Vocation, Belongingness, and Balance: A Qualitative Study of Veterinary Student Well-Being

An elevated risk for suicide among veterinarians has stimulated research into the mental health of the veterinary profession, and more recently attention has turned to the veterinary student population. This qualitative study sought to explore UK veterinary students' perceptions and experiences of university life, and to consider how these may affect well-being. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 students from a single UK school who were purposively selected to include perspectives from male, female, graduate-entry, standard-entry (straight from high school), and widening participation students across all 5 years of the program. Three main themes were identified: a deep-rooted vocation, navigating belongingness, and finding balance. Participants described a long-standing goal of becoming a veterinarian, with a determination reflected by often circuitous routes to veterinary school and little or no consideration of alternatives. Although some had been motivated by a love of animals, others were intrinsically interested in the scientific and problem-solving challenges of veterinary medicine. Most expressed strong feelings of empathy with animal owners. The issue of belongingness was central to participants' experiences, with accounts reflecting their efforts to negotiate a sense of belongingness both in student and professional communities. Participants also frequently expressed a degree of acceptance of poor balance between work and relaxation, with indications of a belief that this imbalance could be rectified later. This study helps highlight future avenues for research and supports initiatives aiming to nurture a sense of collegiality among veterinary students as they progress through training and into the profession

LPS-matured CD11c+ bone marrow-derived dendritic cells can initiate autoimmune pathology with minimal injection site inflammation

The pathogenesis of human autoimmune disorders is incompletely understood. This has led to the development of numerous murine models in which the pathogenesis of autoimmunity can be probed and the efficacy of novel therapies can be tested. One of the most widely-used murine models of autoimmunity is experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). To induce autoimmune pathology, mice are often immunized with an autoantigen alongside an adjuvant, typically complete Freund\u2019s adjuvant (CFA). Unfortunately, CFA causes significant inflammation at the site of administration. Despite the well-recognized complication of injection site inflammation, CFA with autoantigen immunization is widely used to induce central nervous system autoimmunity. We performed a literature review which allowed us to estimate that over 10,000 mice were immunized with CFA in published EAE studies in 2013. In this study, we demonstrated that subcutaneously administered myelin basic protein (MBP)-pulsed CD11c+ bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDC) were as effective at inducing EAE as subcutaneously administered MBP plus CFA. Importantly, we also discovered that the CD11c+ BMDC caused significantly less injection site inflammation than MBP plus CFA immunization. This study demonstrated that the use of CD11c+ BMDC can enable the development of autopathogenic T-cells to be studied in vivo without the unwanted side-effects of long-lasting injection site inflammation. This model represents a significant refinement to existing EAE models and may lead to the improvement of the welfare of experimental mice used to study the development of autoimmunity in vivo