Strategy for Deployment of Integrated Healthy Aging Regions Based Upon an Evidence-Based Regional Ecosystem-The Styria Model.

In 2013, the European Commission founded the platform European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Aging as a communication and innovation network in this domain. The goal of the current study was the development of an integrated regional ecosystem for active and healthy aging for the region of Styria via a step-by-step co-creation process. A mixed model approach was used to establish an ecosystem for active and healthy aging, which includes macro-, meso- and micro-level stakeholders in the province of Styria, Austria.

B-mode ultrasonographic characterization of carotid atherosclerotic plaques in symptomatic and asymptomatic patients.

Objective: To identify features on B-mode ultrasonography (US) prevalent in symptomatic plaques and correlate these findings with histopathologic markers of plaque instability.

Methods: Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) plaques from symptomatic and asymptomatic patients with critical stenoses (>70%) were qualitatively assessed using preoperative B-mode US for echolucency and calcific acoustic shadowing. US echolucency was quantitated ex vivo using computerized techniques for gray-scale median (GSM) analysis.

1,3-Diacylglycero-2-phosphocholines--synthesis, aggregation behaviour and properties as inhibitors of phospholipase D.

A series of 1,3-diacylglycero-2-phosphocholines (1,3-PCs) with acyl chain lengths of C8-C18 were synthesised by chemical introduction of the phosphocholine moiety into the regioisomerically pure 1,3-diacylglycerols, which were obtained from glycerol and the vinyl esters of fatty acid by means of lipase from Rhizomucor mihei. The 1,3-PCs being regioisomers of the natural glycerophospholipids were studied with respect to their aggregation behaviour in the absence and in the presence of sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) as well as their properties as substrates and inhibitors of phospholipase D (PLD) from cabbage. While the main structures of the pure 1,3-PCs were micelles (C8), liposomes (C10, C12) or planar bilayers (C14, C16, C18), the addition of SDS resulted in the formation of mixed micelles (C8, C10) and mixed liposomes (C12, C14, C16, C18).

[Comparative research on cellular immunostimulation by whole-body irradiation].

The effect of the cellular immune response by total body irradiation was investigated. The transplant survival (skin grafts) was determined as immune parameter. Donors were colony-bred Wistar rats and recipients were colony-bred Sprague-Dawley rats.

Immunoglobulin and T cell receptor gene rearrangements in lymphoproliferative disorders.

Thirty-one samples representing Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathy (AILD), and benign follicular hyperplasia in HIV infections were examined for rearrangements of the immunoglobulin (Ig) and T cell receptor (TcR) beta-chain gene loci. In 11 of 12 non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (classified as Burkitt lymphoma (2), centrocytic lymphoma (1), centrocytic-centroblastic lymphoma (5), centroblastic lymphoma (3], only rearranged Ig genes could be detected. The exceptional case was an unclassified high-grade lymphoma, which represented a rearrangement of the TcR beta-chain.

[Animal experimental studies on the increase in the humoral immune response caused by whole body irradiation].

The production of antibodies against heterologous erythrocytes (sheep erythrocytes) can be significantly increased in mice and rats by total body irradiation. This effect depends upon the radiation dose applied and can be demonstrated only in animals immunized first and then irradiated at intervals of six hours. In vitro assays show indirectly that the radiogenic immune stimulation is caused by the varying radiosensitivity of the individual cell populations involved in the humoral immune reaction, leading to a relatively selective inactivation of T-suppressor cells.

[Comparative studies on the immunostimulation by whole-body irradiation or vincristine sulphate].

Comparative experimentations were performed on Sprague-Dawley rats in order to study the immunostimulation by whole-body irradiation with 60Co gamma radiation (doses between 0.5 and 2 Gy) or application of vincristine sulphate (doses between 1.5 and 6 micrograms per 100 g body weight).

[Tumor-specific immune response of hypernephroid renal carcinoma after in vitro irradiation (author's transl)].

It is possible to reproduce in vitro the induction in the leucocyte migration test of an immune response specific to hypernephroid carcinoma by preoperative radiation treatment of this neoplasm. The leucocyte migration is inhibited by soluble extracts of the tumor, prepared from hypernephroma-tissues (of 11 patients nontreated preoperatively) after in vitro irradiation either with electrons or with 60Co. This effect depends on the dose.

[Pre-operative irradiation and tumor-specific immune response in hypernephroid renal carcinoma (author's transl)].

In vitro demonstration of a tumor-specific immune response was tried using the so-called leucoycte migration test in altogether 32 patients with a hypernephroid renal carcinoma (nontreated before operation or pre-irradiated). The principle of this technique consists in the release of a lymphocyte factor by bringing in contact sensitized lymphocytes with the concerned tumourous tissue, the lymphocyte factor inhibiting the migration capacity of granulocytes. With hypernephroid cancerous tissue from nontreated patients no reaction was obtained in 12 of 13 cases (no inhibition of migration), whereas a positive reaction (inhibition of leuococyte migration) was observed in 17 out of 19 patients with hypernephromas having been irradiated before surgical treatment.

[Immunosuppression by means of cytostatic chemotherapy. Inhibition of antibody formation and induction of tolerance in animal experiments].

Two different experimental models are presented for the induction of immunosuppression and immunological tolerance in mice with antineoplastic drugs: a) an unspecific T cell activation with a phytomitogen (phytohemagglutinin), or b) a partial synchronization of antigen-induced proliferation by mitotic blockade with vincristinsulfate prepare lymphoid tissue for an increased sensitivity to cyclophosphamide. With the first model a complete (antigen-nonspecific) inhibition of antibody production--mediated by an inactivation of T cells which act synergistically with antibody-forming cell precursors during the induction of the humoral immune response ("helper cells") -- has been demonstrated. The second model was shown to be suitable for the induction of immunotolerance, indicating a rather selective suppression of a clone of antigen-specific cells.

Drug-induced immunological unresponsiveness: selective inhibition of T-cell 'helper function' by cyclophosphamide in mice pretreated with phytohaemagglutinin.

Studies involving the combined use of phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) and cyclophosphamide (CY) indicate that both agents can act together to produce immunological unresponsiveness: following injection of PHA into mice, splenic DNA synthetic responses [14C]thymidine incorporation) and haemolysin plaque formation against sheep red blood cells were determined in daily intervals. Both immunosuppression and DNA synthetic activity were maximally developed 5 days after treatment with PHA. Administration of CY at this time resulted in immunological unresponsiveness lasting for about 18 days.