Vaccination against HPV: indications for women and the impact on the cervical screening programme

A novel approach for primary prevention of cervical cancer has become available by the discovery of efficient prophylactic human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines based on virus-like particles. This review elaborates on the progress in the field of prophylactic HPV vaccination achieved in the past decade, provides indications for prophylactic HPV vaccination, and discusses the impact on public health and the current secondary prevention system. In summary, with current vaccines, effective prevention and control of cervical cancer within the next decades requires an integrated vaccination-screening approach, including routine prophylactic vaccination to young women and adapted cervical screening for older women ( ‡30 years)

Global Transcriptional Programs in Peripheral Nerve Endoneurium and DRG Are Resistant to the Onset of Type 1 Diabetic Neuropathy in Ins2Akita/+ Mice

While the morphological and electrophysiological changes underlying diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) are relatively well described, the involved molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigated whether phenotypic changes associated with early DPN are correlated with transcriptional alterations in the neuronal (dorsal root ganglia [DRG]) or the glial (endoneurium) compartments of the peripheral nerve. We used Ins2Akita/+ mice to study transcriptional changes underlying the onset of DPN in type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM). Weight, blood glucose and motor nerve conduction velocity (MNCV) were measured in Ins2Akita/+ and control mice during the first three months of life in order to determine the onset of DPN. Based on this phenotypic characterization, we performed gene expression profiling using sciatic nerve endoneurium and DRG isolated from pre-symptomatic and early symptomatic Ins2Akita/+ mice and sex-matched littermate controls. Our phenotypic analysis of Ins2Akita/+ mice revealed that DPN, as measured by reduced MNCV, is detectable in affected animals already one week after the onset of hyperglycemia. Surprisingly, the onset of DPN was not associated with any major persistent changes in gene expression profiles in either sciatic nerve endoneurium or DRG. Our data thus demonstrated that the transcriptional programs in both endoneurial and neuronal compartments of the peripheral nerve are relatively resistant to the onset of hyperglycemia and hypoinsulinemia suggesting that either minor transcriptional alterations or changes on the proteomic level are responsible for the functional deficits associated with the onset of DPN in type 1 DM

Review: Robot assisted laparoscopic surgery in gynaecological oncology

Robot technology feeds one's imagination. Called after the Czech play "robota", robot suggests "to be able to act without human interference and being able to constantly adapt to the situation and the task". As such, the term "robotic surgery" is incorrect. It would be better to refer to surgical robots as "master slave instruments" as robotic surgery is completely executed by the surgeon, be it by means of distant manipulation. Although the current surgical robots were initially developed to perform procedures at great distance (either in military dangerous areas or in space), its use as telesurgery is still very limited and practically not feasible