Modernising medical careers and factors influencing career choices of medical students.

This article details medical students' views towards future career choices and factors that may influence this choice. The role of gender in career choice and the importance of structured career advice and management is highlighted and discussed.

The dynamic rotation of Langer's lines on facial expression.

Karl Langer investigated directional variations in the mechanical and physical properties of skin [Gibson T. Editorial. Karl Langer (1819-1887) and his lines.

Mechanical signals and IGF-I gene splicing in vitro in relation to development of skeletal muscle.

It has been shown that the insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I) gene is spliced in response to mechanical signals producing forms of IGF-I which have different actions. In order to study how mechanical signals influence this gene splicing in developing muscle, C2C12 cells were grown in three-dimensional (3D) culture and subjected to different regimens of mechanical strain. IGF-IEa which initiates the fusion of myoblasts to form myotubes was found to be constitutively expressed in myoblasts and myotubes (held under endogenous tension) and its expression upregulated by a single ramp stretch of 1-h duration but reduced by repeated cyclical stretch.