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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy and indications of using dried gamma ray-sterilized amniotic membrane (AM) transplantation with bandage contact lenses for the in-office sutureless treatment of various ocular surface diseases., Methods: This study retrospectively included 56 eyes of 52 patients with various ocular surface diseases treated with sutureless dehydrated AM-assisted therapeutic contact lenses. The patients were followed up and assessed 1, 2, and 4 weeks after the treatment, and the therapeutic contact lenses were removed after 1 or 2 weeks. The size of the corneal lesion and the degree of pain experienced by each patient before and after the procedure were measured. Corneal re-epithelization rate and clinical aspects related to re-epithelialization were evaluated., Results: Complete corneal re-epithelialization of the epithelial defect was observed in 40 eyes. The complete re-epithelialization rates of persistent epithelial defect caused by infectious ulcers, neurotrophic ulcers, ulcers due to burn, toxic keratopathy, previous penetrating keratoplasty or other corneal surgeries, and severe dry eye disease were 69.2%, 80.0%, 77.8%, 100%, 75.0%, and 100%, respectively. Five patients with uncontrolled infectious ulcers, neurotrophic ulcer, bullous keratopathy, and ulcers associated with rheumatic disease did not show significant improvement. Patient pain scores significantly decreased after the procedure., Conclusions: Dehydrated AM transplantation with a bandage contact lens is minimally invasive and easily applicable through in-office procedures. This approach is expected to be more actively applied in various ocular surface disorders, not only in severe corneal diseases but also in relatively mild corneal surface diseases., Competing Interests: The authors have no funding or conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Bioactive lipids like sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) and lysophosphatidic acid have gained significant attention as signaling molecules with regulatory roles in stem cell proliferation and differentiation. The novel chemically synthesized sphingosine metabolite O-cyclic phytosphingosine-1-phosphate (cP1P) is derived from phytosphingosine-1-phosphate (P1P) and shares structural similarities with S1P. Previously, the role of cP1P in regulating ALK3/BMPR signaling during cardiomyocyte differentiation from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) was demonstrated. In this study, the applicability of cP1P for endothelial cells (ECs) differentiation from hESCs was investigated an efficient method to obtain a high yield of functional ECs over several passages was standardized. The ECs derived from hESCs showed cellular and molecular characteristics similar to the native ECs. Thus, the results of this study open avenues for further research into cP1P-based stem cell differentiation for regenerative therapies.

Purpose: We aimed to design, develop, and evaluate an internet of things-enabled patch (IoT patch) for real-time remote monitoring of adherence (or patch wear time) during patch treatment in child participants in clinical trials. This study provides healthcare providers with a tool for objective, real-time, and remote assessment of adherence and for making required adjustments to treatment plans., Methods: The IoT patch had two temperature microsensors and a wireless chip. One sensor was placed closer to the skin than the other, resulting in a temperature difference depending on whether the patch was worn. When the patch was worn, it measured temperatures every 30 seconds and transmitted temperature data to a cloud server via a mobile application every 15 seconds. The patch was evaluated via 2 experiments with 30 healthy adults and 40 children with amblyopia., Results: Excellent monitoring accuracy was observed in both adults (mean delay of recorded time data, 0.4 minutes) and children (mean, 0.5 minutes). The difference between manually recorded and objectively recorded patch wear times showed good agreement in both groups. Experiment 1 showed accurate monitoring over a wide range of temperatures (from 0 to 30°C). Experiment 2 showed no significant differences in wearability (ease-of-use and comfort scores) between the IoT and conventional patches., Conclusions: The IoT patch offers an accurate, real-time, and remote system to monitor adherence to patch treatment. The patch is comfortable and easy to use. The utilization of an IoT patch may increase adherence to patch treatment based on accurate monitoring., Translational Relevance: Results show that the IoT patch can enable real-time adherence monitoring in clinical trials, improving treatment precision, and patient compliance to enhance outcomes.

