Safety and efficacy of attempts to reduce shoulder dislocations by non-medical personnel in the wilderness setting.

Objective: The objectives of this study were to explore the success rate and the complication rate for shoulder reduction attempts by non-medical personnel in the wilderness setting, and to compare the average time to reduction for those done on scene versus those that waited for reduction at a medical facility.

Methods: In this study we solicited online survey responses from users of wilderness sports forums between October 2008 and April 2009. These surveys asked respondents to describe previous wilderness sports injuries they experienced.

House dust extracts elicit Toll-like receptor-dependent dendritic cell responses.

Background: Laboratory and epidemiological studies have provided indirect but compelling evidence that Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play an important role in innate host responsiveness to ambient immunostimulatory factors. However, little direct evidence exists.

Objective: To determine whether house dust extracts activate dendritic cells by TLR-dependent mechanisms.

Allergen-independent immunostimulatory sequence oligodeoxynucleotide therapy attenuates experimental allergic rhinitis.

While effective for the prevention and treatment of allergic rhinitis (AR) symptoms, currently available medications do not reverse allergen specific hypersensitivities. Therefore, pharmacotherapeutics are not curative and their daily use is often required for years. These investigations were conducted to determine whether immunostimulatory sequence oligodeoxynucleotide (ISS-ODN) delivery protects previously sensitized mice from AR hypersensitivity responses and modulates their allergen specific immune profiles.

Airway peptidoglycan and immunostimulatory DNA exposures have divergent effects on the development of airway allergen hypersensitivities.

Background: Environmental exposures to toll-like receptor (TLR) ligands have been suggested to provide immunologic protection against allergic diseases. However, some TLRs use unique intracellular signaling pathways, suggesting that ambient TLR ligand exposures might induce a range of host responses.

Objective: These investigations compared peptidoglycan (PGN; TLR2)-induced and immunostimulatory sequence DNA oligodeoxynucleotide (ISS-ODN; TLR9)-induced innate responses and determined how airway exposures to these TLR ligands affect adaptive immunity and the asthmatic phenotype.

Intranasal immunotherapy is more effective than intradermal immunotherapy for the induction of airway allergen tolerance in Th2-sensitized mice.

Immunotherapy (IT) by injection more readily induces clinical tolerance to stinging insects than to respiratory allergens. However, while systemic immunization induces adaptive responses systemically, the induction of mucosal immunity generally requires local Ag exposure. Taken together, these observations suggest that the poor success rate of systemic IT for asthma could be a consequence of inadequate immune modulation in the airways.