OBJECTIVE Upper limb lymphedema is a common complication after radical mastectomy in patients with breast cancer. In this study, we examined the efficacy of self-manual lymph drainage (MLD) after modified radical mastectomy for the prevention of upper limb lymphedema, scar formation, or shoulder joint dysfunction in breast cancer patients. METHODS Breast cancer patients scheduled for modified...

Myoblast fusion takes place in two steps in mammals and in Drosophila. First, founder cells (FCs) and fusion-competent myoblasts (FCMs) fuse to form a trinucleated precursor, which then recruits further FCMs. This process depends on the formation of the fusion-restricted myogenic-adhesive structure (FuRMAS), which contains filamentous actin (F-actin) plugs at the sites of cell contact. Fusion r...

Transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 and TGF-β3 have been reported to exert differential effects on wound healing, and possibly even account for tissue-specific differences in scar formation. Scarring is particularly detrimental in the vocal fold mucosa (VFM), where destruction of the native extracellular matrix causes irreparable biomechanical changes and voice impairment. Here, in a series of ...

Astroglial scars surround damaged tissue after trauma, stroke, infection, or autoimmune inflammation in the CNS. They are essential for wound repair, but also interfere with axonal regrowth. A better understanding of the cellular mechanisms, regulation, and functions of astroglial scar formation is fundamental to developing safe interventions for many CNS disorders. We used wild-type and transg...

One of the major challenges in the field of regenerative medicine is how to optimize tissue regeneration in the body by therapeutically manipulating its natural ability to form scar at the time of injury or disease. It is often the balance between tissue regeneration, a process that is activated at the onset of disease, and scar formation, which develops as a result of the disease process that ...

Reactive gliosis and glial scar formation have been evidenced in the animal model of ischemic stroke, but not in human ischemic brain. Here, we have found that GFAP, ED1 and chondroitin sulphate proteoglycans (CSPG) expression were significantly increased in the cortical peri-infarct regions after ischemic stroke, compared with adjacent normal tissues and control subjects. Double immunolabeling...

Contrast-enhanced CT can be useful in differentiating between recurrent disk herniation and scar formation after disk surgery. Thirty such CT studies were assessed retrospectively to determine the utility of CT attenuation measurements in identifying intraspinal pathology. Measured values of intraspinal tissues, but also of "reference" materials such as CSF, blood, and muscle tissue, showed lar...

Wound healing in adult skin, a complex process involving many cell types and processes such as epidermal, fibroblastic, and endothelial cell proliferation, cell migration, matrix synthesis, and wound contraction, almost invariably results in scar tissue formation and wound induration. Unlike in adult skin, wound healing in embryos involves repair processes that result in the essentially perfect...