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Anastomotic leakage is a severe complication in gastrointestinal surgery. It is often a reason for reoperation together with intestinal passage blockage due to formation of peritoneal adhesions. Different materials as local prevention of these complications have been studied, none of which are nowadays routinely used in clinical practice. Nanofabrics created proved to promote healing with their structure similar to extracellular matrix. We decided to study their impact on anastomotic healing and formation of peritoneal adhesions. We performed an experiment on 24 piglets. We constructed 3 hand sutured end-to-end anastomoses on the small intestine of each pig. We covered the anastomoses with a sheet of polycaprolactone nanomaterial in the first experimental group, with a sheet of copolymer of polylactic acid with polycaprolactone in the second one and no fortifying material was used in the Control group. The animals were sacrificed after 3 weeks of observation. Clinical, biochemical and macroscopic signs of anastomotic leakage or intestinal obstruction were monitored, the quality of the scar tissue was assessed histologically, and a newly developed scoring system was employed to evaluate the presence of adhesions. The material is easy to manipulate with. There was no mortality or major morbidity in our groups. No statistical difference was found inbetween the groups in the matter of level of peritoneal adhesions or the quality of the anastomoses. We created a new adhesion scoring system. The material appears to be safe however needs to be studied further to prove itsʹ positive effects.

In 2019, the EPMA celebrated its 10th anniversary at the 5th World Congress in Pilsen, Czech Republic. The history of the International Professional Network dedicated to Predictive, Preventive and Personalised Medicine (PPPM / 3PM) is rich in achievements. Facing the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic it is getting evident globally that the predictive approach, targeted prevention and personalisation of medical services is the optimal paradigm in healthcare demonstrating the high potential to save lives and to benefit the society as a whole. The EPMA World Congress Supplement 2020 highlights advances in 3P medicine.

Although colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most frequent cause of cancer related death in Europe, clinically relevant biomarkers for therapy guidance and prognosis are insufficiently reliable. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are RNAs over 200 nucleotides long that are not translated into proteins but can influence biological processes. There is emerging evidence for their involvement in solid cancer as oncogenes, tumour suppressors or regulators of cell proliferation and metastasis development. The goal of this study was to evaluate the prognostic effect of selected lncRNAs in a retrospective study on CRC patients from the Czech Republic. We used a quantitative PCR approach to measure the expression in paired non-malignant and tumour tissue samples of CRC patients of nine lncRNAs previously shown to be involved in cancer progression—ANRIL, CCAT1, GAS5, linc-ROR, MALAT1, MIR155HG, PCAT1, SPRY4-IT1 and TUG1. Associations between expression and expression ratios and clinical characteristics and survival were assessed by using univariable Cox proportional hazards models, Kaplan-Meier estimations with the Gehan-Wilcoxon test, the Mann-Whitney U test, the Kruskal-Wallis test and Spearman’s correlations. A comparison of expression in tumour tissue (TT) and non-malignant mucosa tissue (MT) showed significant upregulation of CCAT1 and linc-ROR in TT (p < 0.001 and p = 0.001, respectively) and downregulation of ANRIL, MIR155HG and MALAT1 (p = 0.001, p = 0.010, p = 0.001, respectively). Linc-ROR was significantly associated with the presence of synchronous metastases (p = 0.033). For individual tissue types, lower MIR155HG expression in TT was correlated with both shorter overall survival (p = 0.008) and shorter disease-free survival (p = 0.040). In MT, expression ratios of CCAT1/ANRIL and CCAT1/MIR155HG were associated with overall survival (p = 0.005 and p = 0.006, respectively). Our results revealed that changes in expression of lncRNAs between MT and TT hold potential to be used as prognostic biomarkers in CRC patients. Moreover, the ratios of CCAT1 to ANRIL and MIR155HG in MT also exhibit potential for prognosis assessment without tumour sampling. Our results also indicate that cancer progression is associated with detrimental system-wide changes in patient tissue, which might govern patient survival even after successful elimination of tumour or cancerous cells.

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Millions of patients every year undergo gastrointestinal surgery. While often lifesaving, sutured and stapled reconnections leak in around 10% of cases. Currently, surgeons rely on the monitoring of surrogate markers and clinical symptoms, which often lack sensitivity and specificity, hence only offering late-stage detection of fully developed leaks. Here, we present a holistic solution in the form of a modular, intelligent suture support sealant patch capable of containing and detecting leaks early. The pH and/or enzyme-responsive triggerable sensing elements can be read out by point-of-need ultrasound imaging. We demonstrate reliable detection of the breaching of sutures, in as little as 3 hours in intestinal leak scenarios and 15 minutes in gastric leak conditions. This technology paves the way for next-generation suture support materials that seal and offer disambiguation in cases of anastomotic leaks based on point-of-need monitoring, without reliance on complex electronics or bulky (bio)electronic implantables.

Decellularized scaffolds can serve as an excellent three-dimensional environment for cell repopulation. They maintain tissue-specific microarchitecture of extracellular matrix proteins with important spatial cues for cell adhesion, migration, growth, and differentiation. However, criteria for quality assessment of the three-dimensional structure of decellularized scaffolds are rather fragmented, usually study-specific, and mostly semi-quantitative. Thus, we aimed to develop a robust structural assessment system for decellularized porcine liver scaffolds. Five scaffolds of different quality were used to establish the new evaluation system. We combined conventional semi-quantitative scoring criteria with a quantitative scaffold evaluation based on automated image analysis. For the quantitation, we developed a specific open source software tool (ScaffAn) applying algorithms designed for texture analysis, segmentation, and skeletonization. ScaffAn calculates selected parameters characterizing structural features of porcine liver scaffolds such as the sinusoidal network. After evaluating individual scaffolds, the total scores predicted scaffold interaction with cells in terms of cell adhesion. Higher scores corresponded to higher numbers of cells attached to the scaffolds. Moreover, our analysis revealed that the conventional system could not identify fine differences between good quality scaffolds while the additional use of ScaffAn allowed discrimination. This led us to the conclusion that only using the combined score resulted in the best discrimination between different quality scaffolds. Overall, our newly defined evaluation system has the potential to select the liver scaffolds most suitable for recellularization, and can represent a step toward better success in liver tissue engineering.

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