Università Campus Bio-Medico

About: Università Campus Bio-Medico is a education organization based out in Rome, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Medicine. The organization has 2829 authors who have published 8519 publications receiving 193689 citations. The organization is also known as: Universita Campus Bio-Medico & Campus Bio-Medico University.

MyD88/ERK/NFkB pathways and pro-inflammatory cytokines release in periodontal ligament stem cells stimulated by Porphyromonas gingivalis

Abstract: The present study was aimed at investigating whether human Periodontal Ligament Stem Cells (hPDLSCs) were capable of sensing and reacting to lipopolysaccharide from Porphyromonas gingivalis (LPS-G) which is widely recognized as a major pathogen in the development and progression of periodontitis. At this purpose hPDLCs were stimulated with 5 μg/mL LPS-G various times and the expression of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) was evaluated. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play an essential role in innate immune signaling in response to microbial infections, and in particular TLR4, type-I transmembrane proteins, has been shown recognizing LPS-G. Our results put in evidence, in treated samples, an overexpression of TLR4 indicating that, hPDLSCs express a functional TLR4 receptor. In addition, LPS-G challenge induces a significant cell growth decrease starting from 24 h until 72 h of treatment. LPS-G leads the activation of the TLR4/MyD88 complex, triggering the secretion of proinflammatory cytokines cascade as: IL-1α, IL-8, TNF-α and β and EOTAXIN. Moreover, the upregulation of pERK/ERK signaling pathways and NFkB nuclear translocation was evident. On the basis of these observations, we conclude that hPDLSCs could represent an appropriate stem cells niche modeling leading to understand and evaluate the biological mechanisms of periodontal stem cells in response to LPS-G, mimicking in vitro an inflammatory process occurring in vivo in periodontal disease.

A Simple Robotic System for Neurorehabilitation

Abstract: In the recent past, several researchers have shown that important variables in relearning motor skills and in changing the underlying neural architecture after stroke are the quantity, duration, content, and intensity of training sessions. Unfortunately, when traditional therapy is provided in a hospital or rehabilitation center, the patient is usually seen for few hours a week. Robot-mediated therapies could improve this situation but even if interesting results have been achieved by several groups, the use of robot-mediated therapy has not become very common in clinical practice. This is due to many different reasons (e.g., the "technophobia" of some clinicians, the need for more extensive clinical trials) but one of the more important is the cost and the complexity of these devices which make them difficult to be purchased and used in all the clinical centers. The aim of this work was to verify the possibility of improving motor recovery of hemiparetic subjects by using a simple mechatronic system. To achieve this goal, our system (named "MEchatronic system for MOtor recovery after Stroke" (MEMOS)) has been designed with the aim of using mainly "off-the-shelf products" with only few parts simply manufactured with standard technology, when commercial parts were not available. Moreover, the prototype has been developed taking into account the requirements related to the clinical applicability such as robustness and safety. The MEMOSsystem has been used during clinical trials with subjects affected by chronic hemiparesis (<6 months from the cerebrovascular accident). The results obtained during these experiments seem to showthat notwithstanding the simple mechatronic structure characterizing theMEMOSsystem, it is able to help chronic hemiparetics to reduce their level of impairment. Further clinical experiments with acute and chronic subjects will be carried out in order to confirm these preliminary findings. Moreover, experiments for tele-rehabilitation of patients will be also carried out.

A Systematic Review and Integration of Concept Analyses of Self-Care and Related Concepts.

Abstract: Purpose This systematic review identified, synthesized, and integrated concept analyses on self-care and related concepts. Design The guidelines for systematic literature reviews of the Joanna Briggs Institute were followed. Methods The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PubMed, PsycINFO, and EMBASE databases were searched for concept analyses published in the past 20 years. Findings A total of 26 concept analyses were identified that had been published on self-care, self-care agency, self-monitoring, self-management, self-management support, symptom management, and self-efficacy. Differences and commonalities in the examined literature were identified, and a model was delineated, explaining the relations among the various concepts from the nursing perspective. Conclusions The healthcare literature has broadly described self-care and related concepts; however, consensus on the definitions remains beyond our reach and should not be expected, due to the different perspectives and paradigms from which the concepts are interpreted. From a nursing perspective, self-care can be considered a broad concept encompassing the other concepts, which describe more specific individual levels of activities and processes. Clinical relevance Nurses are actively involved in disease management and self-management support as well as in promoting self-care in healthy and sick people. Referring to a model on self-care and related concepts could avoid misinterpretations in nursing practice, research, and policy.