NIHR Medicines for Children Research Network: improving children's health through clinical research.

The need to evaluate medicines for children is widely acknowledged due to pervasive unlicensed medicine use in the pediatric setting. The EU Paediatric Regulation was developed to address these considerations, which subsequently led to the establishment of the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Medicines for Children Research Network (MCRN) in England. MCRN supports public and industry studies, and facilitates feasibility, site setup, recruitment and other services.

TNF alpha reduces tachykinin, PGE2-dependent, relaxation of the cultured mouse trachea by increasing the activity of COX-2.

1. Chronic inflammation is a central feature of asthma. The inflammatory cytokine tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) has been implicated in this disease, and is known to alter airway smooth muscle functionally.

An assay to evaluate the long-term effects of inflammatory mediators on murine airway smooth muscle: evidence that TNFalpha up-regulates 5-HT(2A)-mediated contraction.

1. Asthma research is arguably limited by an absence of appropriate animal models to study the pharmacology of inflammatory mediators that affect airway hyperresponsiveness and remodelling. Here we assessed an assay based on mouse tracheal segments cultured for 1-32 days, and investigated contractile responses mediated by muscarinic and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) receptors following long-term exposure to tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha).