The patient's experience of early discharge following total hip replacement.

Background: Strategies within the public health system to curtail costs, increase efficiency and service utilisation have resulted in reduced hospital stays following elective orthopaedic procedures. Although there are advantages that support the concept of early discharge from hospital, very little is known about how patients manage the transition from hospital to home.

Aim: The aim of this qualitative study was to describe the post-discharge experience of elderly patients following primary total hip replacement (THR).

Structural basis of specificity and cross-reactivity in T cell receptors specific for cytochrome c-I-E(k).

T cells specific for the cytochrome c Ag are widely used to investigate many aspects of TCR specificity and interactions with peptide-MHC, but structural information has long been elusive. In this study, we present structures for the well-studied 2B4 TCR, as well as a naturally occurring variant of the 5c.c7 TCR, 226, which is cross-reactive with more than half of possible substitutions at all three TCR-sensitive residues on the peptide Ag.

Regulation of insulin-responsive aminopeptidase expression and targeting in the insulin-responsive vesicle compartment of glucose transporter isoform 4-deficient cardiomyocytes.

In adipocytes and cardiac or skeletal muscle, glucose transporter isoform 4 (GLUT4) is targeted to insulin-responsive intracellular membrane vesicles (IRVs) that contain several membrane proteins, including insulin-responsive aminopeptidase (IRAP) that completely colocalizes with GLUT4 in basal and insulin-treated cells. Cardiac GLUT4 content is reduced by 65-85% in IRAP knockout mice, suggesting that IRAP may regulate the targeting or degradation of GLUT4. To determine whether GLUT4 is required for maintenance of IRAP content within IRVs, we studied the expression and cellular localization of IRAP and other GLUT4 vesicle-associated proteins, in hearts of mice with cardiac-specific deletion of GLUT4 (G4H-/-).

Structural and sequence comparisons arising from the solution structure of the transcription elongation factor NusG from Thermus thermophilus.

NusG is an essential bacterial protein modulator of transcriptional elongation and termination events, and interacts directly with RNA polymerase and Rho protein. Found also in Archaea, NusG shows stretches of sequence similarity to the eukaryotic transcription elongation factor Spt5. Herein, the three-dimensional solution structure of the bacterial NusG from Thermus thermophilus, which shows 43% amino acid sequence similarity to the Escherichia coli NusG, is described, and a survey of NusG and Spt5 amino acid sequences is presented.

Uncompromised generation of a specific H-2DM-dependent peptide-MHC class II complex from exogenous antigen in Leishmania mexicana-infected dendritic cells.

Leishmania infection inhibits the capacity of macrophages (MPhi) to present antigens to CD4(+) T cells. Relocation of MHC class II and H-2DM to the parasitophorous vacuole (PV) and their subsequent degradation by the parasite may contribute to this defect. Dendritic cells (DC) are critical for initiation of primary T cell responses.