A recently identified broiler myopathy known as wooden breast (WB) is predominantly found in the pectoralis major muscle of fast-growing broiler hybrids and is causing significant losses to the poultry industry. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of WB syndrome on raw meat texture, purge loss and thermal properties of intramuscular connective tissue of pectoralis major muscle in the early post-mortem period. Results showed that WB muscles at 1d postmortem was associated with significantly increased stiffness and significantly increased purge loss compared to normal muscles (NB). However, at 3d postmortem, these parameters did not differ between the two groups. Insoluble and total collagen content was significantly higher in WB muscles compared to NB muscles, and the extractability of intramuscular connective tissue (IMCT) was also higher and remained stable in the early postmortem period. These were coincided with significantly lower protein content in the sarcoplasmic protein fraction and myofibrillar protein fraction of WB muscles compared to NB muscles (P < 0.05). The IMCT of these two groups showed different thermal properties, as the enthalpy of denaturation (ΔH) was significantly lower in WB muscles compared to NB muscles. The WB syndrome had a great effect on the texture and connective tissue properties of the meat compared to normal muscle, with a tendency for having a lower water holding capacity and higher raw meat hardness

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a severe vascular complication of connective tissue diseases (CTD). Patients with CTD may develop PH belonging to different groups: 1) pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), 2) PH secondary to lung disease and/or hypoxia, 3) PH due to left heart disease, and 4) chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). PAH most often develops in systemic scleroderma (SSc), mostly in its limited variant. PAH-CTD is a progressive disease characterized by poor prognosis, therefore the early diagnosis should be established A specific treatment for PAH-CTD is currently available and recommended: prostacyclin derivative (treprostinil, epoprostenol, iloprost, selexipag), nitric oxide and natriuretic pathway: stimulators of soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC: riociguat) and phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitors (PDE5i: sildenafil, tadalafil), endothelin receptor antagonists (ERA: bosentan, macitentan, ambrisentan). Moreover, novel drugs e.g. sotatercept are intensively investigated in the clinical trials. The aim of this paper is to review the literature on the recent advances in treatment strategy and prognosis of patients with PAH-CTD.

Objectives (Purpose) This study aims to evaluate the outcomes of the Subcrestally Placed Implant (SPI) technique in single molar cases, focusing on biological stability and aesthetics. It proposes a schematic model to elucidate the interplay between the biological stability of soft tissues and bone around the SPI and the morphological requisites that Implant Abutment Prostheses (IAP) must fulfill to effectively replace natural teeth. Materials and methods I examined 20 cases using the SPI technique with Internal Platform Switching (IPS) design implants for single molar replacements to assess their stability. Routine check-ups utilized plain panoramic X-rays to measure changes in crestal bone on the mesial and distal sides. Additionally, 10 cases with CBCT X-rays taken more than one year after the initial surgery underwent a novel 3-dimensional soft tissue analysis (3DSTA). Measurements included placement depths (PD), soft tissue thickness (STT) at central (cPD, cSTT) and peripheral areas (pPD, pSTT), the length of the Transitional Zone (TZ) on mesial, distal, facial, and lingual aspects, and crestal bone thickness (CBT) at buccal and lingual sites. Results Panoramic analyses showed minimal changes in crestal bone (mean changes of pPD were less than 0.1 mm) over an average period of 3.3 years. Average measurements were as follows: cPD was 1.7 mm, pPD was 2.7 mm, cSTT was 0.2 mm, pSTT was 0.6 mm, TZ length was 3.8 mm, buccal CBT was 3.0 mm, and lingual CBT was 3.7 mm. Conclusions CBCT analyses of the topographical relationships between soft tissue and crestal bone with IAP for SPIs demonstrated stable results over an average 3-year period. The consistency in the relationship between crestal bone and surrounding soft tissue can be ascribed to biological structural integrity. The study classified peri-implant soft tissues into subcrestal and supracrestal (transitional zone – TZ) segments, exploring their characteristics through dimensional measurements and assessing mechanical resistance. Further histological study is needed to identify specific features of each segment.

