The Missouri Roundtable for Life on Thursday filed a lawsuit in federal court that accuses two Democratic state officials of plotting to block proposed ballot initiatives seeking to prevent public funds from being allocated to abortion services and certain types of human embryonic stem cell research, the AP/Belleville News Democrat reports. The lawsuit claims that Secretary of State Robin Carnahan and Auditor Susan Montee are violating the group’s right to free speech by drafting ballot summaries that could convince residents to vote against the initiatives.

The AP/News Democrat reports that under Missouri law, the secretary of state is expected to summarize ballot initiatives and that the auditor must determine a ballot’s financial cost. The antiabortion-rights group has not started collecting signatures to place the initiatives on the 2010 ballot because the group’s officials oppose the official summaries on the petitions and ballot. A state judge in June rejected a similar lawsuit by the group and upheld the summaries.

Laura Egerdal, spokesperson for Carnahan, said that the summaries help voters “to clearly understand what they are voting on.” A spokesperson at the auditor’s office declined to comment on the lawsuit. Matt Hearne, the attorney for Roundtable for Life, said in a written statement, “This lawsuit is an attempt by Missouri Roundtable for Life to hold Carnahan and Montee accountable for their flagrant abuse of their responsibility to fairly and impartially handle citizen groups’ initiative petitions” (AP/Belleville News Democrat, 12/11).

Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership. You can view the entire Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women’s Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

© 2009 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.

Human colon stem cells have been identified and grown in a lab-plate for the first time. This achievement, made by researchers of the Colorectal Cancer Lab at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and published in /i>Nature Medicine, is a crucial advance towards regenerative medicine.

Throughout life, stem cells of the colon regenerate the inner layer of our large intestine in a weekly basis. For decades scientists had evidences of the existence of these cells yet their identity remained elusive. Scientists led by the ICREA Professor and researcher at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) Eduard Batlle discovered the precise localization of the stem cells in the human colon and worked out a method that allows their isolation and in vitro expansion, that is their propagation in lab-plates. Growing cells outside the body generally requires providing the cells in a lab-plate with the right mix of nutrients, growth factors and hormones. But in the same way that each of the more than 200 types of cells in our body differs from the others so too do optimal growing conditions in the lab. Consequently, human adult stem cell culture in labs has been a truly impossible mission until now. Batlle’s team has also established the conditions for maintain living human colon stem cells (CoSCs) outside of the human body: “This is the first time that it has been possible to grow single CoSCs in lab-plates and to derive human intestinal stem cell lines in defined conditions in a lab setting,” explains the IRB Barcelona researcher Peter Jung, first author of the study together with Toshiro Sato, from the University Medical Center Utrecht in The Netherlands.

The development, published by Batlle’s research group in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine, arrives after more than 10 years of intense research focused on the characterization of the biology of the intestinal stem cells and its connection with cancer. The research has been made possible by close collaboration between Batlle’s team and the group led by Hans Clevers at the Hubretcht Institute and University Medical Center Utrecht in The Netherlands, and MarГ­a A. Blasco at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre in Madrid (Spain). “For years, scientists all over the world have been trying to grow intestinal tissue in lab-plates; testing different conditions; using different nutritive media. But because the vast majority of cells in this tissue are in a differentiated state in which they do not proliferate, they survived only for a few days”, explains Jung. “The aim of this study was to find a way to identify and select individual CoSCs and to grow them while maintaining their undifferentiated and proliferative state in lab conditions. Thus, we would be able to model how they grow – in number – and differentiate into normal intestinal epithelial cells in lab-plates”, continues Jung. The scientific community now has a defined ‘recipe’ for isolating CoSCs and deriving stable CoSCs lines, which have the capacity to grow undifferentiated for months. In fact, “now we can maintain stem cells in a plate up to 5 months or we can induce these cells to differentiate artificially, as they do inside our bodies”.

