361 results about "Organ function" patented technology

Stem cells, including mammalian, and particularly primate primordial stem cells (pPSCs) such as human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), hold great promise for restoring cell, tissue, and organ function. However, cultivation of stem cells, particularly undifferentiated hESCs, in serum-free, feeder-free, and conditioned-medium-free conditions remains crucial for large-scale, uniform production of pluripotent cells for cell-based therapies, as well as for controlling conditions for efficiently directing their lineage-specific differentiation. This instant invention is based on the discovery of the formulation of minimal essential components necessary for maintaining the long-term growth of pPSCs, particularly undifferentiated hESCs. Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), insulin, ascorbic acid, and laminin were identified to be both sufficient and necessary for maintaining hESCs in a healthy self-renewing undifferentiated state capable of both prolonged propagation and then directed differentiation. Having discerned these minimal molecular requirements, conditions that would permit the substitution of poorly-characterized and unspecified biological additives and substrates were derived and optimized with entirely defined constituents, providing a “biologics”-free (i.e., animal-, feeder-, serum-, and conditioned-medium-free) system for the efficient long-term cultivation of pPSCs, particularly pluripotent hESCs. Such culture systems allow the derivation and large-scale production of stem cells such as pPSCs, particularly pluripotent hESCs, in optimal yet well-defined biologics-free culture conditions from which they can be efficiently directed towards a lineage-specific differentiated fate in vitro, and thus are important, for instance, in connection with clinical applications based on stem cell therapy and in drug discovery processes.

Stem cells, including mammalian, and particularly primate primordial stem cells (pPSCs) such as human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), hold great promise for restoring cell, tissue, and organ function. However, cultivation of stem cells, particularly undifferentiated hESCs, in serum-free, feeder-free, and conditioned-medium-free conditions remains crucial for large-scale, uniform production of pluripotent cells for cell-based therapies, as well as for controlling conditions for efficiently directing their lineage-specific differentiation. This instant invention is based on the discovery of the formulation of minimal essential components necessary for maintaining the long-term growth of pPSCs, particularly undifferentiated hESCs. Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), insulin, ascorbic acid, and laminin were identified to be both sufficient and necessary for maintaining hESCs in a healthy self-renewing undifferentiated state capable of both prolonged propagation and then directed differentiation. Having discerned these minimal molecular requirements, conditions that would permit the substitution of poorly-characterized and unspecified biological additives and substrates were derived and optimized with entirely defined constituents, providing a “biologics”-free (i.e., animal-, feeder-, serum-, and conditioned-medium-free) system for the efficient long-term cultivation of pPSCs, particularly pluripotent hESCs. Such culture systems allow the derivation and large-scale production of stem cells such as pPSCs, particularly pluripotent hESCs, in optimal yet well-defined biologics-free culture conditions from which they can be efficiently directed towards a lineage-specific differentiated fate in vitro, and thus are important, for instance, in connection with clinical applications based on stem cell therapy and in drug discovery processes.

The present invention relates generally to medical measurement systems for evaluation of organ function and understanding symptom and pain mechanisms. This model takes into account a number of factors such as volume and properties of the fluid and the surrounding tissue. Particular emphasis is on a multifunctional probe that can provide a number of measurements including volume of refluxate in the esophagus and to what level it extents. The preferred embodiments of the invention relate to methods and apparatus for measuring luminal cross-sectional areas of internal organs such as blood vessels, the gastrointestinal tract, the urogenital tract and other hollow visceral organs and the volume of the flow through the organ. It can also be used to determine conductivity of the fluid in the lumen and thereby it can determine the parallel conductance of the wall and geometric and mechanical properties of the organ wall.

A family of minimally-invasive surgical (MIS) cardiac interventional tools with tactile feedback based upon cardiac mechanical data and physiologic parameters derived from sensors positioned upon the tools are configurable for optimal placement of an end-effector to provide acute cardiac resuscitation and / or remote cardiovascular intervention for a subject. A haptic interface (e.g., a haptic handle, haptic glove or a simulated haptic heart) provides a clinician with real, not virtual, interaction with the cardiovascular anatomy (including intrathoracic organs) of the subject to optimize end-effector placement. The MIS tools optionally include webbed blade portions for exploration of extracardiac or intrathoracic spaces. The blade portions are initially collapsed but expand into an array of finger-like projections that function as sensors, dilatation and / or dissection tools, pharmacological delivery tools, and / or electrodes for sensing, pacing and defibrillation, and / or as a manual, semi-automatic or fully automatic mechanical support system for cardiac resuscitation and / or for restoring intrathoracic organ function(s).

A compound and method for using the compound to reduce injury associated with ischemia and reperfusion of mammalian organs such as the heart. The compound, either Deltorphin A and / or Dermorphin H, may be administered as part of a preconditioning strategy which reduces the extent of injury and improves organ function following cessation and restoration of blood flow. The compound may be used in preparation for planned ischemia or in a prophylactic manner in anticipation of further ischemic events.

A medical device for monitoring physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of an organ, such as the urinary bladder. The medical device may include an elongate member having a proximal end and a distal end. The device may further include an end-effector assembly extending distally from the distal end of the elongate member. The end-effector assembly may also include a plurality of sensing elements for detecting abnormal organ function. Each of the plurality of sensing elements may include one or more of mechanical, visual, chemical, and biological sensors.

Apparatus, systems, and methods in which a catheter-based pump is used are disclosed. The catheter-based pump is placed within the inferior vena cava of a patient. The catheter-based pump has a variable obstructor, such as a balloon or some other artificial obstruction, which is sized and dimensioned to compartmentalize the inferior vena cava into an upstream region and a downstream region of the inferior vena cava. The catheter-based pump is configured to pump blood from the upstream region to a fluid line that discharges blood to a discharge location in the downstream region. Thus, a suitable pressure gradient across the organ is provided, which can benefit organ function.

The object of the present invention is to provide an image-analysis apparatus that is capable of correlating and understanding organ function and tubular structure. The image-analysis apparatus performs image analysis based on image data, and comprises: a function-map-creation device which creates a function map based on function data that shows the functions of an organ; and an overlay device which correlates and overlays tubular-structure data for the tubular structure of the organ onto the function map.

The invention belongs to the technology field of formula foodstuff with homology of medicine and food, and concretely relates to edible special meal for patients with tumor. Partial lump is formed by abnormal hyperplasia of cells of partial tissue under the effects of various tumorigenesis factors of body. The malignant tumor can destroy structure and function of tissue and organ, thereby inducing necrotic hemorrhage concurrent infection, and the patient finally may die due to exhaustion of organ function. The invention combines food material with homology of medicine and food as well as new resource foodstuff perfectly, and combines diet and health preserving organically, thereby using a plurality of probiotics creatively based on inherits of traditional Chinese medicine healing methods for conditioning and preventing and inhibiting tumor, and adjusting microecology balance in intestine and enhancing taste movement function; according to the characteristics of tumor, a plurality of natural and original medicine and food materials with homology are added, so the invention has unique advantages integrated with dietotherapy, prevention and conditioning three efficacies.

Methods for the treatment of acute renal failure, multi-organ failure, early dysfunction of kidney transplant, chronic renal failure, organ dysfunction, and wound healing are provided. The methods include delivering a therapeutic amount of hematopoietic stem cells, non-hematopoietic, mesenchymal stem cells, hemangioblasts, and pre-differentiated cells to a patient in need thereof.

Highly hydrophilic indole and benzoindole derivatives that absorb and fluoresce in the visible region of light are disclosed. These compounds are useful for physiological and organ function monitoring. Particularly, the molecules of the invention are useful for optical diagnosis of renal and cardiac diseases and for estimation of blood volume in vivo.

An exsanguinous metabolic support system for maintaining an organ or tissue at a near normal metabolic rate is disclosed. The system employs a warm perfusion solution capable of supporting the metabolism of the organ or tissue thereby preserving its functional integrity. The system also monitors parameters of the circulating perfusion solution, such as pH, temperature, osmolarity, flow rate, vascular pressure and partial pressure of respiratory gases, and regulates them to insure that the organ is maintained under near-physiologic conditions. Use of the system for long-term maintenance of organs for transplantation, for resuscitation and repair of organs having sustained warm ischemic damage, as a pharmaceutical delivery system and prognosticator of posttransplantation organ function is also disclosed.

The invention provides an early death risk assessment model establishing method and device based on ensemble learning. The method and device are used for assessing the death risk of an old multi-organfailure patient during hospitalization based on diagnosis and treatment data of the first day when the old multi-organ failure patient enters an intensive care unit. The method comprises the steps ofdata set construction, data processing and model construction and evaluation. The method comprises the following steps: acquiring three pieces of demographic information, five pieces of vital sign information, five laboratory examination indexes and two clinical indexes of a patient on the first day during living in an intensive care unit; inputting the data into a risk assessment device, and carrying out internal data preprocessing, feature calculation and model operation. Finally, the risk of adverse outcomes in the hospital of the patient can be predicted early, and doctors are helped to treat the patient as soon as possible.

The potential of a stem cell to differentiate into specialized cell types for restoring normal tissue / organ function has stimulated interest in stem cell research. The methods used to coax stem cells differentiate into specialized cells still remain in their infancy stages. The disclosed invention is the generation of mammalian or avian cell hybrids formed from fusing lineage committed somatic cells with nucleated stem cells or nucleated transit amplifying cells. The fusion of lineage committed somatic cells with nucleated stem cells, or nucleated transit amplifying cells as described herein facilitates stem cell differentiation and lineage commitment of hybrid cells and can be aided by inclusion of an encapsulation step. By the fusion of cells in this invention, this invention also provides for methods to restore damaged tissue or the expression of defective, dysfunctional, decreased, lost or not previously expressed bio-pharmaceutical products.

A method and system for estimating tissue parameters of a computational model of organ function and their uncertainty due to model assumptions, data noise and optimization limitations is disclosed. As applied to a cardiac use-case, a patient-specific anatomical heart model is generated from medical image data of a patient. A patient-specific computational heart model is generated based on the patient-specific anatomical heart model. Patient-specific parameters and corresponding uncertainty values are estimated for at least a subset of parameters of the patient-specific computational heart model. A surrogate model is estimated for a forward model of cardiac function, and the surrogate model is applied within Bayesian inference to estimate the posterior probability density function of the parameter space of the forward model. Cardiac function for the patient is simulated using the patient-specific computational heart model. The estimated parameters, their uncertainty, and the computed cardiac function are displayed to the user.

The present invention is methods and compositions for reducing and preventing the excess accumulation of extracellular matrix in a tissue and / or organ or at a wound site using a combination of agents that inhibit TGFβ, or using agents that inhibit TGFβ in combination with agents that degrade excess accumulated extracellular matrix. The compositions and methods of the invention are used to treat conditions such as fibrotic diseases and scarring that result from excess accumulation of extracellular matrix, impairing tissue or organ function or skin appearance in a subject.

Highly hydrophilic indole and benzoindole derivatives that absorb and fluoresce in the visible region of light are disclosed. These compounds are useful for physiological and organ function monitoring. Particularly, the molecules of the invention are useful for optical diagnosis of renal and cardiac diseases and for estimation of blood volume in vivo.

The invention relates to the technical field of Chinese medicament health products, in particular to a capsule with an effect of relieving physical fatigue. To solve the problems of long onset period and expensive price in the prior art, the invention provides a solution scheme that the capsule with the effect of relieving physical fatigue comprises the following raw materials in percentage by weight: 20 to 40 percent of ginkgo extract, 15 to 30 percent of American ginseng extract, 5 to 15 percent of medlar extract, 5 to 15 percent of radix astragali extract, 5 to 15 percent of Indian buead extract, and the balance of auxiliary materials. In the capsule, the traditional Chinese medicaments such as ginkgo, medlar, radix astragali, Indian buead and the like are mixed together with American ginseng to balance organ functions and nutrition, so the capsule obviously improves the anti-fatigue effect, and simultaneously has the advantages of quick response, reasonable price and simple preparation process.

