into the mLSI method and provide experimental support of our approach with measurements from an in vitro flow phantom.

First dark matter results from the XENON100 experiment

The XENON100 experiment, in operation at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy, is designed to search for dark matter weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) scattering off 62 kg of liquid xenon in an ultralow background dual-phase time projection chamber. In this Letter, we present first dark matter results from the analysis of 11.17 live days of nonblind data, acquired in October and November 2009. In the selected fiducial target of 40 kg, and within the predefined signal region, we observe no events and hence exclude spin-independent WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering cross sections above 3.4 × 10⁻⁴⁴  cm² for 55  GeV/c² WIMPs at 90% confidence level. Below 20  GeV/c², this result constrains the interpretation of the CoGeNT and DAMA signals as being due to spin-independent, elastic, light mass WIMP interactions.

Immunomodulatory effects of specific bacterial components of Lactobacillus plantarum KFCC11389P on the murine macrophage cell line RAW 264.7

AIMS

The objective of this study was to investigate the ability of specific bacterial components of Lactobacillus plantarum KFCC11389P to induce anti-inflammatory mediators in cell cultures of the murine macrophage cell line, RAW 264.7.

METHODS AND RESULTS

The RAW 264.7 cells were stimulated with viable bacterial cells (VC), heat-killed (HK) cells, cell walls (CW) or ultrafiltrates of metabolic products (UF). An increase in the levels of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha was observed in VC, HK and CW, but this effect was much lower in UF. VC stimulated higher levels of interleukin (IL)-6 releases as well as nitric oxide production than HK. In contrast, UF and its separated molecule, fraction 4, were much strong IL-10 inducers. Fraction 4 (8.1 kDa), especially, inhibited the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, IL-6 (89% decrease) and TNF-alpha (55% decrease), in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated murine macrophages.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this study indicate that metabolic products of Lact. plantarum KFCC11389P could influence the immune-modulating activity via IL-10, and pretreatment with this specific molecule could inhibit LPS-induced release of IL-6 and TNF-alpha.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY

Our findings suggest that the specific molecules of Lact. plantarum KFCC11389P may be useful for the treatment of acute inflammatory responses such as Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis.