(C) 2009 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.”
“Experience-dependent plasticity is closely linked with the development of sensory function; however, there is also growing evidence for plasticity in the adult visual system. This review re-examines the notion of a
sensitive period for the treatment of amblyopia in the XMU-MP-1 inhibitor light of recent experimental and clinical evidence for neural plasticity. One recently proposed method for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of treatment that has received considerable attention is ‘perceptual learning’. Specifically, both children and adults with amblyopia can improve their perceptual performance through extensive practice on a challenging visual task. The results suggest that perceptual learning may be effective in improving a range of visual performance and, importantly, NSC 19893 the improvements may transfer to visual acuity. Recent studies have sought to explore the limits and time course of perceptual learning as an adjunct to occlusion and to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the visual improvement. These findings, along with the results of new clinical trials, suggest that
it might be time to reconsider our notions about neural plasticity in amblyopia.”
“Aim: To evaluate factors that influence parental perception of diabetes mellitus risk for their child.
Method: Self-administered survey of parents in a managed care plan.
Results: Child overweight status, family history of type 2 diabetes, and accurate parental perception of their child’s overweight status were independent predictors of parental worry about diabetes and perception of greater diabetes risk for their child.
Conclusions: Accurate parental perception of their child’s weight status and a family history
of type 2 diabetes may serve as useful motivators in the clinical setting for diabetes prevention.”
“To address the significant clinical need for tissue-engineered Nirogacestat ic50 therapies for the repair and regeneration of articular cartilage, many systems have recently been developed using bioactive polymer microspheres as regulators of the chondrogenic microenvironment within high-density cell cultures. In this review, we highlight various densely cellular systems utilizing polymer microspheres as three-dimensional (3D) structural elements within developing engineered cartilage tissue, carriers for cell expansion and delivery, vehicles for spatiotemporally controlled growth factor delivery, and directors of cell behavior via regulation of cell-biomaterial interactions. The diverse systems described herein represent a shift from the more traditional tissue engineering approach of combining cells and growth factors within a biomaterial scaffold, to the design of modular systems that rely on the assembly of cells and bioactive polymer microspheres as building blocks to guide the creation of articular cartilage.