Knowledge and Information on Psychological, Physiological and Gynaecological Problems among Adolescent Schoolgirls of Eastern India

BACKGROUND: Sex education aims to reduce the risks of potentially negative outcome from sexual behavior such as fear and stigma of menstruation, unwanted and unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections including HIV. Hence, this study was conducted to determine sex education knowledge level of school going adolescents in semi urban area of Midnapore, West Bengal, India.METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in two selected premier secondary school of girls in the Midnapore Town from September – October 2007. A total of 521 adolescent aged 10-19 years were selected randomly from two secondary schools of girls. However, schools were selected purposively. All information was collected by using open-ended pre-tested questionnaire.RESULTS: Of the total subjects 94.2% of them were in the age of 13-16 years. Nearly, 94% respondents reported their age at menarche and maximum i.e. 54% respondents experienced in the age of 11 – 13 years. It was observed that 18%, 60.7% and 21.3% of the respondents had good knowledge, moderate or some knowledge and very poor knowledge of puberty, pubertal problems and their prevention. Thirty three percent said that they had faced one or some other kind of physical problems and out of them 60% indicated that they had visited to a doctor for their problems. The suffering of any gynecological problems had 2.48 (95% CI: 1.42 – 4.36) and 1.94 (95% CI: 1.01 – 3.73) times greater among subjects with little or some knowledge and minimum or no knowledge compare to subjects with good knowledge of sex education.CONCLUSION: Thus, the results show that not only knowledge regarding sex education was poor among the subjects but also their knowledge regarding sexual infections including AIDS was not satisfactory. School based sex education programs are particularly good at providing information, skills development and attitude clarification in more formal way through lesson within the curriculum. Therefore, appropriate sex education program should be initiated from the adolescence to prevent health hazards.KEYWORDS: Adolescent, Sex Education, AIDS/HIV awareness, Menarche, IndiaEthiop J Health Sci. Vol. 21, No. 3 November 201

Monitoring HSVtk suicide gene therapy: the role of [18F]FHPG membrane transport

Favourable pharmacokinetics of the prodrug are essential for successful HSVtk/ganciclovir (GCV) suicide gene therapy. [F-18] FHPG PET might be a suitable technique to assess the pharmacokinetics of the prodrug GCV noninvasively, provided that [F-18] FHPG mimics the behaviour of GCV. Since membrane transport is an important aspect of the pharmacokinetics of the prodrug, we investigated the cellular uptake mechanism of [F-18] FHPG in an HSVtk expressing C6 rat glioma cell line and in tumour- bearing rats. The nucleoside transport inhibitors dipyridamol, NBMPR and 2- chloroadenosine did not significantly affect the [F-18] FHPG uptake in vitro. Thymidine and uridine significantly decreased [F-18] FHPG uptake by 84 and 58%, respectively, but an enzyme assay revealed that this decline was due to inhibition of the HSVtk enzyme rather than membrane transport. Nucleobase transport inhibitors, thymine and adenine, caused a 58 and 55% decline in tracer uptake, respectively. In vivo, the ratio of [F-18] FHPG uptake in C6tk and C6 tumours decreased from 3.070.5 to 1.070.2 after infusion of adenine. Thus, in our tumour model, [F-18] FHPG transport exclusively occurred via purine nucleobase transport. In this respect, FHPG does not resemble GCV, which is predominantly taken up via the nucleoside transporter, but rather acyclovir, which is also taken up via the purine nucleobase carrier

Imaging Long-Term Fate of Intramyocardially Implanted Mesenchymal Stem Cells in a Porcine Myocardial Infarction Model

The long-term fate of stem cells after intramyocardial delivery is unknown. We used noninvasive, repetitive PET/CT imaging with [18F]FEAU to monitor the long-term (up to 5 months) spatial-temporal dynamics of MSCs retrovirally transduced with the sr39HSV1-tk gene (sr39HSV1-tk-MSC) and implanted intramyocardially in pigs with induced acute myocardial infarction. Repetitive [18F]FEAU PET/CT revealed a biphasic pattern of sr39HSV1-tk-MSC dynamics; cell proliferation peaked at 33–35 days after injection, in periinfarct regions and the major cardiac lymphatic vessels and lymph nodes. The sr39HSV1-tk-MSC–associated [18F]FEAU signals gradually decreased thereafter. Cardiac lymphography studies using PG-Gd-NIRF813 contrast for MRI and near-infrared fluorescence imaging showed rapid clearance of the contrast from the site of intramyocardial injection through the subepicardial lymphatic network into the lymphatic vessels and periaortic lymph nodes. Immunohistochemical analysis of cardiac tissue obtained at 35 and 150 days demonstrated several types of sr39HSV1-tk expressing cells, including fibro-myoblasts, lymphovascular cells, and microvascular and arterial endothelium. In summary, this study demonstrated the feasibility and sensitivity of [18F]FEAU PET/CT imaging for long-term, in-vivo monitoring (up to 5 months) of the fate of intramyocardially injected sr39HSV1-tk-MSC cells. Intramyocardially transplanted MSCs appear to integrate into the lymphatic endothelium and may help improve myocardial lymphatic system function after MI