Promotion of plasma membrane repair by vitamin E

Severe vitamin E deficiency results in lethal myopathy in animal models. Membrane repair is an important myocyte response to plasma membrane disruption injury as when repair fails, myocytes die and muscular dystrophy ensues. Here we show that supplementation of cultured cells with α-tocopherol, the most common form of vitamin E, promotes plasma membrane repair. Conversely, in the absence of α-tocopherol supplementation, exposure of cultured cells to an oxidant challenge strikingly inhibits repair. Comparative measurements reveal that, to promote repair, an anti-oxidant must associate with membranes, as α-tocopherol does, or be capable of α-tocopherol regeneration. Finally, we show that myocytes in intact muscle cannot repair membranes when exposed to an oxidant challenge, but show enhanced repair when supplemented with vitamin E. Our work suggests a novel biological function for vitamin E in promoting myocyte plasma membrane repair. We propose that this function is essential for maintenance of skeletal muscle homeostasis

A framework for indicator-based reporting on sustainable consumption and production

The policy area of sustainable consumption and production (SCP) takes a holistic perspective on how society and the economy can be changed and better aligned with the goals of sustainability. This paper presents a framework developed for the selection of Indicators for use by the European Environment Agency (EEA) for assessing and reporting on progress towards SCP at European and national level. The approach taken by the EEA and its European Topic Centre on SCP includes a number of aspects which are new to the field of SCP indicator development. The first is the development of the framework itself including a vision of SCP which is used to guide both the initial selection of indicators but also provides impetus to the future development of improved indicators for measuring progress. A second novel aspect is the interim step of formulating a set of policy questions to which an indicator set can provide answers. In practice, this entails that the indicator set becomes forward looking and not limited by current data availability. A final novel element is the integration of indicator communication and evaluation directly into the framework. The EEA indicator framework links policy questions and answers to form narratives to better communicate progress in SCP and allow easier and more interesting interpretation of the indicator set as a whole for the end user

The Global Health System: Institutions in a Time of Transition

The global health system is in a period of rapid transition, with an upsurge of funds and greater political recognition, a broader range of health challenges, many new actors, and the rules, norms and expectations that govern them in flux. The traditional actors on the global health stage—most notably national health ministries, the World Health Organization (WHO) and a relatively small group of national medical research agencies and foundations funding global health research—are now being joined (and sometimes challenged) by a variety of newer actors: civil society and nongovernmental organizations, private firms, and private philanthropists, and an ever-growing presence in the global health policy arena of low- and middle-income countries, such as Kenya, Mexico, Brazil, China, India, Thailand, and South Africa. We present here a series of four papers on one dimension of the global health transition: its changing institutional arrangements. We define institutional arrangements broadly to include both the actors (individuals and/or organizations) that exert influence in global health and the norms and expectations that govern the relationships among them. We focused on three central questions regarding the global health system: (1) What functions must an effective global health system accomplish? (2) What kind of institutional arrangements can better govern the growing and diverse set of actors in the system to ensure that those functions are performed? (3) What lessons can be extracted from analysis of historical experience with malaria to inform future efforts to address them and the coming wave of new health challenges