Piloting a Hospital Pharmacy Performance Model in the Face of Province-Wide Implementation of Activity-Based Funding in Quebec Health Care Centres.

Background: In the face of province-wide implementation of activity-based hospital funding in Quebec, a need arose to effectively measure pharmacists' contributions along the patient care trajectory and to enable pharmacy benchmarking using valid performance indicators.

Objectives: A 3-phase project was initiated to measure the performance and impact of pharmacists and pharmacy departments. Phases 2 and 3, described here, focused on gradually implementing, in various health care centres, the priority indicators selected in phase 1.

Proteomics of dark cutting longissimus thoracis muscle from heifer and steer carcasses.

Studies have suggested that the phenomenon of dark cutting (Canada B4) beef may also be related to muscle glycolytic proteins. The objective of this study, therefore, was to analyze longissimus thoracis (LT; n=23), from Canada AA (n=8), atypical (AB4; pH<5.9, n=8) and typical (TB4; pH>5.

Maternal nutrient restriction in mid-to-late gestation influences fetal mRNA expression in muscle tissues in beef cattle.

Background: Manipulating maternal nutrition during specific periods of gestation can result in re-programming of fetal and post-natal development. In this experiment we investigated how a feed restriction of 85% compared with 140% of total metabolizable energy requirements, fed to cows during mid-to-late gestation, influences phenotypic development of fetuses and mRNA expression of growth (Insulin-Like Growth Factor family and Insulin Receptor (INSR)), myogenic (Myogenic Differentiation 1 (MYOD1), Myogenin (MYOG), Myocyte Enhancer Factor 2A (MEF2A), Serum Response Factor (SRF)) and adipogenic (Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptor Gamma (PPARG)) genes in fetal longissimus dorsi (LD) and semitendinosus (ST) muscle. DNA methylation of imprinted genes, Insulin Like Growth Factor 2 (IGF2) and Insulin Like Growth Factor 2 Receptor (IGF2R), and micro RNA (miRNA) expression, were also examined as potential consequences of poor maternal nutrition, but also potential regulators of altered gene expression patterns.

The imitation switch ATPase Snf2l is required for superovulation and regulates Fgl2 in differentiating mouse granulosa cells.

Imitation switch (ISWI) proteins are catalytic subunits of chromatin remodeling complexes that alter nucleosome positioning by hydrolyzing ATP to regulate access to DNA. In mice, there are two paralogs, SNF2-homolog (SNF2H) and SNF2-like (SNF2L), which participate in different complexes and have contrasting patterns of expression. Here we investigate the role of SNF2L in ovaries by characterizing a mouse bearing an inactivating deletion of exon 6 that disrupts the ATPase domain.

The oncolytic poxvirus JX-594 selectively replicates in and destroys cancer cells driven by genetic pathways commonly activated in cancers.

Oncolytic viruses are generally designed to be cancer selective on the basis of a single genetic mutation. JX-594 is a thymidine kinase (TK) gene-inactivated oncolytic vaccinia virus expressing granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and lac-Z transgenes that is designed to destroy cancer cells through replication-dependent cell lysis and stimulation of antitumoral immunity. JX-594 has demonstrated a favorable safety profile and reproducible tumor necrosis in a variety of solid cancer types in clinical trials.

Development and validation of the PAIR (Pharmacotherapy Assessment in Chronic Renal Disease) criteria to assess medication safety and use issues in patients with CKD.

Background: Explicit criteria for judging medication safety and use issues in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are lacking.

Study Design: Quality improvement report.

Setting & Participants: Nephrologists (n = 4), primary care physicians (n = 2), hospital pharmacists with expertise in nephrology (n = 4), and community pharmacists (n = 2).

Quantitative assay for the detection of the V617F variant in the Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) gene using the Luminex xMAP technology.

