PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

UT Arlington researchers successfully test model for implant device reactions

2013-09-24
(Press-News.org) A team from The University of Texas at Arlington has used mathematical modeling to develop a computer simulation they hope will one day improve the treatment of dangerous reactions to medical implants such as stents, catheters and artificial joints.

The work resulted from a National Institutes of Health-funded collaboration by research groups headed by Liping Tang, professor of bioengineering in the

UT Arlington College of Engineering, and Jianzhong Su, chairman and professor in the UT Arlington College of Science's mathematics department. Results from their computational model of foreign-body reactions to implants were consistent with biological models in lab tests. A new paper describing the results has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Immunological Methods.

"Our efforts have transformed complex and dynamic biological interactions and pathways into a simplified mathematical formula," said Tang. "This model will allow us to improve the biocompatibility of medical devices and identify the timing and dosages of treatments when reactions occur."

Other co-authors on the study were Jichen Yang, a visiting scholar of mathematics at UT Arlington, Larrissa Owens, a PhD student and National Science Foundation GK-12 fellow in mathematics, and Akif Ibraguimov, professor in the department of mathematics and statistics at Texas Tech University.

Almost all medical implants cause some degree of foreign body reaction, which can cause severe inflammation and the formation of fibrotic capsules in surrounding tissue, according to the paper. These conditions can compromise the device's effectiveness. The reaction's severity is governed in large part by the behavior of microphages, cells that can rapidly change in response to signals from the body and its immune system.

The research team divided microphages into three types based on their functions. Then, they constructed a series of mathematical equations based on the kinetic characteristics of the microphages and fibroblasts, or connective tissue. Su said reviewing results available from wound healing, especially at the skin's surface, helped increase the accuracy of their calculations.

"Foreign body reactions are very complex, involving many cells, proteins and other biological elements. The experimental measurement data are really scarce to capture the entire process," Su said. "We overcome this difficulty by learning from what happens in wound healing, a similar biological process."

The cross-disciplinary collaboration between Su and Tang is the kind of effort necessary for far-reaching scientific advances, said Carolyn Cason, UT Arlington's vice president for research.

"Research universities such as UT Arlington are at their best when they bring together great thinkers and encourage them to reach outside their academic silos to solve scientific questions," Cason said.



INFORMATION:

The new paper is called: "A computational model of fibroblast and macrophage spatial/temporal dynamics in foreign body reactions." It is available online here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002217591300238X.

Su and Tang plan to continue their research by addressing some of the biological conditions unique in patients that could affect wound healing and foreign body interactions. Those calculations could make their model more reliable, they said. The University of Texas at Arlington is a comprehensive institution of more than 33,000 students and more than 2,200 faculty members in the heart of North Texas. It is the second largest institution in The University of Texas System. Visit http://www.uta.edu to learn more.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Economic rewards of better land management: Estimated 2.3 billion tons of crops worth $1.4 trillion

2013-09-24
Adopting proven sustainable land management practices could raise world crop supplies by an estimated 2.3 billion tonnes, worth $1.4 trillion, experts say in a study being released at a major global desertification conference. Conducted by the international Economics of Land Degradation initiative, the scientific interim report says land's economic value "is chronically undervalued and commonly determined by immediate agricultural or forestry market values." "This focus on short-term gain motivates the highest extraction rates possible from land, leading to unsustainable ...

JCI early table of contents for Sept. 24, 2013

2013-09-24
Hereditary spastic paraplegia development associated with changes in endoplasmic reticulum Hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSP) are a group of hereditary diseases that result in progressive loss of motor function in the lower limbs, and mutations in many different genes have been implicated in disease progression. One common feature of HSP is the progressive degradation of the axons of cortical motor neurons; however, it is not fully understood how mutations in is so many different genes result in axonal degradation. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, ...

Hereditary spastic paraplegia development associated with changes in endoplasmic reticulum

2013-09-24
Hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSP) are a group of hereditary diseases that result in progressive loss of motor function in the lower limbs, and mutations in many different genes have been implicated in disease progression. One common feature of HSP is the progressive degradation of the axons of cortical motor neurons; however, it is not fully understood how mutations in is so many different genes result in axonal degradation. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Christian Hübner and colleagues at Jena University develop a mouse model of HSP by introducing ...