Human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived midbrain dopaminergic (mDA) cell transplantation is a promising therapeutic strategy for Parkinson's disease (PD). Here, we present the derivation of high-purity mDA progenitors from clinical-grade hESCs on a large scale under rigorous good manufacturing practice (GMP) conditions. We also assessed the toxicity, biodistribution, and tumorigenicity of these cells in immunodeficient rats in good laboratory practice (GLP)-compliant facilities. Various doses of mDA progenitors were transplanted into hemi-parkinsonian rats, and a significant dose-dependent behavioral improvement was observed with a minimal effective dose range of 5,000-10,000 mDA progenitor cells. These results provided insights into determining a low cell dosage (3.15 million cells) for human clinical trials. Based on these results, approval for a phase 1/2a clinical trial for PD cell therapy was obtained from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in Korea, and a clinical trial for treating patients with PD has commenced., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests D.-W.K. is a chief technology officer of S. Biomedics Co., Ltd. J.H.E., M.-Y.J., H.-J.H., S.K.C., S.T.N., K.-S.J., D.-H.K., C.-Y.P., and M.S.C. are currently employed at S. Biomedics Co., Ltd. We have patents related to this work. 1. Title: method for inducing differentiation of stem cells into dopaminergic neural precursor cells, patent number: 102392133(KR), 11655450(US), 07152050(JP), and 2020202273(AU). 2. Title: efficient and universal method for neural differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells, patent number: 101168053(KR), 08551783(US), 05756019(JP), and 02502987(EP)., (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Anion-dependent differences in the electromechanical energy harvesting capability of perovskite halides have not been experimentally demonstrated thus far. Herein, anion-dependent piezoelectricity and bending-driven power generation in high-quality methylammonium lead halide MAPbX 3 (X = I, Br, and Cl) thin films are explored; additionally, anisotropic in situ strain is imposed to improve energy harvesting under tensile bending. After applying the maximum in situ strain of -0.73% for all the halide thin films, the MAPbI 3 thin-film harvester exhibited a peak voltage/current of ≈23.1 V/≈1703 nA as the best values, whereas MAPbBr 3 and MAPbCl 3 demonstrated ≈5.6 V/≈176 nA and ≈3.3 V/≈141 nA, respectively, under identical bending conditions. Apart from apparent ferroelectricity of tetragonal MAPbI 3 , origin of the piezoelectricity in both cubic MAPbBr 3 and MAPbCl 3 is explored as being related to organic-inorganic hydrogen bonding, lattice distortion, and ionic migration, with experimental supports of effective piezoelectric coefficient and grain boundary potential. Conclusively, piezoelectricity of the cubic halides is assumed to be due to their soft polarity modes and relatively low elastic modulus with vacancies contributing to space-charge polarization. In the case of ferroelectric MAPbI 3 , the distortion of PbI 6 octahedra and atomic displacement within each octahedron are quantitatively estimated., (© 2022 The Authors. Advanced Science published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Misfolded glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored prion protein (PrP) is primarily degraded in lysosomes but is often rapidly removed from the cell surface before endocytosis in a preemptive manner. However, this mechanism is poorly understood. In this study, we discovered a disease-causing prion mutation (Q212P) that exceptionally promoted the extracellular release of PrP. Spatiotemporal analyses combined with genome editing identified the role of sheddase ADAM10 in Q212P shedding from the cell surface. ADAM10 was observed to catalytically interacts with Q212P but non-catalytically with wild-type PrP (wtPrP). This intrinsic difference in the interaction of ADAM10 between Q212P and wtPrP allowed Q212P to selectively access the sheddase activity of ADAM10 in a redox-sensitive manner. In addition, redox perturbation instigated the latent misfolding propensity of Q212P and disrupted the catalytic interaction between PrP and ADAM10, resulting in the accumulation of misfolded PrP on the cell surface. Upon recovery, active ADAM10 was able to reversibly release the surface Q212P. However, it might prove detrimental if unregulated resulting in unexpected proteotoxicity. This study provides a molecular basis of the mutant-selective shedding of PrP by demonstrating the catalytic interaction of ADAM10 with Q212P., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)