Objectives. This study aimed to describe baseline and follow-up prevalence and intensity of soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections, nutritional status and school performance of school-age children in Cebu City. By measuring these parameters, it also aimed to monitor the progress of a local government unit-led, school-based, schoolteacher-assisted deworming initiative. Methods. Grade three and grade four pupils from two selected school districts in Cebu City were chosen as participants. Kato-Katz technique was used to assess helminth infections. All positive slides and 10% of all negative slides were re-examined blindly by a reference microscopist for quality control. Secondary anthropometric and school performance data were also obtained from the Department of Education. Results. Baseline results showed cumulative prevalence and prevalence of heavy intensity infection of 73.1% and 44.3%, respectively, which were significantly lower during follow-up at 56.5% (p < 0.0001) and 26.5% (p < 0.0001), respectively. School performance improved in District B, with an 8.8% increase in mean percentage score from baseline to follow-up. There was no marked difference between baseline and follow-up proportions of pupils with below normal weight-for-age and height-for-age. Conclusions. The positive results merit continuation of the school-based STH control initiative in Cebu City. Improvements in water supply and sanitation, promotion of good hygiene and health education are important in minimizing risks of infection and re-infection.
Human ; Male ; Female ; Child ; INTESTINAL HELMINTHIASIS ; ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC HEALTH ; PUBLIC HEALTH ; SANITATION ; SANITARY ENGINEERING ; WATER SUPPLY

It is no doubt that the gene therapy using recombinant engineering cells provides a novel approach to many refractory diseases. However, the transplant rejection from the host's immune system against heterogeneous cells has been the main handicap of its clinical application. The modern cell micro-encapsulation technique with good immune isolation makes it possible to overcome this problem and has shown potential application foreground in clinical therapies for a lot of diseases such as Parkinson's disease and Hemophiliac disease. This article reviews mainly the relative materials and techniques in processing micro-encapsulation, the host cells used to construct the recombinant genetic engineering cells and application of cell micro-encapsulation technique in the field of gene therapy.
Biomedical Engineering ; methods ; trends ; Cell Transplantation ; methods ; trends ; Genetic Therapy ; trends ; Humans ; Miniaturization ; Tissue Engineering ; methods ; trends

In this review, we focused on a few obstacles that hinder three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting process in tissue engineering. One of the obstacles is the bioinks used to deliver cells. Hydrogels are the most widely used bioink materials; however, they aremechanically weak in nature and cannot meet the requirements for supporting structures, especially when the tissues, such as cartilage, require extracellular matrix to be mechanically strong. Secondly and more importantly, tissue regeneration is not only about building all the components in a way that mimics the structures of living tissues, but also about how to make the constructs function normally in the long term. One of the key issues is sufficient nutrient and oxygen supply to the engineered living constructs. The other is to coordinate the interplays between cells, bioactive agents and extracellular matrix in a natural way. This article reviews the approaches to improve the mechanical strength of hydrogels and their suitability for 3D bioprinting; moreover, the key issues of multiple cell lines coprinting with multiple growth factors, vascularization within engineered living constructs etc. were also reviewed.
Animals ; Bioprinting ; Cell Line ; Humans ; Hydrogels ; Nanoparticles ; Tissue Engineering

Nitrate - was an indicator on sanitary quality for drinking water. Basing on foreign documents and results in the own country researches, this paper introduced some discussions on the concentration of nitrate in drinking water as a sanitary standard.
Sanitary Engineering ; water ; Nitrates

Biohybrid artificial organs encompass all devices capable of substituting for an organ or tissue function and are fabricated from both synthetic materials and living cells. The viability of engineered tissue could be related to the viability of implanted cells. The system of viability assay for mammalian cell culture can be applied to the determination of cell viability for engineered tissue. This review explores various methods of cell viability assay which can be applied to the viability evaluation of engineered tissue. The major criteria employed in viability assays include survival and growth in tissue culture, functional assay, metabolite incorporation, structural altercation, and membrane integrity. Each viability assay method is based on different definitions of cell viability, and has inherent advantages and disadvantages. In order to be able to assess the viability of cells with one assay method, it is desirable to compare the viability measurements from various assays derived from different criteria.
Animal ; Biomedical Engineering*/methods ; Cell Division ; Cell Survival ; Human

