Humoral and Cellular Responses to Influenza Vaccination in Human Recipients Naturally Tolerant to a Kidney Allograft

Rare kidney allograft recipients enjoy unaltered graft function years after interruption of their immunosuppressive treatment. To assess the extent to which this state of 'operational tolerance' (TOL) is specific to the graft and not the result of a global immunodeficiency, we analyzed the response of such patients following influenza vaccination. Hemagglutination inhibition titers and frequency of IFNgamma-secreting T cells were measured before 1 and 3 months after vaccination. The proportion of healthy volunteers (HV) responding to vaccine was significantly higher than that of immunosuppressed (IS) patients. Three 'TOL' patients presented a humoral response similar to that of HV, whereas the two others had a poor response, like the IS recipients. Although the small number of patients does not allow for definitive conclusions to be made, these data suggest that the status of tolerance may be heterogeneous, with some patients with a global immunodeficiency and others with an adapted response to vaccination.     

The effects of aging on arteries.

The age association and alterations in vascular structure and function at both the cellular and molecular levels are increasingly recognized as major risk factors for CV disease. The arterial remodeling during aging that may be enhanced by the CV risk factors are supersensitive to the age-related risk factors. The aging process may well be influenced by a combination of hereditary and environmental factors. Much can be done to modify environmental risk factors, very little to genetics except for choosing your parents.     

PINK1 mutations in sporadic early-onset Parkinson's disease.

Pathogenic PINK1 mutations have been described in PARK6-linked Parkinson's disease (PD) patients of Asian origin. However, data on the frequency of PINK1 mutations in sporadic early-onset Parkinson's disease (EOPD) Asian patients are lacking. The objectives of this study were to report the frequency of PINK1 mutations of sporadic EOPD in an Asian cohort comprising of ethnic Chinese, Malays, and Indians, and to highlight a PINK1-positive patient who presented with restless legs symptoms. Eighty consecutive sporadic EOPD patients from the movement disorder clinics of two major tertiary institutions in the country were included. We performed sequence analysis of all the coding and exon-intron junctions of the PINK1 using specific primer sets. In addition, we genotyped polymorphisms detected from the analysis in a group of sporadic PD patients and controls. Three different mutations (two homozygous nonsense and one heterozygous missense) in the putative kinase domain were found in three patients, giving a 3.7% frequency of PINK1 mutations in our EOPD cohort. All the mutations were absent in 200 healthy controls. One patient with a novel homozygous nonsense PINK1 mutation presented unusually with restless legs symptoms. Separately, analysis of the frequency of four PINK1 polymorphisms in a group of sporadic PD and controls did not reveal any significant differences. We highlight a 3.7% frequency of PINK1 mutations in an Asian cohort (ethnic Chinese, Malay, and Indian) of EOPD. The phenotypic spectrum associated with PINK1-positive patients may be wider than previously reported. Polymorphisms of PINK1 do not appear to modulate risk of PD in our population.     

Effects of 1.32-μm Nd-YAG laser on brain thermal and histological experimental data

Considering that the 1.32-μm Nd-YAG laser should have physicothermal properties close to those of the CO₂ laser, a series of experiments were conducted on rat cortex (N = 51). Three laser wavelengths were compared: CO₂ laser (10.6 μm), 1.06-μm Nd-YAG, and 1.32-μm Nd-YAG lasers. For each shot, temperature measurements were recorded with an infrared thermographic videocamera. The digitized signals were figured as thermal profiles and temperature developments. Ninety-five shots were correctly studied and analyzed: CO₂, N = 29; 1.06-μm Nd-YAG, N = 20; 1.32-μm Nd-YAG, N = 46. The histological lesions produced by these three lasers were compared on animals killed 24 hours (N = 20), 8 days (N = 20), and 30 days (N = 5) after the laser impacts. For equivalent densities of energy, the depth of cortical necrosis was comparable for the CO₂ laser (200–250 μm) and the 1.32-μm Nd-YAG laser (210–260μm) whatever the date of death; the 1.06-μm Nd-YAG laser shots were responsible for much more important damage (400–550μm). Because of its important absorption in water and nervous tissue, the authors consider the 1.32-μm Nd-YAG laser most suitable for neurosurgery, particularly because it is conducted through optic fibers, and therefore is easy to handle during neurosurgical procedures.     

Cosolvency of Dimethyl Isosorbide for Steroid Solubility

Dimethyl isosorbide (DMI), which is currently under investigation for its potential use as a pharmaceutical vehicle and drug permeation enhancer, is a water-miscible liquid with relatively low viscosity. The solubilization behavior of DMI as a cosolvent for nonpolar drugs was characterized via dielectric constant measurements of binary solvent systems containing DMI and either water, propylene glycol (PG), or polyethylene glycol (PEG). Evidence from the dielectric constant profiles and NMR studies suggest that DMI undergoes complexation with water and PG, but not with PEG, through hydrogen bonding interactions. The solvent complexation exhibited a major effect on the solubilities of prednisone, dexamethasone, and prednisolone in the mixed solvent systems. Maximum solubility of each drug was found to occur near a DMI/water or DMI/PG concentration ratio of 1:2. In the DMI–PEG mixed system, while there is no apparent interaction between DMI and PEG molecules, the solubility of prednisone was found to increase with decreasing dielectric constant.     

Shyness and face scanning in children

Contrary to popular beliefs, a recent empirical study using eye tracking has shown that a non-clinical sample of socially anxious adults did not avoid the eyes during face scanning. Using eye-tracking measures, we sought to extend these findings by examining the relation between stable shyness and face scanning patterns in a non-clinical sample of 11-year-old children. We found that shyness was associated with longer dwell time to the eye region than the mouth, suggesting that some shy children were not avoiding the eyes. Shyness was also correlated with fewer first fixations to the nose, which is thought to reflect the typical global strategy of face processing. Present results replicate and extend recent work on social anxiety and face scanning in adults to shyness in children. These preliminary findings also provide support for the notion that some shy children may be hypersensitive to detecting social cues and intentions in others conveyed by the eyes. Theoretical and practical implications for understanding the social cognitive correlates and treatment of shyness are discussed.     

美国的医保"强制险"——美国立法打通医保资金瓶颈

美国作为世界上经济最发达的国家,2005年其医疗卫生的总支出已占GDP的16%,高居全球之首,但是美国迄今尚有15.2%的人群没有医疗保险。如何解决这个问题,最近,马萨诸塞州出台了新措施:通过立法强制未参保人群参保。这种做法或许会对中国当前正在进行的医疗卫生体制改革有所启发。