Browsing by Author "Kovačević, Sanjin (57192381740)"

The COVID-19 pandemic that hit the world recently caused numerous changes affecting the health system in every department. Reduced staff numbers, mostly due to illness, led to an increase in automation at every stage of laboratory work. The immunohistochemistry (IHC) laboratory conducts a high volume of slide staining every day. Therefore, we analyzed time and total costs required to obtain IHC slides in both the manual and automated way, comparing their efficiency by processing the same sample volume (48 microscope slides—the maximum capacity that an automated immunostainer—DAKO, Autostainer Link 48, Part No AS48030—can process over a single cycle). The total IHC procedure time to run 48 slides manually by one technician was 460 min, while the automated process finished a cycle within 390 min (15.22% less time). The final cost of a single manual IHC slide was 12.26 EUR and 7.69 EUR for slides labeled in the automated immunostainer, which reduced final costs by 37.27%. Thus, automation of the IHC procedure reduces the time and costs of the IHC process, contributing significantly to the sustainability of the healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemic, overcoming insufficient human resources. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

The COVID-19 pandemic that hit the world recently caused numerous changes affecting the health system in every department. Reduced staff numbers, mostly due to illness, led to an increase in automation at every stage of laboratory work. The immunohistochemistry (IHC) laboratory conducts a high volume of slide staining every day. Therefore, we analyzed time and total costs required to obtain IHC slides in both the manual and automated way, comparing their efficiency by processing the same sample volume (48 microscope slides—the maximum capacity that an automated immunostainer—DAKO, Autostainer Link 48, Part No AS48030—can process over a single cycle). The total IHC procedure time to run 48 slides manually by one technician was 460 min, while the automated process finished a cycle within 390 min (15.22% less time). The final cost of a single manual IHC slide was 12.26 EUR and 7.69 EUR for slides labeled in the automated immunostainer, which reduced final costs by 37.27%. Thus, automation of the IHC procedure reduces the time and costs of the IHC process, contributing significantly to the sustainability of the healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemic, overcoming insufficient human resources. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

