Remember to breathe: teaching respiratory physiology in a clinical context using simulation.

Evidence shows that biomedical knowledge is more effectively taught within the medical curriculum by teaching in context, to facilitate learning transfer. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect of combining high-technology simulation and physiology teaching on medical student learning and experience. First-year medical students received respiratory physiology teaching in the form of lectures, problem-based learning, and practical sessions.

Intranasal Human Growth Hormone (hGH) Induces IGF-1 Levels Comparable With Subcutaneous Injection With Lower Systemic Exposure to hGH in Healthy Volunteers.

Context: The development of an improved, efficacious human GH (hGH) product administered by a noninjectable route of delivery such as the nasal route is highly desirable. We have developed a novel nasal hGH product (CP024) that showed excellent nasal absorption in animal models; however, the translation of these results into the clinical setting is essential because past attempts to develop such formulations by other groups have been unable to induce IGF-1 in man.

Objective: The objective of the study was to assess the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and tolerability of CP024 compared with a sc hGH injection.

Prediction of type 1 diabetes in Sardinian schoolchildren using islet cell autoantibodies: 10-year follow-up of the Sardinian schoolchildren type 1 diabetes prediction study.

Aims: Stable genetic background makes individuals from the Mediterranean island of Sardinia ideal to define the predictive power of islet-related autoantibodies (IRAs): glutamic acid decarboxylase antibodies (GADA), tyrosine phosphatase-like antibodies (IA-2A), islet cell antibodies (ICA) to identify T1DM progressors. The aims of the present study were: (1) determination of IRAs reference limits in healthy non-diabetic Sardinian schoolchildren (SSc). (2) Predictive power evaluation of IRAs as single or combined determination to identify islet to identify T1DM progressors.

Type 2 diabetes risk screening in dental practice settings: a pilot study.

Background: Dental surgeries are highlighted in the 2012 NICE guidance Preventing type 2 diabetes: risk identification and interventions for individuals at high risk as a suitable setting in which to encourage people to have a type 2 diabetes risk assessment.

Aim: To assess the feasibility of implementing a type 2 diabetes risk screening pathway in dental settings using the NICE guidance tool.

Method: The study was carried out over two weeks in June 2013.

Studies on the analysis of 25-hydroxyvitamin D(3) by isotope-dilution liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry using enzyme-assisted derivatisation.

The total serum concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamins D (25-hydroxyvitamin D3 and 25-hydroxyvitamin D2) is currently used as an indicator of vitamins D status. Vitamins D insufficiency is claimed to be associated with multiple diseases, thus accurate and precise reference methods for the quantification of 25-hydroxyvitamins D are needed. Here we present a novel enzyme-assisted derivatisation method for the analysis of vitamins D metabolites in adult serum utilising 25-[26,26,26,27,27,27-(2)H6]hydroxyvitamin D3 as the internal standard.

Super-resolution imaging strategies for cell biologists using a spinning disk microscope.

In this study we use a spinning disk confocal microscope (SD) to generate super-resolution images of multiple cellular features from any plane in the cell. We obtain super-resolution images by using stochastic intensity fluctuations of biological probes, combining Photoactivation Light-Microscopy (PALM)/Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (STORM) methodologies. We compared different image analysis algorithms for processing super-resolution data to identify the most suitable for analysis of particular cell structures.

Intravenous fluid prescribing practices by foundation year one doctors - a questionnaire study.

Objectives: Foundation Year Ones (FY1s) are the most junior doctors in the UK who are often required to prescribe intravenous fluid to patients not under their regular care, during on-call or out-of-hours ward cover. This study aimed to investigate FY1s' practice and decision-making process of intravenous fluid prescribing to these patients.

Design: Questionnaire survey.

A methodological study to compare survey-based and observation-based evaluations of organisational and safety cultures and then compare both approaches with markers of the quality of care.

Background: Patient safety concerns have focused attention on organisational and safety cultures, in turn directing attention to the measurement of organisational and safety climates.

