Improvement in the pre-hospital care of recreational drug users through the development of club specific ambulance referral guidelines.

Background: Previously developed 'club guidelines' developed for club owners and promoters have tended to focus more on the legislative aspects of clubs, rather than the medical management of unwell clubbers within club environments. Despite this lack of guidance on the management of unwell clubbers, a significant proportion of clubs have 'club medic' rooms for managing these individuals. However, due to the lack of specific guidance on the training of staff working in these rooms and guidelines on when an ambulance should be called for an unwell clubber, there have been instances previously where clubbers have been inappropriately managed within the club environment, and often referred to hospital only after significant physiological derangement has occurred, thereby leading to an increased risk of morbidity and mortality.

Endothelial and steroidogenic cell migration are regulated by WNT4 in the developing mammalian gonad.

The signalling molecule WNT4 has been associated with sex reversal phenotypes in mammals. Here we show that the role of WNT4 in gonad development is to pattern the sex-specific vasculature and to regulate steroidogenic cell recruitment. Vascular formation and steroid production in the mammalian gonad occur in a sex-specific manner.

Dax1 expression is dependent on steroidogenic factor 1 in the developing gonad.

The nuclear hormone receptor DAX1 has been implicated in mammalian gonad development and sex determination. The expression of the gene in the gonad follows a dynamic pattern in time and place in the embryo and the adult. We have undertaken the first in vivo study of the regulation of Dax1 expression.

Function of the Eph-related kinase rtk1 in patterning of the zebrafish forebrain.

Early during its development, the vertebrate brain is subdivided into regions that have distinct fates and correlate with the expression domains of regulatory genes, but little is known about the cell-cell interactions that establish this spatial pattern. Candidates for regulating such interactions are the Eph-related receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) which have spatially restricted expression in the developing brain. These RTKs may mediate cell-contact-dependent signalling by interacting with membrane-bound ligands, and have been implicated in axon repulsion and the segmental restriction of gene expression in the hindbrain, but nothing is known regarding their function in the rostral neural epithelium.

Cell-cell interactions and segmentation in the developing vertebrate hindbrain.

During development of the vertebrate hindbrain, regulatory gene expression becomes precisely restricted to specific segments. Studies at the cellular and molecular levels suggest that establishment of this precise pattern of gene expression may involve a dynamic regulation of cell identity and a restriction of cell movement across rhombomere boundaries. Candidates for mediating such interactions are several members of the Eph-related receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) family that have segmental expression in the hindbrain.