Purpose The purpose of our study is to evaluate the clinical results of anatomical reconstruction of the lateral ligaments with semitendinosus allograft. Methods Thirty-six patients with chronic lateral instability underwent anatomical reconstruction of the lateral ligaments of the ankle with semitendinosus allograft. The American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society Ankle-Hindfoot Scale score (AOFAS score) and the Karlsson score were used to evaluate the clinical results before and after surgery. Results A total of 35 patients (97.2 %) (36 ankles) were followed up for a mean of 37.9 months. The mean AOFAS score improved from 42.3±4.9 points preoperatively to 90.4± 6.7 postoperatively. The mean Karlsson score improved from 38.5±3.2 preoperatively to 90.1±7.8 postoperatively.Conclusions Anatomical reconstruction of the lateral ligaments with semitendinosus allograft achieves a satisfactory surgical outcome for chronic ankle instability.Ankle sprains are reported to be the most common sports injury and account for 10∼15 % of sports-related injuries [1][2][3]. Although the majority of the patients have successful results after conservative treatment, up to 20-40 % have mechanical instability requiring operative intervention [4,5].There are various operative procedures to treat chronic lateral ankle instability. If the patient has a weak remnant of the lateral ligament, generalised joint laxity or previous failed operation for lateral ankle instability, anatomical lateral ligament reconstruction is always suggested [6].Several kinds of graft are used for the anatomical ligament reconstruction. Compared to the autograft, an allograft has the advantages of no donor site morbidity, shorter operation time and less postoperative pain [7]. Furthermore, with the improvement of the sterilisation technique, some potential complications, for example, the potential for disease transmission, osteolytic reactions, etc., have been markedly decreased [7,8]. Up to now, there have been few reports about the use of allograft for lateral ankle ligament reconstruction. We use a semitendinosus allograft in lateral ankle ligament reconstruction and propose that anatomical reconstruction of the lateral ligaments with this allograft can achieve a satisfactory surgical outcome for chronic ankle instability.

In the pharmaceutical industry, new drugs are tested to find appropriate compounds for therapeutic purposes for contemporary diseases. Unfortunately, novel compounds emerge at expensive prices and current target evaluation processes have limited throughput, thus leading to an increase of cost and time for drug development. This work shows the development of the novel inkjet-based deposition method for assembling a miniature drug-screening platform, which can realistically and inexpensively evaluate biochemical reactions in a picoliter-scale volume at a high speed rate. As proof of concept, applying a modified Hewlett Packard model 5360 compact disc printer, green fluorescent protein expressing Escherichia coli cells along with alginate gel solution have been arrayed on a coverslip chip under a repeatable volume of 180% ± 26% picoliters per droplet; subsequently, different antibiotic droplets were patterned on the spots of cells to evaluate the inhibition of bacteria for antibiotic screening. The proposed platform was compared to the current screening process, validating its effectiveness. The viability and basic function of the printed cells were evaluated, resulting in cell viability above 98% and insignificant or no DNA damage to human kidney cells transfected. Based on the reduction of investment and compound volume used by this platform, this technique has the potential to improve the actual drug discovery process at its target evaluation stage.

This article reports a promising approach to enhance the oral delivery of nuciferine (NUC), improve its aqueous solubility and bioavailability, and allow its controlled release as well as inhibiting lipid accumulation. NUC-loaded poly lactic-co-glycolic acid nanoparticles (NUC-PLGANPs) were prepared according to a solid/oil/water (s/o/w) emulsion technique due to the waterinsolubility of NUC. PLGA exhibited excellent loading capacity for NUC with adjustable dosing ratios. The drug loading and encapsulation efficiency of optimized formulation were 8.89 ± 0.71 and 88.54 ± 7.08%, respectively. NUC-PLGA-NPs exhibited a spherical morphology with average size of 150.83 ± 5.72 nm and negative charge of À22.73 ± 1.63 mV, which are suitable for oral administration. A sustained NUC released from NUC-PLGA-NPs with an initial exponential release owing to the surface associated drug followed by a slower release of NUC, which was entrapped in the core. In addition, $77 ± 6.67% was released in simulating intestinal juice, while only about 45.95 ± 5.2% in simulating gastric juice. NUC-PLGA-NPs are more efficient against oleic acid (OA)-induced hepatic steatosis in HepG 2 cells when compared to naked NUC (n-NUC, *p50.05). The oral bioavailability of NUC-PLGA-NPs group was significantly higher (**p50.01) and a significantly decreased serum levels of total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG) and lowdensity lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), as well as a higher concentration of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) was observed, compared with that of n-NUC treated group. These findings suggest that NUC-PLGA-NPs hold great promise for sustained and controlled drug delivery with improved bioavailability to alleviating lipogenesis.