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Study Redefines Roles Of Alcohol, Smoking In Risk For Pancreatitis
Although alcohol consumption is known to be associated with chronic pancreatitis, new evidence indicates that a threshold of five or more drinks per day is required to significantly raise risk; however, most patients with chronic pancreatitis do not drink this amount, according to a report in the June 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. In addition, smoking is an independent, dose-dependent risk factor.

Future Of Independent Sector Treatment Centres, UK
The future use of Independent Sector Treatment Centres (ISTCs) in the NHS, will be fairer and on the same terms as other providers of NHS services, Health Minister Mike O"Brien announced today.
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Importance Of 'Moral Values' Replaced By Economy, Health Care For Voters, Washington Post Columnist Says
Since the 2004 election, issues relating to the economic recession and health care have replaced "moral values" as the most important political topics in the U.S., columnist E.J. Dionne writes in a Washington Post opinion piece. He cites a survey released in May by the Pew Research Center that offered respondents the same list of issues that appeared on the 2004 exit poll and found that the importance of moral values had decreased by more than half. Dionne writes that concern over the economy and jobs had more than doubled on the survey, while issues such as health care and education also had "gained substantial ground." According to the survey, "The drop in concern over moral values was particularly sharp among older working-class voters who have been trending Republican for years," Dionne writes.According to Dionne, "Conservative moral values voters have become the heart of the Republican coalition, and if their ranks are shrinking, so is the GOP"s base." He writes that it "is no accident that President Obama takes every opportunity to shift the public debate to issues -- the economy, health care and education -- that the populist conservatives ... find appealing."According to Dionne, "[f]ew recent survey findings are more enlightening about what"s happening in American politics -- and what is likely to happen to the debate over the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor." He adds that it is "striking that while some antiabortion groups issued stinging press releases against Sotomayor, her views on abortion remain a mystery -- to the consternation of abortion-rights supporters." According to Dionne, "Both sides in the abortion debate want to have a confrontation that Sotomayor may not give them the opportunity to stage." He adds that the "vast majority of Americans are not clamoring for this particular battle" (Dionne, Washington Post, 6/1).
Nutrition

Juggling Cells Using High-Precision Laser Tweezers

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have developed a new method to study single cells while exposing them to controlled environmental changes. The unique method, where a set of laser tweezers move the cell around in a microscopic channel system, allows the researchers to study how single cells react to stress induced by a constantly changing environment. Studies on how cells react to changes in their environment, such as reduced availability of nutrients, have traditionally used cultures consisting of millions of cells. While such studies show how cells on average react to a new environment, they say nothing about individual variation, for example how quickly a single cell responds. Catches and moves cells Researcher Emma Eriksson and her colleagues at the Department of Physics, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, developed a method where laser tweezers are used to catch a cell the size of about one micrometer, or 0.001 of a mm, and then move the cell between different environments. Placing the cell in a system of channels made of silicone, in which each channel is finer than a human hair, enables the researchers to add and remove substances so that the environment surrounding a single cell changes in a split second - while at the same time watching the reactions through a microscope. New information The channels in the so-called microfluidic system can be likened to tiny water pipes. In a channel, a single cell can be exposed to tests and various substances for very exact time periods, which enables the researchers to repeatedly add and remove a substance to see how it affects the behaviour of the cell. This new method gives researchers information that would not be possible to obtain with traditional methods. How cells survive In its first stage, the new method has been tested on yeast cells. One of the cells" proteins was tagged with a green fluorescent protein (GFP), enabling researchers to trace the movements of the protein within the cell while it adjusts to a new environment. "The method can be used to reveal how a cell reacts to stress induced by a change in its environment. The information gained from this may eventually lead to a better understanding of how cells work and what they do to stay alive and healthy in a constantly changing environment", says Eriksson. The thesis Towards quantitative single cell analysis using optical tweezers and microfluidics was defended at a disputation on April 29th. Krister Svahn University of Gothenburg


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