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Improvements In Diagnosis And Treatment Linked To Reduced Risk Of Death In Patients With Brain Haemorrhage
Improvements in diagnosis and treatment over the past 30 years have led to a 17% decrease in the likelihood of death from aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (the bursting of a blood vessel on the surface the brain) in the general population, according to an Article published Online First and in the July edition of The Lancet Neurology.

Potent Inhibitor Blocks Tumors From Metastasizing
Researchers at Children"s Hospital Boston have isolated a potent inhibitor of tumor metastasis made by tumor cells, one that could potentially be harnessed as a cancer treatment. Their findings were published in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences during the week of June 22.
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Blogs Comment On Supreme Court Pregnancy Leave Ruling, Obama's Notre Dame Speech, Other Topics
The following summarizes selected women"s health-related blog entries. ~ "Peaceful Revolution: Another Blow to Women," Debra Ness, Huffington Post blogs: The Supreme Court"s ruling this week in AT&T Corp. v. Hulteen "dealt a serious and painful blow to working women and the families who rely on their retirement benefits," Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, writes. The ruling "affects a limited number of people," and it "would be easy to ignore them -- easy, but terribly wrong," Ness continues. "This ruling sends a terrible message about whether discrimination will bring penalties and costs, and whether the courts will address the ongoing effects of prior discrimination," she writes. Ness notes that the ruling "couldn"t come at a worse time," adding, "In today"s grim economic climate, women and their families cannot afford to see their retirement benefits kept lower by discriminatory workplace policies that should have been remedied decades ago." Ness writes that it is "sobering that, at a time when negative stereotypes about pregnant women clearly persist, we have a Supreme Court that doesn"t stand firm for equal rights and equal opportunity." She concludes, "It"s a good reminder of what"s at stake with the Supreme Court nomination President Obama is about to make" (Ness, Huffington Post blogs, 5/21).~ "This Week in Religion and Politics," Sarah Posner, American Prospect"s "The FundamentaList": When "viewed in the context of Obama"s entire faith-based outreach project, the events" surrounding the University of Notre Dame"s commencement ceremony "highlighted how he has embraced traditionalist, conservative religion -- to the detriment of sexual and reproductive justice," Posner writes. President Obama has "focused his outreach efforts" to reduce the need for abortion "on more conservative religious groups" and "claims to honor their position on moral issues," Posner writes. However, "when the dust settles on the Notre Dame controversy, he"ll have to figure out what to do with the policy advice he has sought" from the White House Office on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, she continues. Posner adds, "How Obama reacts to that advice will demonstrate whether the council is mere window dressing to shore up support from swing constituencies or whether Obama will yield to conservative religious dogma on reproductive-health issues." Meanwhile, Christian conservatives have been "making hay of the findings" of recent Pew and Gallup polls that found more U.S. residents identifying with "pro-life" positions and using the data to argue "that Obama"s position is out of touch with the majority of Americans," Posner writes. However, as bloggers at The Monkey Cage and FiveThirtyEight have pointed out, the polls are not representative of most U.S. residents" views on abortion rights, she writes. "Because of that deception on reproductive rights, it"s more important than ever for the president to lay the moral groundwork for his own position -- not just to recognize the moral qualms of abortion opponents," Posner says (Posner, "The FundamentaList," American Prospect, 5/20).~ "Meghan McCain Preaches What She Practices," Willa Paskin, Slate"s "XX Factor": Meghan McCain -- Sen. John McCain"s (R-Ariz.) daughter -- "acquitted herself quite admirably" on Monday"s episode of Comedy Central"s "The Colbert Report" by "defending her core position" that the Republican Party "needs to appeal to younger voters, and it can only do so by getting liberal on social issues," Paskin writes. On the show, McCain said, "I think it"s not realistic for this generation to be just plain abstinent, I think we need to have sex education with condoms and birth control. ... I would never practice anything I didn"t preach." Paskin also includes a video clip of McCain"s appearance (Paskin, "XX Factor," Slate, 5/19).~ "Skill the Messenger," Cristina Page, Birth Control Watch: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin"s (R) 18-year-old daughter Bristol -- who was
Sexual Health

What Is The Function Of Lymph Nodes?

If we imagine our immune system to be a police force for our bodies, then previous work has suggested that the Lymph nodes would be the best candidate structures within the body to act as police stations - the regions in which the immune response is organised. However, a new paper - published in this week"s issue of PLoS Biology - suggests that lymph nodes are not essential in the mouse in marshalling T-cells (a main immune foot soldier) to respond to a breach of the skin barrier. This result is both surprising in itself, and suggests a novel function for the liver as an alternate site for T-cell activation. When a child falls off its bike and scratches its skin, the body responds via the immune system. Scavenger cells at the site of the wound pick up antigens -tiny particles derived from invading microorganisms and dirt that the body will recognize as foreign. These antigens are delivered to the nearest lymph node. T and B cells (immune cells) carrying the matching antigen-receptors on their surface will be stimulated by the concentrated antigen now present in these lymph nodes. T cells will then go on and orchestrate the defensive response against the invaders, whereas B cells will transform into antibody-producing cells flooding the body with antibodies which act against the hostile microorganisms. Mice that lack lymph nodes due to a genetic mutation (alymphoplasia) are severely immuno-compromised and struggle in fighting infections and tumors. Interesting article What is lymphoma? Lymphoma causes and treatments. New work by Melanie Greter, Janin Hofmann and Burkhard Becher from the Institute of experimental Immunology at the University of Zurich reports that the immunodeficiency associated with alymphoplasia is not due to the lack of lymph nodes, but caused by the genetic lesion on immune cells themselves. The new paper shows that in the mouse T cell function is unperturbed in the absence of lymph nodes, whereas B cell activation and antibody secretion is strongly affected. That T cell responses can be launched outside of lymph nodes is highly surprising, because this means that T cells can encounter antigens elsewhere in order to become activated. By tracing the migration of fluorescent particles from the site of antigen invasion (i.e. the wound) the scientists discovered that the liver could serve as a surrogate structure for T cell activation. During embryonic development, the liver is the first organ to provide us with blood and immune cells. Apparently, at least in the mouse the liver continues to serve as an "immune organ" even during adulthood. This work suggests an explanation for the curious fact that patients receiving a liver transplant sometimes inherit the donor"s allergies and immune repertoire, so in keeping with the idea that donor immune information is being transplanted. It also suggests that the liver as an immune organ is an evolutionary remnant from the time before lymph nodes developed in higher birds and mammals. Cold-blooded vertebrates have functioning T and B cells but no lymph nodes. The main achievement of the development of lymph nodes in mammals is a drastic improvement for the production of better antibodies. T cells on the other hand have not changed their function much during evolution and the work by the Zurich group finally provides solid evidence for the versatility and promiscuity of this cell type. Funding: This work was supported by grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation , the National centre for excellence in Research, the Swiss MS Society, and a nonrestricted grant from Merck-Serono Pharma Geneva. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests statement: The authors declare that no competing interests exist. Citation: "Neo-Lymphoid Aggregates in the Adult Liver Can Initiate Potent Cell-Mediated Immunity." Greter M, Hofmann J, Becher B (2009) PLoS Biol 7(5):e1000109. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000109 Plos Biology


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