“This achievement opens up an exciting new area of research with the potential to bring about a huge breakthrough in regenerative medicine”, says Jung. Regenerative medicine – or the idea of repairing the body by developing new tissues and organs as the old ones wear out – involves growing new cells from patients into tissues and organs in a lab. However, the main element for making regenerative medicine a reality, namely adult stem cells, are just starting to be understood. “Now that guidelines for growing and maintaining colon stem cells in the lab are in place, we have an ideal platform that could help the scientific community to determine the molecular bases of gastrointestinal cell proliferation and differentiation. It is also suspected that alterations in the biology of CoSCs are at origin of several diseases affecting the gastrointestinal tract, such as colorectal cancer or Crohn’s disease, an autoimmune and inflammatory disorder. Our discovery also paves the way to start exploring this exciting field,” finishes Jung.

Results from C91 “Late-Breaking Clinical Trials” on Tuesday afternoon, May 17, brought new light to clinical problems and potential treatments. While five examine possible new therapies for people with asthma (pregnant women), emphysema, lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), TB and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a sixth looks at the safety of physician- vs. nurse-led transport teams for critically ill patients,

In one, researchers from Australia identified a way for pregnant women with asthma to avoid exacerbations. This randomized, controlled trial tested a management algorithm for asthma in pregnancy based on fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FENO) which indicates level of inflammation, and symptoms, and compared this to standard, guideline-based care.

Heather Powell, MMedSci, and colleagues enrolled 242 pregnant asthmatic women before 20 weeks’ gestation. They measured FENO, symptoms and lung function at monthly visits. For the women randomized to the algorithm-based treatment, FENO was used to increase or decrease their ICS medications. Long-acting beta agonists were used to treat symptoms when FENO was not elevated.

The researchers found that for every six women receiving treatment adjustment by the FENO-based algorithm, one was prevented from having a severe exacerbation, making FENO-based care an effective way to reduce asthma exacerbations in pregnant women.

Another trial, submitted by Alexis Rames, MD, of Switzerland, investigated the use of a selective retinoid agonist in the treatment of emphysema. Palovarotene reduces inflammation, and promotes structural and functional improvement in animal models of emphysema. This was a two-year Phase-2 double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled multi-center study to assess the safety and efficacy of a 5 mg/day regimen of palovarotene in 492 patients with cigarette smoke-induced emphysema. In addition to the study treatment, all patients were given standardized inhaled treatment with an inhaled steroid, long-acting bronchodilator and tiotropium. After two years, while there was no significant effect of palovarotene overall, the researchers found that in patients with lower lobe emphysema, palovarotene significantly reduced lung function decline, and may have a disease-modifying effect.

A third study submitted by Erik van Lieshout, MD, of the Netherlands, examined the effect of physician-versus qualified nurse-based critical care transport by ambulance. The researchers prospectively assigned critical care patients to be transported by physician- or nurse-led transport teams and used stored digital monitoring data to determine whether patients underwent critical events during transport. They found that nurse-led transport groups had outcomes that equaled the physician-led groups, suggesting that, at least among less severely critical ill patients, nurse-led transport is a safe option.

In a fourth study, Francis X. McCormack, MD, and colleagues from the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine, conducted a two-year double-blind trial at 13 National Institutes of Health Rare Lung Disease Consortium sites to determine whether sirolimus improves lung function in patients with LAM. Patients were given sirolimus or placebo for the first year and monitored for changes in 6-minute walk distance, serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-D) and quality of life scores. During the treatment phase, they found a 1 ml/month improvement in FEV1 of treated patients and a decrement of 12 ml in the placebo group. Over the course of the first year, they found that LAM patients on sirolimus had a mean improvement of 20 ml in their FEV1, whereas the placebo group saw a drop of 130 ml. FVC and serum VEGF-D, Quality of life scores also showed significant changes favoring the treatment group. In the subsequent observation year, both groups showed similar loss of lung function, and there were no significant differences between the groups in terms of serious adverse events. The authors conclude that sirolimus may be useful in certain patients with LAM.

