The School Health Index as an Impetus for Change

BACKGROUND: The increase in childhood obesity and prevalence of chronic disease risk factors demonstrate the importance of creating healthy school environments. As part of the Border Health Strategic Initiative, the School Health Index was implemented in public schools in two counties along the Arizona, United States-Sonora, Mexico border. Developed in 2000 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the School Health Index offers a guide to assist schools in evaluating and improving opportunities for physical activity and good nutrition for their students. CONTEXT: Between 2000 and 2003, a total of 13 schools from five school districts in two counties participated in the School Health Index project despite academic pressures and limited resources. METHODS: The Border Health Strategic Initiative supported the hiring and training of an external coordinator in each county who was not part of the school system but who was an employee in an established community-based organization. The coordinators worked with the schools to implement the School Health Index, to develop action plans, and to monitor progress toward these goals. CONSEQUENCES: The School Health Index process and school team participation varied from school to school. Individual plans were different but all focused on reducing in-school access to unhealthy foods, identified as high-fat and/or of low nutritional value. Ideas for acting on this focus ranged from changing the content of school lunches to discontinuing the use of nonnutritious foods as classroom rewards. All plans included recommendations that could be implemented immediately as well as those that would require planning and perhaps the formation and assistance of a subcommittee (e.g., for developing or adopting a district-wide health curriculum). INTERPRETATION: After working with the School Health Index, most schools made at least one immediate change in their school environments. The external coordinator was essential to keeping the School Health Index results and action plans on the agendas of school administrators, especially during periods of staff turnover. Staff turnover, lack of time, and limited resources resulted in few schools achieving longer-term policy changes

The School Health Index as an Impetus for Change

Background The increase in childhood obesity and prevalence of chronic disease risk factors demonstrate the importance of creating healthy school environments. As part of the Border Health Strategic Initiative, the School Health Index was implemented in public schools in two counties along the Arizona, United States-Sonora, Mexico border. Developed in 2000 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the School Health Index offers a guide to assist schools in evaluating and improving opportunities for physical activity and good nutrition for their students. Context Between 2000 and 2003, a total of 13 schools from five school districts in two counties participated in the School Health Index project despite academic pressures and limited resources. Methods The Border Health Strategic Initiative supported the hiring and training of an external coordinator in each county who was not part of the school system but who was an employee in an established community-based organization. The coordinators worked with the schools to implement the School Health Index, to develop action plans, and to monitor progress toward these goals. Consequences The School Health Index process and school team participation varied from school to school. Individual plans were different but all focused on reducing in-school access to unhealthy foods, identified as high-fat and/or of low nutritional value. Ideas for acting on this focus ranged from changing the content of school lunches to discontinuing the use of nonnutritious foods as classroom rewards. All plans included recommendations that could be implemented immediately as well as those that would require planning and perhaps the formation and assistance of a subcommittee (e.g., for developing or adopting a districtwide health curriculum). Interpretation After working with the School Health Index, most schools made at least one immediate change in their school environments. The external coordinator was essential to keeping the School Health Index results and action plans on the agendas of school administrators, especially during periods of staff turnover. Staff turnover, lack of time, and limited resources resulted in few schools achieving longer term policy changes

Transplantation of Allogeneic PW1^pos/Pax7^neg Interstitial Cells Enhance Endogenous Repair of Injured Porcine Skeletal Muscle

Skeletal muscle-derived PW1pos/Pax7neg interstitial cells (PICs) express and secrete a multitude of proregenerative growth factors and cytokines. Utilizing a porcine preclinical skeletal muscle injury model, delivery of allogeneic porcine PICs (pPICs) significantly improved and accelerated myofiber regeneration and neocapillarization, compared with saline vehicle control-treated muscles. Allogeneic pPICs did not contribute to new myofibers or capillaries and were eliminated by the host immune system. In conclusion, allogeneic pPIC transplantation stimulated the endogenous stem cell pool to bring about enhanced autologous skeletal muscle repair and regeneration. This allogeneic cell approach is considered a cost-effective, easy to apply, and readily available regenerative therapeutic strategy

