In women, Chlamydia trachomatis can ascend from the cervix to the fallopian tubes, where an overly aggressive host inflammatory response can cause scarring that leads to chronic pelvic pain, ...infertility, or ectopic pregnancy. Although screening and treatment programs for women have resulted in decreased rates of sequelae, morbidities associated with oviduct scarring continue to occur. Since corticosteroids have anti-inflammatory and antifibrotic effects, we tested the ability of dexamethasone to inhibit inflammation and prevent oviduct scarring in mice genitally infected with Chlamydia muridarum. The administration of 1 or 2.5 mg/kg of body weight of dexamethasone on days 7 to 21 of infection resulted in reduced accumulation of inflammatory cells in the oviducts compared to that in controls. However, a concomitant increase in bacterial burden was observed, and chronic oviduct disease was not reduced. Adjunctive administration of a prolonged (21-day) or short (3-day) course of dexamethasone in combination with the antibiotic doxycycline also failed to reduce chronic oviduct pathology compared to antibiotic treatment alone. Steroids administered alone or adjunctively with antibiotics failed to prevent oviduct damage in this murine model of C. trachomatis infection.
Motor behavior is modulated by dopamine-responsive neurons in the striatum, where dopaminergic signaling uses G-protein-coupled pathways, including those that result in the activation of ...cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA). The RIIβ isoform of PKA is highly enriched in the striatum, and targeted disruption of the RIIβ gene in mice leads to a dramatic reduction in total PKA activity in this region. Although the mutant mice show typical locomotor responses after acute administration of dopaminergic drugs, they display abnormalities in two experience-dependent locomotor behaviors: training on the rotarod task and locomotor sensitization to amphetamine. In addition, amphetamine induction of
fos
is absent, and the basal expression of dynorphin mRNA is reduced in the striatum. These results demonstrate that motor learning and the regulation of neuronal gene expression require RIIβ PKA, whereas the acute locomotor effects of dopaminergic drugs are relatively unaffected by this PKA deficiency.
Alabama Women Ashmore, Susan Youngblood; Dorr, Lisa Lindquist
06/2017, Letnik:
18
eBook
Another addition to the Southern Women series,Alabama Womencelebrates women's histories in the Yellowhammer State by highlighting the lives and contributions of women and enriching our understanding ...of the past and present. Exploring such subjects as politics, arts, and civic organizations, this collection of eighteen biographical essays provides a window into the social, cultural, and geographic milieux of women's lives in Alabama.
Featured individuals include Augusta Evans Wilson, Maria Fearing, Julia S. Tutwiler, Margaret Murray Washington, Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, Ida E. Brandon Mathis, Ruby Pickens Tartt, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, Sara Martin Mayfield, Bess Bolden Walcott, Virginia Foster Durr, Rosa Parks, Lurleen Burns Wallace, Margaret Charles Smith, and Harper Lee.
Contributors:-Nancy Grisham Anderson on Harper Lee-Harriet E. Amos Doss on the enslaved women surgical patients of J. Marion Sims-Wayne Flynt and Marlene Hunt Rikard on Pattie Ruffner Jacobs-Caroline Gebhard on Bess Bolden Walcott-Staci Simon Glover on the immigrant women in metropolitan Birmingham-Sharony Green on the Townsend Family-Sheena Harris on Margaret Murray Washington-Christopher D. Haveman on the women of the Creek Removal Era-Kimberly D. Hill on Maria Fearing-Tina Naremore Jones on Ruby Pickens Tartt-Jenny M. Luke on Margaret Charles Smith-Rebecca Cawood McIntyre on Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald and Sara Martin Mayfield-Rebecca S. Montgomery on Ida E. Brandon Mathis-Paul M. Pruitt Jr. on Julia S. Tutwiler-Susan E. Reynolds on Augusta Evans Wilson-Patricia Sullivan on Virginia Foster Durr-Jeanne Theoharis on Rosa Parks-Susan Youngblood Ashmore on Lurleen Burns Wallace
This study was designed to investigate the predictive value of early pre/post stem cell transplant (SCT) FDG-PET on outcomes in non hodgkins (NHL) or Hodgkins lymphoma (HL). We analyzed patients who ...received SCT for treatment of relapsed or refractory NHL or HL at Duke Medical Center between the years of 1996–2007. Patients who had either a FDG-PET scan following salvage chemo- or radio- therapy and within 14 weeks of transplantation (pre-PET)or a FDG PET scan within 6–14 weeks following transplantation (post-PET) were included in the analysis. PET was determined to be positive or negative based on chart review of radiology reports. Survival times are estimated using Kaplan- Meier method. Hazard ratios (HR) are from univariate Cox proportional hazards models. Overall survival (OS) was measured from the time of transplant until death, and for those patients still alive, it was censored at the last follow up date. Disease free survival (DFS) was measured from the time of transplant until first progression or death, whichever occurred first, and was censored at the date of last follow up for those alive without progression. A total of 102 patients were identified with PET in the appropriate time period. Median age was 48.5 (18–78); 71 patients had NHL, 31 patients had HL. Ninety-eight (96%) of the patients had chemosensitive disease, and had a documented PR (62) or CR (36) prior to transplant. The median DFS and OS of this population was 55 and 73 mo respectively. Median time to follow up was 38 mo (1.5 – 145 mo). Of the 75 pre-PET scans, 32 (43%) were positive; of the 78 post-PET scans, 22 (28%) were positive. At the time of this analysis, 28 (27%) of the patients had died from disease progression. There were 8 (10.6%) pre-PET, and 7 (9%) post- PET readings that were not clear. Our analysis revealed that neither pre-PET nor post-PET results were predictive of DFS (HR 1.73 p=0.16, HR 1.97 p = 0.052) or OS (HR 1.92 p=0.13; HR1.65 p=0.21). Further, for the patients who had measurable disease at the entry to SCT, post-PET was not predictive for DFS (HR 1.62, p=0.29) or OS (HR 1.59 p=0.35). Exclusion of unclear PET readings did not have any effect on these results. In subset analysis, post- PET did predict DFS in patients with NHL (HR 2.6 p=0.034). Our results suggest that early pre/post SCT PET analysis is not beneficial in this algorithm for predicting overall survival in these patients. Negative post-PET may predict DFS in patients with aggressive NHL, however, did not predict OS in this group. Our analysis indicates that other methods of determining risk of relapse and transplant outcome are needed.
Integrative medicine is a quickly expanding field of health care that emphasizes nutrition as a key component. Dietitians and nutritionists have an opportunity to meet workforce demands by practicing ...dietetics and integrative medicine (DIM). The purpose of this article is to describe a DIM education program and practicum. We report the results of an interprofessional nutrition education and practicum program between the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC) Department of Dietetics and Nutrition and KU Integrative Medicine. This partnered program provides training that builds on the strong foundation of the Nutrition Care Process and adds graduate-level educational and practicum experiences in foundational integrative medicine knowledge, including nutritional approaches from a systems biology perspective, nutrigenomics, and biochemistry as the core knowledge to understand the root cause of a chronic disorder and to choose appropriate nutritional tools for interventions. This interprofessional KUMC program provides a dietetic internship, master's degree, and graduate certificate in DIM and fulfills a need for dietitians and nutritionists who seek careers practicing in an integrative medicine setting. The program fulfills expanding workforce needs to provide quality health care for patients with chronic illnesses.
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