SARM1 is responsible for calpain-dependent dendrite degeneration in mouse hippocampal neurons.

Sterile alpha and toll/interleukin receptor motif-containing 1 (SARM1) is a critical regulator of axon degeneration that acts through hydrolysis of NAD following injury. Recent work has defined the mechanisms underlying SARM1's catalytic activity and advanced our understanding of SARM1 function in axons, yet the role of SARM1 signaling in other compartments of neurons is still not well understood. Here, we show in cultured hippocampal neurons that endogenous SARM1 is present in axons, dendrites, and cell bodies and that direct activation of SARM1 by the neurotoxin Vacor causes not just axon degeneration, but degeneration of all neuronal compartments.

Contemplative Listening in Moral Issues: Moral Counseling Redefined in Principles and Method.

We present a listening grid for moral counseling, in which we pay particular attention, alongside the what, to how clients talk about themselves: as if they were spectators; aware what this talking does to them; how they perceive what is good from the past; and what they will strive for in the future. By this moral talk, clients discover a picture of the conviction that will enable them to make a decision.

Request for organ donation without donor registration: a qualitative study of the perspectives of bereaved relatives.

Background: In the Netherlands, consent from relatives is obligatory for post mortal donation. This study explored the perspectives of relatives regarding the request for consent for donation in cases without donor registration.

Methods: A content analysis of narratives of 24 bereaved relatives (14 in-depth interviews and one letter) of unregistered, eligible, brain-dead donors was performed.

Decision making on organ donation: the dilemmas of relatives of potential brain dead donors.

Background: This article is part of a study to gain insight into the decision-making process by looking at the views of the relatives of potential brain dead donors. Alongside a literature review, focus interviews were held with healthcare professionals about their role in the request and decision-making process when post-mortal donation is at stake. This article describes the perspectives of the relatives.

Intensive care staff, the donation request and relatives' satisfaction with the decision: a focus group study.

Background: Effectiveness of the donation request is generally measured by consent rates, rather than by relatives' satisfaction with their decision. Our aim was to elicit Dutch ICU staffs' views and experiences with the donation request, to investigate their awareness of (dis)satisfaction with donation decisions by relatives, specifically in the case of refusal, and to collect advice that may leave more relatives satisfied with their decision.

Methods: Five focus groups with a total of 32 participants (IC physicians, IC nurses and transplant coordinators) from five university hospitals in the Netherlands.

MICU2, a paralog of MICU1, resides within the mitochondrial uniporter complex to regulate calcium handling.

Mitochondrial calcium uptake is present in nearly all vertebrate tissues and is believed to be critical in shaping calcium signaling, regulating ATP synthesis and controlling cell death. Calcium uptake occurs through a channel called the uniporter that resides in the inner mitochondrial membrane. Recently, we used comparative genomics to identify MICU1 and MCU as the key regulatory and putative pore-forming subunits of this channel, respectively.

Decision making by relatives about brain death organ donation: an integrative review.

Background: Deciding about the organ donation of one's brain-dead beloved often occurs in an unexpected and delicate situation. We explored the decision making of the relatives of potential brain-dead donors, its evaluation, and the factors influencing decision making.

Methods: We used the integrative review method.

Moral counselling: a method in development.

This article describes a method of moral counselling developed in the Radboud University Medical Centre Nijmegen (The Netherlands). The authors apply insights of Paul Ricoeur to the non-directive counselling method of Carl Rogers in their work of coaching patients with moral problems in health care. The developed method was shared with other health care professionals in a training course.

Germline met mutations in mice reveal mutation- and background-associated differences in tumor profiles.

Background: The receptor tyrosine kinase Met is involved in the progression and metastasis of numerous human cancers. Although overexpression and autocrine activation of the Met signaling pathway are commonly found in human cancers, mutational activation of Met has been observed in small cell and non-small cell lung cancers, lung adenocarcinomas, renal carcinomas, and mesotheliomas.

Methodology/principal Findings: To investigate the influence of mutationally activated Met in tumorigenesis, we utilized a novel mouse model.

Met induces diverse mammary carcinomas in mice and is associated with human basal breast cancer.

Understanding the signaling pathways that drive aggressive breast cancers is critical to the development of effective therapeutics. The oncogene MET is associated with decreased survival in breast cancer, yet the role that MET plays in the various breast cancer subtypes is unclear. We describe a knockin mouse with mutationally activated Met (Met(mut)) that develops a high incidence of diverse mammary tumors with basal characteristics, including metaplasia, absence of progesterone receptor and ERBB2 expression, and expression of cytokeratin 5.