Increased capsaicin receptor TRPV1-expressing sensory fibres in irritable bowel syndrome and their correlation with abdominal pain

OBJECTIVE: The capsaicin receptor TRPV1 (transient receptor potential vanilloid type-1) may play an important role in visceral pain and hypersensitivity states. In irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), abdominal pain is a common and distressing symptom where the pathophysiology is still not clearly defined. TRPV1-immunoreactive nerve fibres were investigated in colonic biopsies from patients with IBS, and this was related to abdominal pain. METHODS: Rectosigmoid biopsies were collected from 23 IBS patients fulfilling Rome II criteria, and from 22 controls. Abdominal pain scores were recorded using a validated questionnaire. TRPV1-, substance P- and neuronal marker protein gene product (PGP) 9.5-expressing nerve fibres, mast cells (c-kit) and lymphocytes (CD3 and CD4) were quantified, following immunohistochemistry with specific antibodies. The biopsy findings were related to the abdominal pain scores. RESULTS: A significant 3.5-fold increase in median numbers of TRPV1-immunoreactive fibres was found in biopsies from IBS patients compared with controls (p<0.0001). Substance P-immunoreactive fibres (p = 0.01), total nerve fibres (PGP9.5) (p = 0.002), mast cells (c-kit) (p = 0.02) and lymphocytes (CD3) (p = 0.03) were also significantly increased in the IBS group. In multivariate regression analysis, only TRPV1-immuno-reactive fibres (p = 0.005) and mast cells (p = 0.008) were significantly related to the abdominal pain score. CONCLUSIONS: Increased TRPV1 nerve fibres are observed in IBS, together with a low-grade inflammatory response. The increased TRPV1 nerve fibres may contribute to visceral hypersensitivity and pain in IBS, and provide a novel therapeutic target

Many-body spin related phenomena in ultra-low-disorder quantum wires

Zero length quantum wires (or point contacts) exhibit unexplained conductance structure close to 0.7 X 2e^2/h in the absence of an applied magnetic field. We have studied the density- and temperature-dependent conductance of ultra-low-disorder GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wires with nominal lengths l=0 and 2 mu m, fabricated from structures free of the disorder associated with modulation doping. In a direct comparison we observe structure near 0.7 X 2e^2/h for l=0 whereas the l=2 mu m wires show structure evolving with increasing electron density to 0.5 X 2e^2/h in zero magnetic field, the value expected for an ideal spin-split sub-band. Our results suggest the dominant mechanism through which electrons interact can be strongly affected by the length of the 1D region.Comment: 5 Pages, 4 figure

Ring-shaped spatial pattern of exciton luminescence formed due to the hot carrier transport in a locally photoexcited electron-hole bilayer

A consistent explanation of the formation of a ring-shaped pattern of exciton luminescence in GaAs/AlGaAs double quantum wells is suggested. The pattern consists of two concentric rings around the laser excitation spot. It is shown that the luminescence rings appear due to the in-layer transport of hot charge carriers at high photoexcitation intensity. Interestingly, one of two causes of this transport might involve self-organized criticality (SOC) that would be the first case of the SOC observation in semiconductor physics. We test this cause in a many-body numerical model by performing extensive molecular dynamics simulations. The results show good agreement with experiments. Moreover, the simulations have enabled us to identify the particular kinetic processes underlying the formation of each of these two luminescence rings.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figures. Final versio

Science lives: School choices and ‘natural tendencies’

An analysis of 12 semi-structured interviews with university-based scientists and non-scientists illustrates their life journeys towards, or away from, science and the strengths and impact of life occurrences leading them to choose science or non-science professions. We have adopted narrative approaches and used Mezirow's transformative learning theory framework. The areas of discussion from the result have stressed on three main categories that include ‘smooth transition’, ‘incremental wavering transition' and ‘transformative transition’. The article concludes by discussing the key influences that shaped initial attitudes and direction in these people through natural inclination, environmental inspirations and perceptions of science

The pathophysiology of malarial anaemia: where have all the red cells gone?

Malarial anaemia is an enormous public health problem in endemic areas and occurs predominantly in children in the first 3 years of life. Anaemia is due to both a great increase in clearance of uninfected cells and a failure of an adequate bone marrow response. Odhiambo, Stoute and colleagues show how the age distribution of malarial anaemia and the haemolysis of red blood cells may be linked by an age-dependent increase in the capacity of red blood cells to inactivate complement components absorbed or deposited directly on to the surface of the red blood cell. In this commentary, we discuss what has been established about the role of complement deposition on the surface of red blood cells in the pathology of malarial anaemia, how genetic polymorphisms of the complement control proteins influence the outcome of malaria infection and how the findings of Odhiambo, Stoute and colleagues and others shed light on the puzzling age distribution of different syndromes of severe malaria

Changing children’s understanding of the brain: a longitudinal study of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures as a measure of public engagement