Another study, submitted by Susan Dorman, MD, of Johns Hopkins University, examined the efficacy of rifampin vs. rifapentine in treating TB. The investigators found that rifapentine administered without food was safe and generally well-tolerated as rifampin, and appeared to be as effective.

Finally, a study from Richard Albert, MD, of Denver Health, examined reducing the frequency of acute exacerbations of COPD with a macrolide antibiotic, azithromycin, taken daily for one year in addition to usual therapy. Treatment significantly decreased frequency of exacerbations and improved quality of life, but it caused decrements in hearing in a small fraction of patients.

Notes:

“Late Breaking Clinical Trials Symposium” (Session C91, Tuesday, May 17, 2:00-4:30 p.m., Room 205-207 (Street Level), Colorado Convention Center; Abstracts 22724, 22801, 22635, 22607, 22835, and 22714)

Source:
Keely Savoie
American Thoracic Society

What dog owner has not come home to a broken vase or other valuable items and a guilty-looking dog slouching around the house? By ingeniously setting up conditions where the owner was misinformed as to whether their dog had really committed an offense, Alexandra Horowitz, Assistant Professor from Barnard College in New York, uncovered the origins of the “guilty look” in dogs in the recently published “Canine Behaviour and Cognition” Special Issue of Elsevier’s Behavioural Processes.

Horowitz was able to show that the human tendency to attribute a “guilty look” to a dog was not due to whether the dog was indeed guilty. Instead, people see ‘guilt’ in a dog’s body language when they believe the dog has done something it shouldn’t have – even if the dog is in fact completely innocent of any offense.

During the study, owners were asked to leave the room after ordering their dogs not to eat a tasty treat. While the owner was away, Horowitz gave some of the dogs this forbidden treat before asking the owners back into the room. In some trials the owners were told that their dog had eaten the forbidden treat; in others, they were told their dog had behaved properly and left the treat alone. What the owners were told, however, often did not correlate with reality.

Whether the dogs’ demeanor included elements of the “guilty look” had little to do with whether the dogs had actually eaten the forbidden treat or not. Dogs looked most “guilty” if they were admonished by their owners for eating the treat. In fact, dogs that had been obedient and had not eaten the treat, but were scolded by their (misinformed) owners, looked more “guilty” than those that had, in fact, eaten the treat. Thus the dog’s guilty look is a response to the owner’s behavior, and not necessarily indicative of any appreciation of its own misdeeds.

This study sheds new light on the natural human tendency to interpret animal behavior in human terms. Anthropomorphisms compare animal behavior to human behavior, and if there is some superficial similarity, then the animal behavior will be interpreted in the same terms as superficially similar human actions. This can include the attribution of higher-order emotions such as guilt or remorse to the animal.

The editor of the special issue, Clive D.L. Wynne of the Department of Psychology, University of Florida, explained, “this is a remarkably powerful demonstration of the need for careful experimental designs if we are to understand the human-dog relationship and not just reify our natural prejudices about animal behavior.” He pointed out that dogs are the oldest domesticated species and have a uniquely intimate role in the lives of millions of people. Recent research on dogs has indicated more human-like forms of reasoning about what people know than has been demonstrated even in chimpanzees.

Notes:
The article is “Disambiguating the “guilty look”: Salient prompts to a familiar dog behaviour” by Alexandra Horowitz. The article appears in Behavioural Processes, Volume 81, Issue 3, Pages 447-452. doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2009.03.014

The Special issue is “Canine Behaviour and Cognition”, edited by Clive D.L. Wynne, Volume 81, Issue 3.

Source:
Ewa Kittel-Prejs

Elsevier

Researchers led by a University of Missouri-Columbia professor of reproductive biotechnology have reported success in freezing and preserving swine embryos that were created by in vitro techniques and that carried modified genetic material. After thawing and transfer to a surrogate mother, some of the embryos went on to produce live piglets with new genetic traits.

