Improving Self-Care Outcomes in Ostomy Patients via Education and Standardized Discharge Criteria.

Adjusting to life with a new ostomy is a daunting prospect for many patients. Without proper education, complications can occur, some requiring hospital readmission. Many home healthcare nurses also face the challenge of training new ostomy patients in self-care.

Quantitative assays of chemotaxis and chemokinesis for human neural cells.

Cell migration is vital for many physiological processes, and its modulation is likely to be of therapeutic benefit. In this study we have developed fluorescence image-based chemokinesis and chemotaxis assays on the Cellomics (Pittsburgh, PA) ArrayScan platform, which would be suitable for industrial drug discovery in a variety of fields. Studying the migratory characteristics of neural stem cells is of interest for understanding the therapeutic potential of these cells, in terms of both cellular transplantation and the activation of endogenous populations of stem cells.

Native and recombinant human Edg4 receptor-mediated Ca(2+) signalling.

We have developed an assay system suitable for assessment of compound action on the Edg4 subtype of the widely expressed lysophosphatidic acid (LPA)-responsive Edg receptor family. Edg4 was stably overexpressed in the rat hepatoma cell line Rh 7777, and a Ca(2+)-based FLIPR assay developed for measurement of functional responses. In order to investigate the mechanisms linking Edg4 activation to cytosolic Ca(2+) elevation, we have also studied LPA signalling in a human neuroblastoma cell line that endogenously expresses Edg4.