No abstract available.
Tissue Engineering

No abstract available.
Tissue Engineering*

Tendon is a dense connective tissue that connects muscle to bone. Tendon can adapt to mechanical forces passing across it, through a reciprocal relationship between its cellular components (tenocytes and tenoblasts) and the extracellular matrix (ECM). In early development, the formation of scleraxis-expressing tendon progenitor population in the sclerotome is induced by a fibroblast growth factor signal secreted by the myotome. Tendon injury has been defined as a loss of cells or ECM caused by trauma. It represents a failure of cells and matrix adaptation to mechanical loading. Injury initiates attempts of tendon to repair itself, which has been defined as replacement of damaged or lost cells and ECM by new cells or new matrices. Tendon healing generally consists of four different phases: the inflammatory, proliferation, differentiation and remodelling phases. Clinically, tendons are repaired with a variety of surgical techniques, which show various degrees of success. In order to improve the conventional tendon repair methods, current tendon tissue engineering aims to investigate a repair method which can restore tissue defects with living cells, or cell based therapy. Advances in tissue engineering techniques would potentially yield to a cell-based product that could regenerate functional tendon tissue.
Tissue Engineering

Engineering efficient enzymes or microbial cell factories should help to establish green bio-manufacturing process for chemical overproduction. The rapid advances and development in synthetic biology, systems biology and enzymatic engineering accerleate the establishing feasbile bioprocess for chemical biosynthesis, including expanding the chemical kingdom and improving the productivity. To consolidate the latest advances in chemical biosynthesis and promote green bio-manufaturing, we organized a special issue on chemical bioproduction that including review or original research papers about enzymatic biosynthesis, cell factory, one-carbon based biorefinery and feasible strategies. These papers comprehensively discussed the latest advaces, the challenges as well as the possible solutions in chemical biomanufacturing.
Synthetic Biology ; Carbon ; Metabolic Engineering

Ligament tissue engineering is currently a novel approach to the treatment of ligament injury, which can replace the deficiency of autografts. Ligament tissue engineering consists of four basic elements:seed cells, nanoscaffolds, growth factors, and mechanical stimulation. At present, the main problem in ligament tissue engineering is how to control seed cells to ligament cells more controllly. The study found that each physical property of the natural bio ligament and mechanical stimulation (uniaxial stretching) plays an important role in the differentiation of stem cells into ligament cells. Therefore, the design of nanofiber scaffolds must consider the elastic modulus of the material and the material. Structure(material arrangement, porosity and diameter, etc.), elastic modulus and material structure in different ranges will guide cells to differentiate into different lineages. Considering that the ligament is the main force-bearing tissue of the human body, mechanical stimulation is also essential for stem cell differentiation, especially uniaxial stretching, which best meets the stress of the ligament in the body. A large number of studies have found the frequency and amplitude of stretching. And time will also lead the cells to differentiate in different directions. RhoA/ROCK plays a regulatory role in cytoskeletal remodeling and cell differentiation. It is also found that RhoA/ROCK protein participates in the process of nanofiber arrangement and uniaxial stretching to guide stem cells to differentiate into ligament cells, specifically how to influence stem cell differentiation. It is not clear at present that understanding the effects of physical properties on stem cell differentiation and understanding the mechanism of action of RhoA/ROCK protein will provide a new theoretical basis for further optimization of ligament tissue engineering.
Cell Differentiation ; Environment ; Humans ; Ligaments ; Research ; Tissue Engineering ; Tissue Scaffolds