The impact of the economic crisis on occupational injuries.

Introduction: The potential influence of the current economic crisis on occupational accident rates and accident severity is studied in an analysis of all workplace accidents that occurred in Spain throughout the period 2000-2009.

Method And Results: The investigation confirms that occupational accidents in Spain are affected by the current economic crisis, which has provoked a sharp fall in both the number of accidents and the probability of having one. This may be justified by certain factors such as age, gender, length of service, size of the firm, and the employment stability of the injured worker.

Iron deprivation blocks multilineage haematopoietic differentiation by inhibiting induction of p21(WAF1/CIP1).

Iron is required for the differentiation of HL-60 cells along the monocyte lineage in vitro, reflecting a requirement for iron in the transcriptional induction of the p21(WAF1/CIP1) gene. To determine if the same requirement holds true for differentiation in other cell lineages and for primary human CD34(+) bone marrow precursor cells, we induced granulocyte differentiation by treating HL-60 cells with dimethyl sulphoxide, and erythroid or megakaryocytic differentiation by treating K562 cells with butyrate or phorbol myristate acetate, respectively. Nitro blue tetrazolium reduction, expression of haem, or expression of CD41 was used to assess granulocytic, erythroid, or megakaryocytic differentiation respectively.

Differentiation of functional dendritic cells and macrophages from human peripheral blood monocyte precursors is dependent on expression of p21 (WAF1/CIP1) and requires iron.

Iron is required for monocyte/macrophage differentiation of HL-60 leukaemia cells. Differentiation requires induction of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21 (WAF1/CIP1), and cell cycle arrest at the G1/S checkpoint. With iron depletion, p21 induction and differentiation are blocked.

Expression of different NF-kappaB pathway genes in dendritic cells (DCs) or macrophages assessed by gene expression profiling.

NF-kappaB/Rel transcription factors have been implicated in the differentiation of monocytes to either dendritic cells (DCs) or macrophages, as well as in the maturation of DCs from antigen-processing to antigen-presenting cells. Recent studies of the expression pattern of Rel proteins and their inhibitors (IkappaBs) suggest that their regulation during this differentiation process is transcriptional. To investigate differential gene expression between macrophages and DCs, we used commercially available gene microarrays (GEArray KIT), which included four of the NF-kappaB/Rel family genes (p50/p105, p52/p100, RelB, and c-rel) and 32 additional genes either in the NF-kappaB signal transduction pathway or under transcriptional control of NF-kappaB/Rel factors.

Expression of multiple genes regulating cell cycle and apoptosis in differentiating hematopoietic cells is dependent on iron.

Objective: Iron plays critical roles in many biological processes including hematopoietic cell growth and differentiation. Iron is essential for the differentiation of HL-60 promonocytes. HL-60 cells stimulated with phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) undergo G1/S phase cell-cycle arrest and differentiate to monocyte/macrophages.