Immunotoxic effects of environmental toxicants in fish — how to assess them?

Numerous environmental chemicals, both long-known toxicants such as persistent organic pollutants as well as emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals, are known to modulate immune parameters of wildlife species, what can have adverse consequences for the fitness of individuals including their capability to resist pathogen infections. Despite frequent field observations of impaired immunocompetence and increased disease incidence in contaminant-exposed wildlife populations, the potential relevance of immunotoxic effects for the ecological impact of chemicals is rarely considered in ecotoxicological risk assessment. A limiting factor in the assessment of immunotoxic effects might be the complexity of the immune system what makes it difficult (1) to select appropriate exposure and effect parameters out of the many immune parameters which could be measured, and (2) to evaluate the significance of the selected parameters for the overall fitness and immunocompetence of the organism. Here, we present — on the example of teleost fishes — a brief discussion of how to assess chemical impact on the immune system using parameters at different levels of complexity and integration: immune mediators, humoral immune effectors, cellular immune defenses, macroscopical and microscopical responses of lymphoid tissues and organs, and host resistance to pathogens. Importantly, adverse effects of chemicals on immunocompetence may be detectable only after immune system activation, e.g., after pathogen challenge, but not in the resting immune system of non-infected fish. Current limitations to further development and implementation of immunotoxicity assays and parameters in ecotoxicological risk assessment are not primarily due to technological constraints, but are related from insufficient knowledge of (1) possible modes of action in the immune system, (2) the importance of intra- and inter-species immune system variability for the response against chemical stressors, and (3) deficits in conceptual and mechanistic assessment of combination effects of chemicals and pathogen

Chancen und Grenzen von Kooperation und Vernetzung am Beispiel des Berliner Krisendienstes

Krisenarbeit ist ohne Kooperation und Vernetzung nicht denkbar. Mit dem Artikel verbinden wir das Anliegen, die Voraussetzungen und Bedingungen für Kooperation und Vernetzung im Zusammenhang mit einer definierten Aufgabe – der ambulanten Krisenarbeit im regionalen und stadtweiten Verbund – zu diskutieren. Die empirische Grundlage für diese Diskussion bietet der Fragebogen "Krisenarbeit in Berlin", der die Wahrnehmung des Berliner Krisendienstes durch ausgewählte psychosoziale und medizinische Institutionen erfasst. Der dokumentierte Forschungsprozess selbst wird als qualitatives Datenmaterial analysiert. Dieser Forschungszugang bietet die Möglichkeit, die quantitativen Fragebogenergebnisse vor diesem Hintergrund einzuordnen. Drei Etablierungsgrade von Kooperation mit dem Berliner Krisendienst sind identifiziert worden. Entlang eines heuristischen Modells über förderliche und hinderliche Bedingungen für Kooperation wird dieses ausgewählte Ergebnis der Fragebogenuntersuchung erörtert. Nicht nur die Chancen von Kooperation werden ausgeleuchtet, sondern auch Grenzen von Kooperation und Vernetzung aufgezeigt. Die Frage, welche Etablierungsgrade von Kooperation zwischen dem Berliner Krisendienst und anderen Anbietern der psychosozialen und medizinischen Versorgung für welche Problemfelder als notwendig erachtet werden, ist nicht von der Forschung zu beantworten, sondern auf fachlicher und gesundheits- und sozialpolitischer Ebene zu diskutieren.Crisis intervention cannot be thought without cooperation and networking. This article aims at discussing the prerequisites and conditions for cooperation and networking in the context of a defined task – outpatient crisis intervention within the citywide or regional network. The questionnaire "crisis intervention work in Berlin" provides the empirical foundation for this discussion. It taps the perception of exemplary psychosocial and medical institutions on the major Berlin Crisis Intervention Service. The documentation of the research-process is used as a source for qualitative data-analysis. This research approach is used as a background for interpreting the results from the questionnaire. Three different degrees of establishment of cooperation between the Berlin Crisis Intervention Service and different service providers of the psychosocial and medical health care system were identified. The results were integrated into a heuristic approach about conductive and impedimental factors for cooperation. The question what degree of establishment is necessary for the cooperation between the Berlin Crisis Intervention Service and different service providers of the psychosocial and medical health care system for different types of problems cannot be answered on the basis of research. Instead, it needs to be discussed on a professional and a health and social political level

Open House? Class-Specific Career Opportunities within German Universities

This article focuses on the development of class-specific inequalities within German universities. Based on data on the social origin of students, doctoral students, and professors in the long-term cross-section, the article views the empirically observable dynamic of social closure of higher education since the 1950s. The focus of interest is on the level of the professorship. Data show that career conditions for underprivileged groups have deteriorated again. This finding is discussed in the context of social closure theories. The article argues that closure theories consider social closure processes primarily as intentional patterns of action, aimed at a strategic monopolization of participation, and securing social power. Such an analytical approach means that unintended closure processes remain understudied. Our conclusion is that concealed modes of reproduction of social structures ought to be examined and theorized more intensively due to their importance for the elimination of social inequality within universities

From Screening to Therapy: Anti-HCV Screening and Linkage to Care in a Network of General Practitioners and a Private Gastroenterology Practice

(1) Background: Low rates of hepatitis C virus (HCV) diagnosis and sub-optimal linkage to care constitute barriers toward eliminating the infection. In 2012/2013, we showed that HCV screening in primary care detects unknown cases. However, hepatitis C patients may not receive further diagnostics and therapy because they drop out during the referral pathway to secondary care. Thus, we used an existing network of primary care physicians and a practice of gastroenterology to investigate the pathway from screening to therapy. (2) Methods: HCV screening was prospectively included in a routine check-up of primary care physicians who cooperated regularly with a private gastroenterology practice. Anti-HCV-positive patients were referred for further specialized diagnostics and treatment if indicated. (3) Results: Seventeen primary care practices screened 1875 patients. Twelve individuals were anti-HCV-positive (0.6%), six of them reported previous antiviral HCV therapy, and one untreated patient was HCV-RNA-positive (0.05% of the population). None of the 12 anti-HCV-positive cases showed up at the private gastroenterology practice. Further clinical details of the pathway from screening to therapy could not be analyzed. (4) Conclusions: The linkage between primary and secondary care appears to be problematic in the HCV setting even among cooperating partners, but robust conclusions require larger datasets

Hypo-methylation mediates chromosomal instability in pancreatic NET.

DAXX and or ATRX loss occur in 40% of pancreatic neuro-endocrine tumors (PanNETs). PanNETs negative for DAXX or ATRX show an increased risk of relapse. The tumor-associated pathways activated upon DAXX or ATRX loss and how this event may induce chromosomal instability (CIN) and alternative lengthening telomeres (ALT) are still unknown. Both DAXX and ATRX are involved in DNA methylation regulation. DNA methylation of heterochromatin and of non-coding sequences is extremely important for the maintenance of genomic stability. We analysed the association of DAXX and or ATRX loss and CIN with global DNA methylation in human PanNET samples and the effect of DAXX knock down on methylation and cell proliferation. We assessed LINE1 as well as global DNA methylation in 167 PanNETs and we found that DAXX and or ATRX negative tumors and tumors with CIN were hypo-methylated. DAXX knock-down in PanNET cell lines blocked cells in G1/G0 phase and seemed to increase CIN in QGP-1 cells. However, no direct changes in DNA methylation were observed after DAXX knock down in vitro. In conclusion our data indicate that epigenetic changes are crucial steps in the progression of PanNETs loss and suggest that DNA methylation is the mechanism via which CIN is induced, allowing clonal expansion and selection