Controlling occupational allergies in the workplace.

Objectives: In recent years, the prevalence of work-related asthma has increased. Therefore, more attention needs to be paid to occupational allergens and their avoidance and control in workplaces. However, risk assessment of occupational allergen exposure is difficult because the relationship between exposure concentration, sensitization, and symptoms has not been fully established.

Environmental modification and agonistic behavior in NIH/S male mice: nesting material enhances fighting but shelters prevent it.

Outbred NIH/S male mice were housed from weaning in groups of 4 without enrichment (control) or with nesting material (nest), nesting material and a box (nest-and-box), or nesting material and a tube (nest-and-tube) as environmental modification. The aim of the study was to investigate effects of widely recommended nesting material and additional shelters on male mice. The aggressiveness of the mice in their home cages clearly increased in the nest group, as assessed by the number of wounds.

Detection of mouse and rat urinary aeroallergens with an improved ELISA.

Background: Risk analysis of laboratory animal work presupposes allergen monitoring with sensitive methods. Commercial ELISA kits have recently become available for the detection of mouse (Mus m 1) and rat (Rat n 1) urinary allergen from settled dust samples and air samples with high allergen levels.

Objective: Our aims were to enhance the sensitivities of the commercial ELISA kits for low aeroallergen levels (less than 1 ng/m(3)) and to test these methods with air samples collected from an animal facility.

Processing of fascia for vocal fold injection. A study in vitro and in paralyzed canine vocal folds.

To evaluate the simplest and safest method to mince fascia for autologous vocal fold injection, we performed an in vitro study applying porcine fascia and a prospective study using a canine model. Six different surfaces were tested in the laboratory for mincing fascia. The ease of handling of tissue on each surface was noted.