Type H endothelial cells (CD31 hiEMCN hi), a special subtype of vascular endothelial cells, are distributed mainly in endosteum and long bone metaphysis. They recruit and activate osteoprogenitor cells and promote endochondral ossification through paracrine, thereby promoting osteogenesis. On the contrary, their biological activities can be regulated by osteoclasts and osteoblasts. At the same time, the mutual regulation of type H endothelial cells is also closely related to the process of angiogenesis and osteogenesis. This article reviews the characteristics and cytokine expression profiles and the mediating role in mutual regulation of angiogenesis and osteogenesis of the cells, offering an insight for establishment of a bone regeneration strategy based on the coupling of angiogenesis and osteogenesis.

The process of bone healing is absolutely complicated and affected by a wide variety of factors. The quality of bone healing directly determines management approaches. Therefore, it is crucial to evaluate accurately outcomes of bone healing. The assessments of bone healing mostly used in current clinical practice are a combination of clinical manifestations and X-ray examination while computed tomography (CT) and ultrasound may be applied alternatively for particular parts and populations. As understanding of bone healing process and bone biomechanical structure is deepening in recent years, both traditional and novel assessments of bone healing have been well refined. This review will expound on the advantages, disadvantages and clinical indications of various assessments, as well as their future development trends, to provide useful information for clinicians.

Objective:To investigate the clinical effects and indications of tibial condylar valgus osteotomy (TCVO) in treating varus unicompartmental knee osteoarthritis.Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted in 32 patients (45 knees) who suffered from varus unicompartmental knee osteoarthritis and underwent TCVO from June 2016 to June 2018. These patients were aged 65.8±8.3 (range from 52 to 79) years, including 12 males (18 knees) and 20 females (27 knees). All enrolled individuals presented obvious expansion of the lateral joint space with joint line convergence angle (JLCA) of 7.19°±2.69°. Based on the full-length standing X-ray imaging of the lower limbs at before and 2 years after surgery, the percentage of mechanical axis (%MA), femorotibial angle (FTA), hip-knee-ankle angle (HKA), lateral distal femoral angle (LDFA) and medial proximal tibial angle (MPTA) were measured and analyzed to evaluate the improvements of lower extremity alignments. The medial tibial plateau depression (MTPD), posterior proximal tibial angle (PPTA), JLCA and joint space width (JSW) were measured and analyzed to evaluate the congruency of the knee joint and shape of the tibial plateau based on positive and lateral radiographs of knee joint. In addition, visual analogue scale (VAS) and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities (WOMAC) score were evaluated to assess the clinical effects of TCVO pre-operatively and at 1 year or 2 years after surgery.Results:All patients were followed up for 33.4±7.4 (range from 25 to 40) months. Comparing to the preoperative radiological data, %MA at 2 years after surgery increased from 3.78%± 14.34% to 66.16%±9.90%, FTA from 185.41°±4.45° to 170.81°±2.87°, HKA from 169.69°±1.70° to 181.16°±2.39°, MPTA from 83.03°±3.20° to 90.84°±3.67° all with statistical significance ( P<0.05). There was no significant difference for PPTA between before (89.22°±1.52°) and 2 years (88.97°±1.57°) after surgery ( t=0.638, P=0.526). MTPD improved from -7.81°±3.27° to 5.78°±2.19° ( t=19.218, P<0.001). However, there was no significant difference for PPTA between before (81.63°±3.28°) and 2 years (82.25°± 2.21°) after surgery ( t=0.881, P=0.382). JLCA reduced from 7.19°±2.69° to 0.22°±2.09°. The medial and lateral JSW were corrected from 2.45±0.23 mm and 5.86±0.25 mm to 3.73±0.27 mm and 4.68±0.34 mm ( P<0.05), respectively. Additionally, VAS and WOMAC scores improved from 6.46±2.21 and 52.66±16.69 preoperatively to 2.94±1.72 and 19.31±14.87 at 1 year after surgery, and to 1.39±1.45 and 13.66±15.44 at 2 years after surgery, respectively ( P<0.05). Conclusion:Satisfactory early therapeutic outcomes could be achieved by TCVO in varus unicompartmental knee osteoarthritis with subluxated lateral joint and increased JLCA. TCVO can correct intra-articular varus deformity, adjust mechanical axis and relieve knee joint pain and dysfunction.

Cognition and pain share common neural substrates and interact reciprocally: chronic pain compromises cognitive performance, whereas cognitive processes modulate pain perception. In the present study, we established a non-drug-dependent rat model of context-based analgesia, where two different contexts (dark and bright) were matched with a high (52°C) or low (48°C) temperature in the hot-plate test during training. Before and after training, we set the temperature to the high level in both contexts. Rats showed longer paw licking latencies in trials with the context originally matched to a low temperature than those to a high temperature, indicating successful establishment of a context-based analgesic effect in rats. This effect was blocked by intraperitoneal injection of naloxone (an opioid receptor antagonist) before the probe. The context-based analgesic effect also disappeared after optogenetic activation or inhibition of the bilateral infralimbic or prelimbic sub-region of the prefrontal cortex. In brief, we established a context-based, non-drug dependent, placebo-like analgesia model in the rat. This model provides a new and useful tool for investigating the cognitive modulation of pain.
Action Potentials ; drug effects ; physiology ; Analgesics ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Animals ; Disease Models, Animal ; Electric Stimulation ; Female ; In Vitro Techniques ; Naloxone ; pharmacology ; Narcotic Antagonists ; pharmacology ; Optogenetics ; Pain ; drug therapy ; pathology ; physiopathology ; Pain Measurement ; drug effects ; Pain Threshold ; drug effects ; physiology ; Patch-Clamp Techniques ; Physical Stimulation ; Prefrontal Cortex ; drug effects ; metabolism ; pathology ; Pyramidal Cells ; drug effects ; physiology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Time Factors