Characterization of the Basal and mTOR-Dependent Acute Pulmonary and Systemic Immune Response in a Murine Model of Combined Burn and Inhalation Injury.

Severe burn injury leads to a cascade of local and systemic immune responses that trigger an extreme state of immune dysfunction, leaving the patient highly susceptible to acute and chronic infection. When combined with inhalation injury, burn patients have higher mortality and a greater chance of developing secondary respiratory complications including infection. No animal model of combined burn and inhalation injury (B+I) exists that accurately mirrors the human clinical picture, nor are there any effective immunotherapies or predictive models of the risk of immune dysfunction.

Role of Nitric Oxide-Releasing Glycosaminoglycans in Wound Healing.

Two glycosaminoglycan (GAG) biopolymers, hyaluronic acid (HA) and chondroitin sulfate (CS), were chemically modified via carbodiimide chemistry to facilitate the loading and release of nitric oxide (NO) to develop a multi-action wound healing agent. The resulting NO-releasing GAGs released 0.2-0.

Nitric Oxide-Releasing Hyaluronic Acid as an Antibacterial Agent for Wound Therapy.

Taking advantage of their respective wound-healing roles in physiology, the dual activity of hyaluronic acid (HA) and nitric oxide (NO) was combined to create a single-agent wound therapeutic. Carboxylic acid groups of HA (6 and 90 kDa) were chemically modified with a series of alkylamines via carbodiimide chemistry to provide secondary amines for subsequent -diazeniumdiolate NO donor formation. The resulting NO-releasing HA derivatives stored 0.

Women's use of complementary and alternative medicines during pregnancy: a cross-sectional study.

Objective: to determine the prevalence of women's use of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) during pregnancy in the UK, reasons for use, who recommended CAM, and the characteristics of women that are associated with use of CAM during pregnancy.

Design: cross-sectional questionnaire.

Setting: Birmingham Women's Hospital.