Background: The availability of clinically valid biomarkers contribute to improve the diagnosis and clinical management of diseases. A valine-to-phenylalanine substitution at position 617 (V617F) in the Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) gene has been recently associated with key signaling abnormalities in the transduction of haemopoietic growth-factor receptors and is now considered as a useful clinical marker of myeloproliferative neoplasms. Several methods have recently been reported to detect the JAK2 V617F point mutation and show variable sensitivity.

Pig preovulatory oocytes modulate cumulus cell protein and gene expression in vitro.

This study investigated the changes in protein and gene expression in oocytectomized cumulus cells (OOX) of medium-sized follicles from gilts, cultured with or without denuded oocytes isolated from large oestrogenic sow follicles. Proteomic analysis identified 14 proteins that were differentially expressed in OOX, of which the protein 14-3-3 eta, a signal transduction pathway modulator, was down-regulated in the presence of oocytes. Oocyte co-culture also down-regulated FSHR mRNA expression in OOX, as measured by real-time PCR, and FSHR and 14-3-3 eta mRNA abundance were positively correlated.

Temporal regulation of BMP2, BMP6, BMP15, GDF9, BMPR1A, BMPR1B, BMPR2 and TGFBR1 mRNA expression in the oocyte, granulosa and theca cells of developing preovulatory follicles in the pig.

This study aimed to describe the abundance and localization of BMP2, BMP6, BMP15, GDF9, BMPR1A, BMPR1B, BMPR2 and TGFBR1 mRNA during pig preovulatory follicular development and to evaluate their implication in improving follicular maturity in the preovulatory period preceding the second versus first post-weaning oestrus. Oocytes, granulosa (GC) and theca cells (TC) were recovered from antral follicles of primiparous sows at day 1, 2 and 4 after weaning and at day 14, 16 and 20 of their subsequent oestrous cycle. Real-time PCR analysis revealed that with the exception of BMP6 mRNA, which was absent in GC, all genes were expressed in every cell type.

The potential role of gap junction communication between cumulus cells and bovine oocytes during in vitro maturation.

Preliminary studies in our laboratory have indicated that modulating cumulus expansion early or late during culture has a profound influence on the subsequent development of cumulus-enclosed oocytes. Our objectives were to evaluate the effect of short term exposure to recombinant human follicle-stimulating hormone (r-hFSH) during in vitro maturation (IVM) on cumulus expansion and developmental competence of bovine oocytes. A highly significant (P < 0.

RNA interference as a tool to study gene function in bovine oocytes.

RNA interference (RNAi) has become a well-established technique to study gene function in several species. Our objective was to develop a RNAi approach to study gene function in bovine oocytes. In the first experiment, three different treatments including a 20 min exposure to cytochalasin B, a 6 hr maturation in cycloheximide, and a combination of these two treatments were tested to improve oocyte survival following microinjection.

Identification of porcine oocyte proteins that are associated with somatic cell nuclei after co-incubation.

Relatively little is known with respect to the oocyte proteins that are involved in nuclear reprogramming of somatic cells in mammals. The aim of the present study was to use a cell-free incubation system between porcine oocyte proteins and somatic cell nuclei and to identify oocyte proteins that remain associated with these somatic cell nuclei. In two separate experiments, porcine oocytes were either labeled with biotin to label total proteins at the germinal vesicle stage or metaphase II stage or they were labeled with 0.

Pitx1 in vivo promoter activity and mechanisms of positive autoregulation.

During early mouse embryogenesis, Pitx1 (pituitary homeobox 1), a member of the bicoid subgroup of PAIRED homeobox-containing transcription factors, marks the stomodeum, oral ectoderm, pituitary and first branchial arch in the anterior part of the embryo and lateral plate mesoderm only in the posterior half of the embryo. We have now defined PITX1 promoter fragments that mimic the anterior but not posterior expression of PITX1 in transgenic mice. In addition, we show positive regulation of this promoter in transfection studies by three members of the Pitx1 family (Pitx1, Pitx1b, Pitx2), as well as by a related factor, Otx1.