In a paper posted in May 2006 on the Web site of Biology of Reproduction–Papers in Press, a team headed by Dr. Randall Prather, co-director of the National Swine Resource and Research Center, note that their technique could prove valuable in allowing genetically enhanced swine to be transported as embryos across the country and throughout the world.

Because many embryos are needed to produce a successful pregnancy in surrogate female pigs, this new procedure will enable workers to collect an adequate number of altered embryos and store them until they can be transplanted to a surrogate.

Swine embryos have been difficult to freeze and preserve because of their sensitivity to cold due to a high level of lipids in the cells of the embryos. It was expected that it would be even more difficult to freeze and preserve swine embryos that had been produced by in vitro methods.

Dr. Prather’s team overcame the obstacles to freezing swine embryos by first removing lipids from unfertilized eggs before fertilizing them with muscle cells from a male pig containing modified genetic material. The resulting embryos were then frozen at the blastocyst stage.

Upon thawing, embryos were transferred to surrogate female swine. Embryos placed in the oviducts of two surrogates led to pregnancies that produced two piglets in one litter and eight piglets in another.

Testing confirmed that the piglets carried the modified genetic material and that the new gene had altered the fatty-acid content in tissues from the piglets.

With ten piglets from 163 frozen and preserved embryos, the researchers feel that their procedure appears to work well, although further studies will be needed to refine the technique.

Dr. Prather and his team expect that freezing and preserving swine embryos will enable wide dissemination of swine with genetic traits that are commercially valuable and also important for biomedical research involving this increasingly relevant animal model for human disorders.

###

Biology of Reproduction, published by the Society for the Study of Reproduction, is the top-rated peer-reviewed research journal in the field of reproductive biology.

Contact: Jennifer Faddis
Society for the Study of Reproduction

Several candidates for the Republican presidential nomination gathered on Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa, to discuss their views on abortion rights and other issues, the New York Times reports. Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee defined themselves as “lifelong opponents of abortion rights, drawing clear, if unspoken, contrasts with” former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who supports abortion rights, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who previously supported abortion rights but now opposes them, according to the Times. “I’m not late in declaring that life begins at conception and we ought to protect human life,” Huckabee said (Nagourney, New York Times, 4/15). McCain, who spoke last, said that he has supported “the rights of the unborn” for 24 years “without changing, without wavering,” the Los Angeles Times reports (Finnegan, Los Angeles Times, 4/15). After the event, McCain was asked what he would do in regards to abortion as president, and he said he “would try to help change the culture in America” (Baker, Washington Post, 4/15). Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.), who entered the campaign event with supporters chanting “pro-life is whole life,” said, “We need a culture that does not corrode and does not corrupt.” Romney said what “makes America strong” is “the American people — hard working, risk-taking, opportunity-seeking, God-loving, family oriented, patriotic American people who respect the sanctity of human life” (Los Angeles Times, 4/15).

Clinton Criticizes Bush Administration on Plan B, Stem Cell Research
In related news, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who is running for the Democratic nomination for president, in a speech in New Hampshire said the Bush administration “has tried to turn Washington, [D.C.], into an evidence-free zone, whether it’s on stem cell research or [Barr Laboratories' emergency contraceptive] Plan B … or pollution or global warming or the safety of our food or the quality of our air.” Clinton said the administration’s record is evidence for the need to reinstitute the Office of Technology Assessment, which was created in the 1970s to evaluate government and advise Congress on new technologies, the New York Times reports. Congressional Republicans abolished the office in 1995, according to the Times (Confessore, New York Times, 4/14).

“Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

Smoking has been found to contribute to poorer outcomes for people treated for many kinds of cancer and now, researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center have associated smoking and acute side-effects following radiation therapy for prostate cancer. The study was presented on 5-Nov-2006 at the 48th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology in Philadelphia.

