Returning to Work After Childbirth and Women's Mental Health: The Place of Work-Family Conflict and of Social Supports in a Population of Working Mothers in Paris Area.

Objective: Analyzing in a cross-sectional study the factors associated with mental health in 1511 recently delivered women returning to work, the mediating role of work-family interface, and the moderating role of social supports.

Methods: Data were collected at 3 months after returning to work to assess work characteristics (Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire), work-family conflict (Survey Work-Home Interaction Nijmegen), anxiodepressive symptoms (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), commuting, childcare, household demands, and social supports.

Results: Anxiety and, to a lesser extent, depressive symptoms were associated with work factors, the opposite for the nonwork demands.

Composite cell sheets: a further step toward safe and effective myocardial regeneration by cardiac progenitors derived from embryonic stem cells.

Background: The safety and efficacy of myocardial regeneration using embryonic stem cells are limited by the risk of teratoma and the high rate of cell death.

Methods And Results: To address these issues, we developed a composite construct made of a sheet of adipose tissue-derived stroma cells and embryonic stem cell-derived cardiac progenitors. Ten Rhesus monkeys underwent a transient coronary artery occlusion followed, 2 weeks later, by the open-chest delivery of the composite cell sheet over the infarcted area or a sham operation.

Is xenotransplantation of embryonic stem cells a realistic option?

To test the purported immune privilege of embryonic stem cells (ESC) in the challenging setting of xenotransplantation, 14 immunocompetent baboons were subjected to a coronary artery occlusion-reperfusion sequence and, two weeks later, randomized to receive in-scar injections of culture medium or cardiac-committed mouse ESC engineered to express fluorescent reporter genes driven by cardiac-specific promoters. Two months after transplantation, left ventricular function, as assessed by echocardiography, deteriorated to a similar extent in control and treated baboons. This correlated with failure to identify the grafted cells by X-gal histology and immunofluorescence.

Psychostimulants and G tolerance in rhesus monkeys: effects of oral modafinil and injected caffeine.

Introduction: Caffeine and modafinil are psychostimulants that may be taken by fighter aircraft pilots to reduce fatigue. Fighter pilots are subjected to high positive G loads that reduce cerebral blood flow and consequently may induce G-LOC. The aim of the experiment was to determine whether these drugs may reduce tolerance to G stress.

Influence of mobilized stem cells on myocardial infarct repair in a nonhuman primate model.

Although previous findings have suggested that some adult stem cells are pluripotent and could differentiate in an appropriate microenvironment, the fate conversion of adult stem cells is currently being debated. Here, we studied the ability of mobilized stem cells to repair cardiac tissue injury in a nonhuman primate model of acute myocardial infarction. Mobilization was carried out with stem cell factor, 25 mcg/Kg/d (D), and granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor, 100 mcg/Kg/D administered 5 days before (D - 5 group; n = 3) or 4 hours after (H + 4 group; n = 4) circumflex coronary artery ligation; no growth factor was administered to 3 baboons of the control group.

Use of monoclonal antibodies for immunohistochemical study of bovine lymph nodes on frozen sections.

Many monoclonal antibodies reactive with bovine leukocyte differentiation antigens are now available. Immunohistochemical staining on frozen sections using these monoclonal antibodies permits study of the functional morphology of bovine lymph nodes. Our study confirms usually accepted notions (B and T dependent-zones) and supplies complementary data about the repartition of CD4 cells (particularly intrafollicular positive cells), gamma delta T cells, MHC II expression and dendritic leukocytes.

[Immunohistochemistry of bovine lymphoid tissue: neutralization of the non-specific reactivities of serum anti-immunoglobulins by bovine serum].

In lymphoid tissue, the presence of high amounts of free proteins and immunoglobulins frequently leads to the observation of non-specific reactivities during immunohistochemical reactions. The types of anti-immunoglobulin sera utilized in these immunohistochemical reactions may be capable of identifying immunoglobulins secreted or harboured by the tissue cells under study, leading to non-specific marking. Incubation of these antisera with serum from the species in which the lymphoid tissue is studied neutralizes the non-specific reactivities connected with the presence of tissue immunoglobulins.