Effects of maternal social isolation on adult rodent offspring cognition.

Prenatal experiences can influence offspring physiology and behaviour through the lifespan. Various forms of prenatal stress impair adult learning and memory function and can lead to increased occurrence of anxiety and depression. Clinical work suggests that prenatal stress and maternal depression lead to similar outcomes in children and adolescents, however the long-term effects of maternal depression are less established, particularly in well controlled animal models.

Environmental Enrichment Promotes Transgenerational Programming of Uterine Inflammatory and Stress Markers Comparable to Gestational Chronic Variable Stress.

Prenatal maternal stress is linked to adverse pregnancy and infant outcomes, including shortened gestation lengths, low birth weights, cardio-metabolic dysfunction, and cognitive and behavioural problems. Stress disrupts the homeostatic milieu of pregnancy by altering inflammatory and neuroendocrine mediators. These stress-induced phenotypic changes can be passed on to the offspring epigenetically.

Social Isolation Stress Modulates Pregnancy Outcomes and the Inflammatory Profile of Rat Uterus.

Prenatal stressors have been linked to adverse pregnancy outcomes; including preterm birth (PTB). Recent work demonstrates that social isolation in mothers represents a silent stressor contributing to PTB risk. Here; we investigate the association of inflammatory and stress markers with PTB risk in Long-Evans rats exposed to social isolation stress (SIS) during preconception and pregnancy across four generations (F0-F3).

The Sleep of Elite Australian Rules Footballers During Preseason: A Comparison of Men and Women.

Purpose: Australian football has elite men's (Australian Football League; AFL) and women's (Australian Football League Women's; AFLW) competitions. This study compared AFL and AFLW players' sleep and characterized players' sleep in the context of current sleep recommendations.

Methods: A total of 70 players (36 AFL, 34 AFLW) had their sleep monitored via actigraphy over a 10-day preseason period.

Nutrient intake, meal timing and sleep in elite male Australian football players.

Objectives: To investigate the relationship between dietary intake, meal timing and sleep in elite male Australian football players.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Methods: Sleep and dietary intake were assessed in 36 elite male Australian Football League (AFL) players for 10 consecutive days in pre-season.

Multiple prenatal stresses increase sexual dimorphism in adult offspring behavior.

Introduction: Maternal gestational stress and immune activation have independently been associated with affective and neurodevelopmental disorders across the lifespan. We investigated whether rats exposed to prenatal maternal stressors (PNMS) consisting of psychological stress, interleukin (IL)-1β or both (two-hit stress) during critical developmental windows displayed a behavioral phenotype representative of these conditions.

Methods: Long-Evans dams were exposed to psychological stressors consisting of restraint stress and forced swimming from gestational day (GD)12 to 18 or to no stress (controls).

Application of a Quality-By-Design Approach to Optimise Lipid-Polymer Hybrid Nanoparticles Loaded with a Splice-Correction Antisense Oligonucleotide: Maximising Loading and Intracellular Delivery.

Background: Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) are promising therapeutics for specific modulation of cellular RNA function. However, ASO efficacy is compromised by inefficient intracellular delivery. Lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles (LPNs) are attractive mediators of intracellular ASO delivery due to favorable colloidal stability and sustained release properties.

Immunogenicity Testing of Lipidoids In Vitro and In Silico: Modulating Lipidoid-Mediated TLR4 Activation by Nanoparticle Design.

Therapeutics based on small interfering RNA (siRNA) have promising potential as antiviral and anti-inflammatory agents. To deliver siRNA across cell membranes to reach the RNAi pathway in the cytosol of target cells, non-viral nanoparticulate delivery approaches are explored. Recently, we showed that encapsulation of siRNA in lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles (LPNs), based on poly(DL-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) and cationic lipid-like materials (lipidoids), remarkably enhances intracellular delivery of siRNA as compared to siRNA delivery with LPNs modified with dioleoyltrimethylammoniumpropane (DOTAP) as the lipid component.

Engineering of small interfering RNA-loaded lipidoid-poly(DL-lactic-co-glycolic acid) hybrid nanoparticles for highly efficient and safe gene silencing: A quality by design-based approach.

Safety and efficacy of therapeutics based on RNA interference, e.g., small interfering RNA (siRNA), are dependent on the optimal engineering of the delivery technology, which is used for intracellular delivery of siRNA to the cytosol of target cells.

Parental comparison of the prosodic and paralinguistic ability of children with cochlear implants and their normal hearing siblings.

The everyday communication of children is commonly observed by their parents. This paper examines the responses of parents (n=18) who had both a Cochlear Implant (CI) and a Normal Hearing (NH) child. Through an online questionnaire, parents rated the ability of their children on a gamut of speech communication competencies encountered in everyday settings.

Lifespan psychomotor behaviour profiles of multigenerational prenatal stress and artificial food dye effects in rats.

The consumption of artificial food dye (AFD) during childhood and adolescence has been linked to behavioural changes, such as hyperactivity. It is possible that the vulnerability to AFDs is modified by prenatal stress. Common consequences of prenatal stress include hyperactivity, thus potentially leading to synergistic actions with AFDs.

