Lactating SKH-1 furless mice prioritize own comfort over growth of their pups.

Lactation is the most energetically demanding physiological process that occurs in mammalian females, and as a consequence of this energy expenditure, lactating females produce an enormous amount of excess heat. This heat is thought to limit the amount of milk a mother produces, and by improving heat dissipation, females may improve their milk production and offspring quality. Here we used SKH-1 hairless mice as a natural model of improved heat dissipation.

Pancreatoduodenectomy--current status of surgical and perioperative techniques in Germany.

Background: Pancreatoduodenectomy in Germany is performed by a broad range of hospitals. A diversity of operative techniques is employed as no guidelines exist for intra- and perioperative management. We carried out a national survey to determine the de facto German standards for pancreatoduodenectomy, assess quality assurance measures, and identify relevant issues for further investigation.

Phospholipids reduce gastric cancer cell adhesion to extracellular matrix in vitro.

Background: Nidation of floating tumour cells initiates peritoneal carcinosis and limits prognosis of gastro-intestinal tumours. Adhesion of tumour cells to extracellular matrix components is a pivotal step in developing peritoneal dissemination of intraabdominal malignancies. Since phospholipids efficaciously prevented peritoneal adhesion formation in numerous animal studies we investigated their capacity to reduce adhesions of gastric cancer cells to extracellular matrix components (ECM).

Phospholipids reduce the intraperitoneal adhesion of colonic tumor cells in rats and adhesion on extracellular matrix in vitro.

Objective: To evaluate the influence of intraperitoneal treatment with phospholipids on the formation of peritoneal carcinosis after inoculation of colonic tumor cells in rats. The presence of tumor cells in the peritoneal cavity serves as a prognostic marker for postoperative survival after resection of gastrointestinal cancer. Intraperitoneal tumor cell attachment is a pivotal step in developing peritoneal carcinosis.