A prospective observational cohort study of exposure to womb-like sounds to stabilize breathing and cardiovascular patterns in preterm neonates

Purpose: We exposed premature infants to womb-like sounds to evaluate such exposure on breathing and cardiovascular patterns. We hypothesized that these sounds would reduce apnea and intermittent hypoxemia, enhance parasympathetic outflow, and improve cardiovascular patterns.

Methods: A total of 20 cases and 5 control infants at ≤32–36?weeks corrected gestational age participated in a prospective observational cohort study. Twenty-four hours of continuous ECG, respiratory and oxygen saturation data were collected in all infants. Womb-like sounds were played intermittently in 6-hour blocks. Salivary samples were collected at study beginning and end for cortisol. Apnea, intermittent hypoxemia, and bradycardia were evaluated, and heart rate variability was assessed by time domain and spectral techniques.

Results: Intermittent hypoxemia and bradycardia significantly declined after sound exposure. No significant differences in apnea, cortisol levels, or heart rate variability were evident among the study infants.

Conclusions: Exposing premature infants to womb-like sounds has the potential to reduce hypoxemic and bradycardic events, and be used as an intervention to stabilize breathing and cardiac control in preterm infants.     

Identification and validation of genes involved in cervical tumourigenesis

Background  

Cervical cancer is the most common cancer among Indian women. This cancer has well defined pre-cancerous stages and evolves over 10-15 years or more. This study was undertaken to identify differentially expressed genes between normal, dysplastic and invasive cervical cancer.     

Evidence for self-maintaining pluripotent murine stem cells in embryoid bodies

Pluripotent stem cells have great potential for regenerative medicine; however, their clinical use is associated with a risk of tumor formation. We utilized pluripotent cells expressing green fluorescent protein and puromycin resistance under control of the Oct4 promoter to study the persistence of potential pluripotent cells under embryoid body (EB) culture conditions, which are commonly used to obtain organotypic cells. We found that i.) OCT4-expressing cells dramatically decrease during the first week of differentiation, ii.) the number of OCT4-expressing cells recovers from day 7 on, iii.) the OCT4-expressing cells are similar to embryonic stem cells grown in the presence of leukemia inhibitory factor LIF but express several markers associated with germ cell formation, such as DAZL and STRA-8 and iv.) the persistence of potentially pluripotent cells is independent of supportive cells in EBs. Finally, OCT4-expressing cells, isolated from EBs after 2-month of culture, were further maintained under feeder-free conditions in absence of LIF and continued to express OCT4 in 95 % of the population for at least 36 days. These findings point to an alternative state of stable OCT4 expression. In the frame of the landscape model of differentiation two attractors of pluripotency might be defined based on their different characteristics.     

Characterization of the role of adult neurogenesis in touch‐screen discrimination learning

Recent theories posit that adult neurogenesis supports dentate gyrus pattern separation and hence is necessary for some types of discrimination learning. Using an inducible transgenic mouse model, we investigated the contribution of adult‐born neurons to spatial and nonspatial touch‐screen discriminations of varying levels of difficulty. Arresting neurogenesis caused a modest but statistically significant impairment in a position discrimination task. However, the effect was present only on trials after a learned discrimination was reversed, suggesting that neurogenesis supports cognitive flexibility rather than spatial discrimination per se. The deficit was present 4–10 weeks after the arrest of neurogenesis but not immediately after, consistent with previous evidence that the behavioral effects of arresting neurogenesis arise because of the depletion of adult‐born neurons at least 1 month old. The arrest of neurogenesis failed to affect a nonspatial brightness discrimination task that was equal in difficulty to the spatial task. The data suggest that adult neurogenesis is not strictly necessary for spatial or perceptual discrimination learning and instead implicate adult neurogenesis in factors related to reversal learning, such as cognitive flexibility or proactive interference. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Mechanisms of cross-resistance to methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil in an A2780 human ovarian carcinoma cell subline resistant to cisplatin

Some properties of the human ovarian carcinoma line A2780 and a subline three times more resistant than the parent line to cisplatin are compared in this report. The rates of uptake and release of cisplatin were similar in the two cell lines. Resistance to cisplatin was associated with: (a) cross-resistance to 5-fluorouracil and methotrexate; (b) a 2.5-fold increase in thymidylate synthase, as measured by both enzyme activity and the capacity to complex 5-fluorodeoxyuridylate; and (c) an increase in the intracellular pools of 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate and tetrahydrofolate. These data suggest that cross-resistance to 5-fluorouracil and methotrexate in A2780 cells may be a consequence of increases in their respective target enzymes.     

Now wash your hands? A survey of hospital handwashing facilities

We studied the adequacy of handwashing facilities on elderly-care wards in seven UK hospitals. We found 10·9% of sinks were inaccessible, 12% of sinks did not have any cleansing agent, 93·2% of ward sinks and 79% of treatment room sinks had no antiseptic agent. We conclude that in our survey, handwashing facilities were inadequate and have suggested a standard checklist for hospital sinks.