Demonstrating the impact of public engagement is an increasingly important activity for today’s academics and researchers. The difficulty is that many areas of interest do not lend themselves well to evaluation because the impact of each single intervention can be hard to trace and take time to become manifest. With this in mind, we evaluated a lecture based around the 2011 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, ”Meet Your Brain,” delivered to school children from low performing schools. We compared knowledge about four neuroscience facts one week before, one week after and six weeks after the lecture. Analysis revealed significant knowledge transfer one week after the lecture that was retained five weeks later. We conclude that public engagement through tailored lectures can have significant impact in the moderate term with the potential to leave a lasting impression over a longer period

Heterotopic gastrointestinal cyst mimicking chronic cholecystitis: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Heterotopic gastric mucosa is described almost everywhere in the gastrointestinal tract, from the oral cavity to the rectum. The occurrence of heterotopic gastric tissue in the gallbladder is rare. A choristoma can be defined as a new growth developing from a displaced anlage not normally present in the anatomical site where it developed. We present an extremely uncommon case of a cyst (choristoma) attached to the gallbladder, which contained gastric and intestinal mucosa.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 33-year-old woman was hospitalized with clinical symptoms of chronic cholecystitis. The laboratory findings were within the normal range. Abdominal ultrasonography revealed a thickened gallbladder wall and a stone in the cystic duct was suspected. In the course of laparoscopic cholecystectomy, a cyst was visualized in the vicinity of the duct and the gallbladder neck. Microscopic examination of the removed cyst revealed evidence of gastric, duodenal and small-intestinal mucosa. The immunohistochemical study revealed many endocrine cells, which were positive for several endocrine cell markers such as chromogranin, serotonin, gastrin and so on. It can be inferred that the observed cyst had arisen from the foregut early in the development of the gastrointestinal tract.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The presence of endocrine cells together with epithelial cells supports the hypothesis that these had developed simultaneously, and that the endocrine cells had probably supported the development of the epithelial cells by the release of hormones and growth factors. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this report is the first to report a gastrointestinal cyst choristoma with endocrine cells in the region of the cystic duct and gallbladder.</p

The frontiers of participatory public engagement

Currently missing from critical literature on public engagement with academic research is a public-centric analysis of the wider contemporary context of developments in the field of public engagement and participation. Drawing on three differently useful strands of the existing theoretical literature on the public, this article compares a diverse sample of 100 participatory public engagement initiatives in order to first, analyse a selection of the myriad ways that the public is being constituted and supported across this contemporary field and second, identify what socio-cultural researchers might learn from these developments. Emerging from this research is a preliminary map of the field of public engagement and participation. This map highlights relationships and divergences that exist among diverse forms of practice and brings into clearer view a set of tensions between different contemporary approaches to public engagement and participation. Two ‘frontiers’ of participatory public engagement that socio-cultural researchers should attend are also identified. At the first, scholars need to be critical regarding the particular versions of the public that their preferred approach to engagement and participation supports and concerning how their specific identifications with the public relate to those being addressed across the wider field. At the second frontier, researchers need to consider the possibilities for political intervention that public engagement and participation practice could open out, both in the settings they are already working and also in the much broader, rapidly developing and increasingly complicated contemporary field of public engagement and participation that this article explores

Mechanisms controlling anaemia in Trypanosoma congolense infected mice.

Trypanosoma congolense are extracellular protozoan parasites of the blood stream of artiodactyls and are one of the main constraints on cattle production in Africa. In cattle, anaemia is the key feature of disease and persists after parasitaemia has declined to low or undetectable levels, but treatment to clear the parasites usually resolves the anaemia. The progress of anaemia after Trypanosoma congolense infection was followed in three mouse strains. Anaemia developed rapidly in all three strains until the peak of the first wave of parasitaemia. This was followed by a second phase, characterized by slower progress to severe anaemia in C57BL/6, by slow recovery in surviving A/J and a rapid recovery in BALB/c. There was no association between parasitaemia and severity of anaemia. Furthermore, functional T lymphocytes are not required for the induction of anaemia, since suppression of T cell activity with Cyclosporin A had neither an effect on the course of infection nor on anaemia. Expression of genes involved in erythropoiesis and iron metabolism was followed in spleen, liver and kidney tissues in the three strains of mice using microarrays. There was no evidence for a response to erythropoietin, consistent with anaemia of chronic disease, which is erythropoietin insensitive. However, the expression of transcription factors and genes involved in erythropoiesis and haemolysis did correlate with the expression of the inflammatory cytokines Il6 and Ifng. The innate immune response appears to be the major contributor to the inflammation associated with anaemia since suppression of T cells with CsA had no observable effect. Several transcription factors regulating haematopoiesis, Tal1, Gata1, Zfpm1 and Klf1 were expressed at consistently lower levels in C57BL/6 mice suggesting that these mice have a lower haematopoietic capacity and therefore less ability to recover from haemolysis induced anaemia after infection