The mechanical properties of the rib cortical bone have been poorly explored on children due to difficulties to obtain specimens to perform ex vivo tests. Some recent studies have used cadaveric bones or bone tissues collected during surgery but are limited by the number of collected samples. A non-invasive technique could be extremely valuable to overcome this limitation. It has been shown that a relationship exists between the mechanical properties (apparent Young's modulus and ultimate strength) and the bone mineral density (assessed using Quantitative Computed Tomography, QCT), for the femur and recently by our group for the adult ribs ex vivo.Thus, the aim of this study was to assess the mechanical properties of the child rib cortical bone using in vivo QCT images and the relationship between bone mineral density and mechanical properties of the rib cortical bone. Twenty-eight children were included in this study. Seven age-groups have been considered (1, 1.5, 3, 6, 10, 15, 18 years old). The QCT images were prescribed for various cardio thoracic pathologies at the pediatric hospital in Lyon. A calibration phantom was added to the clinical protocol without any modification for the patient. The protocol was approved by the local ethical committee. A 3D reconstruction of each thorax was performed using the QCT images. A custom software was then used to obtain cross-sections to the rib midline.The mean bone mineral density was then computed by averaging the Hounsfield Units in a specific cross-section and by converting the mean value (Hounsfield Units) in bone mineral density using the calibration phantom. This bone mineral density was assessed for the 6th rib of each subject.The relationship between the bone mineral density and the mechanical properties of the rib cortical bone (assessed previously on adult specimens) was used to derive the mechanical properties of the child ribs in vivo. The results give values for the apparent Young's modulus and the ultimate strength. The mechanical properties increase with growth. As an example the apparent Young's modulus in the lateral region ranges from 7 GPa +/-3 at 1 year old up to 13 GPa +/-2 at 18 years old. These data are in agreement with the few previous values obtained from child tissues (e.g. Agnew et al. 2013). This methodology opens the way to in vivo measurement of the mechanical properties of the child cortical bone based on calibrated QCT images
Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are transcribed from the genome and do not encode proteins. In recent years, ncRNAs have attracted increasing attention as critical participants in gene regulation and disease pathogenesis. Different categories of ncRNAs, which mainly include microRNAs (miRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), and circular RNAs (circRNAs), are involved in the progression of pregnancy, while abnormal expression of placental ncRNAs impacts the onset and development of adverse pregnancy outcomes (APOs). Therefore, we reviewed the current status of research on placental ncRNAs and APOs to further understand the regulatory mechanisms of placental ncRNAs, which provides a new perspective for treating and preventing related diseases.
"Relationship between human rib mechanical properties and cortical bone density measured by high-resolution quantitative computed tomography." Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, 16(sup1), pp. 191–192Keywords:: human ribmechanical propertiesthree-point bendingcortical density (Ct BMD)HR-pQCT (high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography) AcknowledgementsThe authors acknowledge Charlène Delimoge for technical contributions to this study and Nicolas Vilayphiou for technical input in HR-pQCT data collection. Yumin Zhu is supported by a grant from the Région Rhône-Alpes. This research was partly funded by the Clusters-ARC from the Région Rhône-Alpes.
Elasticity of the child rib cortical bone is poorly known due to the difficulties in obtaining specimens to perform conventional tests. It was shown on the femoral cortical bone that elasticity is strongly correlated with density for both children and adults through a unique relationship. Thus, it is assumed that the relationships between the elasticity and density of adult rib cortical bones could be expanded to include that of children. This study estimated in vivo the elasticity of the child rib cortical bone using quantitative computed tomography (QCT). Twenty-eight children (from 1 to 18 y.o.) were considered. Calibrated QCT images were prescribed for various thoracic pathologies. The Hounsfield units were converted to bone mineral density (BMD). A relationship between the BMD and the elasticity of the rib cortical bone was applied to estimate the elasticity of children’s ribs in vivo. The estimated elasticity increases with growth (7.1 ± 2.5 GPa at 1 y.o. up to 11.6 ± 1.9 GPa at 18 y.o.). This data is in agreement with the few previous values obtained using direct measurements. This methodology paves the way for in vivo assessment of the elasticity of the child cortical bone based on calibrated QCT images.
