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Objective: The aim of this paper is to study the inclusion of Informatics and Health Informatics subjects in the health sciences departments' curricula of higher education in Greece. Its main purpose is to determine the level of health informatics knowledge, dexterities and skills that these departments provide for their graduates. Method: Informatics and Health Informatics subjects were recorded from the departments' curricula available on their official Web sites. Afterwards, these subjects were categorised based on the description of the objectives, the content and the syllabus of each department and on the Goals of Informatics Education identified by the American Medical Informatics Association. Results: Our research indicated that most of the subjects mainly focus on introductory concepts and applications rather than on advanced issues of informatics, resulting, mostly, in producing Information Technology users rather than Health/Medical Informatics specialists. Conclusion: The study presented in this paper points out the imperative need of health educational programs of higher education in Greece to adjust their curricula to the current educational requirements in order to provide their graduates with the necessary knowledge in health information technologies.

Objective: To systematically investigate the modular structure of the chondrocyte proteome organisation in healthy and osteoarthritic (OA) cartilage. Design:We implemented a systems approach by making use of the statistical network concepts in Weighted Gene Co-expression Analysis to reconstruct the organisation of the core proteome network in chondrocytes obtained from OA patients and healthy individuals. Protein modules reflect groups of tightly co-ordinated changes in protein abundance across healthy and OA chondrocytes. Results:The unbiased systems analysis identified extracellular matrix (ECM) mechanosensing and glycolysis as two modules that are most highly correlated with the disease. The ECM module was enriched in the OA genetic risk factors tenascin-C (TNC) and collagen 11A1 (COL11A1), as well as in cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), a biomarker associated with cartilage integrity. Mapping proteins that are unique to OA or healthy chondrocytes onto the core interactome of ECM-mechanosensing-glycolysis identified differences in metabolic and anti-inflammatory adaptation. Conclusion:The interconnection between ECM remodeling and metabolism is indicative of the dynamic chondrocyte states and their significance in osteoarthritis.

Although MSCs grant pronounced potential for cell therapies, several factors, such as their heterogeneity restrict their use. To overcome these limitations, iMSCs (MSCs derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have attracted attention. Here, we analyzed the transcriptome of MSCs, iPSCs and iMSCs derived from healthy individuals and osteoarthritis (OA) patients and explored miRNA-mRNA interactions during these transitions. We performed RNA-seq and gene expression comparisons and Protein-Protein-Interaction analysis followed by GO enrichment and KEGG pathway analyses. MicroRNAs’ (miRNA) expression profile using miRarrays and differentially expressed miRNA’s impact on regulating iMSCs gene expression was also explored. Our analyses revealed that iMSCs derivation from iPSCs favors the expression of genes conferring high proliferation, differentiation, and migration properties, all of which contribute to a rejuvenated state of iMSCs compared to primary MSCs. Additionally, our exploration of the involvement of miRNAs in this rejuvenated iMSCs transcriptome concluded in twenty-six miRNAs that, as our analysis showed, are implicated in pluripotency. Notably, the identified here interactions between hsa-let7b/i, hsa-miR-221/222-3p, hsa-miR-302c, hsa-miR-181a, hsa-miR-331 with target genes HMGA2, IGF2BP3, STARD4, and APOL6 could prove to be the necessary tools that will convey iMSCs into the ideal mean for cell therapy in osteoarthritis.