Emergent mechanical control of vascular morphogenesis

Vascularization is driven by morphogen signals and mechanical cues that coordinately regulate cellular force generation, migration, and shape change to sculpt the developing vascular network. However, it remains unclear whether developing vasculature actively regulates its own mechanical properties to achieve effective vascularization. We engineered tissue constructs containing endothelial cells and fibroblasts to investigate the mechanics of vascularization. Tissue stiffness increases during vascular morphogenesis resulting from emergent interactions between endothelial cells, fibroblasts, and ECM and correlates with enhanced vascular function. Contractile cellular forces are key to emergent tissue stiffening and synergize with ECM mechanical properties to modulate the mechanics of vascularization. Emergent tissue stiffening and vascular function rely on mechanotransduction signaling within fibroblasts, mediated by YAP1. Mouse embryos lacking YAP1 in fibroblasts exhibit both reduced tissue stiffness and develop lethal vascular defects. Translating our findings through biology-inspired vascular tissue engineering approaches will have substantial implications in regenerative medicine

Emergent mechanical control of vascular morphogenesis

Vascularization is driven by morphogen signals and mechanical cues that coordinately regulate cellular force generation, migration, and shape change to sculpt the developing vascular network. However, it remains unclear whether developing vasculature actively regulates its own mechanical properties to achieve effective vascularization. We engineered tissue constructs containing endothelial cells and fibroblasts to investigate the mechanics of vascularization. Tissue stiffness increases during vascular morphogenesis resulting from emergent interactions between endothelial cells, fibroblasts, and ECM and correlates with enhanced vascular function. Contractile cellular forces are key to emergent tissue stiffening and synergize with ECM mechanical properties to modulate the mechanics of vascularization. Emergent tissue stiffening and vascular function rely on mechanotransduction signaling within fibroblasts, mediated by YAP1. Mouse embryos lacking YAP1 in fibroblasts exhibit both reduced tissue stiffness and develop lethal vascular defects. Translating our findings through biology-inspired vascular tissue engineering approaches will have substantial implications in regenerative medicine

Mode of reduction in the number of pharyngeal segments within the sarcopterygians

BACKGROUND: Pharyngeal segmentation is a defining feature of vertebrate embryos and is apparent as a series of bulges found on the lateral surface of the embryonic head, the pharyngeal arches. The ancestral condition for gnathostomes is to have seven pharyngeal segments: jaw, hyoid, and five posterior branchial arches. However, within the sarcopterygians, the pharyngeal region has undergone extensive remodelling that resulted in a reduction in the number of pharyngeal segments, such that amniotes have only five pharyngeal arches. The aim of this study is to probe the developmental basis of this loss of pharyngeal segments. RESULTS: We have therefore compared the development of the pharyngeal arches in an amniote, the chick, which has five segments, with those of a chondrichthyan, the catshark, which has seven segments. We have analysed the early phase of pharyngeal segmentation and we find that in both the most anterior segments form first with the posterior segments being added sequentially. We also documented the patterns of innervation of the pharynx in several vertebrates and note that the three most anterior segments receive distinct innervation: the first arch being innervated by the Vth nerve, the second by the VIIth and the third by the IXth. Finally, we have analysed Hox gene expression, and show that the anterior limit of Hoxa2 aligns with the second pouch and arch in both chick and catshark, while Hoxa3 is transiently associated with the third arch and pouch. Surprisingly, we have found that Hoxb1 expression is spatially and temporally dynamic and that it is always associated with the last most recently formed pouch and that this domains moves caudally as additional pouches are generated. CONCLUSION: We propose that the first three pharyngeal segments are homologous, as is the posterior limit of the pharynx, and that the loss of segments occurred between these two points. We suggest that this loss results from a curtailment of the posterior expansion of the pharyngeal endoderm in amniotes at relatively earlier time point, and thus the generation of fewer segments

Emergent mechanical control of vascular morphogenesis

Vascularization is driven by morphogen signals and mechanical cues that coordinately regulate cellular force generation, migration, and shape change to sculpt the developing vascular network. However, it remains unclear whether developing vasculature actively regulates its own mechanical properties to achieve effective vascularization. We engineered tissue constructs containing endothelial cells and fibroblasts to investigate the mechanics of vascularization. Tissue stiffness increases during vascular morphogenesis resulting from emergent interactions between endothelial cells, fibroblasts, and ECM and correlates with enhanced vascular function. Contractile cellular forces are key to emergent tissue stiffening and synergize with ECM mechanical properties to modulate the mechanics of vascularization. Emergent tissue stiffening and vascular function rely on mechanotransduction signaling within fibroblasts, mediated by YAP1. Mouse embryos lacking YAP1 in fibroblasts exhibit both reduced tissue stiffness and develop lethal vascular defects. Translating our findings through biology-inspired vascular tissue engineering approaches will have substantial implications in regenerative medicine.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version