The present invention relates to the unexpected finding that vessels smaller than even the smallest arteries (i.e. arterioles) thicken, become dysfunctional and cause end organ damage to tissues as diverse as the brain and the kidney. This invention provides a method to improve the structure and function of arterioles and preserve the function of end organs such as the brain and kidney. In certain embodiments, the methods involve administering to a human having thickened arterioles in brain, kidney or alveoli a peptide that ranges in length up to 30 amino acids, and that comprises a class A amphipathic helix, and bears at least one protecting group.

An exsanguinous metabolic support system for maintaining an organ or tissue at a near normal metabolic rate is disclosed that employs a warm perfusion solution capable of altering the production of nitric oxide (NO) in an organ or tissue and supporting the metabolism of the organ or tissue at normothermic temperatures. Perfusion with the solution of the invention, therefore, can be used to regulate nitric oxide production in situations where it is desirable to do so, for example, to prevent reperfusion injury. The system also monitors parameters of the circulating perfusion solution, such as pH, temperature, osmolarity, flow rate, vascular pressure and partial pressure of respiratory gases, and nitric oxide (NO) concentration and regulates them to insure that the organ is maintained under near-physiologic conditions. Use of the system for long-term maintenance of organs for transplantation, for resuscitation and repair of organs having sustained warm ischemic damage, to treat cardiovascular disorders, to prevent reperfusion injury, as a pharmaceutical delivery system and prognosticator of posttransplantation organ function is also disclosed.

This invention is of particular use to patients with Diabetes Mellitus. It uses alkyl analogs of the methyl pyruvate (MP) family to provide energy and improve insulin and glucose homeostasis via accelerated intracellular delivery of protons and ATP from each MP. The energy upregulates cellular cross talk and networking resulting in a surge of ATP enabling NADH (via glycolysis) that enables pancreatic islet cells to obtain increased ATP allowing excess insulin manufacture. This process improves cellular respiration and expedites protein, lipid and hormone manufacture. The increased energy also enables telomeres and delays Hayflick limit. Instead of cellular repair, silence, or apoptosis, energy is allocated for cell / organ function. This invention curbs inflammation and ROS by idealizing cellular respiration and diminishing hyperglycemia. In turn a reduction of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), lessened target RNA and nucleic acid toxins, i.e., diminished HbA1c occurs. By decreased drain of cellular energy, genomic function improves.

The present invention is TAH system for auto-regulating blood flow and maintaining the asymmetric pressure balance in the mammalian cardiovascular system by decreasing the resistance in blood flow and minimizing the pressure gradients to exploit the in-flow pressure sensitivities of continuous flow pumps. The system further includes laminar flow generating manifolds connected to the atrium at one end and attached to pumps linked to the great vessels at the other, such that the in-let flow sensitivities of the pumps are maximized to auto-regulate blood flow, providing adequate pulmonary and systemic arterial flow to support normal metabolism and end-organ function and maintain the appropriate asymmetric physiologic pressure balance between the systemic and pulmonary systems of the mammalian cardiovascular system.

A nanoporous silicon support comprising a plurality of macropores is provided to function as a bioreactor for the maintenance of cells in culture in a differentiated state. Each cell or group of cells is grown in an individual macropore and is provided with nutrients by means such as perfusion of the nanoporous silicon support with fluid. The macropores may be between 0.2 and 200 microns and be coated with a substance that promotes cell adhesion. The support containing cells may be used to used to test compounds for biological activity, metabolism, toxicity, mutagenicity, carcinogenicity or to characterize novel or unknown comounds. The supports are sufficiently robust that they may be assembled into larger reactors to simulate organ function or be used for the production of biomolecules.