Objectives: First, to compare levels of agreement between survey- and observation-based measures of organisational and safety climates/cultures and to compare both measures with criterion-based audits of the quality of care, using evidence-based markers drawn from national care standards relating to six common clinical conditions. (This required development of an observation-based instrument.

The involvement of PPARs in the causes, consequences and mechanisms for correction of cardiac lipotoxicity and oxidative stress.

Chronically-elevated plasma lipid concentrations, particularly when combined with high glucose, elicit a plethora of effects that cause the progressive deterioration of insulin sensitivity and ultimately cellular malfunction or death. This review addresses how metabolic abnormalities in white adipose tissue leading to excessive lipid or abnormal adipokine release can be modified by PPARγ activation. It also discusses the etiology of cardiac lipotoxicity and oxidative stress, in relation to imbalanced lipid delivery and clearance and how PPARα activation can be used to correct some of these effects.

Enhanced IL-17 signalling following myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion injury.

Background: IL-17A and IL-17F are pro-inflammatory cytokines which induce the expression of several cytokines, chemokines and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in target cells. IL-17 cytokines have recently attracted huge interest due to their pathogenic role in diseases such as arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease although a role for IL-17 cytokines in myocardial infarction (MI) has not previously been described.

Methods: In vivo MI was performed by coronary artery occlusion in the absence or presence of a neutralizing IL-17 antibody for blocking IL-17 actions in vivo.

Real-time flow cytometry for the kinetic analysis of oncosis.

The standard method of distinguishing apoptotic and oncotic cells has been by microscopic analysis of nuclei and cell membrane morphology. Thus a rapid test for analyzing large numbers of cells in the study of cell necrobiology has not been possible until the recent advent of the Amnis Image-stream and real-time Lab-on-a-Chip technologies. An interesting difference between apoptosis and oncosis is that they are ATP dependent and independent processes, respectively.

Signal transduction in child health: closing the gap between clinical and basic research.

Although some diseases are specific to children, many diseases of adults, including obesity and the metabolic syndrome, often originate in childhood. Thus, understanding the mechanisms of disease onset and progression in children is vital not only for child health, but for adult health as well. The NICHe (New Inroads to Child Health) Conference series focuses on future directions in child health, by bringing together clinical and basic scientists with the aim of sharing knowledge to facilitate the development of new therapeutic approaches.

Inhibition of the diclofenac-induced cyclooxygenase-2 activity by paracetamol in cultured macrophages is not related to the intracellular lipid hydroperoxide tone.

Paracetamol, a weak inhibitor of cyclooxygenase COX-1 and COX-2 activities, has been reported to inhibit the activity of COX-2 induced by diclofenac in J774.2 macrophage cell line. The lack of inhibition of COX-2 by paracetamol in inflamed tissues and thereby the lack of anti-inflammatory activity has been attributed to high lipid hydroperoxide (LHP) tone.

Catastrophe and homeostasis.

The seasonal change in the duration of the night time release of melatonin is responsible for activating the hypothalamic gonadtrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) pulse generator in seasonal breeding animals. Paul Mullen and I considered that it might also be responsible for the activation of the child's GnRH pulse generator at the onset of human puberty. The real conundrum, though, is why this should happen when it does.

Omega-3 fatty acids reverse age-related decreases in nuclear receptors and increase neurogenesis in old rats.

Retinoic acid receptors (RARs), retinoid X receptors (RXRs), and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are transcription factors involved in many cellular processes, such as learning and memory. RAR and RXR mRNA levels decrease with ageing, and the decreases can be reversed by retinoic acid treatment, which also alleviates age-related memory deficits. The omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) have neuroprotective effects in the aged brain and are endogenous ligands of RXR and PPAR.

Mesenchymal stromal cells: current understanding and clinical status.

Multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) represent a rare heterogeneous subset of pluripotent stromal cells that can be isolated from many different adult tissues that exhibit the potential to give rise to cells of diverse lineages. Numerous studies have reported beneficial effects of MSCs in tissue repair and regeneration. After culture expansion and in vivo administration, MSCs home to and engraft to injured tissues and modulate the inflammatory response through synergistic downregulation of proinflammatory cytokines and upregulation of both prosurvival and antiinflammatory factors.