Maintaining fluid and electrolyte balance in the kidney

2013-09-24
Distal renal tubular acidosis (dRTA) develops in response to the loss of acid secretion by α-intercalated cells in the kidney. The inability to remove acid from the body results in low blood potassium levels (hypokalemia), dehydration, and excess calcium in the urine (hypercalcemia), which leads to urinary stone formation. Recently, patients with dRTA have been identified with genetic mutations that lead to the inactivation of proton pumps found in β-intercalated cells, which have been thought to be responsible for base-secretion in the kidney. In this issue ...

Development of autoimmunity in patients with common variable immune deficiency

2013-09-24
Common variable immune deficiency (CVID) is a genetic disease associated with enhanced susceptibility to infection, autoimmunity, and decreased antibody production. Mutations in the tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily member TACI, are associated with CVID and autoimmunity development. Interestingly, autoimmunity develops in CVID patients with only one mutated copy of TACI, and CVID patients with two mutated TACI alleles do not develop autoimmunity. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Eric Meffre and colleagues at Yale University evaluated B ...

A link between zinc transport and diabetes

2013-09-24
Individuals with a mutation in the gene encoding a zinc transporter, SLC30A8 have an elevated risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Insulin granules that are released from pancreatic β cells contain high levels of zinc; however, it is not clear why individuals with mutations in the SLC30A8 zinc transporter gene are predisposed to type 2 diabetes. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Yoshio Fujitani and colleagues at Juntendo University investigated the role of zinc transport by SLC30A8 in β cells. They found that this zinc transporter is required ...

Northern moths may fare better under climate warming than expected

2013-09-24
Moths in northern Finland are less susceptible to rising temperatures than expected, suggesting high latitude moth populations around the world may be partly buffered from the effects of rapid climate warming, according to a new Dartmouth-Finnish study based on the most extensive analyses yet conducted of seasonal patterns in forest animals. The results are important because moths are a key food source for birds, bats and many other predators, and (in their caterpillar stage) are one of the planet's most abundant plant-eating animals and most voracious agricultural pests. ...

Researchers find no age-related differences in post-concussion symptoms

2013-09-24
Charlottesville, VA (September 24, 2013). Recent scientific findings have raised the fear that young athletes may fare worse after sustaining a sports-related concussion than older athletes. Researchers from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine compared symptoms associated with concussion in middle/high school–age athletes with those in college-age athletes to determine whether age-related differences exist. These researchers found no significant differences between the two age groups in the number or severity of sports-related concussion symptoms or in the amount of ...

Cheats of the bird world -- Cuckoo finches fool host parents

2013-09-24
Cuckoo finches that lay more than one egg in their victims' nests have a better chance of bamboozling host parents into fostering their parasitic young, a study has found. Dr Martin Stevens from the University of Exeter and Dr Claire Spottiswoode from the University of Cambridge, with Dr Jolyon Troscianko at the University of Exeter, demonstrated that when African cuckoo finch females lay more than one egg in the same nest of their African tawny-flanked prinia hosts, the foster parents find it harder to tell their own eggs from the imposter's. The host is therefore ...

Counting on neodymium

2013-09-24
This news release is available in German. Jülich, 24 September 2013 – Magnetic molecules are regarded as promising functional units for the future of information processing. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Jülich and Aachen were the first to produce particularly robust magnetic molecules that enable a direct electrical readout of magnetic information. This was made possible by selecting the rare earth metal neodymium as the central building block of the molecule. The team's research findings were published online today in the renowned journal Nature ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Corpse flowers are threatened by spotty recordkeeping

Riding the AI wave toward rapid, precise ocean simulations

Are lifetimes of big appliances really shrinking?

Pink skies

Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research

Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered

% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?

An app can change how you see yourself at work

NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals

New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China

Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds

Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes

Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others

Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke

Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition

Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

Alcohol makes male flies sexy

TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income

Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression

Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring

Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs

AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders

First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes

Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows

Pinning down the process of West Nile virus transmission

[Press-News.org] UT Arlington researchers successfully test model for implant device reactions