Repetitive prenatal glucocorticoid therapy reduces oxidative stress in the lungs of preterm lambs.

Repetitive courses of maternal prenatal glucocorticoids are often used in high-risk pregnancies with threatening preterm labor to induce lung maturation, but the effects on the cellular oxidant-antioxidant balance in the fetal lung have not been evaluated. We investigated the effect of repetitive treatment with glucocorticoids, beginning early in gestation, on oxidative stress in the preterm ovine lung. Pregnant ewes were randomized to receive one, two, three, or four doses of 0.

The urban church and cancer control: a source of social influence in minority communities.

A study was conducted to examine the efficacy of a church-based model of social influence in improving access to and participation of underserved minority women in a cervical cancer control program. The model expanded on strategies used in previous hypertension control and health promotion research. A total of 24 churches, stratified by faith tradition, were randomly selected to participate in the cancer control program from a pool of 63 churches in a defined geographic area of Los Angeles County, CA.

Psychosocial stress can induce chronic hypertension in normotensive strains of rats.

We report on five 6-month experiments during which five colonies of four male and four female rats were exposed to psychosocial stress. Monthly blood pressure measurements by a tail-cuff method showed a modest (10 mm Hg) increase in two studies using Sprague-Dawley rats. In two further studies using the more aggressive Long-Evans strain, terminal direct carotid arterial pressures were taken as well, and in one study the differences exceeded 20 mm Hg.