Otitis media with effusion in children with in Down syndrome.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of otitis media with effusion (OME) in children with Down syndrome (DS), and the associated to hearing loss at the age of 8 years.

Study Design: A national population based clinical study of all children with DS born in Norway in 2002.

Results: OME was found in 20 out of 52 (38%) children.

Hearing level in children with Down syndrome at the age of eight.

This study examines the prevalence of hearing loss in children with Down syndrome at the age of 8. All children were examined in the ENT-departments of public hospitals in Norway and the study population consisted of children born in Norway in 2002 with Down syndrome. Hearing loss was defined as pure-tone air-conduction reduction by on average more than 25 dB HL in the best hearing ear.

Laminin-5 and type I collagen promote adhesion and osteogenic differentiation of animal serum-free expanded human mesenchymal stromal cells.

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) are differentiation competent cells and may generate, among others, mature osteoblasts or chondrocytes in vitro and in vivo. Laminin-5 and type I collagen are important components of the extracellular matrix. They are involved in a variety of cellular and extracellular activities including cell attachment and osteogenic differentiation of MSC.

Transgenerational programming of maternal behaviour by prenatal stress.

Peripartum events hold the potential to have dramatic effects in the programming of physiology and behaviour of offspring and possibly subsequent generations. Here we have characterized transgenerational changes in rat maternal behaviour as a function of gestational and prenatal stress. Pregnant dams of the parental generation were exposed to stress from days 12-18 (F0-S).

Anxiety and depression in tinnitus patients: 5-year follow-up assessment after completion of habituation therapy.

Treatment programs based on a neurophysiological model have shown a positive effect on anxiety and depression in tinnitus patients. The aim of this paper was to assess the long-term effect of tinnitus habituation therapy. Sixty-eight individuals were treated with a comprehensive therapy program.

Daily life consequences of hearing loss in the elderly.

Purpose: To assess the daily life consequences of hearing loss in older adults and to explore the influences of hearing loss, subjective assessment of health and general life satisfaction, gender, age and marital status.

Method: Eighty-four participants, each older than 65 years, were consecutively recruited from a hospital waiting list for outpatient hearing aid fitting. All participants were assessed by pure-tone audiometry.

Children with a cochlear implant: characteristics and determinants of speech recognition, speech-recognition growth rate, and speech production.

The objectives of the study were to describe the characteristics of the first 79 prelingually deaf cochlear implant users in Norway and to investigate to what degree the variation in speech recognition, speech- recognition growth rate, and speech production could be explained by the characteristics of the child, the cochlear implant, the family, and the educational setting. Data gathered longitudinally were analysed using descriptive statistics, multiple regression, and growth-curve analysis. The results show that more than 50% of the variation could be explained by these characteristics.

Immune recovery in children undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplantation: absolute CD8+ CD3+ count reconstitution is associated with survival.

To evaluate the correlation between kinetics of immune reconstitution and survival, we prospectively evaluated lymphocyte subsets in 32 paediatric patients undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT) for haematological malignancies. Four-colour flow cytometric analysis was performed at short intervals with a median follow-up of 4 years post SCT. A total of 50% of patients reached age-matched 5th percentile of natural killer, cytotoxic T, B and helper T cells 4, 9, 20 and 28 weeks after SCT, respectively, which increased to more than 80% within 1 year after SCT.

Low-dose-rate vs. high-dose-rate intracavitary brachytherapy for carcinoma of the cervix: The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) experience.

Purpose: To review the clinical outcome retrospectively of cervical cancer patients treated definitively with either high-dose-rate (HDR) or low-dose-rate (LDR) brachytherapy.

Methods And Materials: One hundred sixty patients (44 Stage I, 83 Stage II, and 33 Stage III) were treated from 1990 to 2000 with curative intent for carcinoma of the cervix. One hundred three LDR patients were compared to 57 HDR patients.

Image-based intracavitary brachytherapy in the treatment of inoperable uterine cancer: individual dose specification at specific anatomical sites.

Purpose: With advances in imaging studies, dose specification for uterine cancer can be defined at specific anatomical sites such as the myometrium or the serosal surface rather than at arbitrary points or milligram-hours. This report presents our experience with image-based brachytherapy for inoperable uterine cancer.

Methods And Materials: Eight patients with organ-confined uterine cancer (2 Stage I GI, 3 Stage I G2, 3 Stage I G3) underwent definitive radiation therapy because of poor medical condition.

A prospective evaluation of the timing of postoperative radiotherapy for preventing heterotopic ossification following traumatic acetabular fractures.

Purpose: Preoperative and immediate postoperative irradiation of traumatic acetabular fractures (TAF), although known to reduce heterotopic ossification (HO), can cause significant organizational and logistic difficulties. We sought to determine an acceptable time interval between surgery and radiation without compromising control, as well as to update our large experience and to further validate our treatment philosophy.

Methods And Materials: Beginning in June 1995, we began a prospective study, irradiating 152 patients on postoperative days 1, 2, or 3.