Differential diagnosis between malignant pleural effusion (MPE) and benign pleural effusion (BPE) remains a clinical challenge.The aim of the study is to assess the efficacy of the serum and pleural fluid (PF) miRNA panels in distinguishing MPE from BPE.Fourteen candidate miRNAs which were shown aberrant expression in lung cancer based on previous studies were tested by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) in 20 MPE patients and 20 BPE patients. Significantly aberrantly expressed miRNAs were further assessed by qRT-PCR in all patients enrolled in this study. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was constructed, and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) was calculated to evaluated the diagnostic performance of the miRNAs.miR-21, miR-29c and miR-182 were found to be significantly aberrantly expressed in the serum and PF of MPE patients. The AUCs for the combination of miR-21, miR-29c and miR-182 in serum and PF were 0.832 and 0.89 respectively in distinguishing MPE from infection-associated PE including tuberculous pleurisy and parapneumonia PE, and 0.866 and 0.919 respectively for differentiating MPE from heart failure-associated PE, which were superior to AUC of each individual miRNAs.miR-21, miR-29c and miR-182 in serum and PF could be useful biomarkers for diagnosis of MPE.
Biomechanical data on children, both mechanical behaviors and tissue properties, are rare and difficult to be obtained through biomechanical experiments. This thesis mainly discussed the mechanical behavior of pediatric trunk and mechanical properties of pediatric rib cortical bones in vivo. The mechanical responses of the living and active pediatric and adult trunks during in vivo loading tests were investigated. Three typical shapes of force-displacement curves were observed. Larger time lags between force time histories and displacement time histories were observed more frequently in children than adults, resulting in different shapes of force-displacement curves between children and adults. To better understand the mechanical behavior of pediatric trunk, rib cortical bone mechanical properties were studied. It was found that mechanical properties of adult rib cortical bones were linearly related to Bone Mineral Density (BMD) measured by Quantitative Computed Tomography (QCT) and High Resolution Peripheral Quantitative Computed Tomography (HR-pQCT). The BMD could be measured by QCT in vivo. Then, the mechanical property-BMD relationships were introduced to child population, and the mechanical properties of pediatric rib cortical bones were estimated. The mechanical properties were found higher in the lateral part of the ribs than the anterior and posterior regions. It was also found that the mechanical properties were growing during the growth of children. This is the first study which estimated the material properties of pediatric rib cortical bones in vivo. This study can help to better understand the mechanical response of pediatric trunk and mechanical properties of pediatric rib cortical bones. These results measured in vivo could contribute to improve the biofidelity of pediatric modeling
Preterm birth (PTB) is the main driver of newborn deaths. The identification of pregnancies at risk of PTB remains challenging, as the incomplete understanding of molecular mechanisms associated with PTB. Although several transcriptome studies have been done on the placenta and plasma from PTB women, a comprehensive description of the RNA profiles from plasma and placenta associated with PTB remains lacking.Candidate markers with consistent trends in the placenta and plasma were identified by implementing differential expression analysis using placental tissue and maternal plasma RNA-seq datasets, and then validated by RT-qPCR in an independent cohort. In combination with bioinformatics analysis tools, we set up two protein-protein interaction networks of the significant PTB-related modules. The support vector machine (SVM) model was used to verify the prediction potential of cell free RNAs (cfRNAs) in plasma for PTB and late PTB.We identified 15 genes with consistent regulatory trends in placenta and plasma of PTB while the full term birth (FTB) acts as a control. Subsequently, we verified seven cfRNAs in an independent cohort by RT-qPCR in maternal plasma. The cfRNA ARHGEF28 showed consistence in the experimental validation and performed excellently in prediction of PTB in the model. The AUC achieved 0.990 for whole PTB and 0.986 for late PTB.In a comparison of PTB versus FTB, the combined investigation of placental and plasma RNA profiles has shown a further understanding of the mechanism of PTB. Then, the cfRNA identified has the capacity of predicting whole PTB and late PTB.
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