Trends in manuscript submissions: an issue combined with international and domestic articles.

By the time you read this issue, we will be half-way through 2021, an extraordinary year in so many ways. Noted is a recent science magazine [1] that is a commentary about countries/regions in the Middle East and North Africa as the source of increased manuscript submissions to scientific journals from 1981 to 2019, with only China ‘growing’ by more. The article also discussed other ramifications of these regions that contributed to this increase in these submissions. This submission trend has not gone unnoticed and can be seen in this issue as JOH becomes more recognized internationally. Our readers, who are interested in fish histology and the effects of heavy metal pollution on reproductive organs, should find the paper educational. The Mishra group studied alterations in ovaries caused by heavy metal pollutants from fish that were living in a wetland habitat in India. This study used well-illustrated histological methods, scanning electron microscopy, and elemental x-ray diffractions and pointed out the danger that chemical pollution has on fish reproduction and the threat pollution can have on worldwide aquatic resources. The Amiri group used a rat model for a histological study on the combined effect of topical insulin mixed with an antibacterial ointment and found it was more effective for wound healing than each separate agent. Hopefully, these authors return with another study to tell more of this story per their recommendations for different drug doses and other methods to determine what growth factors contribute to the mechanism of action. Studies on natural products remain very important for the treatment of various diseases and conditions. Grape seed proanthocyanidins (GSP) were used to study depression-like behavior in prenatally stressed juvenile rats. Sun and colleagues had a comprehensive study on GSP treatments for depressionlike behavior that included stress testing, Nissl stains for neuron loss, reactive oxygen species (ROS) measurement, and Western blot analyses. Readers should note how antibodies for Western blot or for immunohistochemistry (IHC) are reported to provide detailed information when purchasing antibodies. It is always a pleasure to see a paper on bone which remains a difficult tissue to work with in the laboratory. Studies using induced osteoarthritis (OA) on murine knee joints are common in the literature. Wang et al. developed an OA model for anterior cruciate ligament surgery to study the alteration of A disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs. The authors present detailed methods and materials for surgically induced OA on knees followed by extensive histology with routine and special stains for bone components, TRAP staining for osteoclasts, along with RT-PCR, Elisa, and immunofluorescence assays. This is a good example of a comprehensive study with all the tests and histology done for those interested in OA studies on the murine model. Last but not least is an interesting paper from Criswell and Bodkin on Hidradenitis suppurativa, a painful, disfiguring skin disease which has decreased collagen, elastin, and neovascularization. This study used IHC to identify epithelial cells and cytokeratin along with H&E and two special stains. I encourage readers to look at the modified Masson’s trichrome as this was done without a nuclear stain in order to enhance viewing of the blue collagen fibers. Kudos goes to Dr. Criswell for encouraging and helping her histotechnology students participate in this study, and she is the coauthor of this article. I encourage other histotechnology programs to do the same as this provides additional training and encourages histotechnicians to publish and be recognized for their work. My thanks goes to all the authors who have shared their research now published in this issue.