Presynaptic Rac1 in the hippocampus selectively regulates working memory.

One of the most extensively studied members of the Ras superfamily of small GTPases, Rac1 is an intracellular signal transducer that remodels actin and phosphorylation signaling networks. Previous studies have shown that Rac1-mediated signaling is associated with hippocampal-dependent working memory and longer-term forms of learning and memory and that Rac1 can modulate forms of both pre- and postsynaptic plasticity. How these different cognitive functions and forms of plasticity mediated by Rac1 are linked, however, is unclear.

Presynaptic Rac1 in the hippocampus selectively regulates working memory.

One of the most extensively studied members of the Ras superfamily of small GTPases, Rac1 is an intracellular signal transducer that remodels actin and phosphorylation signaling networks. Previous studies have shown that Rac1-mediated signaling is associated with hippocampal-dependent working memory and longer-term forms of learning and memory and that Rac1 can modulate forms of both pre- and postsynaptic plasticity. How these different cognitive functions and forms of plasticity mediated by Rac1 are linked, however, is unclear.

Gender dynamics in the donation field: human tissue donation for research, therapy and feeding.

This paper examines how gender dynamics shape human tissue donation for research and for human health. Drawing on research investigating the donation of different types of bodily tissues including blood, plasma, breastmilk, cord blood, foetal tissue and placentae we consider how and why women and men are viewed as different kinds of donors. We situate these donation practices within a broader understanding of gender difference to explain why any sociology of donation needs to take account of gender.

Risky Bodies in the Plasma Bioeconomy: A Feminist Analysis.

In 2003 the UK National Blood Service introduced a policy of 'male donor preference' which involved women's plasma being discarded following blood collection. The policy was based on the view that data relating to the incidence of Transfusion-Related Acute Lung Injury (TRALI) was linked to transfusion with women's plasma. While appearing to treat female donors as equal to male donors, exclusion criteria operate after donation at the stage of processing blood, thus perpetuating myths of universality even though only certain 'extractions' from women are retained for use in transfusion.

Origin stories from a regional placenta tissue collection.

Twenty-three years ago when women and their children were recruited to a longitudinal genetic epidemiological study during pregnancy, placentas were collected at birth. This paper explores the history of a regional placenta biobank and contemporary understandings of its value for the constitution of a research population. We draw on interviews with some of the mothers and those responsible for the establishment and curation of the placenta collection in order to explore the significance and meaning of the collection for them.

Routine administration of Anti-D: the ethical case for offering pregnant women fetal RHD genotyping and a review of policy and practice.

Background: Since its introduction in the 1960s Anti-D immunoglobulin (Anti-D Ig) has been highly successful in reducing the incidence of haemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn (HDFN) and achieving improvements to maternal and fetal health. It has protected women from other invasive interventions during pregnancy and prevented deaths and damage amongst newborns and is a technology which has been adopted worldwide. Currently about one third of pregnant women with the blood group Rhesus D (RhD) negative in the UK (approximately 40,000 women per year in England and Wales), receive antenatal Anti-D Ig in pregnancy when they do not require it because they are carrying a RhD negative fetus.

Revaluing donor and recipient bodies in the globalised blood economy: transitions in public policy on blood safety in the United Kingdom.

The clinical use of blood has a long history, but its apparent stability belies the complexity of contemporary practices in this field. In this article, we explore how the production, supply and deployment of blood products are socially mediated, drawing on theoretical perspectives from recent work on 'tissue economies'. We highlight the ways in which safety threats in the form of infections that might be transmitted through blood and plasma impact on this tissue economy and how these have led to a revaluation of donor bodies and restructuring of blood economies.

The fetal tissue economy: from the abortion clinic to the stem cell laboratory.

This paper examines the exchange relationships between women undergoing abortion, the clinicians who procure fetal tissue and stem cell scientists in Britain, and argues that the fetal tissue economy is an important dimension of the gendered bioeconomy that underpins stem cell science. In so doing it suggests that the path from the abortion clinic to the stem cell laboratory differs from the route taken by pre-implantation embryos from the in vitro fertilisation clinic in important ways. It reports on a study which included 29 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with stem cell scientists, policymakers, clinicians, activists and sponsors of stem cell research.

Purity and the dangers of regenerative medicine: regulatory innovation of human tissue-engineered technology.

This paper examines the development of innovation in human tissue technologies as a form of regenerative medicine, firstly by applying 'pollution ideas' to contemporary trends in its risk regulation and to the processes of regulatory policy formation, and secondly by analysing the classificatory processes deployed in regulatory policy. The analysis draws upon data from fieldwork and documentary materials with a focus on the UK and EU (2002-05) and explores four arenas: governance and regulatory policy; commercialisation and the market; 'evidentiality' manifest in evidence-based policy; and publics' and technology users' values and ethics. The analysis suggests that there is a trend toward 'purification' across these arenas, both material and socio-political.

Regulating Hybrids: 'Making a Mess' and 'Cleaning Up' in Tissue Engineering and Transpecies Transplantation.

This paper explores the institutional regulation of novel biosciences, hybrid technologies that often disturb and challenge existing regulatory frameworks. Developing a conceptual vocabulary for understanding the relationship between material and institutional hybrids, the paper compares human tissue engineering (TE) and xenotransplantation (XT), areas of innovation which regulators have sought to govern separately and in isolation from one another. Contrasting definitional boundaries and regulatory mechanisms partition them socio-institutionally.

Lay experts and the politics of breast implants.

This paper discusses the controversy around breast implants in the United States and Europe. It focuses on the emergence of consumer and support groups for women and offers an analysis of the role they have played in recent policy developments in UK and Europe. The politics of breast implants is seen as a politics of knowledge in which scientific expertise has consistently been deployed in ways that minimize the credibility and legitimacy of women's accounts of their bodies and illness experiences.