Critical role of SDF-1/CXCR4 signaling pathway in stem cell homing in the deafened rat cochlea after acoustic trauma

Previous animal studies have shown that stromal cell-derived factor-1 （SDF-1）/CXC chemokine receptor-4 （CXCR4） signaling pathway plays an important role in the targeted migration of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells （BMSCs） to the injured area. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the potential role of chemotactic SDF-1/CXCR4 signaling pathway in the homing of transplanted BMSCs to the injured cochlea after noise-induced hearing loss （NIHL） in a rat model. White noise exposure （110 dB） paradigm was used for hearing loss induction in male rats for 6 hours in 5 days. Distortion-product otoacoustic emission （DPOAE） responses were recorded before the experiment and post noise exposure.Hoechst 33342-labeled BMSCs and CXCR4 antagonist （AMD3100）-treated BMSCs were injected into the rat cochlea through the round window. SDF-1 protein expression in the cochlear tissue was assayed using western blot assay. The number of labeled BMSCs reaching the endolymph was determined after 24 hours.SDF-1 was significantly increased in the cochlear tissue of rats in the noise exposure group than in the control group. The number of Hoechst 33342-labeled BMSCs reaching the endolymph of the cochlea was significantly smaller in the AMD3100-treated BMSCs group than in the normal BMSCs group. Our present findings suggest that the SDF-1/CXCR4 signaling pathway has a critical role in BMSCs migration to the injured cochlea in a rat model of noise-induced hearing loss.

A predictive model of death from cerebrovascular diseases in intensive care units

Objective This study aimed to explore the mortality prediction of patients with cerebrovascular diseases inthe intensive care unit(ICU)by examining the important signals during different periods of admission in theICU,which is considered one of the new topics in the medical field.Several approaches have been proposed forprediction in this area.Each of these methods has been able to predict mortality somewhat,but many of thesetechniques require recording a large amount of data from the patients,where recording all data is not possiblein most cases;at the same time,this study focused only on heart rate variability(HRV)and systolic and diastolicblood pressure.Methods The ICU data used for the challenge were extracted from the Multiparameter Intelligent Monitoring inIntensive Care II(MIMIC-II)Clinical Database.The proposed algorithm was evaluated using data from 88 cerebrovascular ICU patients,48 men and 40 women,during their first 48 hours of ICU stay.The electrocardiogram(ECG)signals are related to lead II,and the sampling frequency is 125 Hz.The time of admission and time ofdeath are labeled in all data.In this study,the mortality prediction in patients with cerebral ischemia is evaluated using the features extracted from the return map generated by the signal of HRV and blood pressure.Topredict the patient’s future condition,the combination of features extracted from the return mapping generatedby the HRV signal,such as angle(𝛼),area(A),and various parameters generated by systolic and diastolic bloodpressure,including DBPMax−Min SBPSD have been used.Also,to select the best feature combination,the geneticalgorithm(GA)and mutual information(MI)methods were used.Paired sample t-test statistical analysis was usedto compare the results of two episodes(death and non-death episodes).The P-value for detecting the significancelevel was considered less than 0.005.Results The results indicate that the new approach presented in this paper can be compared with other methodsor leads to better results.The best combination of features based on GA to achieve maximum predictive accuracywas m(mean),L_(Mean),A,SBP_(SVMax),DBP_(Max-Min).The accuracy,specificity,and sensitivity based on the best featuresobtained from GA were 97.7%,98.9%,and 95.4%for cerebral ischemia disease with a prediction horizon of0.5–1 hour before death.The d-factor for the best feature combination based on the GA model is less than 1(d-factor=0.95).Also,the bracketed by 95 percent prediction uncertainty(95PPU)(%)was obtained at 98.6.Conclusion The combination of HRV and blood pressure signals might increase the accuracy of the predictionof the death episode and reduce the minimum hospitalization time of the patient with cerebrovascular diseasesto determine the future status.