Role of an aquaporin in the sheep tick Ixodes ricinus: assessment as a potential control target.

Ticks undergo tremendous osmoregulatory stress as they take on up to 100 times their body weight in blood, returning about 75% of the ingested water and ions via their saliva into the host. We postulated that water channels, or aquaporins, involved in this mass water transport might be good targets for acaricide development. An aquaporin (IrAQP1) identified in the sheep tick, Ixodes ricinus, was present only in tissues involved in mass water flux, namely the gut, rectal sac and especially abundant in the salivary glands.

Increased endogenous carbon monoxide production in severe sepsis.

Objective: A comparison was made between the endogenous carbon monoxide (CO) production in mechanically ventilated critically ill adult patients with, and those without, severe sepsis.

Design: Prospective comparative study.

Setting: Medical ICU in a community hospital.

Erythromycin and early enteral nutrition in mechanically ventilated patients.

Objective: To determine whether erythromycin facilitates early enteral nutrition in mechanically ventilated, critically ill patients.

Design: Prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, single-blind trial.

Setting: General intensive care unit in a university-affiliated general hospital.

Exhaled carbon monoxide in mechanically ventilated critically ill patients: influence of inspired oxygen fraction.

Objective: To assess the feasibility of exhaled carbon monoxide (CO) measurements in mechanically ventilated critically ill adult patients and to determine the influence of inspired oxygen fraction on this measurement.

Design: Prospective physiologic study.

Setting: Medical ICU in a community hospital.