Symptoms attributed to the gastrointestinal manifestations of multi-system disorders play an important role in the long-term management of these conditions. Gastrointestinal complications of a variety of connective tissue disorders have been studied and there is an increased interest in the incidence and prevalence of these symptoms. Descriptions of the occurrence of gastrointestinal complications in Marfan syndrome have appeared infrequently in the medical literature. In this review article we focus on both structural and functional gastrointestinal pathology that may occur in patients with Marfan syndrome.

Objective: Aims to investigate the effects of empagliflozin (EMPA), a sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor, on renal fibrosis in male diabetic Sprague-Dawley (SD) rat model. Methods: Streptozotocin(STZ) were injected to establish diabetes model, EMPA (10 mg/kg·d) or normal saline (NS) were administered for four weeks. The changes in renal fibrosis-related biomarkers, include vimentin (VIM), collagen types I(Col-I), collagen types III(Col-III), fibroblast-specific protein 1(FSP-1), connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), fibronectin (FN) were evaluated. Renal pathology, serum glucose levels and urinary protein excretion were also assessed. Results: Biomarkers of renal fibrosis were significantly reduced in the EMPA group compared to those in the NS group after 4-week treatment, including VIM (519.84±83.37 vs. 663.27±91.84 ng/ml, P<0.05), Col-I (21.27±1.46 vs. 25.71±2.82 ng/ml , P<0.05) and Col-III (7.06±1.12 vs. 9.43±1.36 ng/ml, P<0.05), FSP-1 (4.38±0.81 vs. 5.70±0.78 ng/ml, P<0.05), and CTGF (1147±217 vs. 1556±235 pg/ml, P<0.05),respectively. Nevertheless, compared to normal control (NC) group, the levels of renal fibrosis-related biomarkers in the EMPA group showed no significant differences except for VIM, which was VIM (336.66±28.87 vs. 519.84±83.37 ng/mL, P<0.001). NS group rats showed notable renal tubular dilation and casts, EMPA group exhibited only mild tubular dilation. Conclusion: These findings suggest that empagliflozin reverse renal fibrosis potentially through inhibiting CTGF-mediated epithelial-mesenchymal transition.

The digestive organs are highly sensitive to the influence of orbital flight factors and can limit the professional activities of crew members aboard the International Space Station. Connective tissue as a system-forming matrix of the integrative-buffer metabolic environment is of particular relevance in space biomedicine, ensuring the functioning of internal organs under an altered gravitational stimulus. However, the adaptive mechanisms of the fibrous extracellular matrix of the gastric and intestinal connective tissue have not been fully investigated under prolonged microgravity weightlessness. Using histochemical techniques, the authors experimentally studied the state of collagen fibers in the specific tissue microenvironment of the gastric and intestinal membranes in C57BL/6N mice after a 30-day space flight, subsequent 7-day ground readaptation, and in animals of the relevant control groups. The 30-day stay of laboratory animals aboard the Bion-M 1 biosatellite resulted in a reduction in the fibrous extracellular matrix of connective tissue in the studied digestive organs, excepting the gastric lamina propria. An increased fibrillogenesis was revealed in the gastrointestinal mucous membranes of animals in 7 days after the biosatellite landing, if compared with the parameters of animals of the space flight group. During the experiment with ground simulated orbital flight conditions, changes in collagen fibers were not significant compared to the vivarium control group. Thus, the results obtained evidence gravisensitivity of the fibrous extracellular matrix of the intraorgan connective tissue. This fact also highlights the necessity to further improve gastrointestinal tract-related preventive measures for astronauts during orbital flight.

The research methods were used to investigate the following questions: Does a mobility training intervention change tissue stiffness, joint range of motion, and compensate for possible imbalances? Do the interventions influence the pressure pain threshold and the overall well-being?

The clinical requirement for a good esthetic result for immediate implant placement is the absence of dehiscence in the anterior facial alveolar bone. In the presence of a dehiscence, it is recommend-ed to use a connective tissue graft in addition to immediate implant placement or to change to ear-ly implant placement. However, the literature focusing on dehiscence is scarce, and the influence of different placement times and combined use of connective tissue graft on postoperative esthetics in cases with dehiscence is unclear. Therefore, we quantitatively evaluated the pre-extraction de-hiscence morphology and postoperative changes in the facial tissue of implants in three groups: immediate implant placement (Group I), immediate implant placement with connective tissue graft (Group IC), and early implant placement (Group E). Fifty-two implants were obtained (20 in Group I, 16 in Group IC, and 16 in Group E). A wider dehiscence increases the risk of soft tissue regression, which was one reason for choosing early implant placement. A combination of imme-diate implant placement and connective tissue graft, or early implant placement, tended to result in less soft tissue regression due to the thicker postoperative facial soft tissue volume.

A regional organisation (RO) is a group of states that, through the formation of mutual relationships, work together for shared regional goals such as economic growth, social welfare, security, and democracy. The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is one such organisation, of interest because of its operative paradoxes. However, current theory to study ROs is both fragmented across the field of study, and inadequate. Taking ROs to be complex adaptive systems, diagnosing ROs requires theory that can to explore their hidden aspects. The metacybernetics framework enables the creation of a critical realism configurative a-priori inquiry approach to theory building, the configurations providing coordinative schemas able to respond to predefined complex modelling needs. To analyse ROs using metacybernetics, we offer a derivative schema, Cultural Agency Theory (CAT). Currently this is limited to exploring modes of information acquisition processes through cognitive style, and until now has had no inherent mechanism to explore social relationships as is required to explore ROs. To enable CAT to explore such relationships, we configure the Tönnies social organisation paradigm for CAT. Mindset Agency Theory (MAT) is a specific elaboration of CAT, and creates an empirical setting for the set of formative traits that de-fine an RO character. A related derivative of CAT is that of Multiple Identity Theory (MIT) which enables organisational pathologies to be explored in terms of identity conflicts. This multifaceted paradigm provides a relatively simple approach to the RO diagnosis, in particular in terms of stability/coherence. This paper is in two parts. In this part 1, the CAT theory will be further developed through the joint configuration of Tönnies social organisation paradigm allowing its pathologies to be diagnosed. In part 2 of the paper, the theory will be applied to ASEAN and the diagnosis will show that it is an inherently incoherent organisation.

A regional organisation (RO) is a group of states that, through the formation of mutual relation-ships, work together for shared regional goals such as economic growth, social welfare, security, and democracy. The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is one such organisation, of interest because of its operative paradoxes. However, current theory to study ROs is both fragmented across the field of study, and inadequate. Taking ROs to be complex adaptive systems, diagnosing ROs requires theory that can to explore their hidden aspects. The metacybernetics framework enables the creation of a critical realism configurative a-priori inquiry approach to theory building, the configurations providing coordinative schemas able to respond to predefined complex modelling needs. To analyse ROs using metacybernetics, we offer a derivative schema, Cultural Agency Theory (CAT). Currently this is limited to exploring modes of information acquisition processes through cognitive style, and until now has had no inherent mechanism to explore social relationships as is required to explore ROs. To enable CAT to explore such relationships, we configure the Tönnies social organisation paradigm for CAT. Mindset Agency Theory (MAT) is a specific elaboration of CAT, and creates an empirical setting for the set of formative traits that de-fine an RO character. A related derivative of CAT is that of Multiple Identity Theory (MIT) which enables organisational pathologies to be explored in terms of identity conflicts. Thes multifaceted paradigm provides a relatively simple approach to the RO diagnosis, in particular in terms of stability/coherence. This paper is in two parts. In this part 1, the CAT theory will be further developed through the joint configuration of Tönnies social organisation paradigm allowing its pathologies to be diagnosed. In part 2 of the paper, the theory will be applied to ASEAN and the diagnosis will show that it is an inherently incoherent organisation