Smoking is associated with an increased risk of radiation-related side effects in cancers of the head and neck, cervix, lung and breast. For this study, researchers analyzed the impact of smoking on gastrointestinal (GI) and genitourinary (GU) side effects for 1,194 patients with prostate cancer treated at Fox Chase Cancer Center with 3D conformal radiation therapy between 1991 and 2001. Smoking information collected prior to treatment included status as a current smoker, ex-smoker or non-smoker. Patients treated with androgen deprivation prior to or during treatment were excluded.

“Our patients who smoked during treatment reported having more acute gastrointestinal side-effects such as diarrhea,” said Niraj Pahlajani, M.D., lead author on the study and a resident in the radiation oncology department at Fox Chase.

“Fortunately, smoking didn’t appear to impact long-term GI side effects or genitourinary side-effects. These results underscore the importance of smoking cessation prior to radiation therapy.”

###

Contact: Karen Mallet

Fox Chase Cancer Center

The crunch of helmets as players tangle for a loose football, the swoosh of the net as an outside jumper is made and the crack of the bat as a guaranteed double sails into right center field are awesome sounds to sports fans but for dentists, they’re reminders that a player is just one misstep away from a dental injury.

“Basketball and baseball are the two biggest mouth-injuring sports,” says Stephen Mitchell, D.M.D., associate professor in the UAB Department of Pediatric Dentistry. “And the most common injuries we see are broken, displaced or knocked out teeth, and broken jaws.”

According to a report by the U.S. Surgeon General, craniofacial injuries sustained during sporting activities are a major source of nonfatal injury and disability in children and adults, accounting for up to one-third of all sports injuries. The National Youth Sports Safety Foundation estimates that more than 3 million teeth will be knocked out in youth sporting activities this year.

The increasing participation of girls and young women in competitive sports means that they, just like their male counterparts, should know the risks of dental injuries and use additional protective gear as appropriate, Mitchell says.

Mitchell says mouth guards and helmets with face protectors are the best way for kids to avoid dental injuries while playing sports.

“If the child has a full set of permanent teeth then a custom guard can be made that will provide protection but be small enough to make it easy to communicate with teammates,” Mitchell says. “But if they still have some of their baby teeth, a custom guard is a waste of money. Parents will be better off going to the store and buying one of the guards that can be boiled and molded to their child’s mouth.”

So what should you do if despite your best preventive efforts your child still hurts his or her teeth or jaw?

If a tooth is broken or cracked, see a dentist within 24 hours, Mitchell says. If a tooth or teeth have been displaced or knocked out, Mitchell says, take the child immediately to the emergency room and to try to preserve the tooth.

“A tooth that has been knocked out needs to be back in the mouth within 30 minutes for the best chance of long-term survival,” Mitchell says. He offers these tips for preserving the tooth, which can even help past the ideal 30-minute window:

– Avoid touching the root because it can be damaged easily.

– If the tooth is dirty, hold it by the upper part and rinse it off with milk until most of the dirt is washed away. If you don’t have milk, don’t clean it. Wiping it off may cause more damage.

– If your child is old enough not to swallow it, try to gently put the tooth back in its socket for the best chance of preservation.

– If you can’t get it back in the socket, put it in a cup of milk and head for the dentist or emergency room.

“We tell people to put the tooth in milk because the cells around the root are still alive after it is knocked out and milk can provide nutrients to the cells to help keep them alive,” Mitchell adds. “Do not put the tooth in water. It can cause the cells to burst and makes saving the tooth much less likely.”

Jaw injuries may be much less obvious than a broken or knocked-out tooth but they are no less serious, Mitchell says. If a child falls hard enough to cut their chin, or takes an especially hard hit, it could easily cause breaks in the jaw. In an injury such as this, a child should be seen by a doctor within 24 hours.

No matter the injury, Mitchell says caring properly for the mouth afterward is key to successful healing.

“Following an injury a child’s mouth will be sore and they will want to do everything they can to make it not hurt. But, continuing to brush their teeth and practice good oral hygiene is extremely important,” he says. “It is the same as keeping any other wound clean, the cleaner the mouth is kept, the better it heals.”