Objective: Inflammation is a biological response of tissue to harmful stimuli. A high-fat diet was linked to low-grade chronic liver inflammation, which can further lead to more severe health conditions. It is crucial to assess the intensity of inflammation and structural tissue changes to reduce the subjective judgment by the examiner. We propose fractal-based methods for early-stage low-degree liver inflammation grading. Methods: We have randomly divided 40 C57BL/6 female mice into four groups (control, linseed oil, palm oil, sunflower oil). After 100 days, animals were euthanized, and liver tissue collected for analyses. We performed calculations of fractal dimension, fractal lacunarity, multifractal spectra, local fractal dimension, and particle metrics, applicable to tissue segmentation and grading. Results: Pathohistological analysis of some liver tissue showed a low-grade inflammatory infiltrate around the portal vein of experimental groups subjected to different high-fat diets. Differences in fractal dimension and lacunarity of the inflamed tissue were, in most cases, statistically significant between the high-fat diet groups. Both the observed intensity and area of inflammation were lowest for the sunflower oil. The results of standard fractal analysis, local fractal analysis, and particle analysis were in an excellent agreement. Conclusions: This study demonstrated the efficiency of the fractal analysis based tools in the quantification of complexity and early-stage structural changes in inflamed liver tissue, which could potentially be used in the diagnostic workup of inflammation in the liver. The presented methods could be implemented within a wider scope computer-aided diagnostics system in a very straightforward manner. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Objective: Inflammation is a biological response of tissue to harmful stimuli. A high-fat diet was linked to low-grade chronic liver inflammation, which can further lead to more severe health conditions. It is crucial to assess the intensity of inflammation and structural tissue changes to reduce the subjective judgment by the examiner. We propose fractal-based methods for early-stage low-degree liver inflammation grading. Methods: We have randomly divided 40 C57BL/6 female mice into four groups (control, linseed oil, palm oil, sunflower oil). After 100 days, animals were euthanized, and liver tissue collected for analyses. We performed calculations of fractal dimension, fractal lacunarity, multifractal spectra, local fractal dimension, and particle metrics, applicable to tissue segmentation and grading. Results: Pathohistological analysis of some liver tissue showed a low-grade inflammatory infiltrate around the portal vein of experimental groups subjected to different high-fat diets. Differences in fractal dimension and lacunarity of the inflamed tissue were, in most cases, statistically significant between the high-fat diet groups. Both the observed intensity and area of inflammation were lowest for the sunflower oil. The results of standard fractal analysis, local fractal analysis, and particle analysis were in an excellent agreement. Conclusions: This study demonstrated the efficiency of the fractal analysis based tools in the quantification of complexity and early-stage structural changes in inflamed liver tissue, which could potentially be used in the diagnostic workup of inflammation in the liver. The presented methods could be implemented within a wider scope computer-aided diagnostics system in a very straightforward manner. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Purpose: It is considered that exposure to static magnetic fields (SMF) may have both detrimental and therapeutic effect, but the mechanism of SMF influence on the living organisms is not well understood. Since the adenosine triphosphatases (ATPases) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) are involved in both physiological and pathological processes, the modulation of Na+/K+-ATPase, ecto-ATPases and AChE activities, as well as oxidative stress responses were followed in synaptosomes isolated from rats after chronic exposure toward differently oriented SMF. Material and methods: Wistar albino rats were randomly divided into three experimental groups (six animals per group): Up and Down group - exposed to upward and downward oriented SMF, respectively, and Control group. After 50 days, the rats were sacrificed, and synaptosomes were isolated from the whole rat brain and used for testing the enzyme activities and oxidative stress parameters. Results: Chronic exposure to 1 mT SMF significantly increased ATPases, AChE activities, and malondialdehyde (MDA) level in both exposed groups, compared to control values. The significant decrease in synaptosomal catalase activity (1.48 ± 0.17 U/mg protein) induced by exposure to the downward oriented field, compared to those obtained for Control group (2.60 ± 0.29 U/mg protein), and Up group (2.72 ± 0.21 U/mg protein). Conclusions: It could be concluded that chronic exposure to differently oriented SMF increases ATPases and AChE activities in rat synaptosomes. Since brain ATPases and AChE have important roles in the pathogenesis of several neurological diseases, SMF influence on the activity of these enzymes may have potential therapeutic importance. © 2018, Copyright © 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Purpose: It is considered that exposure to static magnetic fields (SMF) may have both detrimental and therapeutic effect, but the mechanism of SMF influence on the living organisms is not well understood. Since the adenosine triphosphatases (ATPases) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) are involved in both physiological and pathological processes, the modulation of Na+/K+-ATPase, ecto-ATPases and AChE activities, as well as oxidative stress responses were followed in synaptosomes isolated from rats after chronic exposure toward differently oriented SMF. Material and methods: Wistar albino rats were randomly divided into three experimental groups (six animals per group): Up and Down group - exposed to upward and downward oriented SMF, respectively, and Control group. After 50 days, the rats were sacrificed, and synaptosomes were isolated from the whole rat brain and used for testing the enzyme activities and oxidative stress parameters. Results: Chronic exposure to 1 mT SMF significantly increased ATPases, AChE activities, and malondialdehyde (MDA) level in both exposed groups, compared to control values. The significant decrease in synaptosomal catalase activity (1.48 ± 0.17 U/mg protein) induced by exposure to the downward oriented field, compared to those obtained for Control group (2.60 ± 0.29 U/mg protein), and Up group (2.72 ± 0.21 U/mg protein). Conclusions: It could be concluded that chronic exposure to differently oriented SMF increases ATPases and AChE activities in rat synaptosomes. Since brain ATPases and AChE have important roles in the pathogenesis of several neurological diseases, SMF influence on the activity of these enzymes may have potential therapeutic importance. © 2018, Copyright © 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.