Epistemologies of evidence-based medicine: a plea for corpus-based conceptual research in the medical humanities.

Evidence-based medicine has been the subject of much controversy within and outside the field of medicine, with its detractors characterizing it as reductionist and authoritarian, and its proponents rejecting such characterization as a caricature of the actual practice. At the heart of this controversy is a complex linguistic and social process that cannot be illuminated by appealing to the semantics of the modifier evidence-based. The complexity lies in the nature of evidence as a basic concept that circulates in both expert and non-expert spheres of communication, supports different interpretations in different contexts, and is inherently open to contestation.

Interaction of Saccharomyces boulardii with intestinal brush border membranes: key to probiotic effects?

The probiotic Saccharomyces boulardii exerts beneficial effects in humans, which include trophic effects, anti-inflammatory effects, antisecretory effects, inhibition of toxins, immunostimulatory effects, and resistance to bacterial overgrowth. This short communication discusses the interactions of the probiotic with brush border membrane (BBM) constituents because most of these effects are BBM mediated. The use of bacterial and yeast probiotics has increased dramatically in more and more clinical states, but their exact mechanisms of action remain largely unknown.

Transduction pathways regulating the trophic effects of Saccharomyces boulardii in rat intestinal mucosa.

Unlabelled: Saccharomyces boulardii is a probiotic yeast that is widely prescribed in lyophilized form; it determines several effects in human and rat small intestine including endoluminal secretion of enzymes and of polyamines, stimulation of microvillous enzymes, of sIgA, increased production of the receptor for polymeric immunoglobulins by crypt cells, and enhanced d-glucose uptake.

Aim: The objective of this study was to determine the pathway(s) by which these effects generated by the yeast are transduced into mucosal cells.

Methods: Litters of six growing Wistar rats each were treated with S.