Source: University of Alabama at Birmingham

A June 24, 2008, order by a Federal Magistrate Judge in NATA’s Fair Practice Lawsuit requires the Orthopaedic Section, APTA Inc. to turn over to NATA, among other things, documents regarding the November 2007 letters it intended to harm the manual therapy symposium put on by NATA in January 2008. The Magistrate Judge rejected the Orthopaedic Section’s efforts to resist providing these documents.

The Orthopaedic Section was ordered to produce the documents to NATA within 10 days. It is unknown whether the Orthopaedic Section will appeal the court’s ruling. Any appeal would be to the Federal District Judge before whom the Fair Practice Lawsuit is pending.

For more information on the NATA Fair Practice Lawsuit, go here.

About the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA)

Athletic trainers are unique health care professionals who specialize in the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of injuries and illnesses. The National Athletic Trainers’ Association represents and supports 30,000 members of the athletic training profession. NATA advocates for equal access to athletic trainers for patients and clients of all ages and supports H.R. 1846. Only 42 percent of high schools have access to athletic trainers. NATA members adhere to a code of ethics.

National Athletic Trainers’ Association

Treating victims of a stroke can be a daunting task. However, new studies show that by additionally treating atrial fibrillation (AF) post-stroke may stave off vascular dementia in upcoming years.

Research into nearly 50,000 patients’ records found that AF after a stroke more than doubles the risk of dementia, and doctors say they should now investigate whether more vigorous treatment with drugs to control AF might delay or even prevent dementia.

Atrial fibrillation is a disorder found in about 2.2 million Americans. During atrial fibrillation, the heart’s two small upper chambers (the atria) quiver instead of beating effectively. Blood isn’t pumped completely out of them, so it may pool and clot. If a piece of a blood clot in the atria leaves the heart and becomes lodged in an artery in the brain, a stroke results. About 15 percent of strokes occur in people with atrial fibrillation.

The likelihood of developing atrial fibrillation increases with age. Three to five percent of people over 65 have atrial fibrillation and it is the most common heart rhythm disturbance and affects up to 500,000 people in the United Kingdom as well.

Experts at the University of East Anglia in the UK believe tighter management of AF might also offer some protection against dementia. They looked at research where people with and without AF were followed up to see how many went on to develop dementia.

By analyzing 15 separate studies they found that stroke survivors with AF were 2.4 times more likely to develop dementia than stroke survivors who did not have the heart condition. About a quarter of patients with stroke and atrial fibrillation were found to have developed dementia during follow-up.

Lead researcher Dr. Phyo Kyaw said:

“These results may help us identify potential treatments that could help delay or even prevent the onset of dementia. Options could include more rigorous management of cardiovascular risk factors or of AF, particularly in stroke patients.”

Most types of dementia are nonreversible (degenerative). Nonreversible means the changes in the brain that are causing the dementia cannot be stopped or turned back. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia. Dementia also can be due to many small strokes. This is called vascular dementia.

To be healthy and function properly, the brain cells need a good supply of blood. The blood is delivered through a network of blood vessels called the vascular system. If the vascular system within the brain becomes damaged and blood cannot reach the brain cells, the cells will eventually die. This can lead to the onset of vascular dementia.

There are a number of conditions that can cause or increase damage to the vascular system. These include high blood pressure, heart problems, high cholesterol and diabetes. This means it is important that these conditions are identified and treated at the earliest opportunity.

Vascular dementia affects different people in different ways and the speed of the progression varies from person to person. Some symptoms may be similar to those of other types of dementia.

Rebecca Wood of Alzheimer’s Research UK concludes:

“While this paper shows there is a link between atrial fibrillation and dementia, we don’t yet know if treating atrial fibrillation will prevent or delay the onset of dementia. More research will give us the answers we urgently need.”

Source: The American Academy of Neurology

Sy Kraft, B.A.