Impact of horticultural therapy on patients admitted to psychiatric wards, a randomised, controlled and open trial.

Psychiatric inpatients often endure anxiety. This randomized trial assessed the impact of horticultural therapy on anxiety in adult psychiatric inpatients over four weeks, compared to standard care. Recruiting 211 inpatients from six units were randomized into control (n = 105) and experimental (n = 106) groups.

Apoptotic pulsed dendritic cells induce a protective immune response against Toxoplasma gondii.

Infection with the intracellular protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii may cause severe sequelae in foetuses and life-threatening neuropathy in immunocompromised patients. We recently reported that vaccination with T. gondii-pulsed dendritic cells induces protective humoral and cellular immune responses against this intracellular pathogen in CBA/J mice.

Acute infection by conjunctival route with Brucella melitensis induces IgG+ cells and IFN-gamma producing cells in peripheral and mucosal lymph nodes in sheep.

The early distribution of Brucella melitensis and the immune response induced in lymphoid tissues and lymph nodes (LN) draining the upper respiratory tract were analysed in sheep. An experimental acute infection was performed by inoculating the sheep with the virulent H38 strain of B. melitensis by the conjunctival route.

Differential expression of homing receptors and vascular addressins in tonsils and draining lymph nodes: Effect of Brucella infection in sheep.

The differential expression of homing receptors (HR) and complementary vascular addressins was studied in T and B lymphocytes from ovine tonsils and draining lymph nodes (LN) in uninfected and Brucella melitensis-infected sheep. In uninfected sheep, CD4+CD25+ T cells expressed proportionally more L-selectin and beta1 integrin than beta7 integrin in pharyngeal and palatine tonsils and in parotid LN (PLN), retropharyngeal LN (RLN) and the peripheral prescapular LN (PSLN). In contrast, memory CD4+CD45RA- T cells expressed an equivalent proportion of the three HR in PLN and PSLN, whereas beta1 and beta7 integrins were proportionally more expressed than L-selectin in pharyngeal tonsil.