A system, method and apparatus are disclosed for using a transcutaneous detection system to measure the quantity of a circulating organ activity detection analyte in the blood, and thereby assay the activity of an organ. A preferred organ for assay is the human liver and a preferred indicator is indocyanine green (ICG) dye The procedure is under the control of a monitor / controller having a visual display and capable of providing cues to the operator. A sensor array apparatus for use in conjunction with the system monitor / controller is configured for increased sensitivity of assaying organ function.

An exsanguinous metabolic support system for maintaining an organ or tissue at a near normal metabolic rate is disclosed. The system employs a warm perfusion solution capable of supporting the metabolism of the organ or tissue thereby preserving its functional integrity. The system also monitors parameters of the circulating perfusion solution, such as pH, temperature, osmolarity, flow rate, vascular pressure and partial pressure of respiratory gases, and regulates them to insure that the organ is maintained under near-physiologic conditions. Use of the system for long-term maintenance of organs for transplantation, for resuscitation and repair of organs having sustained warm ischemic damage, as a pharmaceutical delivery system and prognosticator of posttransplantation organ function is also disclosed.

The invention discloses a making method for loofah sponge cloth shoes. Making of the loofah sponge cloth shoes can be completed through the steps of early-stage preparation, cloth board making, sole making, sole smoking and upper sewing. The making method has the advantages that the loofah sponge cloth shoes can improve circulation capacity of blood of the feet, dispel pain in the feet, remove fatigue, kill bacteria on the feet, remove dermatophytosis, reduce breeding of bacteria, prevent foot diseases, prevent foot odor, simulate foot acupoints, achieve a massage effect, dredge the channel, improve the organ functions of the body and achieve a healthcare effect; besides, no chemical substance is adopted in the making process, and therefore the loofah sponge cloth shoes are ecological and environmentally friendly, will not harm the body, can protect the health of people and is good in ecology and healthcare effect and easy to popularize.

Apparatus, systems, and methods in which a catheter-based pump is used are disclosed. The catheter-based pump is placed within the inferior vena cava of a patient. The catheter-based pump has a variable obstructor, such as a balloon or some other artificial obstruction, which is sized and dimensioned to compartmentalize the inferior vena cava into an upstream region and a downstream region of the inferior vena cava. The catheter-based pump is configured to pump blood from the upstream region to a fluid line that discharges blood to a discharge location in the downstream region. Thus, a suitable pressure gradient across the organ is provided, which can benefit organ function.

Gene expression is measured in a sample of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) obtained from a subject and used to predict organ function recovery. A Function Recovery Potential (FRP) score is assigned to a sample that reflects the measured expression level of the genes identified herein in a direction associated with recovery from organ failure. Treatment of the subject with optimal medical management (OMM) and / or palliative care (PC) is advised when the FRP score is lower than the reference value, and referring the subject for treatment with therapies including—but not limited to—mechanical circulatory support (MCS) surgery, heart transplant (HTx) surgery, or other intervention for advanced heart failure is advised when the FRP score is greater than the reference value. A method for developing an FRP scoring algorithm that predicts a subject's ability to recover from medical intervention for organ failure is also described.

Methods and systems for monitoring an organ of interest within a patient use one or more sensors to obtain one or more signals indicative of one or more of blood being provided to the organ of interest, blood being received from the organ of interest, and blood present in the organ of interest. Changes in an amount of blood being provided to the organ of interest, an amount of blood being received from the organ of interest, and / or an amount of blood present in the organ of interest are monitored based on changes in the obtained signal(s). Such methods and systems can be used to detect dysfunction of the organ of interest or tumor growth in the organ of interest, but are not limited thereto.

The present invention encompasses a liquid bioartificial tissue for restoring tissue and organ function to an injured or damaged organ in a human subject. The liquid bioartificial tissue is injected into a target organ and can significantly restore organ function within two weeks. The invention also encompasses a cell culture medium comprising ascorbic acid (or other free-radical scavengers and / or anti-oxidants) that is used for pre-treating transplantable cells prior to organ transplantation. Pre-treatment with ascorbic acid increases transplanted cell viability and colonization by nearly fifty-fold compared with untreated cells. The invention is particularly useful for treating ischemic heart damage following myocardial infarction.