Category Health/Medical

The “Smart Scar-Care” pad designed by Professor Cecilia Li-Tsang in the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, PolyU, serves the dual functions of reinforcing pressure and occlusion. It can treat hypertrophic scars from burns, surgeries and trauma. Credit: Image courtesy of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

An innovative pad with dual functions of reinforcing pressure and occlusion has been designed by researchers to treat hypertrophic scars from burns, surgeries and trauma. It showed good performance in reducing pigmentation and vascularity, improving elasticity and preventing dehydration in a clinical trial. It is more durable and user-friendly compared with the traditional pad (polyethylene foam) as reported by the patients...

Photographs of hydrogel dressing in the original form (a) and with the addition of chitosan (132 kg mol−1, 0.5% (w/v)) dissolved in LA (b).

A new dressing, a type of compression held in place by a bandage, uses an antibacterial substance formed from the shells of crustaceans like shrimps. Antimicrobial resistance is becoming a worldwide health threat. A recent report by the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance warns that antimicrobial resistance could kill 10 million people each year by 2050, dwarfing even the number of estimated deaths from cancer. Because of this, preventing infection has never been more important.

The protective dressing was developed by Dr. Radoslaw Wach and his colleagues from Lodz University of Technology in Poland...

Takuro Iwata, Takashi Katagiri, Yuji Matsuura. Real-Time Analysis of Isoprene in Breath by Using Ultraviolet-Absorption Spectroscopy with a Hollow Optical Fiber Gas Cell. Sensors, 2016; 16 (12): 2058 DOI: 10.3390/s16122058

Affordable gas sensor setup developed by Tohoku University team monitors trace levels of health-indicating chemicals, paving the way for future non-invasive studies. Using hollow-core optical fibre as a sensitive gas cell, researchers in Japan have devised a relatively simple and affordable sensor for monitoring biomarkers in human breath at low concentrations. Trace amounts of gases exhaled through the nose and mouth offer clues to respiratory conditions such as asthma, as well as other easy-to-administer health screening opportunities.

Tohoku University scientists expl...

TDP1 promotes mitochondrial gene transcription in human cells.

A 5-yr study has found the mechanism responsible for repairing damage to mitochondrial DNA. This discovery could pave the way for new treatments for cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. This research may also have important implications for clinical advances in so called ‘three-parent baby’ mitochondrial donation. They also show how the enzyme TDP1- already known to have a role in repairing damaged DNA in the cell’s nucleus – is also responsible for repairing damage to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA).

During the process of energy production and making proteins, a large amount of rogue reactive oxygen species are produced which constantly attack the DNA in the mitochondria...