by Mrudula Munagala  and Anita Phancao

Received: 31 August 2017;  Published: 11 January 2018;  doi: 10.21926/obm.transplant.1801007

Heart transplant remains the gold standard therapy for patients with end stage heart disease and offers improved survival and quality of life. Significant progress has been achieved in improving one-year mortality after heart transplantation. Nonetheless, long-term graft survival has not changed significantly over the past few decades. Long term survival of heart transplant recipients is limited by chronic rejection, cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV), and malignancy. CAV is a major contributor for graft failure [...]

by Michael Fossel

Received: 12 December 2017;  Published: 24 December 2017;  doi: 10.21926/obm.geriatr.1704003

by Pål-Dag Line

Received: 20 December 2017;  Published: 24 December 2017;  doi: 10.21926/obm.transplant.1704006

by Kerstin Grund  , Dominik Sturm  , Christian Sutter  , Felix Sahm  , Katrin Hinderhofer  , Christian Kratz  , Daniel Schrimpf  , Andreas von Deimling  , Kristian W. Pajtler  , David TW Jones  , Stefan M. Pfister  and Nicola Dikow

Received: 01 September 2017;  Published: 05 December 2017;  doi: 10.21926/obm.genet.1704011

The study “Molecular Neuropathology 2.0” (MNP2.0) offers an integrated histo-molecular diagnosis including the detection of potential therapeutic targets for a large cohort of pediatric patients with primary CNS tumors. After obtaining parental and/or patient consent, in this study germline DNA analysis of all study subjects bridges the gap between scientific genetic analysis and medical care. The study’s workflow takes into consideration the conditions of a multicenter study, legal stipulations, as well as the nee [...]

by Ya Wen

Received: 28 November 2017;  Published: 05 December 2017;  doi: 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.1704007

More and more studies revealed links amongst neurological disorders, heart diseases and cancers. For example, people with subclinical cardiovascular diseases are at higher risk for Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson’s disease is associated with varied risk of cancer, Autism Spectrum Disorders and cancer have overlapping genes and molecular pathways, heart disease and cancer share common risk factors, etc. It is intriguing how are these conditions that appear to be completely different linked together.

by Gerhard Litscher

Received: 07 November 2017;  Published: 10 November 2017;  doi: 10.21926/obm.icm.1704004

The treatment by auricular therapy has a long history. Ear acupoint research has been advancing step by step worldwide [1-17] . The introduction of lasers into medicine brought besides the already existing stimulation with needles, electricity, pressure and liquids an additional technique to auricular acupuncture.

by Myrto Poulou  and Maria Tzetis

Received: 31 July 2017;  Published: 01 November 2017;  doi: 10.21926/obm.genet.1704010

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is one of the commonest autosomal recessive genetic diseases that show a high carrier frequency amongst Caucasian populations. Although there has been tremendous progress in the available therapies, compared to the past, the disease is still associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Because of the severe clinical manifestations and the shortened life expectancy of patients, population based carrier screening, to identify heterozygous carrier couples at risk of having affected childre [...]

by Tatsuo+ Kanda  , Shunichi Matsuoka  and Mitsuhiko Moriyama

Received: 18 October 2017;  Published: 29 October 2017;  doi: 10.21926/obm.hg.1704005

(This is review and no abstract)

by Karen Sermon

Received: 11 August 2017;  Published: 26 October 2017;  doi: 10.21926/obm.genet.1704009

The main aim of PGS has always been to improve IVF outcome, especially in patient groups assumed to have higher rates of chromosomally abnormal embryos, such as patients of advanced maternal age. In that sense, PGS is quite different from other types of screening as discussed in other papers in this issue.Today it bears no doubt that blastocysts found to be uniformly aneuploid in a biopsy will fail to implant, or worse, will implant and lead to a pregnancy and birth carrying a major chromosomal abnormality, such as [...]

by Kazuki Mochizuki  , Chihiro Imai  , Noriko Sato  and Takeo Kubota

Received: 20 June 2017;  Published: 19 October 2017;  doi: 10.21926/obm.genet.1704008

A number of epidemiological studies have suggested that environmental stresses, such as malnutrition during the fetal period, can induce development of metabolic disorders, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension, and and even psychiatric disorders in later life. This theory model is known as the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) theory, in which postulates that “epigenetic memories”, involving DNA methylation, histone modifications and microRNA expression, are induced by environmental [...]