Program for the Prevention of Smoking in Secondary School Students

Background and ObjectiveSchool smoking prevention programs have never yielded the expected results. The aim of this study was to analyze the efficacy of an intensive smoking prevention program created by the educational community in which it was to be applied.Population and MethodA 3-year smoking prevention program was carried out among the students of Fuentesaúco Secondary School in Zamora, Spain. The Babilafuente Secondary School in Salamanca, Spain was the control group. The program included both prevention and treatment activities. The former were carried out in the school, in out-of-school situations, and in the community. The questionnaire of the European Smoking Prevention Framework Approach was used.ResultsA total of 417 students aged 12 to 17 years participated in the study. Of these, 54.4% belonged to the intervention group and 45.6% to the control group. Smokers represented 36.7% of the population. After the intervention smokers represented 40.1% of the Fuentesaúco students compared with 46.1% of the Babilafuente students, though the difference was not statistically significant. With respect to the cognitive determinants of smoking behavior, after the intervention significant differences in favor of the intervention group were only observed in the subjects’ perception of the behavior of their siblings, peers, and teachers.ConclusionsThe use of smoking prevention programs in schools should be reconsidered, and their evaluation should be based on educational rather than clinical criteria. Proposed changes in the program include decreasing its intensity, starting with students of an earlier age and seeking greater involvement of parents.     

Imipenem: morphological changes and lethal effects on Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Imipenem, a new carbapenem antibiotic shows an extremely broad spectrum of antibacterial activity for almost all Gram-negative and Gram-positive aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. It is stable to beta-lactamases and shows a high affinity for PBP 2. The changes in morphology and ultrastructure caused by the antibiotic on Ps. aeruginosa confirm that imipenem acts by binding primarily to PBP 2, resulting in irregular and round shaped cells, and later during treatment to PBP 1 with cellular lysis. The involvement of PBP 1 is also demonstrated by the fast bactericidal kinetics on Ps. aeruginosa, E. coli and Staph. aureus.     

AgNOR distribution in serous tumours of the ovary.

The present paper investigated the distribution of AgNOR in serous tumours of the ovary, with a particular attention to borderline lesion and carcinomas. AgNOR are classified as large AgNOR (LN) and small AgNOR (SN) and are counted separately in 100 nuclei for each tumor. Total number of AgNOR was also recorded (TN). The study shows that the mean values of LN, SN and TN increase from adenomas to borderline lesions and carcinomas, with highly significant differences (p less than 0.001). LN show the most impressive differences between borderline lesion and carcinomas, without overlap of values. The follow up of the patients is not long enough for any correlation between AgNOR counts and prognosis, but preliminary data suggest that high AgNOR counts in borderline tumors should be interpreted very cautiously, because they do not seem to have any correlation with a more aggressive behaviour.     

Low dose prednisolone administration in routine ICSI patients does not improve pregnancy and implantation rates

BACKGROUND: Glucocorticoids have been used in conjunction with zona dissection to improve pregnancy and implantation rates in IVF patients. The aim of this prospective randomized study was to evaluate the effect of low-dose prednisolone in addition to the standard protocol, on pregnancy and implantation rates in routine ICSI patients before and after embryo replacement. METHODS: A total of 313 patients in 360 consecutive cycles (patients <39 years old and with three or less than three ICSI attempts) performed at our centre were randomly assigned by computer-generated list to receive either prednisolone (10 mg/day in two divided doses), starting on the first day of ovarian stimulation and continuing for 4 weeks (group A), or no treatment (group B). RESULTS: The mean age, number of previously failed IVF attempts, basal FSH levels and the mean rank of trials were comparable between groups A and B. The mean (+/- SD) number of metaphase II oocytes retrieved (11.9 +/- 5.5 versus 12.0 +/- 5.1), 2-pronuclei fertilization rate (67.2 versus 65.8%), the pregnancy and the implantation rates were not different between the study and control groups (49.0 and 23.6% versus 50.0 and 23.3% respectively). CONCLUSION: Low-dose prednisolone treatment in addition to the standard protocol before and after embryo replacement does not appear to have a significant effect on pregnancy or implantation rates.     

Effects of salicylic and acetylsalicylic acid on inorganic phosphates and impulse conduction in mammalian nerve fibres

Salicylic acid at therapeutic, and acetylsalicylic acid at higher concentrations, applied to desheathed rabbit vagus nerves in vitro, were found to increase the content in inorganic phosphates and to block conduction in both B-and C-fibres. The block developed slowly during incubation and was probably caused by an inhibitory effect on oxidative phosphorylation. Measurements of the salicylic acid content of the acetylsalicylic acid solution suggest that the action of acetylsalicylic acid was due to salicylic acid formed by hydrolysis.     

Tissue-specific segregation of TCRgamma delta+ NKT cells according to phenotype TCR repertoire and activation status: parallels with TCR alphabeta+NKT cells

Whereas the majority of NKT cells in the mouse express an alpha beta TCR (NKTalpha beta cells), a small subset of NKT cells express a gamma delta TCR (NKTgamma delta). Here we have systematically analyzed the phenotype, TCR repertoire and activation status of NKTgamma delta cells in the thymus, liver, spleen and bone marrow of normal C57BL/6 mice. Our data indicate that NKTgamma delta cells segregate in a tissue-specific manner according to these parameters. While most NKTgamma delta cells in the thymus and liver have a recently activated CD62L(lo) phenotype and a TCR repertoire that is heavily biased to Vgamma1.1 and Vdelta6.3, the majority of NKTgamma delta cells in the spleen and bone marrow are CD62L(hi) and have a much less biased TCR repertoire. Moreover, expression of NK markers is high on NKTgamma delta cells in spleen and bone marrow but low in thymus and liver. Collectively our results reveal a tissue-specific segregation of NKTgamma delta cells that is strikingly similar to that recently described for CD1d-dependent and Cd1d-independent NKTalpha beta cells. We therefore propose that chronic TCR activation by tissue-specific endogenous ligands is a generic property of NKT cells of both the alpha beta and gamma delta lineages.     

Human gammadelta T cells: a nonredundant system in the immune-surveillance against cancer.

Down-regulation of expression of MHC alleles, as well as tumor-specific antigens, is observed frequently during tumor progression, resulting in an impairment of MHC-restricted, alphabeta-T-cell-mediated, tumor-specific immunity. Given the unique set of antigens recognized and the lack of requirement for classical antigen-presenting molecules, gammadelta T cells might, therefore, represent a nonredundant system in anticancer surveillance, as proposed for the immune response against pathogens. Evidence that gammadelta and alphabeta T cells make distinct contributions to anticancer surveillance has been provided recently in mice. Here, we discuss the potential role played by resident Vdelta1(+) and circulating Vdelta2(+) T cells in the defense against solid tumors and hematological malignancies.