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Growing evidence supports that depression in Parkinson's disease (PD) depends on disruptions in specific neural networks rather than regional dysfunction. According to the resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging data, the study attempted to decipher the alterations in the topological properties of brain networks in de novo depression in PD (DPD). The study also explored the neural network basis for depressive symptoms in PD. We recruited 20 DPD, 37 non‐depressed PD and 41 healthy controls (HC). The Graph theory and network‐based statistical methods helped analyse the topological properties of brain functional networks and anomalous subnetworks across these groups. The relationship between altered properties and depression severity was also investigated. DPD revealed significantly reduced nodal efficiency in the left superior temporal gyrus. Additionally, DPD decreased five hubs, primarily located in the temporal‐occipital cortex, and increased seven hubs, mainly distributed in the limbic cortico‐basal ganglia circuit. The betweenness centrality of the left Medio Ventral Occipital Cortex was positively associated with depressive scores in DPD. In contrast to HC, DPD had a multi‐connected subnetwork with significantly lower connectivity, primarily distributed in the visual, somatomotor, dorsal attention and default networks. Regional topological disruptions in the temporal‐occipital region are critical in the DPD neurological mechanism. It might suggest a potential network biomarker among newly diagnosed DPD patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose: Variants in the glucocerebrosidase (GBA) gene are recognized as a common and important genetic risk factor for Parkinson disease (PD). However, the impact of variant severity on the clinical phenotype of PD in the Chinese population remains unclear. Thus, the present study aimed to determine the frequency of GBA‐related PD (GBA‐PD) and the relationship of GBA variant severity with clinical characteristics in a large Chinese cohort. Methods: Long‐range polymerase chain reaction and next generation sequencing were performed for the entire GBA gene. GBA variant severity was classified into five classes: mild, severe, risk, complex, and unknown. Results: Among the total 737 PD patients, 47 GBA variants were detected in 79 (10.72%) patients, and the most common GBA variants were R163Q, L444P, and R120W. Complete demographic and clinical data were obtained for 673 patients, which revealed that 18.50% of early onset PD patients had GBA variants. Compared with patients without GBA variants, GBA‐PD patients experienced PD onset an average of 4 years earlier and had more severe motor and nonmotor symptoms. Patients carrying severe and complex variants had a higher burden of nonmotor symptoms, especially depression, and more mood/cognitive and gastrointestinal symptoms than patients carrying mild variants. Conclusions: GBA‐PD is highly prevalent in the Chinese population. The severity of GBA variants underlies distinct phenotypic spectrums, with PD patients carrying severe and complex variants seeming to have similar phenotypes. PD patient stratification by GBA variant severity should become a prerequisite for selecting specific treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioactive bone-inducing material (BBIM) is a collagen-based scaffold composed of demineralized bone matrix and collagen-binding domain bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2). BBIM is regarded as a promising bone-inducing scaffold to repair bone defects. In this work, we evaluated the biocompatibility and osteogenecity of BBIM. Using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, the level of BMP-2 on BBIM was detected and considered adequate. Kunming mice were used as the animal model to investigate the acute systemic toxicity, long-term bone regeneration, ectopic bone formation, and chronic systemic toxicity. Results show that BBIM induced no serious inflammatory reaction or acute and chronic systemic toxicity. Our analyses also demonstrated significant homogeneous ectopic bone formation as well as significantly high numbers of erythrocytes in the BBIM groups in the chronic systemic toxicity study, a phenomenon which may provide indirect proof of the bone regeneration capacity of BBIM, which may be considered as a bioactivity indicator in future studies. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 102A: 3093-3101, 2014. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lung is an important organ in systemic toxicity test of medical devices and is significant in safety evaluation. Based on the authors' understanding of medical devices, this study provides a brief analysis of the lung examination and common problems in systemic toxicity, so as to provide references for the pre-clinical safety evaluation of medical devices. It should be noted that a reasonable risk assessment should be made after comprehensive assessment for specific medical device products.

Our study aimed to establish and validate a multi-class scoring system for preoperative gastric gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) risk stratifications based on CT features. 150 gastric GIST patients who underwent contrast-enhanced CT examination and surgical resection from hospital 1 were retrospectively analyzed as the training cohort, and 61 patients from hospitals 2 and 3 were included as the validation cohort. A model was established by logistic regression analysis and weighted to be a scoring model. A calibration test, area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC), and cutoff points were determined for the score model. The model was also divided into three score ranges for convenient clinical evaluation. Five CT features were included in the score model, including tumor size (4 points), ill-defined margin (6 points), intratumoral enlarged vessels (5 points), heterogeneous enhancement pattern (4 points), and exophytic or mixed growth pattern (2 points). Then, based on the calibration results, performance was merely assessed as very low and high* risk. The AUCs of the score model for very low risk and high* risk were 0.973 and 0.977, and the cutoff points were 3 points (97.30%, 93.81%) and 7 points (92.19%, 94.19%), respectively. In the validation cohort, the AUCs were 0.912 and 0.972, and the cutoff values were 3 points (92.31%, 85.42%) and 5 points (100%, 87.88%), respectively. The model was stratified into 3 ranges: 0-3 points for very low risk, 4-8 points for low risk, and 9-21 points for high* risk. A concise and practical score system for gastric GISTs risk stratification was proposed., Competing Interests: None., (AJCR Copyright © 2020.)

In China, the evaluation of hemocompatibility of biomaterials is limited to hemolysis, coagulation time,and the number and morphology of platelets adhered on biomaterials. The present research, however, is aimed to establish a method for evaluating the function of sheet biomaterials in platelet activation. Platelet activation caused by glass, polyvinyl chloride or polymethylvinylsiloxane sheets was evaluated by measuring alpha-granule membrane protein (GMP-140) in platelet poor plasma, using a reasonable blood-material contact model vibrating at different speed. The result showed that the difference in platelet activation was not significantly different among the three above-mentioned materials at 140r/m or 200r/m. However, when it comes to 230r/m, significant difference was observed among these three groups, with glass > polyvinyl chloride > polymethylvinylsiloxane. But the order was reversed at 270r/m, which may be due to the different interfacial tension of different materials. Therefore, the method is suitable to evaluate platelet activation caused by sheet biomaterials, but an appropriate vibrating speed should be chosen. The interfacial tension plays an important role in the model and should be considered for results assessment.