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Scientists Discover How Thalidomide Causes Limb Defects
Scientists have uncovered how and why limbs are targeted by thalidomide - the drug that caused serious defects in babies whose mothers had taken it to relieve their morning sickness.
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Poor Working Conditions For Docs May Affect Quality Of Care
"Adverse working conditions for primary care doctors, including time pressures and an unfavorable organizational culture, may lead to stress, burnout, and ultimately to lower quality patient care, a new study found," MedPage Today reports. The study, published in the July 7 issue of The Annals of Internal Medicine, found that "53.1% of primary care physicians reported time pressure during physical examinations, while 48.1% reported chaotic working environments. Only 23.7% felt that quality was strongly emphasized in their practices. ... Moreover, 48.8% described their jobs as moderately or highly stressful, while 26.5% reported burnout, and 30.1% said they were at least moderately likely to leave their practices within two years." The authors wrote that the findings "are disturbing at a time when recruitment and retention in primary care are of major concern."
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Ontario Women Live Longer But Don't Prosper: Study
While Ontario women live longer than men, a majority are more likely to suffer from disability and chronic conditions, according to a new women"s health study by St. Michael"s Hospital researcher Dr. Arlene Bierman. What"s more, low-income women have more chronic conditions, greater disability and a shorter life expectancy than women in high-income groups.
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Bacteria Are First Sensed By Cells Lining Blood Vessels, Not Immune Cells

Paul Kubes and colleagues, at the University of Calgary, Canada, have provided evidence in mice to refute the paradigm that the initial phase of the immune response to infection with Gram-negative bacteria (the recruitment of immune cells known as neutrophils to the site of infection) is triggered following immune sentinel-cell recognition of the bacterial molecule LPS via the protein TLR4. Rather, the researchers found that LPS recognition by TLR4 on the cells that line blood vessels (endothelial cells) is the crucial event that initiates neutrophil recruitment and bacterial clearance in mice. In the study, mice engineered such that they expressed TLR4 exclusively on endothelial cells were found to be dramatically less susceptible to a lethal intraperitoneal dose of the bacterium E. coli than normal mice. This was because neutrophil recruitment to the site of infection was much more efficient in the engineered mice than in normal mice, as a result of many neutrophils being sequestered in the blood vessels of the lungs of normal mice. In contrast, TLR4 on endothelial cells was not involved in neutrophil recruitment following LPS administration into the airways, rather TLR4 on immune sentinel cells was the key trigger of neutrophil recruitment. The authors therefore conclude that TLR4 on endothelial and immune sentinel cells is crucial for infection with Gram-negative bacteria at different sites, the blood and tissues, and the lungs, respectively. TITLE: Mice that exclusively express TLR4 on endothelial cells can efficiently clear a lethal systemic Gram-negative bacterial infection AUTHOR: Paul Kubes University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=36411 Karen Honey Journal of Clinical Investigation JCI online early table of contents: June 15, 2009


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