Epidemiology of headache in Bukovinian medical students

Introduction: Headaches are the most prevalent neurological disorder and among the most frequent symptoms in general practice. Headache disorder is a major public health issue and is a great burden for a person, health care system, and a society. Most people having headache do not ask for a specialized medical care and take analgesics without any control, which complicates the statistical analysis of the actual prevalence of cephalgias among the population. Aim: to reveal the prevalence of headache among the medical students and to draw their attention to the need for a differentiated approach to treatment. Materials and Methods: We conducted a survey of 146 students of Bukovynian State Medical University aged 19 to 26 years by using specially designed questionnaires. The type of headache was established by diagnostic criteria of the classification of the International Headache Society, 2003. Results: Our study has found that headaches bother 121 (82.8%) students. Among respondents periodic headache was observed in 71.9% (105 students). 16 (10.1%) students experienced chronic headaches that bothered them more than 15 days a month. Among girls the prevalence of headache was significantly higher than among men - 62.1% and 38.9% respectively. Among the students the most frequent headache (58.7%) was tension headache, 9.1% of respondents had migraine headache, 32.2% felt other types of headaches. According to ICHD II, infrequent episodic tension-type headache amounted to 71.3%, frequent episodic tension-type headache - 26.2%, chronic tension-type headache - 2 5%. Because of headache 81.7% of students are forced to take analgesics: 65.3% - 1-4 times a month, 27.6% - 5-9 times per month, 7.1% - more than 10 times per month. The majority of students did not consult the doctor, and independently used nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or antispasmodics. Conclusion: By means of the research there was found a high prevalence of headaches among medical students. There was determined the prevalence of primary cephalgias, namely, migraine without aura and episodic tension-type headaches. There was shown a lack of awareness of students about the causes of headache reflected in inadequate symptomatic treatment in most cases

Community Views of Urban Forests in the South Bronx, New York

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Imaging protein dynamics in live mitotic cells

To ensure that genetic material is accurately segregated during mitosis, eukaryotic cells assemble a mitotic spindle, a dynamic structure composed of microtubules and associated regulatory, structural and motor proteins. Although much has been learned in the past decades from direct observations of live cells expressing fluorescently tagged spindle proteins, a complete understanding of spindle assembly requires a detailed analysis of the dynamic behavior of component parts. Proteins tagged with conventional fluorophores, however, make such an analysis difficult because all of the molecules are uniformly fluorescent. To alleviate this problem, we have tagged proteins with a photoactivatable variant of GFP (PA-GFP), thereby allowing one to follow the behavior of a subset of tagged molecules in the cell. Here, we describe methods to tag and express proteins with PA-GFP, locally photoactivate the recombinant protein and record the dynamic behavior of the photoactivated molecules in live cells. We provide examples of photoactivable proteins in mammalian and yeast cells to illustrate the power of this approach to examine the dynamics of spindle formation and function in diverse cells

Safety of poly (ethylene glycol)-coated perfluorodecalin-filled poly (lactide-co-glycolide) microcapsules following intravenous administration of high amounts in rats

The host response against foreign materials designates the biocompatibility of intravenously administered microcapsules and thus, widely affects their potential for subsequent clinical use as artificial oxygen/drug carriers. Therefore, body distribution and systemic parameters, as well as markers of inflammation and indicators of organ damage were carefully evaluated after administration of short-chained poly (vinyl alcohol, (PVA)) solution or poly (ethylene glycol (PEG))-shielded perfluorodecalin-filled poly (d,l-lactide-co-glycolide, PFD-filled PLGA) microcapsules into Wistar rats. Whereas PVA infusion was well tolerated, all animals survived the selected dose of 1247 mg microcapsules/kg body weight but showed marked toxicity (increased enzyme activities, rising pro-inflammatory cytokines and complement factors) and developed a mild metabolic acidosis. The observed hypotension emerging immediately after start of capsule infusion was transient and mean arterial blood pressure restored to baseline within 70 min. Microcapsules accumulated in spleen and liver (but not in other organs) and partly occluded hepatic microcirculation reducing sinusoidal perfusion rate by about 20%. Intravenous infusion of high amounts of PFD-filled PLGA microcapsules was tolerated temporarily but associated with severe side effects such as hypotension and organ damage. Short-chained PVA displays excellent biocompatibility and thus, can be utilized as emulsifier for the preparation of drug carriers designed for intravenous use

Dynamic reorganization of Eg5 in the mammalian spindle throughout mitosis requires dynein and TPX2

Kinesin-5 is an essential mitotic motor. However, how its spatial-temporal distribution is regulated in mitosis remains poorly understood. We expressed localization and affinity purification-tagged Eg5 from a mouse bacterial artificial chromosome (this construct was called mEg5) and found its distribution to be tightly regulated throughout mitosis. Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching analysis showed rapid Eg5 turnover throughout mitosis, which cannot be accounted for by microtubule turnover. Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy and high-resolution, single-particle tracking revealed that mEg5 punctae on both astral and midzone microtubules rapidly bind and unbind. mEg5 punctae on midzone microtubules moved transiently both toward and away from spindle poles. In contrast, mEg5 punctae on astral microtubules moved transiently toward microtubule minus ends during early mitosis but switched to plus end-directed motion during anaphase. These observations explain the poleward accumulation of Eg5 in early mitosis and its redistribution in anaphase. Inhibition of dynein blocked mEg5 movement on astral microtubules, whereas depletion of the Eg5-binding protein TPX2 resulted in plus end-directed mEg5 movement. However, motion of Eg5 on midzone microtubules was not altered. Our results reveal differential and precise spatial and temporal regulation of Eg5 in the spindle mediated by dynein and TPX2

Hypoxia promotes osteogenesis but suppresses adipogenesis of human mesenchymal stromal cells in a hypoxia-inducible factor-1 dependent manner.

BACKGROUND: Bone fracture initiates a series of cellular and molecular events including the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1. HIF-1 is known to facilitate recruitment and differentiation of multipotent human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSC). Therefore, we analyzed the impact of hypoxia and HIF-1 on the competitive differentiation potential of hMSCs towards adipogenic and osteogenic lineages. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Bone marrow derived primary hMSCs cultured for 2 weeks either under normoxic (app. 18% O(2)) or hypoxic (less than 2% O(2)) conditions were analyzed for the expression of MSC surface markers and for expression of the genes HIF1A, VEGFA, LDHA, PGK1, and GLUT1. Using conditioned medium, adipogenic or osteogenic differentiation as verified by Oil-Red-O or von-Kossa staining was induced in hMSCs under either normoxic or hypoxic conditions. The expression of HIF1A and VEGFA was measured by qPCR. A knockdown of HIF-1α by lentiviral transduction was performed, and the ability of the transduced hMSCs to differentiate into adipogenic and osteogenic lineages was analyzed. Hypoxia induced HIF-1α and HIF-1 target gene expression, but did not alter MSC phenotype or surface marker expression. Hypoxia (i) suppressed adipogenesis and associated HIF1A and PPARG gene expression in hMSCs and (ii) enhanced osteogenesis and associated HIF1A and RUNX2 gene expression. shRNA-mediated knockdown of HIF-1α enhanced adipogenesis under both normoxia and hypoxia, and suppressed hypoxia-induced osteogenesis. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Hypoxia promotes osteogenesis but suppresses adipogenesis of human MSCs in a competitive and HIF-1-dependent manner. We therefore conclude that the effects of hypoxia are crucial for effective bone healing, which may potentially lead to the development of novel therapeutic approaches